Fire Discipline

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Iraqi Army is assuming a growing piece of the pie here in our area.  It is a welcome development, as it is the first step towards all of our forces going home.  At this point, however, it is a mixed blessing.  There is a wide variance in the quality of Iraqi Army units.  Some are showing espirit d'corps and proficiency that would give some American units a run for their money.  Others are lazy, corrupt and unprofessional.  This is part of the growth process involved in training any new military force where there has been a power vacuum or power struggle in the past.  Any soldier who has trained forces from a developing nation will back me up on this, particularly if they are US Army Special Forces, who specialize in this sort of thing.  The next phase is the development of uniform standards of quality and professionalism across these units and eliminating the various warlord fiefdoms that always spring up.  Right now we are getting some complaints about one of the units here involving, theft of valuables at checkpoints, apathy to local threats, heavy-handedness, shooting at anything that moves at night, etc.  At the same time, another unit here is loved by the locals and taking it to the arhabi(terrorists) as if these Soldiers are invincible.  They are known as the Wolf Brigade, and they are the self-styled rockstars of the Iraqi Army.  We sure are glad to have them here.  One common feature to most new Iraqi Army units and Iraqi Police is a lack of what we in the business call "fire discipline."  Fire discipline is the art of using control in how you expend your ammunition, being careful not to waste it by only firing well aimed shots, and then shooting only when you have a reasonbly good chance of hitting your target.  Several US Soldiers that have trained Iraqis have told me of the Iraqi Soldier's motto:  When there is lead in the air, there is hope in your heart.  Eventually, these guys learn the deal, sometimes when they are in their first gunfight and blow off all their ammo with out hitting anything.  With the way they like to use guns as celebration fire, they should at least save a few rounds for after they win the battle to celebrate.  Like the Wolf Brigade, the other units will grow and develop.  Training any combat unit is a continuous process.   I look forward to hearing the motto, "when there is no lead in the air, there is hope for the future."

Comments

[devildog6771]

Major, you and your troops are doing a terrific job. I have actually seen two [2] positive reports on MSM this past few days about the Iraqi and how well you guys are training. Needless to say I was left speechless!!

Well, you take care, you and your men. God Bless you all. Again, tghanj you for your service.

[Agnieszka O.]

Yeah, I saw a report yesterday too. I was waiting for some stupid comment, but instead it was a positive reporting on Iraqi special units training and execution.

[Ann]

Major-

Keep up the Good work that you continue to do everyday. You are doing an excellent job! Thanks for doing such a job - as well as keeping all of us safe here at home! I love you blog posts. I must admit you have me hooked. :)
Thanks again for being such a great Soldier! God Speed Major!
God Bless you and all of your men! I will continue to keep you in my prayers, Sir.

[Dan]

Major K:

Thank you for posting a bit about the Iraqi forces and how they are coming along. I am always curious about this.

Thank you for your service!

---Dan

[Papa Ray]

Hey,

Conservation and accuracy must be a local condition. Back in the day, the locals I had contact with, valued each round like it was gold.

They never had much to start with so they didn't know we had an almost endless supply to give them.

Now, fire control, in my old unit before I got kicked to LLRP, was almost non existant. Until one night we were unable to get re-supplied.

The guys that spent the night with almost no ammo, remembered it the next time.

They were even more scared shitless than usual.

Papa Ray
West Texas
USA

[Sissy Willis]

Trackback didn't seem to work. Here's my post on your post, which I love:

http://sisu.typepad.com/sisu/2005/05/when_there_is_n.html

[Jace]

How about:

"when there are still rounds in the magazine, there is hope for the future"

Just a thought

[2Hotel9]

I worked with Honduran army in early '80s, and you are right, fire discipline is hell to drum into city boys. Operated with troops from 54th Mtn Regt, all mountain boys and they had excellent discipline, though once they figured out they had access to the"infinite gravytrain with biscuit wheels" they did tend to burn up alot more ammo. Pa is right, LRRPs look at the world a whole lot differently than Linedawgs. Every time that resupply ship whop-whop-whops its way over you EVERYONE knows where you are. You learn to hump all you can, and hoard every round like it was an only child. Nothing runs the old puckerfactor up like having only one mag and single grenade and not a friendly face for 10 kilcks in any direction. Except when the radio craps out and you can't even call in firesupport or extract birds. Spooky. Keep on keeping on, Sir, we are praying for you success and safe return. Later on.