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Story by Pfc. Casey Collier, 22nd MPAD
For the Soldiers in B Company, 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, packing like sardines into a Stryker armored combat vehicle and going on a night raid to capture a high-valued target is nothing new. The company is preparing for an upcoming deployment to Iraq and most of the troops scheduled to deploy, redeployed less than a year ago. Those who have never deployed are receiving a level of training here that ensures that when the time comes to deploy, they will be ready.
The training takes place at the Joint Readiness Training Center here and simulates real world scenarios including: mock villages, improvised explosive device drills, and cultural role players who portray Iraqi army, Iraqi police, civilians, and terrorists.
What is different for B Co. about the upcoming deployment is that they will no longer be the ones who kick down the doors during raids. That aspect of operations will rest on the shoulders of the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police and is reflected in the tactical exercises B Co. has been executing.
Sure, B Co. will continue to carry the equipment, firepower, and expertise to conduct a raid with speed and precision, but their role is shifting from that of enforcers, to overseers.
So when they packed again like sardines into their Strykers to conduct a training raid on the evening of June 23rd, they did so as they had done so many times before, in full armor and with disciplined surety.
While in transit to the raid site, B Co. dismounted their vehicles to conduct a sweep of a wooded area where notional suspected terrorist activity had taken place. Then, over the radio, "Contact, contact- repeat- contact, contact", but this time it wasn't B Co. in the firefight, it was the IA role players. The IA had executed the breach, engaged and killed two terrorist bodyguards, then apprehended and detained the high value target.
Sgt. John Haliburton, B Co., also known as "Bayonet Co.", 1st Bat., 38th Inf. Div., has been with the company for four years and is gearing up for his second deployment.
"These days we hear a lot of, 'Put an IA face on it' and that's definitely what happened here tonight. The IA was there in the front. They lead the charge. They went in there, killed the bad guys, and captured the HVT. Nobody was harmed in the process, and we were there to support and facilitate a more joint-integrated effort," said Haliburton.
The HVT was interrogated by an IA field commander and provided IA and US Forces with evidence, names of associates, and intelligence leading to a possible weapons cache'.
Training missions like this one are indicative of a different mode of operations in Iraq, and Bayonet Co. is poised to be at the forefront when they deploy in August.
Pvt. Timothy McNeal Jr., B Co., 1st Bat., 38th Inf. Reg., is aware of the difference between the nature of previous deployments and the upcoming deployment, even though he has been with B Co. for less than a month.
"I've talked to people who were in Iraq before. Back then, coalition forces did most of the work: going in there, getting the HVTs, and securing the objective. Now it's more the Iraqi forces doing that. So, the whole perspective has changed as opposed to other deployments, and I think it's a good thing because it shows we're making progress and turning it over to them. We're putting it in their hands," said McNeal.
With the night's exercise a success, the troops of Bayonet Co. returned to their Joint Combat Outpost without having fired one round between them, yet a mission was achieved, and valuable intelligence was obtained.
Within the Stryker, on the way back to the tents, the feeling was less one of tension and moreso one of ease.
Haliburton said, "I feel that this is the natural progression of things. As Iraq becomes more stable, there will be less door kicking and shooting, and more establishing chains of evidence, things like that. That's going to be the nature of it from here on out."