July 6, 2006

Embedded

Canton Marine helps train Iraq army

Lt. John Price of Canton Township is part of a Marine military transition team stationed in Al Jazeera, Iraq. Photo courtesy U.S. military.

John Price is 6,200 miles from his home town of Canton Township.

“Everyone here knows who the bad guys are,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting people to tell us.”

Price, 25, is a 1st lieutenant with a military transition team in the rural town of Al Jazeera, Iraq. He and 10 other military advisors have been embedded with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force.

Price spoke by satellite phone from the 2-3-1 area of operations last week. It was 6:30 in the afternoon and temperatures easily reached 100 degrees. In about four hours he would accompany the Iraqis on a night patrol to a combat post.

The forces were gradually securing houses in the area and expanding operations further north.

“We’re totally embedded with them,” he said. “We live in an old Iraqi farmhouse.”

U.S. military leaders have said that the transition teams, known as MiTTs, are essential for defeating the insurgency in the country and the eventual drawdown of Coalition forces. The elite groups have long been used to help aid fledgling foreign militaries. The Americans give advice on tactics and techniques to the Iraqi brigade and also call in reinforcements or order airstrikes.

Price said his brigade was exceptional and virtually independent from the Marines. The Iraqis make their own battle decisions, with the Americans explaining how they might approach the situation.

It’s a two-way street: Price said the Iraqis are more adept as they patrol the country.

“Working the intel thing is paying off really big,” he said. “I think it’s one of the advantages we have working with the Iraqis. They can tell when people are lying. They know exactly this is a fake IED (improvised explosive device).”

He said the Iraqi are making progress, though the quick pace of combat operations have made it tough to do any traditional training. A suicide bomber killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded several others recently. In another attack, mortars were fired on the troops as they ate lunch, injuring 15 more.

“We’ve just gotten a few augments from a unit adjacent to us,” he said. “It’s kind of calmed down.”

Price is on his second deployment, due to return stateside in January. He said he might become a recruiter in New York after that, although he said he wasn’t sure why he signed up himself in the first place.

“I don’t know. I really don’t know,” he said. “I signed up before Sept. 11 and all that. I was still in college at the time, but I had already put my name on the contract. It wasn’t any knee jerk reaction (to the terrorist attacks).”

In Iraq, his unit has helped supply schools with generators, conducted medical checkups among the public and recently began to test the drinking water.

“The older people are kind of indifferent to us,” he said. “We’re there, you know. There’s the smaller minorities—you can tell they don’t like us. The way the culture is here, everybody’s related in some way. Everybody knows who’s shooting mortars.”

Price said he stays abreast of what people are saying about the war here. He said he’s just glad to help the Iraqis he is around every day.

“I would have to say the kids that are here, that’s one of the things that gets me through it,” he said. “They just love us.”

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