1st Battalion 22nd Infantry Update 2-15-06 Page 4

Another month has come to a close for the Soldiers of Echo Company here in Iraq.
It is hard to believe that almost 2 months have gone by since we said goodbye to our friends and families
and began our journey to the Middle East. Our Soldiers have accomplished so much in a relatively short amount of time.
They have done so while overcoming the challenges of the Iraqi language, cultural barriers,
and the constant challenge of securing many kilometers along a main route and keeping it safe
for other Coalition forces and Iraqi civilians to travel on every day.

Our Soldiers are doing great work and are putting in a lot of effort and many hours to get the mission accomplished.
In addition to the partnerships we have formed working with 4 Iraqi Army Companies in our area of operation,
we have also been working under 1^st Squadron, 75^th Cavalry, 2^nd Brigade, 101^st Air Airborne Division.
It has been a unique learning experience working alongside with and learning from both Iraqi Army Soldiers
and the Soldiers of the 101^st.

A few key moments stand out in my mind as I reflect over the recent period.
The first is the promotion of our Company Executive Officer (XO),
1LT Joshua Bohannan, to Captain. He has worked hard since coming to our company.
He has consistently taken care of our Soldiers and personally devoted himself
to getting the mission completed to standard while serving as the Assault & Obstacle
Platoon Leader and as the company XO since May of 2005.
He has deployed this company through numerous field and training exercises,
to the National Training Center and finally to FOB Striker, Iraq,
where he runs and supervises the Company’s Tactical Operations Center (TOC).
He ensures that the company’s supply systems, communications,
and maintenance programs are all working efficiently to support our Soldiers
and their missions. He has received a well-earned promotion
and will have much success as a future company commander.

The second highlight of this past period is the reenlistment of both SSG Tijerina and SPC Stevenson.
They recommitted themselves to continue to serve with their fellow Soldiers and on behalf of our nation.

These are just some examples of the high quality of Soldiers we have in our company
who continue taking care of other Soldiers and who continue making all of us and our nation proud.

At first glance from a distance, the foot patrol appears no different from the hundreds of patrols
conducted daily in Southern Baghdad. Soldiers walk slowly in a sharp formation, rifles at the ready, heads on a swivel,
prepared to react to any sign of danger. It is not until the Soldiers move closer that an observer realizes
the troops comprising the formation are not American. First, there is the uniform – the brown and tan chocolate chip pattern
worn by U.S. troops in the first Gulf War, emblazoned with colorful patches and Arabic names.
The weapon carried is the AK-47, not the familiar M4.

For the Soldiers of 2^nd Company, 4^th Battalion, 5^th Brigade, 6^th Iraqi Army Division, patrols are one part
of a variety of operations undertaken to help secure areas of Southern Baghdad. Now, as part of the increased focus
on preparing the Iraqi Army to operate independently of U.S. and Coalition assistance, the Strike Brigade is utilizing
the distinct combination of talents and expertise found in the combat engineers of E Company, 1-22 Infantry.

“What we’re seeing here is a military organization that is essentially well prepared
in terms of basic Soldiering skills,” said CPT Joshua Bohannan, E Company
Executive Officer. “Where our focus will lie is in honing the specific skill sets
that are crucial to infantry combat and overseeing the implementation
of more advanced tactics that will be successful in this theater.” The task of training and operating alongside of the Iraqi Army Soldiers rests upon a group
of combat engineers who hail from the 4^th Infantry Division at Ft. Hood Texas.
Known as Sappers, the Soldiers of E Company possess a broad area of expertise,
and are fully capable of successfully executing mounted and dismounted infantry tactics
along with their extensive knowledge of explosives, demolitions and maneuver warfare.
In addition to working to help secure main roads in Area of Operations STRIKE,
the sappers of E Company are helping the Iraqi Soldiers execute their missions
with increased confidence and crisp proficiency.

During the process of assessing 2^nd Company’s readiness and areas in need of improvement,
E Company’s sappers encountered a variety of challenges – the largest of which was the language barrier.
“It’s hard to communicate what you want them to learn, even with a translator,” said SPC Jason Wells,
an E Company sapper. “Sometimes you just have to use hand signals, but more often than not,
we just act out what we want them to see. Sometimes it looks pretty funny, like tactical comedy hour.”
Though the process has been slow at times, the Sappers are capitalizing on the Iraqi Soldiers’ solid base knowledge
and eagerness to improve their craft. “They’re getting better all the time, and showing a lot of progress,”
said sapper Robert Stevenson. “They bring a lot of energy to everything we do,
and they’re focused on playing a larger role in the missions.”

The sappers have also felt that their mission is one where it is difficult to quantify the level of success.
“We can gauge how well we’re doing on number of troops trained and in how many areas they’re proficient,
but we have to focus also on the “unknown factor,” said 1LT Gregory Elko, an E Company platoon leader.
“We have to think about, ‘will they be able to execute these maneuvers and these skills under fire
and when the stakes are extremely high,’ so we’re trying to make the training and the subsequent operations tough,
realistic, and pertinent to what’s going on in the area of operations.”

Through strong exertion, the sappers of E Company have been able to help the Iraqi troops improve;
however, it is not a mission that effort alone can accomplish. “It’s definitely a think outside the box type of mission,”
CPT Bohannan said. “On the one hand we have to focus on the basic blocking and tackling of infantry operations,
but we can’t ignore the fact that we’re here to help them develop their overall ability to conduct full spectrum operations.”
Though the mission is a difficult one to execute, the importance is not lost on the E Company sappers.
“The preparation of the Iraqi Army is paramount to our overall success here in Iraq,” said CPT Bohannan.
“Ensuring that these Soldiers are ready to take the fight is our final ticket home.”