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Dagger Brigade deploys to Fort Riley, trains transition teams

May 9, 2006

FORT FILEY, Kan. (Army News Service, May 9, 2006) – “Dagger Brigade" Soldiers will help 1st Infantry Division cadre at Fort Riley learn to train military transition teams bound for such missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

About 200 members of the 2nd Brigade, 91st Division (Training Support), already live at Camp Funston and are preparing to validate the training curriculum that will be used when the Big Red One Soldiers assume the training mission.

Until recently, the Army has conducted transition-team training using several brigades at locations across the continental U.S. The requirement for a long-term, sustainable, sourcing and training strategy for transition-team training led to the consolidation and standardization of all such training at Fort Riley, according to spokesmen for the 2nd Bde., 91st Div.

The "Dagger Brigade" is providing an interim training capability at Fort Riley while the 1st Inf. Div. headquarters moves from Germany to Fort Riley to join its 1st and 4th Brigades.

"This mission is critical to shifting the fight to the Iraqi and Afghan military and security forces. We are proud to have been chosen to lead this mission," said Col. Raymond Lamb, "Dagger Brigade" commander.

Since 2002, the brigade has trained more than 40,000 Soldiers. The brigade's trainers are active-army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard Soldiers, many with recent combat experience.

"Our brigade conducts tough, repetitive, hands-on realistic training that is theatre specific. This training produces leaders and Soldiers who are confident, competent and disciplined, with the skills, knowledge and abilities to survive in combat," Lamb said.

A key part of the training is the conduct of theatre specific immersion training.

"Our goal during the deployment at Fort Riley is to replicate the conditions faced by Soldiers in Iraq. Soldiers will live in a forward operating base and interact with the local population. They will teach, coach and mentor Iraqi security forces, work and patrol in local towns and villages designated to imitate conditions in theatre. We want Soldiers to face theatre specific challenges for the first time in training, not in a combat zone," Lamb said.

Transition teams consist of 10 to 15 individuals from a variety of military backgrounds. The team members are specialized trainers who will be embedded with coalition security forces, so each transition team's composition is tailored to the mission it is expected to perform in theatre.

About 200 transition teams operate in Iraq and another 75 in Afghanistan at any given time. Feedback from those Soldiers and Iraqi commanders drives the training of future teams preparing to deploy.

"We are always updating our training doctrine with lessons learned from in-country," Lamb said.

Besides training transition teams preparing for deployment, the "Dagger Brigade" will train cadre from two brigades of the 1st Inf. Div. to take over the training mission. Upon completion of a right-seat ride and certification program, the 1st Inf. Div. will assume operational control of all transition team training.

In Iraq, transition teams have trained 216,000 Iraqi security force members, including 125 battalions of military and special police forces; they have trained and mentored 82,000 Afghan army and security force personnel.

(Editor's note: Information provided by the Fort Riley Public Affairs Office.)