When several Iraqi policemen were in Columbia, South Carolina for a weeklong visit with the Richland County Sheriff's Department their visit brought them to Fort Jackson for a day to see what the Army does and get a short history lesson on Army Basic Combat Training.
After attending the graduation ceremony of Soldiers who had just completed Basic Combat Training, the Chief of Erbil Municipality Police in Iraq, Lt. Col Fakhraldeein Mawlood, toured the Fort Jackson Museum Thursday, with section managers of the College of Police in Erbil, Lt. Col. Suhail N Ola, Maj. Govand, and Maj. Mariwan.
After police officers from the Midlands visited Iraq, Richland's sheriff wanted to reciprocate.
Sheriff Leon Lott was invited by the Iraqi Police and Police College, in Erbil, to assist them in the development of their first female police academy class in 2010. The invitation from the Iraqi Police Service came as a result of the Sheriff's internationally recognized success in opening up RCSD to female deputies and other minorities.
Capt. Roxana Meetze, who visited Erbil with Sheriff Leon Lott said "I want to go back now and see how the current 200-300 females (in training) are doing over there -- it's a good program."
Fort Jackson was included on the visit because the post's police department has a solid and longstanding relationship with the RCSD, who has an exchange program with the Iraqi police in Erbil.
The ties between the post and the Iraqis go even deeper.
Fort Jackson Police Chief, Ruben Santiago, who graduated from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, with classmate Suhail, hosted the visit.
After Suhail introduced the group on arrival at the museum, Henry Howe III, the museum curator, explained the history of Fort Jackson went back to 1917.
"One of the first things (new trainees) see is their drill sergeant," said Howe.
He went on to explain the red, white and blue phases of basic training here while pointing out different items on display.
"First aid is another thing we stress here," said Howe, moving on to the next section of the exhibit. "We work in a very dangerous profession and we want to make sure that we give our Soldiers every chance to survive while on the battlefield."
Suhail said the training the Erbil police get is a combination of both military skills and policing.
"We live in the middle of a war zone, that's why we think it's important for us to have mixed military and police training," said Suhail. "But one day, when we have peace, we will try to move our training to be more police (training)."
Erbil police officers "have basic training for 45 days -- there's no rest (period) and they don't go home -- just classroom and training," he explained. "The students then stay in college for three years where they earn a bachelor's degree."
Iraqi police training has additional programs of instruction for officers and commissioners.
"We also have a nine-month course for students who have graduated from university and already have a bachelor's degree," said Suhail. "We have a six-month course for students who have graduated from high school -- they will become commissioners, like corporals and sergeant staff majors."
Since the Erbil police also go through military training in addition to policing, a trip to Fort Jackson to learn a bit about the Army is part of the Sheriff's exchange program.
Continuing on to more historic areas displaying uniforms and weapons from Vietnam, Korea, and both world wars, the visitors easily recognized some of the weapons and Army gear from the past.
Howe then went into detail about the differences between bolt-action and crew served weapons before discussing claymore mines, the evolution of anti-tank weapons and the creation of the more recent rocket propelled grenades.
The group asked questions about articles on their way through and discussed things among themselves in their native language.
"The U.S. Army actually built their police college," said Meetze.
At the end of the tour, the feedback Howe got was quite unexpected.
"It's a beautiful museum and just (now) we spoke about it," said Suhail. "We told each other when we go back we should tell our boss - send a letter to the Ministry of Interior -- (recommending) that we should have a place like this at the police college."
He believes it would be helpful for visitors to have an idea how the new cadets do training and people would be able to learn about soldiers and police officers.
"We have a place, the tools and equipment -- we just would need to get permission and set it up," said Suhail. "This is a great idea!"
Howe, after hearing that said it was the ultimate compliment and that "we've done our job here then."
The Iraqis also visited the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy and Federal Bureau of Investigations Columbia Field Office before heading back to Erbil.
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