Granite State Soldiers prepare for Iraq

Published July 9, 2010
By Ryan Morton
ASA-Dix Public Affairs

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Soldiers from the New Hampshire Army Reserve unit, the 94th Military Police Company dotted the I's and crossed the T's as they conducted their final preparations for a deployment to Iraq June 22.
"Everyone is trained and ready to deploy. The morale is the highest it's been in years and the Soldiers are eager to conduct the mission," said 94th MP Co. commander Capt. Benjamin Hall.
The final training the organization received was coordinated by Soldiers of the 307th Training Support Battalion, and, according to one of its trainers Master Sgt. Phillip Johnson, the troops did quite well.
"They began their collective training with a solid base knowledge of battle drills and individual responsibilities. The time set aside for them to rehearse and practice assisted them into becoming more fluid in conducting their drills. I thought they were also able to implement good troop leading procedures," said Johnson.
This unit, hailing from Londonderry, N.H., will deploy to Iraq in early July to conduct a mission training and assisting the Iraq Police around the Baghdad area. This deployment marks the second time the organization will serve a tour in the region as it served in Operation Iraqi Freedom I from 2003-2004.
For Staff Sgt. Nathan Buckley, who was with the unit for OIF I, the situation will be very different. "We conducted improvised explosive device sweeps, building raids, convoy security, route recognizance and helped set up an IP academy in Ramadi and a border patrol academy in Al Asad," he said.
"Now we'll work on finding ways to help them (IPs) problem solve and find their way," said Buckley.
Nathan said that he and his fellow Soldiers go over there hoping they can do the mission successfully so they can hand over the reins to the Iraqi people when they're ready. As stated in the Iraq security agreement, all U.S. troops are to be withdrawn from the country by the end of 2011.
"As Soldiers redeploy out of Iraq, the ability to advise, train, assist, and equip the Iraqi Police is disputably the most important mission in Iraq," said Hall.