07 January 2008
Mechanics Training for Iraqi Army Fuels Engine for Change
Maintenance school graduation highlights goal of self-sufficiency
Baghdad -- One hundred and eighty-nine smiling Iraqi jundi (soldiers) received certificates for successfully completing a rigorous 10-week mechanics course December 30, 2007, knowing they will now play an integral role as engines for change powering their army.
The graduation ceremony, at the Iraqi Army Sixth Division’s base in West Baghdad, was an example of the way the U.S. Army is partnering with the Iraqi military to move it toward self-sufficiency.
Referring to his soldier-students, head trainer Theo Koster, a South African contractor, said, “It’s a small fire we’ve started, but if they kindle it they’re going to be a great benefit to this army.”
Koster touched on the growing self-sufficiency within the Iraqi defense forces, which means less dependence on U.S.-led coalition forces for operational and logistics support.
“The quality of the students was also quite good,” he said, noting that 98 percent of the soldiers in the course passed, with 12 jundi singled out for special distinction. “The students must realize what they’ve got now [knowledge], no one can take away,” he added. “It’s up to them to make the best of it.”
The graduation ceremony began with a soldier memorializing the division’s comrades killed in terrorist action with a recitation from the Quran. The assembled jundi then repeated the oath of loyalty to the Iraqi Army.
The Iraqi training commander greeted his American guests and thanked the U.S. government for its assistance. He noted that the timing of the ceremony was significant because it was within a week of the anniversary of the Iraqi Army’s establishment in 1921.
The senior Iraqi Army officer present, the Sixth Division chief of staff, handed out the certificates to the top 20 students in the course, congratulating each for their achievement.
The Iraqi-owned Fiafi Group has been engaged by the U.S. military to operate five motor maintenance courses a year for the Iraqi Army in Baghdad, Kirkush and Habbaniyah.
U.S. Army Colonel Robby Robinson, deputy commander of the military transition team that helped coordinate the $3 million U.S.-government-funded effort, said, “The maintenance program is not only meant to instill critical skills among these men, but to build the capacity of the Iraqi Army to effectively maintain its own vehicles.”
Robinson’s team works for the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq, whose mission, according to its Web site, is to assist the Iraqi government in developing, organizing, training, equipping and sustaining Iraq’s security forces and ministries.
It does this through training programs for Iraqi personnel, such as the national police, paramedics and water patrol police.
The goal is to make them more capable of defeating terrorism while providing a stable environment for the evolution of representative government, individual freedom, the rule of law and a free-market economy.
At the same time Iraq’s military continues to grow. In 2004, there were only 96,000 trained and equipped members of the Iraqi Security Force. That figure has risen to around 350,000 trained and equipped troops.
The result is that the military is undertaking more responsibility for the nation’s security. On June 1, 2007, responsibility for maintaining the security of Erbil, Dahuk and Sulaymaniyah provinces in northern Iraq officially transferred to the Kurdistan regional government.
As of January 2008, security in half of Iraq’s 18 provinces will be controlled by the Iraqi government, with coalition forces positioned to provide assistance if needed.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
