Corps: End piecemeal transition teams - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Corps: End piecemeal transition teams

The Corps may soon deploy entire units as training teams in Iraq, rather than stitching together units one Marine at a time, according to its top officer.

“What we’ve taken a look at is the idea of partnering Marine battalions with Iraqi battalions as a more efficient way to accomplish training and backstop the Iraqis,” said Commandant Gen. James Conway, in an e-mail response to questions. “We see training teams as being a requirement in this long war, even in the wake of Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Training teams, also referred to as Military Transition Teams, are generally small units of senior Marines who tutor Iraqi army and security forces. Many consider them the pavers of the Corps’ road out of Iraq because standing up Iraqi forces means standing down U.S. forces.

While the teams are vital, filling them can leave deploying units vulnerable from the loss of leadership, according to one Corps official.

“There’s no doubt they’re critical to keeping things on an even keel in Al Anbar,” said Lt. Gen. Keith Stalder, commander of II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The MTT members are “the folks that ordinarily would be in key positions back here. The effect of that, of course, is the unit gives them up and does without that leadership experience.”

“We’re looking any way we can to try to protect the integrity of our units,” Conway said. “We’ve [drawn] some red lines in terms of places we just won’t go to get those folks needed to man the training teams and [individual augmentee] billets.”

The Corps will not take augments from schools, joint duties or recruiting, he said. Instead, it is aiming to send them from other support billets, such as the Pentagon and Quantico, “where it makes more sense to tee people up to go,” he said.

Where the Corps is going for its augments, the removal of key leadership to fill the teams and the widespread concerns about how the assignments would translate come promotion board time prompted Conway to issue an all-Marine message meant to ease fears that assignments would end career competitiveness.

“Promotion board members recognize that Marines on transition teams and individual augments serve in billets of vital interest to our war effort, and that Marines are filling these billets in lieu of key operational billets within their [military occupational specialty] traditionally coveted for career progression and competitiveness towards promotion,” Conway wrote in the Nov. 2 message.

Promotion board precepts will now be amended to instruct the board that transition team duty be weighed equal to traditional officer billets, he said in the bulletin.

“In fact, our stats on promotion to major, lieutenant colonel and colonel are proof positive that the records of Marines who roger up for IA or TT duty are no less competitive than their operational counterparts,” Conway said in his e-mail. “Getting to the fight and doing well once there will go a long way in making a Marine’s record competitive.”

Conway has made it no secret he expects every Marine to get into the fight, a theme underscored by his November guidance.

“[I]f you are a career Marine you really need to get there, because I think that a few years from now when it comes to a school selection or a promotion, if two of those people have been to the fight and two have not, the problem at the board just got cut in half,” he said at a March town hall meeting in Norfolk, Va. “That’s what we do for the nation. That’s why I think it’s incumbent for every Marine to get into the fight and contribute to the overall effort.”

Conway’s guidance is taking hold, Stalder said.

“I’ve seen some statistics from selection boards to indicate that that guidance, the commandant’s guidance, is being carried out,” Stalder said. “That those Marines are being selected at rates that are comparable, or maybe even a little above, the rates or selection of their peers. At the local level, I made it clear to my folks that we see it that way.”

About 1,500 Marines are serving on MTTs in Iraq, he said, adding the Iraqi reliance on them is growing.

“As the Iraqis take on more and more of the security requirements in Al Anbar, they will be even more dependent on those training teams. The challenge in sourcing them is difficult as ever because, of course, those teams have to be the right people,” Stalder said.

The quality of the teams, however, varies depending on whether team members volunteer or are “voluntold” for the assignments, said one field-grade officer, a recently returned MTT leader who asked not to be named.

“[T]he official stance is that [transition teams] are a positive thing,” the officer said in an e-mail, adding that his opinion of the teams is mixed.

“If you get a bunch of volunteers, then the teams are normally good (rare). If a battalion has been tagged to cough up people, then the teams usually suck (the norm),” he said. “As long as battalions are going to Iraq under traditional roles while simultaneously sourcing TTs, the problem will never be solved.”

Recent security gains signify a need to reorganize the way transition teams are structured, he said.

“The tactical fight in Al Anbar is pretty much done, so I think battalions should deploy to Iraq in an advisory role and the Marine Corps should do away with TTs that are hobbled together,” he said.

The MTT leader said he willingly volunteered for the duty, not giving much thought to what it might mean to his future in the Corps.

“My belief is to do what I enjoy and see where I am at the 20-year mark. However, quite a few of my peers and seniors thought I was leaving the traditional career path and jeopardizing my career when I said I wanted to join a MTT,” he said.

“No one offered any assurances,” he said. “However, the scramble to source TTs was such a big deal that most people were relieved that I took a slot that they would have otherwise had to fill.”

The MTT leader, however, didn’t feel like he has missed out on leadership opportunities by taking on the duty.

“No, if anything it has made me a better leader. I tried to make the [Iraqi army battalion] implement much of what I had learned about [counterinsurgency] over my past deployments and studies,” he said.

Come board time, though, it’s less about what you’ve done and more about who you know, he said. “I believe the outcome of command boards is dependent on who you know on the board, for most guys.”

One officer who volunteered for transition team assignment said he felt confident that the Corps’ promotion process would give an equal opportunity to all Marines given the emphasis the Corps is currently placing on the teams.

“I have always been a firm believer that if you put 100 [percent] effort in the assignment before you, you give yourself the opportunity for advancement,” said Lt. Col. John Cavazos, who deployed in October as a team chief for a MTT to 2nd Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army, at Al Asad Air Base. “A Marine needs to have well-rounded assignments, and OIF experience is important, whether the OIF experience is Transition Team or more traditional roles,” he said in an e-mail sent from Iraq.

While Cavazos said he didn’t fear the promotion boards now, he also said the issue had not been addressed formally by his superiors and they had not offered any assurances.

“I wanted to be on a [transition team] because I heard it was the main effort,” Cavazos said. “I expect to gain experience dealing with foreign military, and the ups and downs associated with [adviser] duty.”

Staff writer Trista Talton contributed to this report.