Guest Blogger 1LT Jason Nunn, a Northwood Grad, Joins Us from Iraq - Blog Entry 1

(Jason Nunn, a Northwood High School and Greensboro College graduate, will be a guest blogger in honor of Veterans Day.  He is a First Lieutenant in the United States Army and is currently stationed in Iraq.  We've asked him to give our Hot Topics Blog readers a first-hand account of his experience as the American Armed Forces wind down their mission in Iraq.  Our hope is for social studies classes to participate by asking him questions to help them make a real-life connection to history and current events.)

 My job here in Iraq is called an S2, or Battalion Intelligence Officer.  I am the senior advisor to the Battalion commander on the enemy situation and how it affects our operations.  I work for a Brigade Support Battalion, under the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division (M) station out of Fort Carson, CO.  I have a total of 8 Intelligence Analysts that help me complete our mission while we are deployed to Southern Iraq.   My unit sustains an area greater than the size of Maine, and partners with two Iraqi Army divisions, several Iraqi police commands, and the Iraqi border enforcement.

The time in Iraq is eight hours ahead of Chatham County.  It has been extremely hot typically 120+ degrees in the summer since my unit arrived in March.   Fortunately, it has become some cooler, 95-100 degrees during the day as we move into fall.

I am able to Skype with my family, which makes being separated easier.  In our free time we workout or find things to keep us busy.  I play dodgeball with the soldiers I work with on Mondays against other teams on base.  This gives us a little something to look forward to, and currently we have been undefeated for 4 weeks.

The war in Iraq recently had a change of mission from Operation Iraqi Freedom to Operation New Dawn.  Bottom line - we received a change of mission.  During Operation Iraqi Freedom we were allowed to do the full spectrum of military operations - including block and tackle, offense and defense types of operations that come with a war.  Operation New Dawn changes our mission to what Army and joint service doctrine calls Stability Operations.  Within Stability Operations, our main role now as a third party armed force in a sovereign nation is Civil Security - help the host nation (Iraq) protect their population. Another activity called for in this type of operation with this type mission is called Security Force Assistance: help a host nation security force improve their capabilities to defend themselves, defend their people and defend their territory against credible threats by advising, training and assisting that security force.  We have actually been doing Stability Operations and Security Force Assistance to a significant degree since the Iraqi national elections in March.  Additionally, the violent extremist networks here have been reeling from a series of body blows they've been steadily receiving from the Iraqi and U.S. Special Forces and Iraqi and U.S. conventional forces for some time now:  their leadership has been captured, killed or is routinely on the run looking over their shoulders (and therefore disrupted); and their financial support has been clipped to the point of desperation among some of the groups.  Though attacks are executed in some number each week, the steady trend is that more than half of those attacks are ineffective - meaning there might have been an explosion or a weapon fired, but no one was hurt.  In summary, the level of violence over here is such that there is no doubt in my mind the Iraqi Security Forces can handle the situation where we serve in Southern Iraq.

 The most notable change after the transition is the departure of soldiers and other contracted employees from throughout Iraq.   As we begin the final phase to leave Iraq each unit’s area of operations gets larger.  For my unit we have a space greater than the size of Maine that we are in charge of, compared to the last time our unit was here in 2008 we were in charge of a section of Baghdad.  This increase has lead to an increase on the emphasis of coordinated planning in order to maximize our soldier output.  Missions routinely last several days compared to hours when areas of operations were smaller.

The biggest step for Iraq at this time is the formation of their government.  Right now it has been over 8 months since elections, and they have not seated the government here in Iraq.  There are two political blocs that are wanting to form the government and neither has obtained the number of seats necessary to win.  Talking with the locals, this is the number one thing that is very frustrating to them.  Many blame their problems on the government and are scared that if either candidate wins it could make things worse for their situation.  Right now the U.S. has a minimal impact on the formation of the government due to the role of U.S. forces under Operation New Dawn.

We have already started sending materials and equipment back to Fort Carson in Colorado.  The Army likes to be ahead of schedule, and we're doing our long range training plans out to 2013.  It is a very interesting time for the war here in Iraq and to be a part of it is unique.  The challenges we face here today are a lot different than they were several years ago, and I hope this sheds some light on what the key differences are as we begin to leave the mission in the hands of the Iraqi Security Forces.

Social studies classes, feel free to ask me any questions you have about Iraq or the Army, and I will try to answer them the best I can.