A member of the 98th Division (Institutional Training) command and control (C2) cell, Brigadier General Frank Cipolla deployed to Iraq in mid 2004 in advance of the rest of the unit for its training and advisory mission with the new Iraqi Army. Of this overseas mission, Cipolla - a full colonel and the 2nd Brigade commander at the time - says, "Being in an institutional training division, you never think you're going to get mobilized overseas so it was a real surprise….I was told that we would be training the Iraqi Army but I didn't think it would be on such a large scale." Following the initial survey of the situation in Iraq, the training concept rapidly evolved. For example, the advisor support teams that 98th Division personnel filled were not strictly training oriented, which would have been much more in line with the division's traditional duties of providing basic combat training, advanced individual training, noncommissioned officer and officer professional development courses and the like. "Instead," said Cipolla, "they were to coach, mentor and assist the Iraqi Army." As the officer in charge of the C2 cell, he was responsible for the in-processing of all follow-on soldiers from the 98th, who were also filling a variety of staff positions in Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq and the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team. However, the reception and integration of the 98th's soldiers did not initially go well. According to Cipolla, the MNSTC-I commander, Lieutenant General David Petraeus, was "great." "Most of the colonels and below, though, wouldn't even talk to us because we were a Reserve unit - that is, until they found out what we could do. About a month later, they were much more receptive." Regarding differences in performance between the Active and Reserve Components, he says, "You couldn't tell the difference, but our active duty counterparts knew who we were and our reception was not good at all. The Active Component colonel that I worked with hardly talked to me and that did not make for a good and close working relationship." Other challenges encountered included a cliquish attitude in CMATT, erratic communications, a lack of computers, and an immature logistics system. He closes his interview by saying that he is proud of the achievements of the 98th and advises officers facing similar situations to make sure they are current on all their warfighter tasks.

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