COUNTER-INSURGENCY

I am spending the week in Taji, Iraq at a Counter-Insurgency (COIN) Conference. It was fascinating information and potentially beneficial. It does not apply directly to the Seabees in the work we are currently doing, but with our significant Humanitarian Assistance missions around the world, the information could apply down the road. The conference was very Iraq specific, but the themes apply anywhere. The biggest take away is that the theme of Counter-Insurgency is British based and they have been using it for over a decade. There are good examples and bad examples of when the themes were used and what was interesting was the many times the British “forgot” what they had learned previously. The biggest deal was when the Commander of Multi-National Forces-Iraq, Gen Petreaus, came and spoke to us. He was very interesting to listen to and brought an interesting perspective with his multiply tours over here. There were some dry speakers as well, but overall – very good conference.

The compound I was on was an Iraqi training base. There were many Iraqi’s on the camp and they were very friendly. Most would say hello as they walked by and I never felt threatened whatsoever. My room was a metal box (ISO container if you know what that is) with a tiny bed, desk, frig, and restroom. The nice thing was to have a bathroom, TV, and internet in the room, but the bad thing was the heater. It is has been extremely cold here with the temperatures dipping into the twenties at night and the heater was just not keeping up. It was set as high as it would go and it just barely blew any air out and what did come out was lukewarm. Needless to say, I spent the nights bundled up under the one blanket that came with the bed.

Last Friday was a big deal. I finished up my Fleet Marine Force qualification and received my Fleet Marine Force warfare pin. Similar to my Seabee Combat Warfare pin (think pilots “wings”), the FMF pin is something you wear on the uniform and shows people you qualified in that area. It was hard work, but very good information and I learned tons.

Otherwise, we are cruising in the new year and plugging away on our work.