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Military transition team

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A Military Transition Team, MiTT is a U.S. Army or Marine team that embeds lives with and trains the Iraqi Army, the Afghan National Army and other allies in the War on Terror. With the help of up to 6 local national interperters the MiTTs advise the fledgling security forces in the areas of intelligence, communications, fire support, logistics and infantry tactics. The aim is to make the Iraqi unit (at battalion, brigade, or division level) self-sustainable tactically, operationally and logistically so that the battalion is prepared to take over responsibility for battle space. Also, MiTTs can, if necessary, call in U.S. air support and battle assistance, thus boosting confidence and troop morale. In Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the transition teams are a central part of the strategy to train and equip national security forces, hand over battle space and reduce Coalition troop levels. MiTTs also report misconduct and allow the U.S. Military to monitor the level of professionalism of the fledgling security force. Police Transition Teams, PiTT provide a similar function for the Iraqi Police, however, due to the larger number of police units, PiTTs are frequently based out of Coalition bases and rotate to various local police stations.

MiTT soldiers are generally ranking from Staff Sergeants to Colonels and the average teams consists of 10 to 15 members. Members of the teams are draw from a variety of sources including the Active Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard[1], Navy, and Air Force. (Marines also provide MiTT team soldiers, but their training is separate from the other services.) The U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kansas, is now responsible for training the transition teams for service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As of December 2006, there were more than 5,000 MiTTs in Iraq. It was once estimated that about 5,000 MiTT soldiers would serve in Iraq. [2] This number, however, is expected to increase as part of the Coalition's effort in improve the capabilities and expand the size of the Iraqi Security Forces. In addition, the Iraqi Study Group's report calls for an increase manpower of up to 20,000. [3]

Generally, military spokespersons have been very satisfied with the results of the MiTT strategy in the Iraq war. It is believed that if the U.S. Military can transition from fighting the insurgents to advising national security forces, U.S. causualty rates may come down. The handover of battlespace to Iraqi Security Forces is an often cited benchmark of progress in the Iraq war. In the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, victory is defined as "An Iraq that is in the lead defeating terrorists and insurgents and is providing its own security."

Iraq TT mission

State-side training for Transition Teams (also referred to as Military Transition Teams, or MiTTs) is located at Fort Riley, Kansas. On average, the teams are comprised of 10-15 servicemembers (Army, Navy and Air Force). The first set of teams began training June 1, 2006. The 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division took over command and control of the TT mission in October 2006. The brigade is responsible for the creation, integration, pre-deployment preparation and training of the TT teams.

Operations are centered on Fort Riley's Camp Funston, where thousands of U.S. soldiers once trained before shipping off to World War I.

All TT team members currently go through five-phase training:

• Before being sent to Fort Riley, they undergo some basic Arabic language training with the online Rosetta Stone program and handouts on adviser skills.

• They then are put through a 60-day course at Fort Riley, which includes cultural and language training, counterinsurgency training and more.

• In Phase 3, soldiers deploy to Camp Buehring in Kuwait for about a week to 10 days for further training.

• Phase 4 is a “finishing school” at the Phoenix Academy at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, where the soldiers get briefings by top Army and Iraqi leaders.

• The last phase is the relief in place and transfer of authority with the transition team counterparts.

Afghanistan TT mission

Fort Riley also began training the first set of TT teams for Afghanistan Nov. 13, 2006.

Like the military transition teams headed for Iraq, the Afghanistan Embedded Transition Teams are tasked with the mission of mentoring members of a new military. But Afghanistan ETTs are larger and bring more specialized skills to help train their counterparts.

The Afghanistan Embedded Transition Team mission is hindered by a number of factors including the limited number of Dari Speakers in the United States. Rosetta Stone training in Afghanistan's national language, Dari, remains unavailable despite a US presence in Afghanistan for over a half decade. During the training conducted at Fort Riley, interpreters instruct advisors in basic Dari phrases. Pashto training is available to US soldiers deploying to the country through the Rosetta Stone program.

Quotes

  • "The men of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 6th Division Iraqi Army are dedicated soldiers and are enthusiastic about the opportunities of the New Iraqi Army. They are very optimistic about the new government in Iraq to be able to unite all the people of Iraq. They look forward for the Iraqi government to make improvements in the area of quality of life issues for their families such as water work projects, improvement of daily electricity to their homes and further improvements of the infrastructure of their nation so that they may be focused and go after the insurgents that are disrupting the daily lives of their people. I have learned from their culture and values that they hold dear to their heart such as their family, tribe, honor and country." - Comments by MiTT advisor Captain James Van Thach. [4]
  • "It is my belief that we and our Iraqi brothers will be successful in maintaining a secure Iraq that will be free from the terrorist attacks by the insurgency if we continue to learn from each other with open hearts and minds. The opportunity is there and it will be met at all cost even if the cost is by the sacrifice of my own life for Iraq to support an Iraqi government and military that represents the people of this nation regardless of their race, religion or creed and for the future generations for the people of the Republic of Iraq." - Comments by MiTT advisor Captain James Van Thach.[5]

References

See also

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