"Wolfhounds" Spearhead Record Police Recruit Turnout From Hawija

by Cpt. Jeff Fuller

Iraqi Police hand out water to the over 400 recruits from the Hawijah District waiting outside the Kirkuk Police Academy. In the distance, an Iraqi Police truck provides security. (photo by TSgt Maria J. Bare)

Well before sunrise on a day normally reserved for flowers and chocolate, the Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, "Wolfhounds" are on the road and headed to the city of Kirkuk. Their mission this Valentine's Day morning, however, is not the normal route clearance or logistical re-supply convoy that normally graces the roads of northern Iraq in the pre-dawn hours. The results of this morning's mission will have effects that even the Wolfhounds could not foresee as they rolled down the long, straight highway leading to Kirkuk.

The mission began taking shape three days prior at a meeting of the Arab members of the Kirkuk Provincial Council. A recent recruiting drive for 2,700 new Iraqi police for the entire Kirkuk Province had recently started and council members were worried that the Hawijah District would not get its fair share. The problem was not a lack of willing recruits, but rather the location of the recruiting station itself. The nearest police academy screening applicants is in the predominantly Kurdish city of Kirkuk, an area where many citizens of Hawijah, with a 98 percent Sunni Arab population, were unwilling to travel alone.

The first recruits from Hawijah file into the Kirkuk Police Academy to begin the application process. (photo by TSgt Maria J. Bare)

The answer came in a form that coalition forces in Hawijah, as well as all of Iraq, have been looking forward to for quite some time; cooperation between the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police. Volunteering his support for both transportation and security, Lt. Col. Abdul Rahman, commander, 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, started what would become the first major, and most successful joint operation between the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police to date. Lt. Col. Fattah Mahmood Yasin, the Iraqi police commander in the Hawijah District gladly accepted the offer of assistance and, after leaving the meeting, quickly began spreading the word to all hopeful recruits.

Two days later, inside the planning room of the 1st IA Battalion's base, the final plans were laid and agreed upon by representatives from the Iraqi army, Iraqi police and the Wolfhounds. Word of the recruiting drive had quickly spread over the entire district, and a sizeable turnout was expected.

Academy personnel check the recruits' work and help. (photo by TSgt Maria J. Bare)

The next morning, at 3:30 a.m. close to 400 recruits, some having driven as far as 40 kilometers, stood in formation at the Iraqi police headquarters in the middle of Hawijah as members of both the Iraqi police and the Iraqi army took their names and searched them for weapons and contraband. Hours early, Iraqi police forces had closed of the main roads entering the city while the Iraqi army bolstered their checkpoints and patrolled along the routes that connect Hawijah to Kirkuk.

As the last of the recruits climbed aboard Iraqi army troop-transport trucks, 2-27 patrols pushed forward, checking the route for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and suspicious vehicles that would do harm to the future of security in Hawijah. Behind them, tucked safely between the armored IA Humvees and IP patrol cars, the hopeful recruits began the hour-long trip that would take them to the next step in becoming a member of the Iraqi police.

Once in Kirkuk, Lt Col. Drew Meyerowich, commander, 2-27, stood talking with both Lt. Col. Abdul Rahman and Lt. Col. Fattah. All three were clearly happy with the amazing turnout of recruits and the potential it held for the security in the Hawijah District. As the recruits stood in formation, Meyerowich took the opportunity to address them through an interpreter.

"I am very proud of you all for being here today. In a time when insurgents would have you huddled in your homes in fear, you brave young men have chosen to stand up to their threats. You are here because you want to protect your families, your friends, and your tribes. Most importantly, you are here because you believe in the bright Iraqi future that is possible because of men like you."

Later, to display just how widespread participation was amongst the Hawijah recruits, Meyerowich began calling out the names of cities in the Hawijah District as recruits stood and cheered for their hometowns. "Zaab, Abassi, Riyadh, Multaka," each name cause a group of recruits to stand and yell. Finally, Fattah stepped forward and called for the District of Hawijah, instantly bringing the entire formation of now over 400 recruits, some who had missed the trucks in Hawijah chose to drive up on their own, to their feet with a loud cheer.

Shortly thereafter, the doors to the recruiting station at the Kirkuk Police Academy (KPA) opened and the applicants began filing in to fill out their application paperwork and receive their preliminary medical screenings. Some would be asked to come back the next day after initially signing in because the Academy was unable to handle such a large number of recruits in a single day, but everybody who shoed up that morning left at least one step closer to playing a more active role in securing Iraq's future.

Less than five days later, still weeks away from the KPA announcing which applicants would be hired, the effects of the Hawijah IP recruiting drive were still growing. "Everybody we talk to is excited about what the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Police did for them," said Staff Sgt. Jerrod Trulin, civil affairs, 2-27, after returning from a mission in the city of Hawijah. "Most families have already heard the news and when we inform the [families] who haven't, they're just as excited, and they want to know when the next recruiting will be."

"We have spent the last six months working very hard to convince the citizens of Hawijah that coalition forces are here to help," stated Meyerowich back in his operations center at Forward Operating Base McHenry. "More importantly we've been trying to convince them that their local Iraqi army and Iraqi police forces are here to help them. The [events] of the fourteenth have finally given the people tangible proof of this."

Moreover, the results are evident in more than just the opinions of the citizens. Two days after the recruiting drive, residents in small village outside of Hawijah banded together to subdue and detain three insurgents who had tried to emplace a roadside explosive nearby. At one point, residents were using their shirts to signal their helicopters flying overhead. "We see the police and our army working for us and we want to support them," said one resident after handing the detainees over to Iraqi army and coalition forces. "We are ready to take back Iraq from the insurgents."

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