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U.S., Iraqi troops to open army school

Dec-18-2005 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

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CHRIS TOMLINSON, Associated Press

HAMMAM AL ALIL, Iraq - Young Iraqi soldiers will soon begin arriving for leadership training in this small northern town, where Iraqi insurgents once operated with impunity and the buildings were stripped bare by looters.

With the parliamentary election over, the focus for U.S. troops will be to provide the new government with an army it can call its own. U.S. and Iraqi instructors will launch a formal military leadership school in Hammam al Alil on Monday, an important step in creating the institutions that will allow the Iraqi army to sustain itself.

Iraqi army Lt. Col. Yaseen Majeed, the commandant of the Northern Iraq Regional Training Center, complained that some of the reconstruction was not complete, but that otherwise he was ready to receive the first 20 students for the school's pilot course for new sergeants.

He explained that in the old Iraqi army sergeants did not have the authority to make decisions or give orders like U.S. noncommissioned officers, or NCOs.

"Now with the help of the coalition forces, we want NCOs like them," he added. "I don't want to say it is easy, we have to come a long way, but it will get easier day by day."

U.S. Army and Marine units have been operating courses for Iraqi military leaders across the country to fill immediate requirements, but the courses were not standardized and relied on U.S. instructors.

The school in Hammam al Alil will initially use a mix of Iraqi and U.S. instructors, but within a few months will become an entirely Iraqi operation, U.S. and Iraqi officers said.

"The importance of this school to the development of the Iraqi army is absolutely critical," Col. Michael Shields, commander of the 172nd Brigade based in nearby Mosul, said at a joint staff meeting. "We need to make sure we certify each instructor before they get in front of soldiers, to make sure they are the right people for the job."

The training will be modeled on the U.S. Army's primary leadership development course, required instruction for every new sergeant. Shields said he wanted the Iraqi school to develop a "warrior ethos" since graduates will be leading troops into battle. [...]


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