Change at Fort Riley part of shifting Army focus

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AP Photo KSOW103, KSOW104, KSOW105, KSOW106, KSOW107

By JOHN MILBURN

Associated Press Writer

FORT RILEY, Kan. (AP) -- A mission that has trained more than 15,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen to be advisers in Afghanistan and Iraq is leaving Kansas after three years, shifting focus as it moves to Louisiana.

Instead of training teams of 12 to 16 people, the mission to be based at Fort Polk, La. will turn combat brigades of 3,500 soldiers into a brigade focused on advising. The change is part of the next phase in Iraq aimed at the withdrawal of troops in 2011.

The shift reflects not only a change in location for the training, but a change in the adviser mission.

Instead of training small groups and sending them to work as liaisons between U.S. forces and Iraqi forces, the teams will be brigade-sized and do much the same task. The idea is that with larger groups, the brigades can do a better job of training the Iraqis as the U.S. pulls back from combat operations.

Defense analyst John Nagl, president of the Center for New American Security in Washington, said the new system was a move in the right direction, giving brigades additional skills without compromising their combat abilities.

"We are figuring this thing out. This is a learning process," said Nagl, a former Army colonel who trained advisers at Fort Riley and helped write the Army's counterinsurgency manual.

He said the new brigades will have the ability to deploy repeatedly without needing to rebuild adviser units, saving time and resources.

The first brigades are being trained and deployed to Iraq, including three brigades of the 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Stewart, Ga., and one from 4th Infantry at Fort Benning.

About 90 percent of what U.S. forces are doing in Iraq is advising army and police forces to develop skills, said Col. Mark Bertolini, commander of the Fort Polk unit responsible for adviser training. That part of the mission will also grow in Afghanistan as that nation increases the size of its security forces.

Bertolini said brigades of advisers with good language and culture skills will enable the development of those forces.

"This will put the expertise within the brigades, a team of teams," Bertolini said Tuesday. "It's such a critical mission, the exit strategy for Iraq and Afghanistan eventually."

Fort Polk is better suited for training advisers, Nagl said, because of its mission and available resources. He noted that Fort Riley was never designed to keep the mission forever.

"Fort Riley did very important work for three years in training and educating the advisers to the Afghan and Iraqi militaries," Nagl said. "It is a thankless mission. Not nearly as fun, but it served the nation well."

For Fort Riley, the move means a shift in focus, but it also means growth.

The 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, which is ending its role training advisers, will grow from less than 1,000 soldiers to closer to 3,800 soldiers as it returns its focus on preparing for war as an armored brigade.

Fort Riley traditionally has trained large units for war. One 1st Infantry brigade returns from Iraq this month, while a second is beginning its yearlong tour.

The growth is the last phase of the Army's plans to increase the Fort Riley soldier population to more than 18,000.

Lt. Col. James Smith, commander of a Fort Riley battalion training advisers, said he will soon begin building his infantry battalion to full strength, but will have some soldiers who trained advisers who will help develop cultural and language skills among the incoming soldiers.

"We've always had them resident in the Army, mainly in special forces. Based on broad width of experiences advising, I think we'll have that resident for the next 20 years," Smith said.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, is calling for increasing the size of Afghan forces before committing additional U.S. troops to the war. The job of training those soldiers would fall to Army advisers.

"This is definitely a growth industry in the Army," Bertolini said.