Team Muhandis: Building Great Iraqi Army Engineers
Abstract
Throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, U.S. and coalition forces worked to develop an Iraqi Army engineer force capable of supporting and defending the sovereignty of Iraq. These efforts built on years of work by officers and noncommissioned officers from all services and coalition partners. Australia, in particular, contributed significantly to the training effort throughout Operation Iraqi Freedom. For several years, the Australians provided an engineer officer to serve as the officer in charge of Team Muhandis (Engineer), the Multinational Corps Iraq engineer section advising Iraqi Army engineers. These field grade officers served 6-month tours, advising Iraqi Army engineer senior leaders and synchronizing efforts and information with subordinate engineer brigades and military transition teams. In early 2011, the XVIIIth Airborne Corps assumed responsibility as part of U.S. Forces Iraq (USF-I) to complete Operation New Dawn. The USF-I joint engineer staff (J-7) worked to enable a trained and equipped Iraqi Army engineer force to support the internal and external defense of the country. Team Muhandis led the J-7 efforts in this strategic mission by Conducting key leader engagements with the Joint Headquarters Military Engineering (M10) Directorate and Iraqi Ground Forces Command (IGFC) engineers. Synchronizing engineer training efforts across multiple Iraqi organizations. Providing oversight of new equipment fielding to build engineer capability. Team Muhandis devised a targeted approach to build Iraqi Army engineer capability. The team developed the following three focus areas to enable a minimum-essential capability as the end of the mission approached: Route clearance. Sustainment. Bridging.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA560230
Entities
People
- Jason L. Buursma
- Thomas G. Fitzpatrick
Organizations
- United States Army Engineer School