Published: March 23, 2006
Alpha Company, Iraqi Army Build Trust in Villages
By Spc. Michael Pfaff, 133rd MPAD 
1st Lt. Tim Donarski, 2nd platoon leader, and an Iraqi Army soldier speak with a local about possible insurgents in the area.
Photo: Spc. Michael Pfaff, 133rd MPAD |
Kirkuk, Iraq - Bastogne Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne have a mission with the duality of destroying the insurgency and rebuilding the nation by garnering trust from the local populace.
Many times, these missions go hand-in-hand, but can be reflective of each other. Destroying the insurgency can build the trust of the people, but the trust of the people is necessary in many cases to defeat the insurgency.
Soldiers with Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment patrolled with both of those missions in mind, building a rapport with the locals while searching for a known insurgent.
"What we got here is kind of a 'deception op'," said 1st Lt. Tim Bonarski, 2nd platoon "Mandingo" leader and Pittsburgh, Penn. native. "Right now we're trying to kill two birds with one stone. We're conducting community policing with the Iraqi Army, at the same time, we're talking to shopkeepers to search for a name."
Staff Sgt. Brown, a team leader with 2nd platoon, speaks with a local shopowner trying to find clues to the whereabouts of an insurgent.
Photo: Spc. Michael Pfaff, 133rd MPAD |
Second platoon is searching the name of an insurgent who set an improvised explosive device alongside a nearby road intended for coalition forces. Intelligence also noted he could possibly be a shopkeeper in the village that 2nd platoon is patrolling today.
As with most patrols recently in Iraq, the Iraqi Army led the way through the streets of the village handing out flyers and talking with the locals, focusing on shopkeepers.
The Iraqi Army is slowly building legitimacy in Iraq with the citizens, and merely visiting the people and talking with them is a path toward attaining that legitimacy. This is what Bonarski means when he says "community policing".
"We're having the Iraqi Army get out and say hello, pass out some civil affairs flyers, and especially talk with the little kids so they feel comfortable with them," Bonarski said. "At the same time, I've briefed them to talk with shopkeepers and say 'Hey, what's your name? Is there any problems?' So, while they are intermingling with the community, they're searching for that name."
If they were to find the name, the plan was to arrest the suspected insurgent and take him to his house to be searched. But, unfortunately the name didn't come up.
"Usually, you come to a village and everybody is related, so they're not going to just cough up that name," Bonarski explained.
Despite the fact that they didn't find the insurgent, Bonarski explained that the patrol still helped in several ways.
"Hopefully, we can find that name and wrap up an IED setter," he said. "It gets the Iraqi Army out with us so they get comfortable working with us and us with them. Then obviously the community sees the Iraqi Army doing some good things. Not always coming and doing a raid, but coming in and talking with the people."
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