Goin’ for gold

Marine perseveres 

to become an officer 

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Multinational troops from 28 countries around the world united at the Senior National

Representatives Conference Oct. 23 on Camp Victory South

here to discuss topics essential to the future of Iraq. 

The conference, organized by Italian Brig. Gen. Carmine

DePascale, focused on the topics concerning the reconstruction of Iraq, such as the current and projected state of the

Iraqi security forces as well as various civil affairs projects

taking place around the country. 

“The basic goal of this conference is building and improving the quality of life for the Iraqis,” DePascale said. “It

means we are working in partnership with Iraqis to make a

better and new Iraq. We want Iraqis to be able to be proud to

call Iraq home, a country where it’s worth living. We pull

together representatives from nearly 30 countries. It’s a

great project for the reconstruction and reconstitution of

Iraqi armed forces. We’re cooperating every day, sharing

friendships and working together to solve a problem.” 

Romania, Japan, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Korea, Australia,

Ukraine, Georgia and Iraq were just a few of the countries

with representatives in attendance. Each representative was

nominated by his country to participate in the conference. 

The discussion of recent water and sewer rehabilitation

efforts affecting about four million of Iraq’s residents and

Commanders Emergency Response Programs in Samarra,

Baghdad, Fallujah and other cities around Iraq were highlighted under the civil affairs portion of the conference. 

Senior national representatives were also given details on

the numbers of Iraqi forces being trained, how they are

being trained, equipment details and current status of training for the Iraqi police. 

Representatives from countries around the globe said they

understood the importance of the conference and look forward to achieving multinational unity in favor of improving

the lives of the Iraqi people. 

“It’s a really great gathering together with the coalition to

have all countries united supporting the Iraqis,” said Iraqi

Maj. Gen. Nesayef Khudaier. “They are helping free Iraq

and rebuild Iraq and make democracy possible. It’s really a

great thing. On behalf of the Iraqi people and the Iraqi

armed forces, I’d like to thank all the coalition forces who

are helping us. It’s easy to make someone smile for a while,

but the difficult thing is to keep them happy all the time.

And they are doing their job, to make the Iraqis happy all the

time.”

The Senior National Representative Conference takes

place several times a year, though the October conference

was bigger than previous ones and focused more on the

reconstruction of Iraq. 

“This conference has been very important because we

view all things that will help us support the Iraqi people,”

said El Salvodoran Col. Jorge Lara. “It’s also a good idea to

have the conference in order for coalition officers to be

updated about what’s happening in Iraq.” 

“This conference is a good opportunity for multinational

troops to achieve their objectives, and it’s a good opportunity to get to know representatives from coalition countries,

the officers and generals of Multi-National Force-Iraq. New

ones constantly appear because of the rotations in and out of

the country,” said Lt. Col. Ioan Rob, of the Romanian Army.

WASHINGTON — The Defense

Department will keep about 6,500 experienced troops on the ground through the Iraqi

elections, currently scheduled for Jan. 27. 

Soldiers from 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry

Division and the 1st Infantry Division headquarters, both currently in Iraq, were officially told about the deployment adjustment by

their commanders Oct. 28, according to a senior DoD official. 

The affected troops, who had originally

been slated for 10-month deployments, will

now serve 12 months on the ground, the

deployment timeframe most Army units serve

in Iraq. 

The official said the 10-month deployments

originally planned for these units were part of

a plan to stagger rotations to avoid overloading the military transportation and logistics

systems. 

As troops in Iraq were getting official word

of the extension, members of the New York

Army National Guard’s 42nd Infantry

Division headquarters learned Oct. 28 that

their upcoming deployment will be adjusted

by 30 to 60 days, the official said. The headquarters troops mobilized May 27 to train for

their mission at Fort Drum, N.Y. 

The DoD official said with an increase in

violence and the shift of the Iraqi elections

from early January to Jan. 27, Army Gen.

George Casey, the top U.S. commander in

Iraq, preferred to avoid swapping out a headquarters element during the critical Iraqi election period. 

Casey made the official request in late

September, and Army Gen. John Abizaid, the

head of U.S. Central Command, made the

decision Oct. 16, with the concurrence of

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the

official said. 

The adjustments will keep an estimated

3,500 members of the 2nd Brigade, 1st

Cavalry Division, or “Blackjack Brigade,” in

Iraq an additional two months, not to exceed

their “12-month boots-on-the-ground” goal,

said the official. 

Also, about 3,000 soldiers from the 1st

Infantry Division headquarters, based in

Wurzburg, Germany, will remain in Iraq for

the adjusted time. The “Big Red One” headquarters was originally scheduled to be

replaced by the 42nd Infantry Division headquarters before the Iraqi elections. 

Although these adjustments continue to

keep the deployments to the 12-month goal,

said the official, he understands the troops’

frustration over the extension. Some affected

Soldiers were expecting to leave Iraq as soon

as this month. 

But those troops also “understand that military duty means the mission comes first,” the

official noted. 

“Our mission is to get the Iraqi people and

the Iraqi government and the Iraqi security

forces in place so that they can achieve selfgovernance,” he said. 

Meanwhile, about 3,000 members of the

42nd Infantry Division headquarters will alter

their deployment by 30 to 60 days, the official

said. The decision is no reflection of the

guardsmen’s capabilities, he stressed. “The

42nd Infantry Division is trained, ready and

equipped to execute this rotation,” he said. 

The official said deploying them sooner

simply didn’t make sense. Much of the equipment they will use in Iraq will still be in use

by the 1st Infantry Division troops they will

replace. And although leaders considered 

Vol. 2, No. 45 Baghdad, Iraq Nov. 5, 2004

SCIMITAR

Shore patrol

Navy EOD techs

take care of bombs

Page 12

Multinational leaders discuss reconstruction of Iraq

Story and photo by Spc. Nicole Welch

Multi-National Corps-Iraq Public Affairs

DoD announces Iraq deployment adjustments

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service 

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Nesayef Khudaier poses a question

during an update on coalition civil affairs projects

in various cities around Iraq at the Senior National

Representatives Conference at Camp Victory

South in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 23. 

See DEPLOYMENTS, Page 10

Firefighters Firefighters

in desert camo in desert camo

Pages 8 Page 15
TIKRIT, Iraq — Soldiers with the 2nd

Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry

Division and Iraqi officials met Oct. 27at

the Provincial Joint Coordination Center

here to assess a recent three-day exercise

that tested the emergency-response capabilities of local services.

The Salah Ad Din Province JCC

Readiness Exercise was the brainchild of

Capt. Jose H. Ocasio, the Iraqi security

forces coordinator for the 2nd BCT, 1st

ID. Ocasio said the local JCCs throughout

Salah Ad Din as well as the provincial one

headquartered in Tikrit serve 1.4 million

Iraqis. A JCC is located in every major city

of the province, including Tikrit, Bayji,

Samarra, Balad, Ad Dujayl, Ad Dawr, Tuz

and Ad Duluyiah. A JCC is currently under

construction in Ash Sharqat.

The Oct. 25-27 exercise had several

objectives, organizers said. While it measured the local and provincial JCCs’ communications and reactionary capabilities,

it also showed what areas needed

improvement. JCC staff were trained on

procedures and given a common understanding of them. 

“We wanted to test the communication

links and test every JCC staff to see how

they would react,” Ocasio said. 

Staffs at the JCCs throughout the

province were given 12 crisis scenarios to

handle during a course of 72 hours, from

terrorists firing on a peaceful demonstration to a report of a car bomb. 

“We needed to know where they were in

their capabilities,” Ocasio said.

He pointed out that the various JCCs

across the province “range in different

capabilities at this time.”

WASHINGTON — The nature of war has

changed, and the United States must change to

meet the new threats, the Defense Department’s

top homeland defense civilian said here Oct. 28. 

Paul McHale, the assistant secretary of

defense for homeland defense, spoke at the 35th

Fletcher Conference. This year’s theme is

“Planning for and Responding to Threats to the

U.S. Homeland.” 

He said the nature of war has fundamentally

changed in the last three decades. McHale, a

Marine Reserve colonel, said his generation of

officers trained for a conflict with the Soviet

Union. 

“A conflict involved a hostile nation state or

coalition of hostile nation states – the Warsaw

Pact,” he said. “Throughout our history, we

believed it took the resources of a nation state to

threaten the United States.” 

But that has changed. “Transnational terrorist

groups – unaffiliated with nations, but taking

advantage of safe havens – can now acquire

miniaturized weapons, including weapons of

mass destruction that would bring to them ...

the destructive capacity that in the past could

only be associated with the resources of a country,” McHale said. 

These groups could acquire and would use

weapons of mass destruction, he said. 

McHale shared the draft of the proposed

Homeland Defense and Civil Defense Strategy.

Pentagon officials stressed that the strategy is

only a draft, and changes may still occur until

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signs

the policy. 

McHale said the common theme in the strategy is that a passive defense – one implemented only after the threat becomes clear – is too

slow to be effective. 

“A passive defense — a reactive defense —

is a formula for failure,” he said. 

Al Qaeda and similar groups are brutal and

malevolent, but “they are quite professional,”

McHale noted. Terrorists look for seams in

defenses and attack them, he said. 

“We must seize the initiative,” he pointed out.

Defenses must change daily, and defenses must

be in depth and layered. 

He said the principal objective of the draft

strategy is to anticipate the attack. The United

States must identify the approaching threat at

the earliest possible time. 

The American military applying pressure in

Afghanistan forced Osama bin Laden and al

Qaeda leaders into the mountains. This had a

direct impact on al Qaeda operations, he said. 

Defeating the threats as far away from U.S.

shores is another focus of the strategy. He said

the idea is to push out the borders of interdiction. 

“From our perspective, homeland defense

begins overseas,” McHale said.”When Marines

and Soldiers went into Kandahar during military actions against the Taliban in Afghanistan,

their achievement in Kandahar contributed

directly to the security in California and

Kansas.” 

Another portion of the strategy is to ensure

that no enemy attack will degrade U.S. ability to

project power. 

The strategy also looks to ensure DoD ability

to help civil authorities in case where defenses

fail and there is an attack with weapons of mass

destruction. He said al Qaeda does not launch

single attacks. The military must be prepared to

help in the event al Qaeda launching multiple

attacks using these weapons. 

Finally, the strategy calls for DoD to share its

knowledge and expertise with state, local and

international partners. He said the services have

been prepared to work in contaminated environments since the chemical attacks of World

War I. “DoD has the legal and moral obligation

to migrate those capabilities to the civilian community,” he said. 

Page 2 Scimitar Nov. 5, 2004

As war changes, so must homeland defense

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service 

JCCs throughout Salah

Ad Din Province tested

By Spc. Sherree Casper

196th Mobile Public 

Affairs Detachment

Dept of Defense’s Anthrax

vaccination program paused 

WASHINGTON — The Department of

Defense is currently reviewing an injunction

issued Oct. 27 by the U.S. District Court for

the District of Columbia regarding the department’s anthrax vaccination program.

The injunction did not question the safety

and effectiveness of the anthrax vaccine or the

immunization program in the DoD. The

injunction centered on FDA procedural issues

stating that additional public comment should

have been sought before the FDA issued its

final rule in December of 2003.

The Defense Department’s anthrax-vaccination program is an important force protection

measure, officials said. Research conducted

by several prominent medical experts and a

report by the National Academy of Sciences

has determined that the anthrax vaccine is safe

and effective for all forms of anthrax exposure.

As a result of the injunction, the Department

of Defense will pause giving anthrax vaccinations until the legal situation is clarified.

The ruling is similar to the judge’s injunction issued in December 2003. At that time,

DoD paused the vaccination program pending

clarification of the legal issues. The 2003

injunction was lifted roughly two weeks later.

DoD remains convinced that the anthrax

immunization program complies with all the

legal requirements and that the anthrax vaccine is safe and effective, officials said.

A copy of Secretary of Defense Donald H.

Rumsfeld’s memorandum concerning the suspense of immunizations is available online at

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2004/d2

0041027anthrax.pdf

Submitted by Office of the Assistant

Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs

FORWARD OPERATING BASE

KALSU, Iraq — A British armored battle

group of approximately 850 soldiers, led by the

1st Battalion of the Black Watch Regiment, has

redeployed from Basra to an area south of

Baghdad to bolster U.S. and Iraqi forces hunting down insurgents.

The move comes amid mounting efforts by

multinational forces operating in support of the

Iraqi Interim government to root out anti-Iraqi

forces bent on creating chaos and disrupting

national elections in January.

Black Watch has taken up positions in Babil

province, where the 24th Marine Expeditionary

Unit has been operating since July.

Led by Lt. Col. James Cowan, the British

troops are highly trained and well equipped.

Reinforcing the Black Watch will be a reconnaissance unit from the Queen’s Dragoon

Guards, a light infantry unit from the Royal

Marines and a host of support personnel,

including engineers, logisticians and medics.

The commander of the 24th MEU welcomed

the arrival of the allies to the Marines’ zone.

Also assigned to the MEU are the 2nd

Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment and a variety

of U.S. Army and U.S. Navy detachments.

The beefed-up MEU has worked closely

with the ISF — including the 2nd Ministry of

the Interior Commando Battalion, the 507th

Iraqi National Guard Battalion, elements of the

Iraqi Specialized Special Forces and the Iraqi

SWAT team — to stamp out the insurgency in

northern Babil and southern Baghdad.

They stepped up their joint efforts in early

October. On Oct. 5, ISF and Marines

launched their most sweeping operation to date,

moving against numerous targets throughout

their zone in a continuing campaign to restore

security and stability to the province.

In the past three months, more than 500

insurgents have been rounded up in scores of

raids, cordon-and-knock searches and citywide

sweeps throughout the area’s key population

centers, including Lutafiyah, Mahmudiyah,

Yusufiyah, Iskandariyah, Haswah and

Musayyib.

With the addition of Black Watch and the

steady addition of newly trained ISF, an

increasingly potent force is set to intensify its

operations further.

Multi-National Forces-Iraq 

Press Release

U.S. Marines welcome arrival of Black Watch
WASHINGTON — The National Defense

Authorization Act for fiscal 2005, signed by the president Oct. 28, improves the overall health benefits

available to guardsmen, reservists and their families

and makes permanent several of the Tricare benefits

authorized “temporarily” under defense legislation last

year while extending secretarial authorization for others.

“Our reservists and guardsmen who are called to

duty and their families deserve these great new benefits for their service to their country,” said Dr. William

Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for

health affairs. “We welcome these new Tricare provisions as a means to improve active- and reserve-component force readiness and to enhance family member

access to care.”

For reserve-component members with delayed

effective date orders to serve on active duty in support

of a contingency operation for more than 30 days, the

new legislation permanently authorizes Tricare eligibility for up to 90 days prior to member’s activation

date for eligible members and their families. It also

makes permanent a 180-day transitional Tricare health

benefit after deactivation for Transitional Assistance

Management Program-eligible members and their

families. Members must also now receive a comprehensive physical examination prior to separating from

active-duty service.

The legislation also authorizes waiver of the Tricare

standard and extra deductibles of reserve-component

family members for members ordered to active duty

for more than 30 days and authorizes Tricare to pay

nonparticipating providers up to 115 percent of the

Tricare maximum allowable charge, which enhances

continuity of care for these family members with their

civilian providers. To ensure seamless implementation

of these provisions, Tricare has extended the Tricare

Reserve Family Demonstration Project through Oct.

31, 2005. The demonstration, which began on Sept.

14, 2001, was due to end Monday.

Members of the reserve component called after

Sept. 11, 2001, to serve for more than 30 days in support of a contingency operation who served or will

continuously serve for 90 or more days are now given

the opportunity to purchase Tricare standard healthcare

coverage for themselves and their family members

after they demobilize. The member must sign an

agreement to continue serving for a period of one year

or more in the selected reserve after their active duty

ends. For every 90 days of consecutive active-duty

service, the member and family member may purchase

one year of Tricare standard coverage for the same

period they commit to serve in the selected reserves.

Members will be able to purchase the new Tricare

standard coverage on a self-only or self-and-family

basis. The Tricare standard coverage under this program will begin once the member’s eligibility for 180

days of transitional Tricare coverage under the TAMP

ends. Members who served on active duty in support

of a contingency operation for 90 days or more on or

after Sept. 11, 2001, and were released from active

duty before Oct. 28 or within 180 days of that date may

enter into an agreement to serve continuously in the

selected reserve for a period of one or more years and

begin participation in this program at that time. These

members must enter into this agreement to serve in the

selected reserve within one year of Oct. 28.

Congress requires implementation of the new

Tricare standard enrollment program by April 26.

“We have already begun working on these provisions and will implement them on time,”

Winkenwerder said.

Additional information on the new permanent

Tricare provisions, including start dates, benefits and

requirements under each of the new permanent provisions, will be posted on the Tricare web site at

http://www.tricare.osd.mil/ and the reserve affairs Web

site at http://www.defenselink.mil/ra as soon as each is

ready to begin.

WASHINGTON — The assembly lines are moving 24/7 to keep up

with the demand for up-armored

vehicles in Iraq and for conversion

kits to add extra protection to vehicles already there. 

Gary Motsek, the director of support operations for the U.S. Army

Materiel Command, said the effort

to provide increased vehicle protection against grenades, improvised

explosive devices and small-arms

fire is progressing fast and furiously

as demand continues to increase. 

Nearly 5,100 up-armored

humvees have been delivered to

Army and Marine Corps units in

Iraq, with another 724 on ships

bound for the theater, Motsek said. 

There, the up-armored humvees

are being issued to units based on

their missions — regardless whether

they’re Army or Marine Corps or

active or reserve component,

Motsek emphasized. “These factors

have no bearing whatsoever on

who’s getting them,” he said. “It’s

all based on the missions, and who

has the greatest need for them,” he

said. 

U.S. Central Command’s current

requirement for up-armored

humvees, one that has continued to

increase, is for 8,105 up-armored

humvees in Iraq. 

It’s a number Motsek said was

once considered almost unthinkable. At the beginning of the Iraqi

war, the Army had only about 500

up-armored humvees, called

“UAHs,” in its inventory. These

were primarily used by militarypolice units in their rear-protection

role, he said. 

No longer. Because they’re easy

to maneuver and just the right size

for many of the missions being conducted in Iraq, humvees have

become “the platform of choice,”

Motsek said. 

“If anyone would have told me a

humvee would be the platform of

choice in a war, I would have told

them they’re crazy,” he said. 

Motsek said AM General, the

company that builds the up-armored

humvees, has gone into around-theclock production to churn out the

vehicles as quickly as possible but

still is able to produce only several

hundred a month. 

“There’s a perception that all you

need to do is cut some carbon steel

and slap it on the side of a vehicle,”

Motsek said. “That’s simply not the

case.” 

In addition to increased armor

protection, up-armored humvees

feature more rugged suspension systems able to handle the added

weight and ballistic-resistant glass.

They also include air conditioners

that enable crews to operate with the

windows up, even in stifling temperatures. 

Unwilling to leave deployed

troops vulnerable while the production lines struggled to keep up with

the demand, the Army came up with

a second solution: add-on armor

kits. 

Not confident that commercial

contractors could respond to the

need quickly enough, Motsek said

the Army ultimately designed and

designed its own add-on armor kits

in record time. 

Engineers at the Army Research

Laboratory in Adelphi, Md., went to

the drawing board to design the kits

“over a weekend,” he said. The

Army field tested them at Aberdeen

Proving Grounds, Md., to ensure

that they met strict ballistics-protection standards. 

Even as the field tests were taking

place, the Army started ordering the

special steel and bullet-resistant

glass needed to build the vehicles,

he said. 

That calculation proved to be

decisive in moving the effort forward with unprecedented speed.

Within six weeks of putting pen to

paper to come up with a design,

Motsek said the Army had the first

kits in hand, ready for shipment to

Iraq. 

In contrast, the normal procurement process takes five to seven

years. 

The Army also field tested prototype add-on armor kits from several

contractors, Motsek said, ultimately

settling on one produced by

O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt. 

Today, Army employees at four

depots, two arsenals and an ammunition plant are working three shifts

a day to produce the Army-designed

kits to keep up with demand.

Motsek said they’ve produced 8,800

add-on-armor kits, 8,700 of which

have already been installed in vehicles in Iraq. O’Gara-Hess &

Eisenhardt has provided 289 more

kits, he said. 

Yet despite the progress, Motsek

said employees at production facilities keep their eye on the demand 

Up-armored vehicle effort progressing

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service 

Tricare benefits improved

significantly for reservists 

Submitted by Office of the Assistant

Secretary of Defense Public Affairs

Nov. 5, 2004 Scimitar Page 3

Staff Sgt. Julian Jimenez, of Midland, Texas, tries to balance a

dime on a cleaning rod sticking out of the barrel of his weapon.

This exercise helps to check his stability as he pulls the trigger.

Jimenez is a cavalry scout assigned to F Troop, 9th Cavalry, one

of the 1st Cavalry Division's brigade reconnaissance troops in

Baghdad, Iraq.

Sgt. John Queen

Dont drop the dime

See ARMOR, Page 10
According to researcher Robert Waldinger, a Harvard

Medical School associate professor of psychiatry, the average

college student can predict whether your marriage will end in

divorce within five years with 85 percent accuracy.

Waldinger, who is quoted in a June article in the online

health magazine WebMd, cites six groups of college students

that predicted who would be divorced in five years with overwhelming accuracy. They did this purely from their gut reactions to viewing videotapes of couples arguing over things

like communication, finances and household chores.

What caught the eye of the college students, which led them

to identify which couples were heading toward divorce, was

how the men in the tapes consistently lost their empathy and

became emotionally hostile and how the women they

observed tended to express sadness while also losing their

empathy.

Renowned marriage researcher John Gottman explains how

this works in his book “Why Marriages Succeed or Fail.”

Men and women respond differently to the same argument.

Guys quickly feel threatened, which causes stress hormones

to kick-in, which in turn sends the heart rate up, sometimes

sky high. The average male heartbeat is about 72 beats per

minute. In women, it’s between 76-80 BPM. However, in the

midst of a heated argument, a man’s heartbeat can quickly

jump to 100-plus BPM. If you know anything about biology,

you know that logical thinking is physically impossible in this

heightened state of arousal.

In reality, Gottman says that it becomes problematic to have

a profitable discussion when the heartbeat goes up even 10

percent above average, which equates to 79-80 BPM in men

and 83-88 BPM in women. During this aroused state is the

very time when some will cross the line and become violent

with their spouses.

In contrast to men, women want to remain connected to the

discussion process, or argument, and get it resolved. Thus,

when a husband (feeling stressed) says he no longer wants to

talk about the matter, his wife will tend to feel abandoned and

move toward him to press the argument even harder, not realizing that he and she are quickly losing their ability to remain

in a logical frame of mind.

Make no mistake. Neither wives nor husbands are able to

come up with workable solutions in this aroused state. It is

biologically impossible.

Gottman says this pattern must be interrupted so the couple

can calm down and try to reach a solution when they are not

so tense. He suggests (and yes, it sounds hokey) that men stop

and take their own pulse when they feel themselves heating up

inside. If the heartbeat is up to the 10 percent above-normal

threshold, then husband and wife need to agree to stop and

take at least a 30-minute breather.

Then, after both of them calm down, they can simply pick

up where they left off in the same discussion.

The hardest part of this will likely be to get the agreement

of cooperation from husbands and wives before the next discussion arises. Once a wife knows that her husband is watching out for their corporate welfare when he says he doesn’t

feel like discussing the matter any longer, they can agree to let

it go for awhile and then come back to it a little later at an

agreed-upon time.

Otherwise, the couple may be the last ones to know that

they, too, are heading for divorce court.

Editor’s note: Capt. Gary Murvin is the chief of Social

Work Services, Ireland Army Community Hospital at Fort

Knox, Ky.

FORT MONROE, Va. — Have you ever

written a post-dated check? 

Unless you’re Donald Trump or Bill

Gates, you probably have. 

Most of us have mortgages or rent payments due on the first of the month. Just last

month you might have written your check

on the 25th and dated it for the 1st before

slipping it in the mail to the bank. You wanted to ensure that your check arrived on time

and since your Army paycheck hits the bank

on the 30th, there’s no problem, right?

Wrong.

New policy to eliminate leeway

A young Soldier’s spouse tries to make it

to payday, but all the milk for the baby is

gone so the parent goes to the commissary

and does what generations of folks have frequently done, write a check based upon their

“pay coming in tomorrow.” Used to be they

could get away with this, but since Oct. 28,

they’re going to get whacked — because the

money will be electronically removed from

the bank account as soon as the check is presented for payment. If the funds are not

there, the check will be returned for nonsufficient funds – with the associated fees.

Checks to be like debit cards

A new law, called “Check 21,” went into

effect Oct. 28. You can learn about Check 21

in exhausting detail elsewhere, but in

essence, the law effectively changes our

paper checks into debit cards. While the

banks don’t have to, they can cash the check

as soon as it is presented for payment. Don’t

tell me that the payable date precludes this;

checks are cashed early all the time. If the

money isn’t in your account when you actually write the check, the instant the check is

presented for payment, it may bounce.

Won’t matter if it’s for the mortgage or baby

formula, your NSF check is returned. A $30

bounced check fee from the bank and another $30 from the mortgage company or commissary . “Late Mortgage Payment” goes

into your financial history, yada, yada, yada. 

Bottom line, up front: you can’t “float” or

“post-date” checks anymore. If you do, it

may cost you hundreds of dollars.

Failure to adjust means paying

The advent of the technical ability to

instantaneously cash a check, coupled with

the ever-increasing pressure facing banks to

maximize profits (which come from all

those nickel and dime fees everyone complains about, including bounced-check

charges) will provide a potential windfall of

additional profits because a lot of people

will continue to try and post-date checks or

write them based upon what used to be the

mechanical, time-consuming check-processing practices of years gone by.

It will take these people some time to

adjust – which must be viewed as a potential

revenue stream for the banks and a potential

financial disaster for the unwary. (While the

mechanics of processing checks will change

– the actual paper checks will never be

returned to your bank – the electronic copies

of the cancelled checks will be kept for

proof of payment.) 

As leaders, we must ensure that our

Soldiers and civilians know that the Army is

not the only institution undergoing massive

transformation and restructuring. The entire

financial industry is changing, as well, and

we need to exhaust all available efforts to

ensure that the hard-earned wages of our

Soldiers are not squandered on bouncedcheck charges. 

We must ensure our Soldiers know this:

your check is now a debit card.

Editor’s note: Sandy Goss is the public

affairs officer for the Installation

Management Agency – Northeast Region at

Fort Monroe, Va.

Editor in Chief

Staff Sgt. Christopher Land

Managing Editor

Sgt. Brian Stockhoff

Staff

Spc. Jeffrey Hillery 

Marine Sgt. Clinton Firstbrook

MNF-I Commanding General

Gen. George Casey

MNF-I PAO

Rear Adm. Gregory J. Slavonic

Command Information Chief

Maj. Patrick A. Swan 

The Scimitar is an authorized publication for members of the Department of Defense. Contents of this

paper are not necessarily the official views of or endorsed by the U.S. Government or Department of

Defense. The editorial content of this publication is the responsibility of the Public Affairs Office of

the Multi-National Force - Iraq. Stars and Stripes newspaper is not affiliated with MNF-I and acts only

as a distributing source for the Scimitar. Questions and comments should be directed to the editor at

cpiccmdinfo@baghdadforum.com.

PERSPECTIVES

Commentary by Sandy Goss

New dangers with post-dated checks

Commentary by Capt. Gary Murvin

Page 4 Scimitar Nov. 5, 2004 Kiljoy By Chip Beck

Who will divorce? That’s easily predictable
WASHINGTON — The Army is converting some 5,000 military billets — mostly staff — to civilian positions to free up

more Soldiers for other needed duties, DoD’s top civilian personnel official said here Oct. 27. 

“There are a significant amount of (military) units that don’t

deploy by definition,” Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel

and Readiness David S. C. Chu told members of the Association

of the United States Army at their annual meeting. Therefore, he

said, DoD is looking “at using civilians in these positions.” 

That initiative, Chu observed, is part of DoD’s efforts to transform and realign its military and civilian workforce to become

more efficient and to better meet 21st century challenges like the

war on global terrorism. 

Chu said the department wants to inject more flexibility in

managing its 2.7 million active- and reserve-component service

members, 650,000 civilian workers and 96,000 nonappropriatedfund employees. 

Regarding military force structure, “a significant degree of

rebalancing is necessary,” Chu said. For example, he pointed to

a current project that draws down outmoded active-duty fieldartillery units and replaces them with high-demand militarypolice units. 

The current voluntary military system “is splendid,” Chu said,

noting that “we are not going to have a draft.” 

However, Chu said, DoD is looking into “the short tenure” of

officers in their posts. Current two-year postings are “far too

fast,” he said, and don’t give officers enough time to effect meaningful changes. 

Another recently adopted initiative involves calling up

reservists to active duty for training before they’re mobilized,

Chu said. For example, he pointed to the recruitment of 200

reservists for training in Arabic. Forty of those linguists, he

noted, were recently deployed to Iraq. 

And, he said, DoD still is evaluating if 300,000 military slots

can be converted to civilian positions. 

Changes are also in store for the department’s civilians, Chu

observed, noting that Congress last year approved DoD’s proposal to overhaul its personnel system as part of the 2004

National Defense Authorization Act. 

The adoption of the National Security Personnel System now

being crafted, Chu said, will create a “more responsive and flexible” DoD civilian workforce. 

The NSPS, he pointed out, would “make the civilian component of our personnel system equally effective with the military”

force. 

NSPS, according to the system’s Web site, gives DoD greater

authority over hiring, rewarding and firing civilian employees.

The new system does away with the current 150

occupational/pay scales in favor of four broad pay bands. Under

NSPS, according to the Web site, employees are rewarded for

performance instead of longevity. 

NSPS regulations are being written now, Chu said, noting that

parts of the new system will be brought on line in mid-2005, with

total NSPS implementation envisioned in the 2007-2008 timeframe. 

The NSPS and other personnel initiatives — like the recent Air

Force merger of the management of its senior military officers

and senior executive service civilians — will expand DoD civilians’ role in departmental affairs, Chu said, while fostering the

“one force” concept. 

BAGHDAD, Iraq — While

farmers in the United States are harvesting their crops before the chill

of winter, Iraqi farmers are preparing to sow the seeds of a new growing season and their newfound

democracy.

Fifty local workers unloaded six

truckloads of wheat and barley seed

to distribute to local farmers in the

town of Radwaniya.

Representatives from the local

farmers’ cooperative picked up the

132 tons of wheat and 20 tons of

barley seed to distribute to more

than 3,000 local farmers.

A local lawyer present for the distribution said that during Saddam

Hussein’s regime, the seed-distribution process was conducted in an

unfair and dodgy way. He said that

the majority of the seed would be

taken to the black market and sold,

while the small remaining amount,

if any, would go to the farmers.

“This is the first time they have

tried to do it the best way and fair

way,” the lawyer

said. “They plan

and control the distribution process.

The members of the

farmers’ societies

have to sign for how

much they receive

and how much they

deliver. That way

we can control the

process. I can say I

am grateful to (Task

Force 2-14) for

doing this for my

people.”

Capt. Joseph

LaBarbera, the 2nd

Battalion, 14th

Infantry Regiment

civil military operations officer, said

Task Force 2-14 has

spent more than $1

million on civic

projects such as

water pumps, waterpurification projects, school refurbishments, repairs to damages that

occured during the war and providing wheat and barley seed for local

farmers.

“The seed distribution is a really

big boost to the agriculture economy,” LaBarbera said. “This is seed

they can grow, make into bread and

sell in the marketplace, which will

help the local economy, too.” 

The local Iraqis who accept donations or jobs supported by coalition

forces put themselves and their families in jeopardy. Insurgents will target these citizens who are trying to

begin a new life in their new democratic country, the lawyer said.

“Our people need to live in

peace,” he said. “But who pushes

them? The terrorists. Our people are

scared. They keep themselves in

their houses. They try to be helpful

with the Americans, but they can’t,

because they are scared for their

lives. The terrorists are killing anybody — Iraqi police, Iraqi National

Guard, interpreters. They know

their houses, and they can kill them

anytime. They cannot defend themselves, so they depend on luck and

Allah. They are extremely brave for

what they are doing, trying to live

their lives again.” 

This particular village has not had

any improvised explosive devises or

rockets fired at any coalition forces

since Task Force 2-14 took it over in

their area of operations, LaBarbera

said. He attributes this to the strong

leadership and security the leaders

of the community provide for the

citizens.

In a few of the villages, there are

leaders who have a strong desire to

help their communities and not take

advantage of the community’s civic

projects, as some leaders had done

during the previous regime,

LaBarbera said. He suggested that

promoting these local leaders would

allow the citizens of the villages to

better help themselves.

“The key is to strengthen the credibility of the local leaders so they

can then take control of their communities and instill security and welfare,” he said. “If we can help build

a strong local government, it will

boost the credibility of the Iraqi government. If we can give those guys

credibility and support them through

projects, where they can build upon

their existing status in the community, they will be on their way to building a stable government.”

Story and photos by 

Pfc. Brian Schroeder

10th Mountain Division 

Public Affairs

Men from a local community work together to unload six tractor-trailers full of wheat and barley seed for distribution to local

farmers in the town of Radwaniyai, Iraq.

Army converting some billets to civilian positions

By Gerry J. Gilmore

American Forces Press Service 

Iraqis move forward 

with help from local leaders

Nov. 5, 2004 Scimitar Page 5

An Iraqi child lends a hand with the distribution

of wheat and barley seed for his community.
TUZ, Iraq — Medical platoon

Soldiers from the 209th Iraqi

National Guard Battalion and Task

Force Danger Soldiers from the 30th

Brigade Combat Team’s Task Force

120 conducted a mass-casualty training exercise Oct. 22 at the 209th

Battalion Annex near here. 

This training was a culminating

exercise as the 209th ING Battalion

stands up its medical platoon to provide for emergency care for its soldiers in their area around Tuz. 

The training consisted of reaction

to an improvised explosive device on

a military convoy, evacuating casualties, medical evaluation and treatment and air-medical-evacuation

procedures. The medical teams were

combined between the ING medics

and the coalition medics to simulate

how a real emergency might take

place in a joint operation. 

The ING medical personnel have

been going through training with the

help of coalition medical personnel

for the last three months.

“The [ING] soldiers need to know

they will be taken care of medically

if they get injured that will give them

more confidence on the battlefield,”

said Capt. James McCann, a physician’s assistant with Task Force 120

and the person responsible for establishing a medical training center for

the 209th ING Battalion. “I have

absolute confidence in their abilities

and leadership, and I think they are

going to go a long way for this

National Guard battalion and the

future of Iraq.” 

Sgt Thomas Dillone, a medic for

Task Force 120 who was responsible

for much of the training for the 209th

ING medics, complimented the Iraqi

National Guard medics on how they

took to the training. 

“I have been teaching medics for a

number of years, and I have never

had more dedicated, more motivated

students in my life. They make me

happy. They want to learn, and they

apply themselves to it,” he said.

“Making this platoon work is very

important to them.”

TAJI, Iraq — Delivering 156 tons of

wheat seeds to a central distribution point

for farmers of the Taji area, the 1st Cavalry

Division’s 39th Brigade Combat Team

launchied the beginning phase of Operation

Amber Waves Oct. 19.

“Operation Amber Waves is a three-phase

plan to help strengthen the agriculture community within Taji,” explained Maj. Gordon

McCoy, an assistant civil military operations

officer for the 39th. The wheat-seed delivery

was the first phase, he said, then “we’ll be

distributing fertilizer and, finally, we’ll

work with the Ministry of Agriculture to fix

the irrigation infrastructure.”

McCoy said that bringing the seeds to

farmers of the area was a joint effort

between multinational forces, members of

the Iraqi government and council members

in the Taji area.

“This whole thing was a series of different

organizations working together. We worked

with the council members to make sure

farmers knew when and where the seeds

were to be distributed as well as working

with the Ministry of Agriculture to help

store the seeds once they arrived in country.”

Agriculture is the center of the Taji economy around which all other forms of commerce rotate, noted several small businessmen gathered at the seed-distribution point.

“Most of the work I do in my garage is

fixing equipment farmers use — from their

tractors to the cars and trucks they use to

bring their harvest to market,” said one local

businessman, speaking through a translator. 

“Most of the businesses in the area operate that way, as a direct extension of the

farmers.”

Prior to Operation Amber Waves, addressing deficiencies in the farming community

has been a priority for the Bowie Brigade, as

evidenced by the many civil affairs projects

undertaken. From developing roads to facilitate the travel of farmers to bring their

crops to market to fixing water pump stations in the area irrigating the parched desert

land, helping the farmer has been at the forefront.

“The importance of farming to this area

can’t be understated,” said Maj. Terry

Robey, of the 478th Civil Affairs Battalion.

“Most of the projects my team has worked

on have kept that as the focus in determining

the projects which will return the most

impact for this area.”

With so many farmers in the area and tons

of seeds to pass out, before any distribution

could begin, a system needed to be in place

to ensure that each farmer got a fair share.

“What the area council members decided

to do was have each farmer bring in the deed

to their lands,” said McCoy. “Based upon

how many they owned, that would determine 

Operation Amber Waves

Story and photos by 

Cpl. Benjamin Cossel

122nd Mobile Public 

Affairs Detachment

TF Danger medics 

train ING soldiers

Soldiers of the 39th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division facilitated the

delivery of 156 tons of wheat seed to farmers of the Taji, Iraq, area Oct. 19. The

delivery was the first part of what is planned to be a three-phase operation called

Operation Amber Waves.

A farmer loads 110-pound bags of wheat

seed onto the back of his truck. Soldiers

of the 39th Brigade Combat Team, 1st

Cavalry Division facilitated the delivery

of the seeds during Operation Amber

Waves Oct. 19.

Submitted by 1st Infantry

Division Public Affairs Office

Page 6 Scimitar Nov. 5, 2004

Agriculture driving the Taji economy

See AMBER, Page 10

AEF Center commander

explains longer USAF cycle 

HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii — The

effect of the expanded air and space expeditionary

force tour lengths on troop morale was addressed

here by the general in charge of the deployment

schedule.

Brig. Gen. Steven Hoog, the AEF Center commander, explained how the recent extension to fourmonth deployments is working out.

“Airmen have saluted smartly, and they’re off

doing their business,” he said. 

This new schedule offers greater stability for commanders and a reduction in transportation requirements because Airmen are swapping out three times

instead of four during the year, Hoog said.

The deployment-length change to the AEF cycle

started Sept. 15. Airmen now get four extra months at

home.

“We go for 120 days now (every) 20 months,”

Hoog said. “In terms of your life back at home, the

turmoil has actually decreased because now you have

a longer cycle (of down) time.”

An AEF assignment does not necessarily mean

deployment, but Airmen should be prepared to go

anytime during their 120-day window, he said.

“If you’re in a deployable [position], you’re supposed to be ready to go on 72-hours notice, regardless,” said Hoog. “If you’re in a four-month window,

you’re supposed to be ready to go any day from day

one to day 119. What we try to do is give you as much

notice as we can — ideally somewhere between 30

and 90 days — and tell you where you’re going to go,

but you’re supposed to be ready that whole time.”

Air Force officials are changing in the way they

handle war, including the integration of reservists and

guardsmen and combining the different armed services to create a larger joint environment.

The reservists and guardsmen “do a great job,” said

Hoog. “The Guard and Reserve will volunteer to take

taskings before (the taskings) flow down to the active

duty.”

People in certain Air Force specialties are deploying for 179 days, but because they are not trained for

their specific task, these deployments are expanded

by two to two-and-a-half months of training before

deploying.

Additionally, Airmen are integrating with the Army

as never before. Several Air Force specialties “have

agreed to fill some Army requirements with Air Force

bluesuiters,” he said. “It’s working out superbly.”

By Senior Airman Sarah Clark

15th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
WASHINGTON — Lessons

learned in combat are the driving

force for changes from initial-entry

training to advanced professional

development, said Gen. Kevin P.

Byrnes, the Training and Doctrine

Command commander. 

Lessons learned are being more

rapidly assessed and pushed into

the institutional side of training,

Byrnes said. The implementation of

the lessons-learned process is about

one month now compared to five

years during peacetime, Byrnes

said during a speech here at the

50th Association of the U.S. Army

Annual Meeting Oct. 27.

Just as important is ensuring that

the training is relevant to the mission, Byrnes said. To do this,

TRADOC has made major changes

at its combat training centers and

noncommissioned officer schools

to ensure that all Soldiers are

trained to perform as riflemen and

able to do the mission once

deployed, Byrnes said.

Initial-entry training

For 2005, the training base will

expand to train an additional

27,000 Soldiers in initial-entry

training. Byrnes said although challenges lie in the infrastructure and

equipment requirements, “we will

be successful in getting our

Soldiers trained on the mission.”

Given the war and an assessment

from veterans coming back from

Enduring Freedom and Iraqi

Freedom and experienced NCOs,

three individual tasks and nine collective tasks have been identified

that every Soldier must perform

before graduating from advanced

individual training. Some of those

tasks include: react to a grenade

attack, evacuate a wounded or

injured Soldier, avoid an ambush

and conduct a convoy operation.

Byrnes said the goal now in basic

and AIT is to train Soldiers to standard on those tasks.

Basic training will remain nine

weeks long, but Byrnes said field

training will increase by 200 percent, and fitness, combatant and

marksmanship emphasis will also

go up. Byrnes said he visited Fort

Jackson recently and was very

impressed with the ability of the

school system to react to these

changes.

The bottom line is to have every

Soldier combat-ready trained and

trained to standard on identified

individual and collective warrior

tasks at the basic-training and

advanced-individual-training levels, Byrnes said. 

Noncommissioned Officer

Education System

Assessed by veterans and senior

command sergeants major, NCOES

training changed to challenge, nurture and to help grow returning

combat-experienced Soldiers

attending professional development.

As of Oct. 1, basic noncommissioned officer and advanced noncommissioned officer courses are

now teaching fewer common core

tasks, moving away from tasks like

drill and ceremony and barracks

inspections to more field time and

lessons learned to make training

more relevant to the mission at

hand, Byrnes said. 

Byrnes said 37 of the 51 common

core tasks have been revised. Some

tasks have been moved from

ANCOC to BNCOC because “in a

combat-experienced force, our junior Soldiers are now far more confident than they were several years

ago.”

More hours also have been allotted for lessons learned in the

Soldiers’ particular skill and grade.

This is to prepare them “to fight at

the next level of their skill,” said

Byrnes.

Byrnes said that when it comes to

changes in training leader development at war, “you can’t have a

long-term view. You have to have a

rapid turnaround point of view, and

we think we are bringing that to

bear in Training and Doctrine

Command.”

Iraq in Brief

Adopt-a-highway program cleans streets, makes them safer

BAQUBAH, Iraq — The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry

Division has worked with the residents of Baqubah to develop an adopta-highway program to take back the streets.

Each day, more than 100 workers take to the streets as part of the program. This program has greatly reduced the trash and debris in the

streets, making the streets safer for multinational forces and local residents, officals said.

Since the program started, adopt-a-highway workers have identified

and reported 47 improvised explosive devices to the Iraqi police.

This program has provides local Iraqis with a source of employment

and has instilled the pride of a clean and safe Baqubah, officials noted.

Engineers, ING soldiers train together

FORWARD OPERATING BASE REMAGEN, Iraq — Soldiers

from Bravo Company, 9th Engineer Battalion and the 30th Iraqi

National Guard Bomb Disposal Company conducted joint training on

UXO identification and safety Oct. 21-26.

The training occurred during the first week of a 12-week training program designed to bring the 30th ING Bomb Disposal Company up to

EOD standards.

‘Police station in a box’ installed in Samarra

SAMARRA, Iraq — Soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division’s Task

Force 1-26 Infantry installed the seventh “police station in a box” in

northeast Samarra Saturday.

As the Iraqi security forces assume a greater role in the protection of

the city, they are making more decisions about the mechanics of law

enforcement, division officials said. The Iraqi Police Service formally

requested the station be installed in the northeastern portion of the city

Oct. 26.

Sheep drop in eastern Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Soldiers of the 1st Cavlry Division’s Company

A, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment delivered 33 sheep to residents

of the Al Tamar neighborhood here Oct. 20.

The neighborhood formerly was a hotbed of insurgent activity from

which rockets and mortars were routinely fired at multinational-force

base camps in the area. The delivery was a civil military operation

aimed at assisting the needy people in the area during the Muslim holy

month of Ramadan and to show gratitude for peaceful relations over the

past 60 days, according to 1st BCT officials.

Soldiers ‘Race for the Cure’ at LSA Anaconda

BALAD, Iraq — Soldiers from Logistics Support Area Anaconda

here joined forces Sunday to support breast-cancer research by participating in a Race for the Cure.

Staff Sgt. Lupe Garcia, from the 13th Corps Support Command,

organized a group of her co-workers to run the 5-kilometer race with

her. Garcia has participated in several Susan G. Komen Race for the

Cure events in her hometown of Austin, Texas.

Garcia told a co-worker of her plans and the word spread within a day

to include 15 other Soldiers. The group registered for the Austin race,

received their race T-shirts and met Sunday morning to run together.

Garcia said the main effort of the event was to raise money for breastcancer research.

Emergency Services Unit conducts exercise

TIKRIT, Iraq — The Tikrit Emergency Service Unit in cooperation

with Task Force 1-18 Infantry conducted its second emergencyresponse exercise Oct. 20 in order to sustain critical skills and demonstrate proficiency. 

The exercise was a hostage scenario based in Tikrit that also included the Tikrit Fire Department. The training included an after-action

review and retraining to meet the standard. 

The Tikrit Emergency Service Unit is composed of the first graduating class taught by the Task Force 1-18 Iraqi police advisors. 

They are an elite, well-trained unit designed to respond to a crisis in

the city of Tikrit, ideally suited for the upcoming elections, officials

said. A second class of 31 personnel is currently training in Tikrit. 

Byrnes says lessons

learned drive training

By Sgt. 1st Class Tammy 

M. Jarrett

Army News Service

BAGHDAD, Iraq — More than 700 backpacks filled

with school supplies brought smiles to the faces of students at the Al Zubaida primary school for girls Oct. 19.

Soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division’s Apache

Troop, 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment of the 5th

Brigade Combat Team made the delivery to children in

the southern Baghdad Al Rashid District.

“We influence our zone one Iraqi citizen at a time,”

said Apache Troop commander Capt. Aaron Welch.

“The key to winning this fight is educating the younger

generations, and I think this is an excellent way of doing

that.”

The backpacks were filled with school supplies

including stationary, pens, pencils and books that will be

used by the students in the school year ahead. Teachers

at the school lined up the students in their classes, where

American Soldiers handed them their backpacks. Many

of the girls approached the Soldiers timidly, but after

prompting from their teachers, remembered their

English lessons and responded with a youthful “thank

you.”

“It makes me feel good to do something nice for these

children,” said Staff Sgt. Andrew Woodcox. “It actually

feels like I am making a difference here.”

The Al Zubaida primary school is the sixth school in

the Al Rashid district to receive backpacks and school

supplies. Welch said his unit will deliver supplies to

twelve area schools before Operation Backpack is complete.

“I’m excited about the progress that has been made in

the past seven months,” Welch said. “Iraq has an

extremely bright future that continues along the same

traditions and achievements that fill its brilliant history.”

Operation Backpack

By 2nd Lt. Peter George

1-7 Cavalry Public Affairs

Nov. 5, 2004 Scimitar Page 7

Students benefit from civil-military operation

Service members are encouraged to submit stories 

and photographs to the Scimitar. Email your submissions 

to cpiccmdinfo@baghdadforum.com
Page 8 Scimitar Nov. 5, 2004

CAMP TAJI, Iraq — In an unassuming

concrete structure here, the remnant of a

prior regime, a small group of men awaits

the next mission.

Their job requires strength, humility,

teamwork and courage. They are the firefighters of Camp Taji. 

Assembled from the Puerto Rico

National Guard’s 215th Engineering

Detachment and Massachusetts-based Army

Reserve units, the 287th and 356th

Engineering Detachments, the 1st Cavalry

Division firefighters on Camp Taji play a

pivotal role as first responders to a variety

of situations ranging from hazardous-material cleanup to crash and rescue services.

“As a firefighter, you have to know so

much more than how to put out a fire. With

all the extra skills the guys here have, we

are able to bring so much more to the table

then just fighting fires,” said Staff Sgt.

Alfredo Torres, of the 215th Engineering

Detachment. “Many of our guys are certified emergency medical technicians, so we

are able to provide assistance to the medical companies here when needed. We have

the ability to collect hazardous material and

package it for disposal. We are trained in

crash and rescue, so we can support the

aviation brigade.”

In addition to the tasks directly related to

their job, the Soldiers of the detachment

offer classes and inspect all newly constructed buildings prior to their occupancy.

“About once a month we give fire-prevention classes and instruction on how to

properly use a fire extinguisher,” said

Boston resident Spc. Mohan Pilwah, a

pump operator with the 287th. “Units are

also able to come to us and request classes

relevant to our field, and we do our best to

meet their requirements and provide the

training.”

With so many tasks for the team to

accomplish, teamwork within the group is

essential.

“We wouldn’t be able to do what we do

were it not for the tight bond and sense of

brotherhood that exists between each of

us,” Pilwah noted. “You go charging into a

burning building and you just know you

can rely on the guy behind you, and it

extends beyond that. I know in that every

mission I do, the guys with me are going to

be there. They’ve got my back.”

And the Soldier firefighters have the

back of everyone at Camp Taji.

“You do this because you love helping

people,” Pilwah said. “And over here, the

stakes are so much higher. You know, you

do this back home and most folks have

insurance, so at least they are financially

compensated for anything they may loose.

But here — a Soldier’s trailer goes up in

flames due to a mortar strike, and that’s all

they’ve got in the world right now.”

When the alarm calling the firefighters to

duty sounds, the countdown begins. Within

two minutes, the engine company of four

personnel don the 85 pounds of protective

gear the job requires. They jump into the

truck carrying 6,000 gallons of water and

speed down the road to the scene of the

accident. Steeling themselves for the mission ahead, they repeat an often-used

mantra expressed by Salinas, Puerto Rico,

resident Spc. William Miranda, of the 215th

Engineering Detachment: “I have to win

this. I have to beat this fire. I have to save

whoever is in danger. I must, above all else,

win this.”

Story and photos by

Cpl. Benjamin Cossel

122nd Mobile Public 

Affairs Detachment

Soldier firefighters

protect Camp Taji

The last of his equipment having been checked and rechecked, Spc. Pinael

Roamel, with the Puerto Rico National Guard’s 215th Engineering Detachment,

1st Cavalry Division, stands ready to mount his vehicle and head to the scene of

an emergency.

Spc. William Miranda (left) of Salinas, Puerto Rico, helps Spc. Pinael Roamel, of

San Juan, Puerto Rico, don the more than 85 pounds of gear each firefighter

must wear when responding to an emergency. Both Soldiers are with the 215th

Engineering Detachment attached to the 1st Cavalry Division. 

Coming together from the Puerto Rico National Guard’s 215th Engineering

Detachment and the Massachusetts-based 287th and 356th Engineering

Detachements, the firefighters of Camp Taji are able to respond to emergency

situations with two engine companies. 
Nov. 5, 2004 Scimitar Page 9

CAMP TAJI, Iraq — What can

be said for one can probably be

said for all.

A love for flying keeps them

going —12-hour shifts (or more),

24-hours-a-day, seven days a week

— providing critical transport and

cover for the troops on the

ground. 

Who are these iron men of the

aviation corps?

They are the crew chiefs of the

1st Cavalry Division’s 2nd

Battalion, 227th Aviation

Regiment. 

They are the middlemen in the

battle to keep the battalion’s

Blawk Hawks airborne. These

Soldiers help maintain the “birds,”

facilitating the transport of troops

while covering down on the pilots. 

For two such crew chiefs, Spc.

Brandon Arther and Spc. Dmitri

Schronick from the Alpha

Company ‘Werewolves’, 2nd

Battalion, 227th Aviation

Regiment, they are at their best

skirting above the ground at 120

miles an hour, eyeing the ground

below for potential threats.

“Flying is like an extra duty

because our primary mission is to

ensure the helicopter is properly

maintained at all times,” explained

Schornick, a native of Bay St.

Louis, Miss. “We are part of a

team that runs two 12-hour shifts,

give or take, depending on mission requirements, all week with

every ninth or tenth day for down

time.”

Arther noted that whether flying

at night or during the day, the

hours are long.

“Usually, we start getting ready

about two hours before our first

scheduled mission. During this

time, we perform the necessary

preflight aircraft inspections, topping off fluids and logging discrepancies,” said Arther, a native

of Roswell, N.M. “When we have

completed all that, then we mount

our guns. There’s a whole process

before we go anywhere.”

Anywhere might include flying

to Fallujah with stops at several

forward operating bases along the

way. “Add-on missions” offer

unexpected detours, in-flight reenlistment ceremonies and extra

hours in the air.

“The downside of it all is the

spur-of-the-moment stuff, like

transporting extra people that were

not scheduled for pick up. And

flying around Baghdad every day

can get monotonous, sometimes,

too,” Shornick said.

“The best part of what we do is

when we fly north and can see the

mountains and the lakes. It’s different,” explained Arther, a threeyear Army veteran.

From running local “milk runs”

to more dangerous tasks that take

them into the very heart of the

Sunni Triangle, both aviation

mechanics are driven by their passion.

“My father was a ‘grunt’ until

he reclassified into aviation and

became a crew chief. I guess I was

always interested in what he did,

but I wanted to fly and I figured

this was a good place to start,”

Arther said.

“I’ve always been mechanically

inclined, and aviation offers me an

opportunity to enhance a future

civilian career,” added Schornick.

At the end of each day, the crew

chiefs routinely inspect their craft

once again.

“It’s called a ‘10-14’ inspection.

For every 10 hours of flight time

or every 14 days, we inspect the

helicopters,” Arther explained. “In

the States, we average about 10

hours every two weeks, but here

we fly considerably more hours in

a shorter period of time.”

With inspection and maintenance comes the unenviable task

of paperwork.

“We have to maintain both

inspection and maintenance logs,

a paper trail in case of an accident

because the first thing investigators look for is human error,”

Arther added.

In addition to a daily fare of

missions and maintenance, crew

chiefs are also responsible for

training their ground-pounding

counterparts how to safely board

and exit the aircraft in preparation

for air-assault operations. 

“Taking our guys on a mission

and dropping them off for a raid is

pretty exciting,” Schornick said

with a smile.

“These guys are real heroes, but

they don’t get a lot of recognition

for what they do,” said Sgt. 1st

Class Russell Kirby, the company

first sergeant for A Co., 2-227th

Aviation. “We are one of the few

units that are in full operation

around the clock, running multiple

missions plus add-ons. And there

are always add-ons.”

Crew Chiefs: one job, multiple roles

Story and photos by 

Sgt. Dan Purcell

122nd Mobile Public 

Affairs Detachment

Above: Spc. Brandon Arther (left) and Spc. Dmitri Schronick, both crew chiefs with the 1st

Cavalry Division’s Alpha Company “Werewolves,” 2nd Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, perform an inspection of the aircraft at the end of the day.

Left: Spc. Brandon Arther, a Black Hawk crew chief with the 1st Cavalry Division's Alpha

Company “Werewolves,” 2nd Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, prepares to add engine oil during a routine pre-flight maintenance check. 

Spc. Brandon Arther, a Black Hawk crew chief with the 1st

Cavalry Division’s Alpha Company “Werewolves,” 2nd

Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, scans the ground below for

possible enemy activity and attack on the aircraft.
deploying the guardsmen to Kuwait before moving

them into Iraq, they discarded that idea in light of

the high threat level in Kuwait, the official said. 

“The bottom line was, why deploy them now?”

he said. “We keep them at home station, we keep

them out of harm’s way for a longer period for time,

we give them more opportunities to train and they

get to stay home with their families for Christmas.” 

The official said the 42nd Infantry Division’s

deployment to Iraq will mark an important milestone. “This is the first reserve (-component) division to deploy into combat since World War II,” he

noted. 

This did not include previous operations in

Kosovo and Bosnia, which, he observed, “were

more peace enforcement and stability operations.”

In contrast, Iraq “is full blown, close-with-anddestroy-the-enemy kind of stuff. This is combat.” 

Formed in 1917 from hand-picked National

Guard units spanning 26 states and the District of

Columbia, the 42nd was dubbed “The Rainbow

Division” by Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who

was instrumental in forming it. 

The division currently includes units in eight

states: New York, Vermont, New Jersey,

Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Kentucky, Florida

and Illinois. 

The Rainbow Division has been an active contributor to the war on terror. Following the Sept. 11,

2001, terrorist attacks, battalions from New York

City armories – the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry; 1st

Battalion, 101st Cavalry; 642nd Division Aviation

Support Battalion; and the 1st Battalion, 258th Field

Artillery Regiment – provided immediate emergency response. 

In addition, thousands of the division’s New York

Army National Guard Soldiers and its division

headquarters supported security and recovery operations in Manhattan as part of Joint Task Force 42

following 9/11. Hundreds of Rainbow Division

Soldiers served more than a year of active duty in

this role. 

Additional Soldiers from the division have

deployed to Afghanistan supporting Operation

Enduring Freedom or providing homeland-security

missions for Operation Noble Eagle. 

DEPLOYMENTS Continued from Page One

for more kits. The current requirement is for

13,872 kits. 

During a recent visit to Letterkenny Army

Depot, Pa., one facility producing the kits,

Motsek said he was particularly impressed

with the motivation of the workers he saw.

One worker, who operated a laser-cutting

machine that cuts the steel used in the kits,

hadn’t taken a single day off — not weekends, not holidays – since starting the job

seven months earlier. 

“No sir, I have a mission to do” was the

employee’s response, Motsek said. 

In addition to Letterkenny, other Army

facilities producing the kits are Anniston

Army Depot, Ala.; Red River Army Depot,

Texas; Sierra Army Depot, Calif.; Watervliet

Arsenal, N.Y.; Rock Island Arsenal, Ill.; and

Crane Ammunition Activity, Ind. 

Fueling the motivation of workers at these

facilities, Motsek said, are the testimonials

they regularly receive from Iraq from troops

who credit the kits with saving their lives.

“That’s a real motivator, when you hear soldiers telling stories about how they were able

to survive because of their up-armored

equipment,” he said. 

While the military moves double-time to

up-armor its humvees, it’s also producing

add-on armor kits for other vehicles in Iraq. 

Motsek said the Army began anticipating

this requirement and laying the groundwork

for a quick response even before U.S.

Central Command passed it down. 

So far, the Army has installed armor addon kits on almost 400 heavy expanded

mobile tactical trucks, or HEMTTs, about 35

palletized load system tactical trucks and

450 vehicles from the Army’s family of

medium tactical vehicles, he said. 

In addition, Motsek said the Army is in the

process of buying the new armored support

vehicle, which he describes as a “mini

Stryker vehicle” that’s larger and has more

armor protection than even the up-armored

or enhanced humvees. 

The Army currently has 70 ASVs, all en

route to Iraq, where they will support convoy

movement, he said. 

“For us, the bottom line is getting this

equipment to the theater as quickly as possible,” Motsek summarized. 

“When you’re putting people in harm’s

way, you want to ensure that they have

everything they need to protect them as they

carry out their missions.” 

ARMOR Continued from Page Three

how many bags of seed they would

receive.” One hectare equals 2.47

acres.

Evaluating the progress and the

process of the distribution, McCoy

said he was pleased at the relative

smoothness of the operation.

“Looking at things, it would

appear that every farmer is getting

their share and most everyone seems

to be happy,” he said. “The council

members have done a good job of

documenting everything so we can

keep track of all this as this is just

the beginning.”

Farmers collecting their seeds did

indeed seem happy as they waited

their turn to load the seeds onto their

vehicles.

“We really appreciate this wonderful gift from U.S. Soldiers,” said

one excited farmer who went on to

note that receiving the seeds during

the time of Ramadan made it especially thoughtful. “It shows the U.S.

understands about our culture, about

the giving to the needy at this time.

It is wonderful. This will help me

feed my family and provide wheat to

sell in the markets. God is great.”

One farmer estimated that one ton

of the seed could yield as much as

four to five tons of wheat.

But McCoy went on to explain

that the seeds were more then just a

gift; the delivery had another purpose.

“If a man has food in his belly, has

money to pay his bills, that man is

generally happy. If a man is generally happy, he’s less likely to pick up a

gun and fight against us.”

AMBER Continued from Page Six

Page 10 Scimitar Nov. 5, 2004

WASHINGTON — The 3rd

Infantry Division, the “Rock of the

Marne,” led the march on

Baghdad March 20, 2003, and

Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, the

unit’s commander then, recently

called it “the fastest and longest

attack in history.”

Blount, Maj. Gen. Martin

Dempsey of the 1st Armored

Division and Lt. Gen. Raymond

Odierno of the 4th Infantry

Division spoke about their units’

operations in Iraq Oct. 27 at the

Association of the U.S. Army

annual meeting at the Washington

Convention Center.

3ID at tip of spear

Blount described how his

21,000 Soldiers in 10,000 vehicles

saw the enemy first, got off the

first shot and made the first kill.

He attributed his success to correct

Army doctrine, sound training,

decisive leadership, effective combination of movement and firepower, mobile command and control and great equipment.

“Our tanks and Bradleys performed magnificently,” Blount

said. “We only lost one tank when

an auxiliary power unit caught

fire. I never lost one of our vehicles to enemy fire.”

The general told of an unexpected benefit from the men wearing

protective suits. The troops wore

chemical suits over their underwear, so they stowed their uniforms in duffle bags strapped onto

the sides of the vehicles. The wall

of bags served as makeshift reactive armor of sorts by causing

RPG rounds to explode. 

He said this happened 20 times,

but it did cause a lot of Soldiers to

have to borrow mismatched articles of clothing from their comrades.

All roads lead to Baghdad

The 3rd attacked along two

roads and eventually ended up on

one road. It then took two days for

the outfit to pass one point. Blount

said he spoke with his commanders by satellite mostly, but did

meet twice in person with them.

Blount mapped out how the

Rock of the Marne was engaged in

nine separate fights over a 24-hour

period during the push through the

Karbala Gap. They had to immediately switch over to the role of

peacekeepers after the fall of

Baghdad, which entailed a different type of struggle.

The commander said regular

Iraqi soldiers took off their uniforms at that point and would fire

an RPG and then stand in the middle of a group of people, making

identification of the enemy difficult. The irregular Fedayeen forces

never did wear uniforms.

4ID detours from plan

Odierno told how the 4th

Infantry Division was scheduled to

attack from Turkey, but their 37

ships had to ultimately pass

through the Suez Canal and land

in Kuwait in early April 2003. The

extra month did allow more time

for planning and training. 

The ships were unloaded by the

12th of April and the 4th moved

800 kilometers to the north of

Baghdad and attacked. The war

had evolved into a low-intensity

conflict by this time.

“Every Soldier had to be prepared to attack — mechanics and

cooks too,” Ordierno said. “We

had artillery men who were conducting patrols.”

The fight in Iraq is also a decentralized one and commanders on

the ground should be given latitude to make decisions Odierno

said.

“You have to judge civil actions

with lethal actions,” he said.

“There are difficult decisions

every day.”

1AD adapts to urban war

Dempsey and the 1st Armored

arrived in Baghdad in June of

2003 and the tankers were now

engaged in urban warfare.

“In combat, lead from the front,”

Dempsey said. “In civil affairs,

lead from the rear. We were not the

same division when we left. We

made major changes. We trained

while in contact with the enemy.”

The 1st Armored created tank

and marksmanship ranges to better

train the troops in an extremely

complex environment.

Dempsey said 21st century technology has caused a major change

in Soldiers’ personal lives.

E-mail puts family at front

“Your family goes to war with

you,” Dempsey said. “Soldiers

would e-mail wives as soon as

they got off patrol.”

The general sad he did not consider that detrimental. He sent an

officer back to the division’s home

base in Germany when they got

extended to explain the move to

the families. When the Soldiers

called or e-mailed home, their

spouses had already dealt with the

situation.

“It empowered the unit. We

acknowledged the constant link

between the Soldier and the family

at home,” Dempsey said. 

Editor’s note: Dennis Ryan

writes for the Pentagram newspaper at Fort Myer, Va.

By Dennis Ryan

Army News Service

Commanders relate lessons learned in Iraq
Nov. 5, 2004 Scimitar Page 11

BA’QUBAH, Iraq — At 5:00

a.m. on a cool October morning, all

is quiet but for the ever-present humming of generators.

Hulks of metal giants glint under

the starlight. 

Soldiers from the North Dakota

Army National Guard’s 141st

Engineer Battalion begin filtering

out into the pre-dawn chill, their

duty day already underway. 

Pre-combat checks and inspections complete and convoy brief

concluded, they bypass the five-ton

trucks, scrapers and graders and load

into five humvees and one Meerkat

and roll out to begin trailblazing.

“We search out [improvised

explosive devices], hasty minefields

and ambush sites,” said Staff Sgt.

Cody Hertz, a combat engineer from

Bismarck, N.D. “But what it basically boils down to is finding IEDs.

That’s the biggest threat now on the

roadways.”

While most convoys traveling the

roads of Iraq drive as fast as safety

allows, the “Trailblazers” maintain a

speed of only 20 to 25 mph. During

these route-clearance operations,

every Soldier in every vehicle scans

the roadway, median and shoulders

looking for signs of disturbance or

anything that seems out of place,

intent on seeking out the deadly

devices.

“We’ve been over this route so

many times that every driver and

[truck commander] knows every

pothole and landmark on the route,”

said Sgt. Jed A. Korth, the Alpha

Team leader. “We usually notice

when something’s not right.”

When they do find something suspicious, such as a recent ground disturbance, a dead animal or something as simple as a trash bag or

cardboard box, the Meerkat is sent in

to investigate.

“I’d say it’s probably about the

best piece of equipment we’ve got

here,” said Spc. Matthew A.

Davenport. “We’re lucky to have it.

It’s not something everybody can

use because of its size; it’s small, so

you can only put small people in it.”

The Meerkat, a single-occupant

mine-detection vehicle resembling

an oversized, armored dune buggy,

features a three-meter wide array

that uses both metal detection and

ground-penetrating radar sensors.

Should a blast occur, a V-shaped

undercarriage directs the blast away

from the vehicle, protecting the driver.

The vehicle’s manufacturer, the

Johannesburg, South Africa-based

RSD, a division

of Dorbyl Ltd.,

claims that the

vehicle is capable of taking the

blast of an antitank mine or 15

pounds of TNT.

And their

claims have held

up.

The vehicle

has so far weathered four blasts

without serious

injury to the drivers.

“I was blown up in it,” said

Davenport. “I kind of thrive on that

stuff, so it was interesting. It handles

pretty well, and you don’t get jerked

around that bad. You’re definitely

safe in there.”

The troops also employ the

“Buffalo,” a mine-protected control

vehicle nicknamed for the vehicle’s

manufacturer – the Charleston, S.C.-

based Buffalo Technical Solutions

Group. The blast-resistant vehicle

features a hydraulic arm used to

uncover a suspected IED site and

move suspect items from the road. 

But the Meerkat and Buffalo are

not the only

items in the

unit’s arsenal.

They also use

more traditional

engineering

equipment in

their mission to

rid the routes of

the deadly roadside bombs. 

The day following the route

clearance, the

troops again

head out on their mission to make

the roads safer. 

But this day, they also bring along

a scraper and a grader to “sanitize”

the route — remove brush and

debris from the roadside and median, leveling the surface and making

it harder to emplace and hide the

roadside bombs.

The Soldiers of C Company have

so far located about 60 IEDs from

the roadside, but not without incident. They have been ambushed by

rocket-propelled grebades and smallarms fire on several occasions and

endured six IED blasts, including

one that killed Spc. James J.

“Tugboat” Holmes, a Soldier from F

Battery, 188th Air Defense Artillery,

who volunteered to come to Iraq

with the Trailblazers.

“Everyone was shell-shocked. We

walked around in a daze for a couple

of days,” said 1st Sgt. Keith A.

Hertz, the company’s first sergrant. 

Because IEDs are the leading

cause of wounding and death of

coalition forces, the engineers said

they realize the importance of their

mission. They compete within the

platoons to see who can find the

most and constantly strive to stay

ahead of the IED emplacers. 

“When an IED goes off on the

road, the first thing I do is run over

and look,” he said. “When was the

last time we went over that? Did we

miss it, or did they get a chance to

set it after we went by. We take it

personal when we miss one.”

Story and photos by 

Sgt. Kimberly Snow

196th Mobile Public 

Affairs Detachment

‘Trailblazers’ clear the roads of IEDs

Above: Soldiers from the North Dakota National Guard’s C

Company, 141st Engineer Battalion, perform a route sanitation

of a roadway south of Hibhib, near Ba’qubah, Iraq, Oct. 22.

Right: Spc. David Feldman, a combat engineer with the North

Dakota National Guard’s C Company, 141st Engineer Battalion,

pops his head up from his Meerkat mine-detecting vehicle during a route-sanitation sweep on a roadway south of Hibhib, near

Ba’qubah, Iraq, Oct. 22. Feldman is from Beach, N.D.

Information, Resources, and Referrals for Concerns About:

— Mental Health/Combat Stress (Homefront and relationship issues, 

depression, suicidal thoughts, etc) 

— Sexual Assault- (Includes Medical, Mental health, Legal, and Chaplain Services). 

www.help4soldiers.com

OR CALL*

Northern Iraq — DNVT 302-553-9525

Central Iraq — DNVT 302-558-5546

Southern Iraq — DNVT 318-833-1322

*Note: All calls are kept confidential and callers may remain anonymous

The place to access

the latest MNFI/MNC-I news and

information is

online. Check out

www.mnf-iraq.com

to stay informed.

“We’ve been over

this route so many

times that every driver and [truck commander] knows every

pothole and landmark

on the route.”

— Sgt. Jed A. Korth
Page 12 Scimitar Nov. 5, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Four or five calls a

day since August.

That is the number of suspected improvised explosive devices or unexploded ordnance the 3rd Brigade Combat Team’s

explosive ordnance disposal unit has

responded to. The unit’s U.S. Navy personnel are attached to the 1st Cavalry Division. 

Armed with a 52-pound bomb suit and a

remote-operated bomb-disposal robot, this

three-member EOD team travels throughout

Baghdad to render safe and dispose of any

ordnance.

“There’s never really an average day,” said

EOD technician Petty Officer 2nd Class

Bradley Sharp. “Sometimes we spend hour

after hour out in the red zone, and others we

take care of business and come right back to

base. We need to do our job so other units

can do theirs.” 

Because they’re on call 24 hours a day,

Sharp says they live by the phone. 

“When it rings the first thing that runs

through your mind is the sequence of what

you’re going to do when you get to the site,”

said EOD technician Petty Officer 2nd Class

Tim Frederickson. “Your steps and procedures are the same, but you’re looking at

something different each time. That’s why I

like my job.”

Earlier this week EOD techs came across a

vehicle-borne IED which held 22 120mm

projectiles, one 500-pound bomb, one 250-

pound bomb and 200 pounds of handmade

explosives. 

“Anytime I’m driving down the road, I

suspect everything is an IED,” said Chief

Petty Officer Randolph Lawson, the EOD

tactical commander. “Cardboard boxes, concrete blocks, bags of trash — you never

know. It feels good whenever we get some

bad-guy ammo, but we couldn’t do our job

without the guys who set up our security at

each site.” 

While their mission is to render safe and

dispose of any ordnance, that hasn’t stopped

these Sailors from finding other arms caches.

“We were on another IED call when we

started looking around a building with our

robot to make sure it was clear,” said

Frederickson. “I spotted a burlap sack

among plastic trash bags, and something just

didn’t seem right to me.” 

After clearing away the debris,

Frederickson discovered 21 82 mm mortars,

10 rocket-propelled grenades, a 60mm mortar tube with stand and around 5,000 rounds

of AK-47 ammunition stacked in a four-footby-four-foot hole dug in alley on Haifa

Street. 

Despite their extra finds, Lawson says that

they’re just doing their job. 

“A Marine’s dream is charging a machine

gun nest and taking it out, saving his buddies,” said Lawson. “For EOD guys, it’s

going downrange in a bomb suit with bullets

flying overhead disarming an IED. My team

and I are ready for that call.” 

Story and photos by 

Sgt. Clinton Firstbrook

Scimitar staff

EOD unit takes care

of Baghdad bombs

Left: Petty Officer 2nd Class Tim

Frederickson adjusts Chief Petty

Officer Randolph Lawson's bomb-suit

helmet, making sure it's securely in

place before Lawson inspects a suspected improvised explosive device. 

Below: EOD Tactical Commander

Chief Petty Officer Randolph Lawson

peeks into a portable toilet where a

suspected IED has been placed. 

Above: Explosive ordnance

disposal technicians prepare

to deploy their remote-operated bomb-disposal robot to get

a closer look at a suspected

improvised explosive device.

Right: Explosive ordnance disposal technician Petty Officer

2nd Class Bradley Sharp detonates an explosive charge,

destroying a suspected improvised explosive device.
Nov. 5, 2004 Scimitar Page 13

MOSUL, Iraq — The Soldiers of the 3rd

Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Arrowhead

Brigade Combat Team) made history as the

Army’s first Stryker Brigade to fight in combat. Throughout their year-long deployment

to Iraq, the Army’s newest vehicle and its

highly trained Stryker Soldiers have proven

themselves to be the flexible, maneuverable

force the Army envisioned.

The Arrowhead Brigade is the first of six

planned Stryker brigades. Based in Fort

Lewis, Wash., the 3-2 Inf. became part of a

new Army initiative to establish a unit that

could bridge the operational gap between

slow-to-deploy heavy forces and underpowered light forces. With more than 3,600

Soldiers and 300 vehicles, the brigade is capable of conducting a wide range of military

operations in various settings. 

The brigade deployed to Iraq with eight battalions: the 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry

Regiment; 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry

Regiment; 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry

Regiment; 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry

Regiment; 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry

Regiment; 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery

Regiment; 296th Brigade Support Battalion

and the 276th Engineer Battalion. Also organic

to the brigade is the 18th Engineer Company;

Headquarters and Headquarters Company; the

209th Military Intelligence Company; the

334th Signal Company; Company C, 52nd

Infantry Regiment; the1060th Tactical

Psychological Operations Detachment and

the1290th Tactical Psyop Detachment.

Traditional infantry brigades are only organized with these different units for large training exercises or for war. In the brigade, these

units are organic and are able to train together

year-round.

Though the new Stryker vehicle is important, the highly trained Stryker Soldiers are the

ones who have made the unit a success, leaders say. 

“The Stryker Brigade is not about the vehicle. It’s about the Soldiers and the noncommissioned officers and officers,” said Lt. Col.

Buck James, the commander of the 1st

Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment. “We are

building the next generation of leaders and

preparing for the future of the Army.” 

The Soldiers spent nearly three years training to become familiar with the new Stryker

vehicles. They underwent an operational evaluation and certification to prepare for this

deployment. The Arrowhead Soldiers endured

back-to-back, intense training at the Joint

Readiness Training Center in Fort Polk, La.,

and the National Training Center at Fort Irwin,

Calif., in the year before they deployed.

“Our Soldiers are hardened from three years

of nothing but training and focusing on our

mission, whether it was in a training environment or a combat environment,” said Col.

Michael Rounds, the 3rd Brigade commander.

The training was meant to assess the

brigade’s ability to conduct early entry and

combat operations in a mid- to low-intensity

environment against an unconventional

enemy. 

“Ever since we completed JRTC, we

believed that we could succeed in combat,”

said Sgt. Rob Williams, from Company B, 5th

Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment. “We have a

lot of young specialists and sergeants who

really make the difference in our ability to

shoot, move and communicate.” 

The nation focused on the first brigade to

use the Stryker vehicle in combat as, time after

time, the Stryker vehicle took a punch and

continued to fight, proving itself as a significant addition to the Army’s force.

“I was impressed with its capabilities during

training, but it’s difficult to imagine its capabilities until you put it to the types of tests we

see here every day,” said Rounds.

In many ways, this deployment was a test to

see how the SBCT would hold up in combat.

The Soldiers of 3-2 SBCT met the challenge,

continually focusing on ways to more effectively make use of the brigade’s numerous

capabilities. They’ve revised their tactical procedures according to lessons learned in the

field from previous engagements. As the first

SBCT in combat, they have set the standard

for the units that will follow them. 

“We literally wrote the book on how to use

the vehicle in combat,” said 1st Lt. Nick

Kardonsky, the executive officer for Company

C, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment.

With organic snipers, mortarmen, anti-armor

sections as well as heavy machine guns, the

Stryker Brigade Combat Team has given leaders an enormous amount of flexibility in the

way they lead troops in combat.

“As a Stryker platoon leader, you’ve got so

many assets at your disposal that you just

don’t find in a light or mechanized unit,” said

Kardonsky.

In one year, the brigade operated in a larger

area than what they had expected to prior to

coming to Iraq. They were called on to support major operations when violence heated up

in Al Kut, Tal Afar and Najaf. In each of

these cases, a battalion of Stryker Soldiers

packed up and moved within 24-72 hours.

“Doing these extra missions was not standard for us but within our capabilities,” said

Rounds.

The Vehicle

The Stryker Brigade was called upon for

these extra missions because commanders in

Iraq took notice of the success the brigade was

having with the vehicle in northern Iraq. Its

advantages of speed and mobility made it a

valuable asset to the commanders on the

ground. 

“We were chosen for these missions because

of the outstanding tactical mobility and agility

the Stryker has. We have the ability to cover a

lot of ground quickly,” said James.

The Stryker was designed to operate in an

urban environment. It is large enough to carry

a whole squad of infantrymen, unlike the

Bradley vehicle, which will only hold half a

squad. It travels streets on eight tires instead of

tracks, which are much quieter. 

The Soldiers

The Stryker Brigade is an infantry-centric

unit.

“Even though we were confident in the

Stryker’s abilities, it still takes people to make

it a reality,” said Rounds. “We have great

Soldiers and leaders who are always doing the

right thing at the right time and making a difference in the parts of Iraq we’ve been asked

to fight in.”

The Soldiers of the Arrowhead Brigade

worked non-stop conducting missions from

infantry raids to humanitarian assistance.

According to Rounds, it is the incredible effort

on the part of the Soldiers and leaders each

day that has contributed to the success of the

brigade.

“These young Soldiers are incredibly

impressive and adaptable,” said Lt. Col. Karl

Reed, the commander of 5th Battalion, 20th

Infantry Regiment. “Their ability to be in a situation and adapt to it and out-think and outfight the enemy is incredible.”

During the brigade’s deployment, a number

of Stryker Soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice

while doing their part to support freedom in

Iraq. The legacy of those Soldiers will not be

forgotten by those they left behind. 

“As Soldiers we understand that we are

fighting for our country and for freedom, but

we also fight for each other,” said Rounds.

“The deaths of Soldiers reinforce in our minds

that what we’re doing here is right and we will

work to honor their memory by bringing this

mission to a close.”

Soldiers make all the difference 

in the Army’s first Stryker brigade

By Spc. Blair Larson

139th Mobile Public 

Affairs Detachment

Soldiers of Charlie Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade,

2nd Infantry Division Stryker Brigade Combat Team patrol the streets of Tal Afar,

Iraq, Aug. 1 as part of Operation Sykes Hammer. The Soldiers also assisted the

Iraqi National Guard in executing cordon-and-search operations in neighborhoods of Tal Afar suspected of harboring terrorists. 

Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson
Page 14 Scimitar Nov. 5, 2004

BA’QUBAH, Iraq — In the heart of

Ba’qubah, Soldiers relax in the golden glow

of late afternoon, winding down after the duty

day, chatting and strumming guitars.

Their “stage” is a lower-level balcony at the

Diyala Police Headquarters building that

Soldiers stationed here have fortified and

turned into a rest-and-relaxation area. 

“Moose” and “Squirrel” – Pfc. Darren A.

Ripley and Spc. Joshua B. Polley, respectively – are buddiing songwriters. They are bent

forward, reading lyrics from a previous session as they play, occasionally stopping to

comment on the lyrics and melody. 

They have been collaborating since arriving

here in mid-February and have written eight

complete songs. They have another half dozen

in the works. 

“Me and Moose are doing a CD when we

get back home,” Polley said with a grin.

“We’re going to call it the ‘Ba’qubah

Sessions.’ We’re shooting for 10 to 12 songs

on it.”

The pair meets at least five nights a week

and is sometimes joined by one or two others.

This night it is Pfc. Joseph Sofia, a 22-yearold military police Soldier andmusician from

San Francisco who sits down and blends in

seamlessly with the pair. 

“We’re Moose and Squirrel, but he’s the

one with talent,” Polley says with a laugh.

While initially a little shy, reticence

quickly turns to excitement when Polley, a

native of Wickliffe, Ky., starts talking about

music. He said that playing out here means

the world to him.

“It’s huge,” he said. “If I couldn’t come out

and play on my guitar, I think I’d go nuts.”

Polley’s passion with music took hold when

he began playing drums in the fifth-grade, he

said. As his experience and skill increased, he

became interested in writing but found it difficult to complete more than a few drum parts. 

So about five years ago, between his

freshman and sophomore years in high

school, he picked up the guitar with the hope

of being able to complete a song. Shortly

after, he met Kevin Davis, a friend and mentor who he credits as a major influence on

his music career. 

“As soon as I got my guitar, I started writing, learned a few chords, put them together

and started to put lyrics to it. And it was crap,”

he said with a chuckle. “Then Kevin pulled

me aside one day and he said, ‘If you’re trying to write a song, you can’t look at it like

you’re writing a high school paper. You have

to wait and roll the idea around in your head

for a while. Don’t look at it as writing a song.

Look at it as capturing an emotion.”

He took those words to heart and said he

thinks now he might finally have the hang of

it. The songs he’s written here with the help of

his partner, Moose, are the first he’s completed.

Both members of the Moose and Squirrel

songwriting team said they find inspiration for

their songs from their life experiences, particularly from the hardships of living in a combat zone and being separated from loved ones. 

One of Polley’s favorite songs was inspired

by a dream about his then fiancée, Jasmine.

He married her when he went home on leave

in August. When he played the melancholy

and moving tribute to her, she cried, he said.

Ripley, who is from Princeton, Maine, said

he pulls inspiration from past events. But he

has also borrowed advice from his songwriting partner, Polley.

“He told me, ‘Take something that you

don’t want to happen to you and write that

down.’ One of the first things I wrote was

about my girlfriend leaving me. That was

before she left me,” he said wryly. “I take my

attitude from that day or that moment, and I’ll

take the reasons and put it into a verse and see

what happens.”

The duo said they hope to play local clubs

when they return to Fort Stewart, Ga., in the

spring, showcasing their songwriting to garner interest. Ripley, who admits to suffering

stage fright, says they don’t plan on being performers; they just want to sell some songs.

He also hinted at a having a few high-level

contacts in the music business. And although

he’s tight-lipped about specifics, saying he

doesn’t want to “jinx” them, he’s optimistic

about their chances for success.

Polley shares his partner’s optimism,

although he did voice one primary concern.

“God, I hope if the CD does take off, I don’t

have to come back to Iraq to write the followup,” he said.

Spc. Joshua B. Polley (right) and Pfc. Darren A. Ripley, military police officers

with the 293rd MP Company stationed at the Diyala Province Police

Headquarters building in Ba’qubah, Iraq, strum their guitars following a long

duty day. Polley is from Wickliffe, Ky., and Ripley is from Princeton, Maine.

‘Moose’ and ‘Squirrel’ make music in Diyala

Story and photo by 

Sgt. Kimberly Snow

196th Mobile Public 

Affairs Detachment
CAMP AL TAQADDUM, Iraq

— Following a road decidedly less

traveled, one sergeant from the 24th

Marine Expeditionary Unit received

an unusual reward for his dedication - a commission to second lieutenant. 

With a career spanning 17 years

from recruit to officer, 2nd Lt. Earl

Trouerbach, 36, a Rochester, N.Y.,

native with Marine Medium

Helicopter Squadron 263, struggled

against time and a possible careerending injury to become a Marine

officer. 

“Trouerbach has shown us all the

never-quit attitude needed to succeed in the Marine Corps and in

life,” said Sgt. Maj. John Rethage,

39, a Pittsburgh native and the

HMM-263 sergeant major. 

Trouerbach originally enlisted in

1987, spending most of his tour as a

radio operator with 2nd Radio

Battalion, 2nd Marine

Expeditionary Force. After serving

nine months in operations Desert

Shield and Desert Storm, he was

honorably discharged from active

duty in the summer of 1991.

“When I first got back from

Desert Storm, I was really pumped

up,” said Trouerbach. “But at the

time, there weren’t any more boatspaces left (for my military occupation), and my wife said she couldn’t

take me being deployed anymore,

so I got out.”

Three years after his discharge,

having worked part-time as a

deputy sheriff and full-time as a

drill instructor for convicted felons,

he decided to re-enlist as a

reservist.

“I wanted to come back to active

duty, but they said I’d lose too

much rank. So I joined the (Marine

Corps) Reserves, and was promoted

to sergeant at my second drill.”

After serving four years as an

assault amphibian vehicle crewman

with Alpha Company, 4th AAV

Battalion, out of Norfolk, Va., he

decided to move back to Rochester

and return to school for his degree.

At the same time, he re-entered the

reserves, joining at 8th Tank

Battalion, 4th Marine Division, in

Rochester. 

While there, he graduated from

the University of New York with an

associate’s degree, pinned on staff

sergeant in 1999 and became the

regional vice president for a national car-rental chain.

But the success he found in the

civilian sector would be short-lived,

as his company was soon dissolved,

leaving him without a full-time job.

He decided this was his sign to

return to the Marine Corps. In July

2001, he returned to active duty, a

corporal at age 34, with 14 years of

service. While attending his new

MOS training in Pensacola, Fla., he

followed his first sergeant’s advice

to submit a packet to the

Meritorious Commissioning

Program.

Accepted to MCP in April of

2002, he reported to Officer

Candidates School in October of

the same year. Following a successful first five weeks of training, he

was suddenly faced with his biggest

hurdle yet. An attempt to beat the

obstacle-course record would leave

him with a career-altering injury

and temporarily halt his pursuit of a

commission. 

After coming up short by mere

seconds on his first attempt,

Trouerbach challenged the course

record again. Halfway through, he

jumped over a wall too fast, tearing

a ligament in his knee completely in

half and causing his joint to become

precariously unstable. 

Refusing to quit, he spent the

next four weeks in excruciating

pain as he gritted his way through

at least ten more events, including

the combat readiness course. This

was in addition to his five-hour-aday physical-training regimen. Even

with his injury, he scored more than

290 points on his physical fitness

test, completing his three-mile run

just seconds over 19 minutes.

“My platoon sergeant and platoon

commander did everything they

could to make sure I didn’t miss

any events (so I could graduate),”

he said. “I used everything I could

(to stabilize my knee) — even duct

tape. Medical

(eventually) gave

me a brace for it.

They didn’t do

an MRI, so we

didn’t know how

bad it was.” 

While combating his torturous

condition and the

looming prospect

of a medical discharge, he developed a concern

for his ability to

positively influence the other

struggling members of his unit.

“I never allowed anyone to give

me any pity,” he said. “I just kept

trying to motivate the other candidates while I struggled with my

injury. (I was afraid) they would

look at me as being weak if I couldn’t accomplish a task. I wanted

them to still (be able to) respect me,

and look to me for inspiration.” 

Having just completed the final

event — Small Unit Leadership

Evaluation II — with a score of 98

percent, Trouerbach entered the

ninth week of training second in his

platoon and in the top ten percent of

his company of more than 300 candidates. The only events left to

complete before graduation were

the 10-mile hike, the final PFT and

a final run of the obstacle course.

He made it more than five miles on

the hike before

medical staff

intervened,

determining he

was in no condition to complete

the training.

“At the advice

of the orthopedic surgeon, I

was dropped

from OCS on

the final week

of training. The

company and

battalion commanders recommended my

return (though), saying, ‘If you can

have your surgery, get better and be

capable of performing your duties,

you can come back and do it all

over again.’”

Surgery was his only option to

remedy what the doctors already

considered ‘irreparable damage.’

Bedridden for two weeks and forbidden to run for at least three

months, Trouerbach soon began the

arduous process of returning to full

duty, despite various recovery complications.

“I had gotten a blood clot in my

knee, so (the) blood wouldn’t circulate through my leg. They had to

cut my leg open to release the pressure. (For awhile), I had to get three

stomach shots of blood thinners a

day. Every time I’d lower my leg,

blood would rush into it and fill it

like a balloon. It was a very painful

process.”

A month after his surgery, he

inquired about an opportunity to

return to OCS and begin the training all over again. Then the worst

news of all hit him. He was

informed that he’d be too old by the

time he graduated to qualify for

another chance. According to Title

10 of the US Code, a Marine must

be commissioned by his 35th birthday to be eligible for OCS. That

was a deadline he wouldn’t be able

to meet. After contacting his congressman, who proved to be powerless in this situation, he temporarily

shelved his dreams to be commissioned and checked into HMM-263

in September 2003. It was here he

met the person who re-ignited his

aspiration to become a Marine officer.

“One day we were talking, and he

mentioned that he went to OCS, so

I asked him why he hadn’t been

commissioned,” said Maj. Heath

Lawson, 37, a Bremerton, Wash.,

native and a maintenance officer

with HMM-263. “When he told me

about his knee, it just didn’t seem

right, so I helped him send off a

package to (fix his records).”

According to Lawson, the package made it to the commandant of

the Marine Corps in less than a

month.

“I was just trying to let him know

that there was still hope,” Lawson

said.

After a successful petition to the

Board for Corrections of Naval

Records and receiving a written

endorsement from the commadant

of the Marine Corps in September,

Trouerbach was promoted to 2nd

lieutenant a month later, on Oct. 03.

His commission was backdated to

June 20, which would have the date

of his original OCS graduation.

“Being prior enlisted gives (officers) an appreciation for enlisted

(Marines) and helps them become a

better leader,” said Lawson. “He

was a hard-working sergeant, and

you knew just by the way he carried

himself that he had great potential.”

After the tribulations Trouerbach

had met and conquered, he reflected

on why he desired to push himself

beyond the limits to become a

Marine officer. 

“(I think) life is all about creating and seizing opportunities,” he

said, and “the Marine Corps is full

of them.”

Nov. 5, 2004 Scimitar Page 15

Marine goes gold with never-quit attitude

Story and photo by 

Lance Cpl. Sarah A. Beavers

24th Marine Expeditionary

Unit Public Affairs

Second Lt. Earl Trouerbach of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit receives his long-awaited gold

bars during his commissioning ceremony at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq. Trouerbach, 36, is a

Rochester, N.Y., native with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 263, the aviation combat element of the 24th MEU.

“Being prior

enlisted gives (officers) an appreciation for enlisted

(Marines) and helps

them become a better leader.”

— Maj. Heath
BALAD, Iraq — High speed, non-stop

and fun are just a few ways to describe the

aerobics program Staff Sgt. Adrian B.

Woodson, of 644th Transportation Company,

has started at Logistics Support Area

Anaconda here.

It started off as one day a week in July, but

as his class grew in size from about 10 to

50-60 people a night, it not only outgrew the

number of classes but also the aerobics

room.

Classes are offered three times week —

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 6 p.m.

in the LSA Anaconda Fitness Center — for

free. Often the class must be held on the basketball courts because of the numbers attending.

Woodson also does aerobics with units for

physical training in the morning.

Woodson said in his class there is no rank

and he isn’t “Staff Sergeant Woodson” there.

He’s just “Woody,” as he likes to be called.

“It’s a place you can go for an hour and a

half to forget that people are shooting at

you,” he said.

The hour to hour-and-a-half class consists

of stretching, 30 minutes of cardio and muscle-failure workouts. He said the reaction he

gets is plenty of payment for his time.

Woodson has taught aerobics everywhere

he’s been since he was certified as an

instructor at Fort Gordon, Ga., in 1995. He

didn’t find aerobics appealing before trying

it, he said, but after his brother and aunt,

who are both aerobics instructors and in the

Army, got him started, he never looked back.

“After the first class I went to, I was

hooked,” Woodson said.

Woodson said he’s never had a negative

response to his classes but has never seen his

students react the way they have here. He

said he knew once he started his workouts,

people would start to come.

According to Quincy Richardson, the LSA

Anaconda fitness center manager, Woodson

is succeeding in attracting all kinds of people

to his program just by doing the job.

“He has really improved the aerobic clientele overnight,” Richardson said. “When he

came in to ask to instruct, he told me his

class would be a success.”

Woodson doesn’t have a traditional aerobics class. His class turns into a circle with

him jumping up and down, pumping the students up as hip hop, jazz or R&B music keep

the beat going in the background.

Woodson said he picked the music for

people from all generations, and all generations attend, from privates to colonels.

Woodson’s circular formation allows him

to interact with students better, he said. 

“I have had nothing but positive feedback,” he said.

While everyone has fun, they still get a

great workout. The class can help greatly

with physical fitness in the field by providing a way to release tension, helping with

cardio fitness and stamina and by helping

build muscles not used in regular workout

plans, Woodson said.

Page 16 Scimitar Nov. 5, 2004

Soldier instructor makes aerobics fun

Story and photo by 

Spc. Steven J. Schneider

28th Public Affairs Detachment

Staff Sgt. Adrian B. Woodson, an aerobics instructor from the 644th Transportation

Company, leads his Logistics Support Area Anaconda aerobics class from the center of a circular formation so he can interact with his students better.

Staff Sgt. Sheldon Gardner,

of Headquarters Company,

4th Brigade (Aviation)

Combat Team, 1st Cavalry

Division, unpacks a crate

of free-weights at the main

gymnasium at Camp Taji,

Iraq. The weights were part

of a $171,000 overall equipment package that ranges

from easy-curl bars,

Olympic squat and heavyduty locking benches to

dumbbells.

Sgt. Dan Purcell

New gym

equipment

International Zone palace 

Military Pay Office

Hours of Operation

Military pay inquiries

Saturday - Thursday

9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Cashier

Every day but Friday

9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Located in the basement at the rear of the International Zone palace. Also

located at the Joint Contracting Finance and Resource Management Office

near the 31st Combat Support Hospital.