|
 During
his last deployment U.S.
Army Major R. Taylor Basye
was assigned to a Motorized
Transportation Regiment
(MTR) of the Iraqi Army
(IA), stationed in Kirkuk,
Iraq.
Basye has served in the Army
since being commissioned as
an officer in 1999. The
April 2008 to April 2009 was
his second deployment to
Iraq, following a 2003
deployment.
“It was a unique experience.
I’d never done anything like
that before,” Basye said.
Being part of the MTR meant
that Basye and 10 other U.S.
soldiers not only worked
with the Iraqi Army
soldiers, they lived with
them, too.
“It was by design that we
would actually live with the
[IA] units, rather than off
with our American
counterparts,” said Basye.
“In part to let them get to
know us, and get to know
them.”
The purpose of being
imbedded with the IA, he
said was to “learn to see
the world through their
eyes.”
“The first few weeks was
just a getting to know you
period. We had to earn their
trust and vice versa…It was
a good experience.”
Basye is an ordnance
officer, which he described
as being “like a maintenance
guy.” He and the other U.S.
soldiers on what was known
as the “combat advising
team” advised the
maintenance company within
the MTR on everything from
vehicles to generators,
weapons to radios. They were
also responsible for getting
the repair parts and picking
up supplies and fuel for the
division, Basye said, all
things which fall under
logistics as far as the U.S.
Army is concerned.
“It was a difficult job,”
Basye said.
“The Iraqi Army is very very
capable,” Basye said.
They’re willing to fight,
brave soldiers.”
The challenge, he explained,
was to help the MTR stand up
their own systems for
managing these logistics,
rather than rely on the
non-standardized practices
they had used in the past.
“Iraqi Military Doctrine
says one thing, but in
reality it works quite
differently,” Basye said.
“The trick was to try and
get the Iraqis to do it
themselves through their own
systems, and to get their
systems to work.”
“I think I really see that
when I’d get into the higher
level meetings,” he said “A
lot of the decision making
has a lot more centralized
leadership. It would take a
two star [general] in the IA
to make a decision that in
the U.S. Army a captain
would make.”
The experience gave Basye a
unique view into IA as well
as into the Iraqi culture.
“It was eye opening. They
aren’t that different from
we are,” he said. “They’re
normal people that have
lives, and just want to live
in peace… “They’re soldiers.
And I’m a soldier too.”
Basye believe that getting
to know him was equally
illuminating for the IA
soldiers.
The experience “definitely
opened my eyes and my world
view,” he said.
Basye still keeps in touch
with his interpreter in Iraq
from the deployment. “We
talk once or twice a month,”
he said.
The interpreter stays in
touch with Basye’s former
colleagues, his counterparts
in the IA, and updates Basye
who said he still wants to
know how they are faring and
if they are doing ok.
More than the countryside of
Iraq, Basye said, “the
people is what I will
remember a lot more.”
Basye earned a Bronze Star
for his service during this
deployment. |
