Big Red One boss outlines new Iraq missions

Posted 2014-10-09 17:50 by Grunt Report

As the 1st Infantry Division headquarters deploys to Iraq, one of its priorities will be to help the Iraqi Security Forces as they fight to reclaim their country, the division’s top officer told Army Times.

“It’s their country, and they want to fight back for it,” said Maj. Gen. Paul Funk, the commanding general of the Big Red One. “As you see the Iraqi forces fighting back and becoming more offensively capable, we’ve got to maintain that momentum.”

About 500 soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division headquarters will deploy in the coming weeks as the U.S. steps up its war against the Islamic State.

About 200 of those soldiers will be in Iraq, while the others will be stationed within the Central Command area of operations. They will represent the first division headquarters to go to Iraq since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011, and they’re expected to be in place by mid-November. They will head up the joint operations center that since July has been run by Maj. Gen. Dana Pittard, the deputy commanding general for operations for U.S. Army Central.

“Our mission is to help build the coalition, it’s to prepare for the advise-and-assist role, it’s to focus on training the Iraqis,” Funk said.

The division also will “help the Iraqis see themselves, help them understand what their capabilities are, and what assets they have available,” Funk said. “We’ll focus on training their forces and getting them on the final touches as they prepare to go to combat.”

The 200 Big Red One soldiers headed to Iraq will be part of the 475-troop increase announced Sept. 10 by President Obama. In all, there will be 1,600 U.S. troops in Iraq; as of Oct. 2, there were 1,250 troops in country.

The division headquarters will join its 1st Brigade Combat Team in the region; the brigade deployed to Kuwait in June as part of the regular rotation of forces there. The brigade serves as Army Central’s contingency response force, a long-standing capability for the volatile region, and its soldiers have been busy conducting theater security cooperation activities and engagements with partners across the CENTCOM area of operations.

At the same time, the division’s 4th BCT is regionally aligned with Africa Command.

“I’ve got soldiers on three different continents focused on four different combatant commanders’ areas of operation,” Funk said.

His soldiers are up to the challenges before them, Funk said.

“We’ve been training every day to do this mission,” he said.

The 1st Infantry Division headquarters initially was regionally aligned with AFRICOM, and it was supposed to participate in a mission to train Libyan security forces. But when that was called off, the division headquarters was realigned with CENTCOM, Funk said.

When the Iraq mission came up, “we refocused the headquarters,” he said. “We had been leaning forward quite a bit, so when we changed the geographic location, the processes were already in place.”

The division headquarters is preparing for a one-year deployment, Funk said.

“Obviously there’s the concern you have for your soldiers and for your families back home,” he said. “But those are things the Army family has been dealing with for a long time. We’ve just got to prepare and move out smartly.”

Funk, who has deployed to Afghanistan and has served in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm and twice during Operation Iraqi Freedom, said the mission that lies ahead will be tough, but his soldiers are ready.

“The Iraqis are fighting back, they’re getting on the offensive, and they want to prevail,” Funk said. “Having watched the Iraqis as they were building their army and getting organized, I think they’ll prevail. We’ll get after this. I think once they see our resolve and that we’ll support them, it’ll bolster their morale and their moving forward.”

SOURCE: Army Times
BY: Michelle Tan