Responsible for getting Iraqis into uniform, the 222nd Field Artillery is seeing some success
Military and political leaders rejoiced last month when U.S. fatalities in Iraq fell to a 25-month low. At long last, Iraqi police and troops were claiming battle space, military officers reported, allowing their American counterparts to take greater refuge in reinforced forward operating bases.
But a recent furor of sectarian violence, coupled with renewed insurgent attacks, has forced U.S. forces back onto Iraq's streets. And American GIs - including one from Utah - have borne the sacrificial burden.
Meanwhile, as one of Iraq's most deadly provinces grows deadlier still, a battalion of Utah soldiers is fighting toward the final months of their mission.
Their goal: Put more Iraqis in police and Army uniforms.
Their prayer: That the new recruits might someday take greater responsibility for security in Al Anbar, the heart of Iraq's Sunni insurgency.
No civil war, plenty of violence: There is no civil war in Ramadi, Anbar's capital city.
"This is a place that is almost all Sunni," Maj. Victor Sarkozi, an Ogden resident who serves with the 222nd Field Artillery, said last fall. "The only fight here is that involving the survival of the legitimate government."
That fight has grown increasingly bloody in recent weeks.
Outmanned and outgunned, insurgents fight with ingenuity: resistance fighters recently have flown kites over U.S. positions to align mortar-fire, released pigeons to give away American movements and staged attacks at fake funeral processions complete with rocket-stuffed coffins, U.S. troops have reported.
During a recent two-day effort to ship out new Iraqi police recruits, U.S. troops dodged sniper fire and mortar rounds.
"As usual, we were attacked by insurgents trying to intimidate and kill the recruits, as well as coalition forces," Sarkozi said. "On Day 1, we received three rounds of mortar indirect fire and several rounds of small arms, direct fire. On Day 2, we received two rounds of 82mm mortar fire with the usual small arms fires."
New badges: But Sarkozi - and other members of the Utah-based 222nd Field Artillery, which is helping direct the recruitment mission - have long since dismissed the idea that the continuing attacks represent a popular sentiment among the citizens of Al Anbar.
Viewed through battle-wary eyes, the violence only highlights the increasing resolve of their recruits to fight for a new, free and democratic province.
"Of particular concern to the battalion was whether the recruits were intimidated by the insurgents," Sarkozi said, recalling discussions he had with the Iraqi volunteers. "They all answered, 'No.' They were excited and anxious about the training."
The most recent effort netted 320 new volunteers, quickly shipped out of country for eight weeks of training in Jordan. It also produced three arrests - of insurgents posing as recruits, Sarkozi said, noting that it was Iraqi troops that identified and detained the alleged infiltrators.
Just days later, a contingent of 89 officers returned from the same training program. And about 200 others returned from the academy in late March.
The newest officers, this week, are being measured for uniforms and boots and will receive body armor and weapons, officials of the 2-28th Brigade Combat Team reported.
Officers say they hope the citizens of Al Anbar will accept the returning officers as they fight to restore order in the western province. At very least, some soldiers say, it will be nice if the insurgents have someone else to shoot at.
Losses mount: When Maj. Michael McLaughlin began speaking to Al Anbar's tribal leaders, nearly a year ago, about getting "the sons of Al Anbar" to take responsibility for policing their city, the response was dismissive.
"They say it would be like signing your own death warrant," McLaughlin, a member of the 222nd's command staff, said then.
Months later, the 44-year-old soldier was one of two U.S. troops killed in a suicide bomb attack, moments after arriving at a recruitment mission in Ramadi where hundreds of local Sunni men had volunteered - prompted by the consent of some tribal sheiks - to become police officers.
McLaughling and Sgt. Adam Cann were the first two of more than 75 U.S. troops killed in Al Anbar in the first 100 days of 2006. Officers grimly noted that is dozens fewer than were killed in the last 100 days of 2005.
At a briefing in Baghdad on Thursday, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said attacks have decreased in Al Anbar by a third since October.
But violence against U.S. forces in Al Anbar may be on the rise again.
In the first three months of the year, the province was the location listed on Defense Department notices of about a third of all U.S. deaths. So far this month, more than half of U.S. fatalities have come in the large province of Iraq's western desert.
Morale in waning months: Despite the violence, 222nd executive officer Sterling McMurrin says the more than 400 Utahns serving in his battalion in Ramadi are pressing on.
"Morale is high," McMurrin said.
In part, officers believe, that is because the soldiers of the 222nd have been given pieces of missions they understand as important to handing over control and protecting fellow troops.
"We're still transporting Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army to their training," Lt. Lee Kelley wrote Tuesday in his blog - http://www.wordsmithatwar.blog-city.com. "The integration of Iraqi forces is still paramount. We're still conducting our patrols. We're still encountering IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. Soldiers continue to stand in guard towers day and night, making sure the enemy can't infiltrate our base."
There is also the undeniably positive effect of "being short."
"Beneath all of the normal work, we're starting to think of handling the battle off to a new unit," Kelley wrote. "I don't want to get ahead of myself. We're not done yet. But it's coming."
Utah's top National Guard officer, Maj. Gen. Brian Tarbet, reportedly will travel to Iraq in the upcoming weeks with plans to spend at least two days with the 222nd in Ramadi.
Tarbet said he plans to tell his troops to stay focused on their mission during the final weeks of their deployment.
But having grown accustomed to the violence, such focus can be hard to maintain.
A recent rocket attack on the 222nd's base, Kelley reported, woke him from a dream but did not stir the slightest panic in his mind.
"A loud explosion brought me instantly awake," he wrote. "I walked out of my room to find out by a passing soldier that it was another rocket. 'Oh. Another rocket,' I yawned and went back inside for my toothbrush."
mlaplante@sltrib.com
