Major Darrell Green commanded the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade Special Police Transition Team (SPTT) in Baghdad and Samarra in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom during 2005 and 2006. Green explains that special police commandoes (SPC), for the most part, do not have any prior military or police experience, and that because of this, it is quite common for a battalion commander to run the organization in every detail. "When you think of the SPC, try to think of an 1863 West Virginia militia. That's what they were like. People just came off the street," says Green. "The day I left I still considered them a loose rabble of semi-organized paramilitary forces." His team started their mission with only six of its 12 members because, planned as a joint undertaking, the other services failed to provide the needed personnel. They provided the SPC with training, but most importantly, because the SPC were an Iraqi national asset which did not fall under US military control, Green's SPTT provided coordination and liaison with whatever coalition forces owned the battlespace in which the commandoes were operating. A major challenge in training the Iraqis was their operational tempo and, according to Green, "we had to fight to train, and one of the things we were able to accomplish was some marksmanship training." An additional duty he acquired was as a secondary counterpart to the brigade commander because he was co-located with him and the primary counterpart had to travel frequently to check on the other SPTTs. A continuing frustration were the safe havens given to the enemy since neither American nor Iraqi forces were allowed to enter mosques without referring the question to the top of the chain of command. Green was within 800 meters of the Al Askari Mosque in Samarra preparing for a cordon and search when it was blown up, and although he and the Iraqis had known of weapons and explosives in the mosque, they could do nothing to prevent it. He also states, "I would say that not having enough forces to get the job done really hindered us from accomplishing the missions we wanted to accomplish," further noting that the areas assigned to the SPC battalions were so large that each conducted noncontiguous operations within their brigades. Green closes his interview by recommending that more American forces be sent to secure the Iraqi borders, and that we should let the Iraqis act like Iraqis so they can better secure their country and build their own future.

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