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While attached to the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) in Iraq, I talked to four squadron/battalion task force commanders about lessons they had learned from serving there and what advice they would share with leaders who will serve there in the future. Each had 12 months combat leadership experience in Iraq and was within weeks of ending his deployment when interviewed.
The following are excerpts of what they offered.
Lt. Col. Jim Chevallier, 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry
On counterinsurgency:
I don't think we came in with leaders fully prepared to fight counterinsurgency ... an understanding of our enemy and how he operates. We did a very good job in training specific TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures), such as how to react to an IED (improvised explosive device), but I don't think we understood what our enemy's basic scheme of maneuver was. For example, you go three to five days when it's IEDs, and that's all you find, then three to five days when it's attacks on the ISF (Iraqi security force): it was our ability to understand and counter that.
I think it's important for leaders to read and understand the classics on counterinsurgency so they can define for their soldiers what success is in this environment. For example, there's an attack from an orchard. There are several techniques I could use to counter that. One is to bulldoze the orchard, but in doing so I just create more insurgents. So, until you understand counterinsurgency, it's difficult to tell what success is. If I had to do it all over again, I'd train my leaders more on counterinsurgency operations.
On sacrifice:
Soldiers from my task force have been killed, and when I called the next of kin, they have been amazingly selfless. I try to think what my reaction would be if I were in that situation, but every time I talk to them [soldiers' next of kin] I hear nothing but absolute selflessness. The one thing they all show is concern for the other soldiers. They ask, "How are his friends?"
On training:
The basics work: basic soldier skills, basic tactics, basic troop leading skills.
In a deployment of this length, we had to balance training with operations. We had to do it in a...