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Pioneers in Iraq: Female officers train Iraqi soldiers

  • Published
  • By Chrissy Zdrakas
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
In a culture where women stay home and men take care of business, two 78th Security Forces Squadron officers from Robins Air Force Base have their work cut out for them.

As part of the Air Force's first military training team in Iraq, the two are training Iraqi soldiers to defend air bases much as security forces do at home.

Maj. Michelle Stringer, a 33-year-old Woodbridge, Va., native, and First Lt. Sarah Parris, 27, an Asheville, N.C., native, are stationed at Camp Ur, a name straight out of antiquity. Located about 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, the new encampment - just over a year old - is best known as the birthplace of the biblical patriarch Abraham. The ziggurat, or temple tower, there is said to be the best preserved in Iraq.

"I'm loving life living in a trailer," Major Stringer quipped on a day that saw temperatures at 9 a.m. reach 120 in the shade.

The major, Lieutenant Parris and two Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, combat arms instructors share a mobile home on a 5-acre compound that also houses contractors and other Coalition forces.

"It used to be a hole in the desert," Major Stringer said. "Before construction could be started, they had to remove 10,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance from the site. Even now, there are areas we're told not to enter because they haven't been cleared."

The women left Robins on Mother's Day, and arrived at Camp Beuhring, Kuwait, where they underwent training. They then attended the Phoenix Academy in Tadji, Iraq, where they were first introduced to the Iraqis, followed by more training at Camp Victory in Baghdad. They expect to serve 12 months in the country.

Hellacious sandstorms

Their compound within Camp Ur is paved, but surrounded by sand and dirt. Nearly every day in August, Major Stringer said, "hellacious" sandstorms blew in.

"You see the wind picking up," she said. "One minute you can see; the next minute you can't see your hand in front of your face."

The food is good, but monotonous - rice and chicken for lunch and dinner. Both women said they miss the variety of food (back home), and Lieutenant Parris said she longs for the freedom to go out without having to put on 50 pounds of protective gear.

"While we do have plenty to eat, we also have plenty of heat and work to keep us skinny. We are both going to be lean, mean machines by the time this year is up," she predicted.

No phone and a ratty tent for a gym

For entertainment, there's satellite TV - but very little time to watch it - and a makeshift gym, which Major Stringer said was more of a "ratty tent" with a few weights. The compound has no phones, but does have the relatively new "PC to phone software" that bridges the gap from Internet to telephone circuits using a modem as a Web phone.

"The big thing for both of us is the realization that we have taken so much for granted," Major Stringer said. "Here, while the contractor takes very good care of us, we have little. We brush our teeth with bottled water, and the only place on the compound you find Western-style toilets are in the camp."

Occasionally, the women venture out to Tallil Air Base about seven miles away to get their mail, and "every now and then," they go to eat in the base dining facility because "that's as close to home as we'll get."

Officially, the Robins' officers are in Iraq to train, coach, mentor and advise Iraqi soldiers. In practice, they have become much more - cheerleaders, morale boosters and troubleshooters. "There were 700 of them and four of us," Major Stringer said, which makes for what she described as an "interesting and intensely challenging assignment." The 700 from the first two groups they trained are now operational - "out there every day doing the mission."

Teaching one team, one fight

"We are trying to teach the Iraqis we are one team, one fight; that it's not us versus you. I think slowly but surely they're learning," she said.

Some of the trainees served in the military under Saddam Hussein's regime, where noncommissioned officers had little authority.

"We're showing them they can take charge - they can make things happen," Stringer said. "They don't think about tomorrow and the challenges it might bring. To overcome that, we don't tell them how to solve problems. We give them a bunch of options and ask 'which would work best for you?' It's all part of getting them to think for themselves because in their old military, they couldn't make decisions. Officers led; they followed."

Introducing democracy not an easy task

"These guys are pumped," Major Stringer said. "They're excited; they're ready to get to work. They know what they're supposed to do. We give them a speech telling them how important their job is. In a sense, we stroke their egos and work on keeping them interested in the work. "This is unlike anything I have ever done before," she added. "In order to help them, we must be sensitive as to what these guys have been through. We're trying to introduce democracy over here, and that will require the ability to make decisions."

Bridging the language and culture gap

She and Lieutenant Parris spend time every day studying Arabic, and while they have an interpreter, they open each day's session in Arabic. At the end of each day, they ask their Iraqi soldiers for a new word, and with an interpreter's help, they establish the word's English equivalent. They write the Arabic word on a notepad and come to class the next day prepared to use the word. The exercise has helped the two to form a bond with the Iraqi soldiers.

"It's very interesting," Major Stringer said. "In spite of the departure from the roles of women in their culture, the Iraqis seem eager to listen and learn. We might be a novelty to them, but we still get treated like they treat the two male members of the team."

Lieutenant Parris agreed.

"Their culture views women as subservient (which definitely goes against our personalities), but we did have a pleasant surprise that most of the soldiers we work with don't have a problem taking directions from a female."

Major Stringer said she's careful not to step on their traditions.

"I'm very conscious of how they regard women. When it's time to make decisions, I always have a male sergeant major 'make' the decision because I don't want the soldiers to suffer any backlash or shame because they took orders from a woman or worse, were corrected by a woman."

They have learned not to be the first to extend hands for a handshake and not to be the first to speak. At meetings, Major Stringer said she waits for the men to make the first moves. One other cultural change the two have gotten used to is lack of personal space.

"As Americans, we like our space when we talk to people," she said. "The Iraqis are used to being right in your face. At first it was uncomfortable, but we've gotten over that stage. We both understand they are crowding around us because they are interested in what 'the ladies' have to say."