An Active Guard Reserve soldier assigned to the 4-80th Chemical Training Battalion when he received orders sending him with the 80th Division (Institutional Training) on a military transition team (MiTT) to Sinjar, Iraq in 2005-2006, Sergeant First Class Gary Little arrived in country following an abbreviated predeployment training session at Fort Bliss, Texas. Joining his MiTT, which was already operating with the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Iraqi Army Division - tasked with advising the brigade headquarters element - Little quickly assessed his Iraqi unit. "They could handle small scale things. They were pretty good at securing villages and towns. Their weapons marksmanship was poor. Their logistics was very, very poor. It was hard to make them understand that if a mission went bad or was going to last longer than six hours, they needed to make plans for food and water. They would actually look at you and say, 'No. The mission will only last six hours.' They couldn't actually perceive the mission lasting any longer than that. They didn't think anything bad was ever going to happen." Primarily working with and mentoring the Iraqi brigade sergeant major and also given the overall mission by his MiTT leader to "try and instill some NCO esprit de corps with the Iraqi Army," Little had to find ways to work around that fact that such US military staples as backwards planning, creating training programs and developing leave schedules were "totally foreign" to many Iraqis. That said, from the conduct of operations to the teaching of classes, Little reports that, "From the time I got there until the time I left, we were able to make a lot of progress." As he noted, "Anything you can teach me, I want to learn," was a common statement made to him by Iraqi soldiers. Relating his unique insights into the Iraqi NCO corps, Little says that while some Iraqis didn't seem to care and "never played the part of a soldier," there were many others who were "very professional and very knowledgeable," although they were often stifled in their independence and decision-making abilities by the Iraqi officer corps. Of particular frustration to Little was what came out of a high-level general officer briefing he and other MiTT members received early on in their tour. "We were told that we were the most important effort of this mission. Our job was to work the military out of a job, get these Iraqis trained up, get everybody out and get everybody home. They said it was very important that we did our jobs and did our jobs the best we could, but we were going to have to scrounge for everything we're going to need…. I thought that was kind of a let down." Even so, Little said in a message to future MiTT personnel: "When you come back, you're going to feel proud about what you did."

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