Army Chemical Review presents professional information about Chemical Corps functions related to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, smoke, flame, and civil support operations.
Issue link: https://chemical.epubxp.com/i/141522
offcers then diligently worked to ensure that classroom
verbal communication and equipment descriptions met
teaching requirements. Many English words do not translate
well into Arabic, so U.S. supervision was required to ensure
that proper meanings were conveyed. In addition, most Iraqi
students cannot read Arabic numbers. This meant that the
students were unable to interpret data obtained from radiac
meters. The translation workload was immense, and CRT 1
noncommissioned offcers put forth extreme effort to meet
the daunting translation requirements. Some classes were
translated only hours before the actual training took place.
Lessons for future Phase IV chemical planners include
completing translation efforts early and ensuring that
interpreters are capable of operating the training equipment.
Allowing interpreters to operate the equipment and then
write the proper translation saves a great deal of time and
ultimately results in the development of additional trainers.
● Training. The CRT 1 trainers had few issues with the Iraqi
CDC students. The students were intelligent and motivated.
They attended classes an average of 7 hours each day, proving to be attentive and hard-working. The CRT 1 trainers
did one very important thing to help achieve this result—
they became friends with the Iraqis before becoming their
teachers.
This approach is recommended in cultural awareness training, but the implementation is diffcult. Phase IV operations
involve partnering with and training a foreign military;
Phase IV trainers must understand the culture of the host
nation, and they must treat each partner soldier with dignity and respect. In no other forum is the professionalism
of the American noncommissioned offcer more prevalent,
or is he or she more challenged, than in training a foreign
soldier. American Soldiers with Type A personalities may
be motivated, but that personality could crush the will of a
foreign student. However, all CRT 1 Soldiers were committed to the mission and it was only through their efforts that
the training succeeded. Finally, a capstone event is critical
in determining the performance of the WMD elimination
element.
● Equipment. The world community abhors the mere possession of WMD; therefore, a partner nation may be under
United Nations-imposed sanctions when U.S. forces enter
into stability operations. These sanctions prevent the import
of WMD elimination products since these dual-use products can also be used in the production of WMD. And signing the Chemical Weapons Convention does not necessarily
result in the sanctions being lifted because the partner nation must demonstrate intent and capability to meet treaty
obligations.
This was the case in Iraq in 2009. Whereas the United Nations lifted most of the sanctions in 2003, restrictions preventing the importation of chemical protective items and
bulk chemicals remained in place. This was a major issue
since hands-on CDC training proved diffcult without the
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necessary equipment. The solution required leveraging
the U.S. Embassy in Iraq to acquire an exception to policy
from the U.S. State Department—a process that proved
extremely slow. To complete the mission, CRT 1 used its
own commercial, off-the-shelf equipment and the 101st
Chemical Company shipped protective gear from its location in Kuwait. A whole-of-government approach is needed
to overcome sanction issues, and early U.S. Department of
State interaction is critical to the WMD elimination effort.
Conclusion
The former Iraqi CDC has now grown to a regiment. This
type of occurrence is likely the norm, rather than the exception, in nations that have a history of WMD production. Today, the Iraqi Chemical Corps has been reborn from a force
that deployed chemical weapons on its Iranian neighbor to a
force that eliminates these terrible weapons. This is a credit to
the Iraqi nation and to the efforts of the U.S. Army Chemical
Corps.
The Chemical Corps has a role to fulfll across the entire
spectrum of the joint model of operations. For decades, the
Corps focused on Phase III (confict) operations, desiring to
contribute to the victorious conclusion of hostilities. However,
the future of the Corps involves fulflling the strategic goal
of the U.S. government, not only during major hostilities, but
also during preconfict and postconfict operations. By training
partner chemical soldiers on methods of eliminating their own
WMD stockpiles, the Chemical Corps reduces the threat of the
use of the world's most dangerous weapons.6
The U.S. Army Chemical Corps is responsible for the critical WMD elimination training of partner nations. The Corps
must take the lessons that have been learned and actively apply
them to all subsequent operations.
Endnotes:
1
National Security Strategy, May 2010.
2
Ibid.
3
Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for
21st Century Defense, DOD, January 2012,