BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 8, 2004 — Soldiers from 1st Armored Division’s 8th Finance Battalion and the 1st Cavalry Division’s 15th Finance Battalion conducted a three-day course to give Iraqi Civil Defense Corps members a lesson in “paying for freedom.”

“We’re training the [Iraqi Civil Defense Corps] on internal pay operations,” said Lt. Col. Stan Brown, 8th Finance Battalion commander. The finance battalions are training dispersing agents, paymasters and certifiers to handle all the corps’ issues.

U.S. Army personnel are currently conducting the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps’s pay operations using U.S. funds. When Iraqis take over their pay operations, the currency will switch to Iraqi dinars.

The newly trained pay operators will relieve a workload of approximately seven U.S. soldiers for each Iraqi Civil Defense Corps battalion, Brown said.

The dispersing agents will receive money at the battalion level. They will then distribute the money to the paymasters at the company level.

Iraqi Civil Defense Corps battalion command sergeants major or executive officers will act as certifiers, and handle responsibilities like separation of duty pay, he explained.

The new pay handlers will conduct a “right seat ride” with the two U.S. finance battalions in March, with U.S. soldiers only supervising. A retraining session will be held after the 1st Armored Division/1st Cavalry Division transfer of

authority, to work out any “bugs” and train additional troops, Brown said.

“In this class, we had about 100 (students),” said Capt. Yolanda Bell, 8th Finance Battalion’s Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment commander. “By May they will do (pay operations) on their own.”

Capt. Radhi Mageed, 303rd Iraqi Civil Defense Corps Battalion, a future dispersing agent, said the course was useful, informative and the instructors were very professional.

“The lectures were educated but simple - they mixed theoretical with practical - and the teachers have experience in what they’re teaching,” he said.

“It makes me proud that we are going to use our own currency,” Mageed said. “It makes me feel like all the promises (of a new Iraq) are real.”

Overall, the students seemed enthusiastic to learn about pay operations and did very well in class, Bell said. But the real assessment for success will begin when the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps paymasters take over.

“Once they get out there and start drawing money, that will be the true test,” Bell said. “Then we’ll know if the training went well.”