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David Botti

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An Introduction to Bravo Battery

2:08 PM, July 16, 2008 | Comments (5)

Bravo Battery soldiers during downtime. Photo: David Botti I've begun my embedding with Third Platoon, Bravo Battery 5-25 FA, 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division, a field artillery unit out of Fort Polk, Louisiana. Downtown Baghdad these...

Pat Tillman's Legacy Four Years On

1:58 PM, May 9, 2008 | Comments (0)

Trying to Modernize the GI Bill

10:41 AM, April 29, 2008 | Comments (0)

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"Team ISF"

David Botti

A soldier from Charlie Company on patrol. Photo: David Botti

After spending time with a platoon of soldiers in Charlie Company 2-30, it’s clear that one of the main aspects of U.S. policy in Iraq, to train Iraqi security forces, may ultimately be affected not by generals and diplomats, but by how well a twenty-something soldier gets along with his or her Iraqi counterpart.

This particular platoon is nicknamed “Team ISF”–the “ISF” standing for Iraqi Security Forces, with whom the soldiers are tasked with running joint operations in the Beladiat area of eastern Baghdad. Unlike the rest of Charlie Company living in the relative comfort of a nearby forward operating base, Team ISF resides in two medium-sized rooms of an Iraqi National Police headquarters.

Charlie Company saw a good deal of fighting in late March when Iraqi Army incursions into Basra and Sadr City lead to an intense round of violence that the soldiers here called “March Madness.”

“We really had to take a deep breath,” First Sergeant Brian Disque said of the time when the violence died down. “It was like turning off a switch. It stopped, it just stopped.”

Today things are relatively quiet in Team ISF’s area of operations. They’ve got the Internet, a few phones, bunk beds, and air conditioning but otherwise live a spartan existence packed in close enough that the option for privacy is totally absent.

An open roof looks down to an indoor courtyard just outside the soldiers’ living quarters. Here, all through the day, a mix of Iraqi National Police and U.S. soldiers come and go. There are few extended conversations between the two groups. Still, the occasional joking around and conversations conducted with a mix of sign language, broken-English, and broken-Arabic, showed there is little overt tension on either side.

“[The relationship] is pretty good,” said Team ISF staff sergeant Mario Garcia. “The guys who stay here permanently are on good terms with the Iraqis. Some of them, not everybody. For example, you know how Iraqis kiss each other, we started doing that no problem. I mean, I do.”

Garcia looked over to Sergeant Eric Chan sitting next to him, and smiled.

“Yeah, I’m not really in to doing that kind of thing,” Chan said.

First Sergeant Disque, who splits his time between the police station and Charlie Company’s main headquarters, spoke candidly about his first impressions of the National Police. Plain and simple, for about two to three months, he didn’t trust them. But then heavy fighting began, and sentiments changed.

“Once these guys started getting shot and getting hit, I knew they were with us,” Disque said.

The main face of the National Police for these soldiers is Sergeant Major Ali Mahdi, a former Iraqi Army special forces soldier who found himself out of a job once Saddam fell. He’s a tall, imposing man who speaks with a powerful staccato voice. When he’s talking business he rarely smiles, A small bald spot at the back of his head was caused by shrapnel when a roadside bomb exploded near him two years ago.

And then there is the other side of Mahdi: the amused expression he has when he comes around the soldiers’ room asking for a few cans of energy drinks. Or, the affable way he sits with the soldiers and smiles at their conversations – even though he doesn’t know what they’re saying.

For Garcia, Team ISF’s partnership with the National Police is an evolving process that’s seen the Iraqis gradually taking the lead more and more.

“I see a big improvement with the guys on how they work and how they conduct patrols and all of that,” he said. “They can go on patrols alone and have no problem. Every raid I’ve been on with those guys they do just fine. The only problem is some of these guys will bunch up too close together.”

Team ISF soldiers watch for trucks capable of launching IRAM's. Photo: David Botti

A common mission for Team ISF is one that occurred on a recent Friday as they traveled to a main highway interchange to post warning signs.

The signs tell drivers of large trucks not to slow down, or they could risk being shot at by security forces. The fear is that trucks slowing down may be carrying IRAM’s (Improvised Rocket Assisted Mortars). These are said to be the remaining militia members’ new weapon of choice, and are often launched from trucks customized to act as a launching platform for the rockets. Those firing the rockets will often park the truck, light the rockets, and disappear from the scene just as the rockets fire.

As his soldiers hammered the signs into the ground, and inspected passing vehicles, Disque pointed to a nearby overpass where just months before militia members were launching RPG attacks against the soldiers. It was, the first sergeant said, one of the most dangerous spots in the platoon’s area of operations. Today the threat of small arms fire is no longer a primary concern, but he’s still very much weary of IED’s. It’s because of this that only when he’s driving that Disque said he feels the most on edge.

In fact, going on patrol with these soldiers you’ll often see them pause and inspect a suspicious rock or piece of garbage worrying it may mask an IED.

“[The militias] adapt, we adapt,” Disque said. “It’s like a never ending whack-a-mole.”

Team ISF soldiers erect a sign warning drivers to slow down / Photo: David Botti

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