Monday, May 23, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Exercises help troops heading for Iraq

Iraqi-Americans man 'Insurgent City'

Iraqi-Americans confront National Guard soldiers last week in Al Sharq, a mock town at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. The Iraqi-Americans were role-playing during training for soldiers heading to Iraq. Photos by John Locher. As a man waves a flag from his homeland, Iraqi-Americans and U.S. soldiers stage a demonstration against National Guard troops Wednesday in Al Sharq. A squad from a Pennsylvania National Guard task force apprehends men portraying insurgents Wednesday outside the mock Iraqi city, Al Sharq, at Fort Irwin, Calif.

FORT IRWIN, Calif. -- Their voices pierced the dry Mojave Desert air, chanting anti-America slogans while they corralled a squad of U.S. soldiers training for deployment to Iraq.

"Barra, barra Amreeka! Bil rooh, bil damn. Nifdeek ya Iraq."

Or, in English, "Out, out America! With our souls, with our blood we sacrifice for Iraq."

The job of these Iraqi-Americans and roughly 250 more who work side by side with Nevada National Guard soldiers running the so-called "Insurgent City" exercises here is to create realistic situations U.S. troops expect to face when they go to Iraq.

On this day last week, they riled trainees from a Pennsylvania National Guard task force that had invaded the mock town, Al Sharq, a plywood village deep inside the post's National Training Center.

"I've seen soldiers break down and cry," said Joel Hokkanen, a site manager for the San Diego-based Titan Corp., the defense contractor who hires the Iraqi-American role players.

"I've seen guys act professionally. I've seen guys lose it," Hokkanen said. "But we'd rather see them lose it here than over there."

In the past, some of these "linguists," as Titan refers to them, have been sent to Iraq to serve as translators for U.S. forces. That job has proven to be risky and some have been killed as targets of terrorists in their war-torn, former homeland.

Most come from San Diego. Some are from Las Vegas. More are from places like Phoenix, Detroit and Nashville, cities where these Iraqis fled to in the 1980s and 1990s to escape the grip of dictator Saddam Hussein.

They are from all walks of life, Hokkanen said. "I've had an electrical engineer, a doctor, a dentist and a guy who changed tires at Wal-Mart."

Citing a U.S. military intelligence command decision, Titan's supervisor of the Fort Irwin operations, declined last week to make the company's Las Vegas employees available for interviews.

"Some of them are going to end up in Iraq," he said, referring to safety concerns for them or their relatives in the war-torn country.

"Some of my Vegas people are in line and ready to go," said the supervisor, who asked that his name not be used. The 1,000-square-mile National Training Center is a 165-mile drive southwest of Las Vegas.

His concern for safety was highlighted by a list of 52 names painted in blue letters on a wall under a title, "Those who gave all for Titan."

"Razoki M, Nasser A, Hussain R, Ibrahim W, ..." reads the list surrounding a photograph of overseas Titan Site Manager Rex Sprague, who was killed June 14 in a convoy attack near Karbala, Iraq, on the road to Baghdad's international airport.

Titan's corporate spokesman, Wil Williams could not say how far back the list of 52 names goes but said the company has been providing linguists to the military since 1999. Since then, an undisclosed number of Titan workers have died from hostile actions in combat and accidents.

"They are all heroes," he said. "They put their personal safety at risk. They do it because they want to and for what they believe in. They work side by side with U.S. troops because they are supporting their country."

Earlier, on Wednesday, an Iraqi-American who plays the role of mayor at the outpost named Medina Jabal, or "Tiefort City," agreed to speak about his work in training U.S. soldiers.

"I'm an American citizen first. I think this is a duty to help soldiers establish democracy in Iraq," said the man, Mike, a 49-year-old, self-employed Shiite Muslim from San Diego who came to the United States in 1980. He was allowed to speak provided that his last name not be used.

"When soldiers hit Iraqi soil, they at least have a background on how Iraqis think, how they feel and speak," said Mike, who has relatives in Iraq.

"The U.S. presence over there is very necessary. Without the United States, they believe they don't have a chance," he said.

Hokkanen said in addition to learning tactics about how to search for insurgents, spot snipers, recognize car bombs and improvised explosive devices, the ultimate goal of the program is to teach soldiers respect for the Iraqi people and their culture.

"The change we see in a soldier is that he rolls in like John Wayne and he rolls out like a politician. He's Henry Kissinger. Respect is so critical," Hokkanen said.

Titan officials said all their linguists are carefully screened. They are not allowed to have cellular phones or take photographs in the mock cities, where they live for 14 days at a time. About 80 percent of them have become U.S. citizens or are in the latter stages of obtaining citizenship. They undergo criminal investigation screening and must list every trip they've made overseas.

The officials would not disclose how much the linguists earn.

For the group of Pennsylvania Guard soldiers, last week's cordon-and-search exercise was part of their final exam in a series of exercises carried out at eight mock cities under a program run by Nevada National Guard's 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry.

The hostile chants erupted after the "bad guys," played by U.S. soldiers wearing robes or Arabic headdresses, had engaged the trainees, knocking out four soldiers in a Humvee with blank machine-gun fire in what amounts to a game of laser tag. Return "fire" eliminated the insurgent while soldiers from armored personnel carriers rounded up two more.

About a 10-mile drive away in a Humvee over several bumpy dirt roads and dry washes to Tiefort City, a Nevada National Guard soldier who plays a "bad guy" discussed a fellow soldier's desire to conceal a fake pistol under his robe for the next scenario.

Sgt. Ivan Parsons of Yerington warned his comrade that he risked getting detained as long as 36 hours by the blue forces at their forward operating base if the pistol is found. The most difficult part of his job "is getting searched. They get up close and personal with you," he said.

The officer in charge of Tiefort City, Nevada National Guard 1st Lt. David Evans, talked about the motivation of his Iraqi-American partners.

"A lot of them told me they do it because they want to help their country: Iraq and the United States. And, a lot of them will tell you they do it because it's good money and to educate soldiers about their country," he said.

The realistic training and exposure to cultures of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds is effective, Evans said.

"Any unit that comes through here, they were specially chosen to go to Iraq. And they will be ready by the time they leave the (National Training Center) or they won't leave," he said. "This is the last stop for most of them."