Iraqi National Guard graduates new recruits, awards heroes of Najaf
DIWANIYAH, Iraq - The Iraqi National Guard graduated 222 new recruits from the 50th Brigade, 404th Battalion Oct. 12 at an ING training base in Diwaniyah. U.S. Marine Corps 1st Lt. Ann Burke, ING liaison officer for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit said the recruits received four weeks basic training and are now ready to begin basic operations and patrols with their units.
“We are graduating 222 recruits today,” Burke said. After this they will go on to unit integration training and more advanced training with weapons and in other areas.”
The ongoing training will help the new soldiers become proficient in more advanced types of capabilities Burke said.
“We have one Falcon Company right now and their goal is to get the rest of the companies trained to the same level,” Burke said. “Falcon Company is a special operations capable company and is fully operational. We want to bring all the companies through that training. It is a lot more physically difficult and has more difficult live-fire exercises and urban warfare training and room clearing. All of this training is at a higher level, a more intense level.”
Staff Sgt. Fallah Ayed, a soldier with the ING’s 405th battalion and also a soldier under the regime of Saddam Hussein said training has changed dramatically for the better since the liberation of Iraq.
“The training under the old regime was not good,” Ayed said. “It was nothing really. The people in charge all worked for Saddam and his gang. They were very abusive and often punished us for no reason.
“They also would extort money from us and make us pay bribes or they would beat us. Now, we have learned so much with our new training with the [U.S.] Marines. We learn everything in a scientific way,” Ayed said. “If we need to know about a weapon there is a training class first. If we need to know something about medical, health or exercising - or any topic - we first learn about the ideas in a classroom. It is a much better approach and we have learned a great deal; far more than in the old army. Now instead of just someone appointed from Tikrit telling us what to do, we all share in the duties, all Iraqis share in the responsibilities.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi was the guest of honor at the ceremony where he witnessed a pass in review by the new recruits and ceremoniously inspected the troops.
Addressing the new recruits the prime minister said that creating a democratic, prosperous and stable nation, where differences are respected, human rights protected, and which lives in peace with itself and its neighbors, is the highest priority in Iraq and the soldier wills be responsible for protecting that peace.
“It is our sternest challenge and our greatest goal,” Allawi said. “It is a vision, I assure you, shared by the vast majority of the Iraqi people. But there are the tiny minority who despise the very ideas of liberty, of peace, of tolerance, and who will kill anyone, destroy anything, to prevent Iraq and its people from achieving this goal. It will be your courage and strength that the future of Iraq now depends on.”
After the pass in review the prime minister presented Walther P99 pistols as awards to 10 ING soldiers from the 404th and 405th battalions for bravery during the fighting at Najaf in August.
Staff Sgt. Rathi Ahmed was one of the soldiers receiving an award.
“We are receiving the awards for the great battle that we shared along with our friends in the multinational forces against the terrorists in Najaf,” Ahmed said. “We were a part of the raids on the graveyards outside the shrine and the area around the shrine.”
Ahmed said that during the battles many of the soldiers in his battalion were killed and wounded.
“It’s a matter of bad guys and good guys; those guys protecting my country and those guys destroying my country,” Ahmed said. “I will fight them and my friends and fellow soldiers will fight them. I’m against every single one who fights to hurt my country and I am for every one who is trying to help my country.”