In this third of three interviews, Major David Motes talks about being a member of the military transition team (MiTT) for the Iraqi 2nd Motor Transportation Regiment (MTR) stationed in Numaniyah from January through December 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Motes begins with the training they received at Fort Hood, Texas, which was largely disorganized, and included cultural awareness training which they already knew from previous deployments to Iraq. Upon arrival at Taji, they learned that their team, intended to advise a single MTR, would split to advise two MTRs. When they arrived at Numaniyah, the regiment was at cadre strength, so they had a recruiting drive in which the Iraqi NCOs would question applicants to find former members of the old Iraqi Army. They also recruited officers from the old Iraqi Army but many were rejected by the vetting of the Ministry of Defense and officer strength never rose above 50 percent. One problem they immediately encountered with unit training was that the old Iraqi Army had no rifle qualification standards and most of the unit's soldiers had never fired a rifle. Lacking a system of supply, Motes contacted a female company commander he knew from the 101st Airborne Division, and she and her motor sergeant provided much of the logistical support his MITT needed. They managed to integrate training with community assistance by having a platoon fill up the regiment's water trailers and transport them out to a series of villages that had no running water. They also coordinated with the MiTT from a nearby public order battalion so that the regiment's military police company would receive small-unit training and the public order battalion would deploy in the regiment's armored trucks. Motes states that many of the Reserve Component MiTTs, working in the American prison system as civilians, treated the Iraqi soldiers like prisoners and beat them with sticks. His MiTT took the exact opposite approach, always removing the magazines from their weapons when around the Iraqis as an outward sign of trust. Motes closes this interview by saying, "I think it's a waste of time to send officers over to be on MiTTs who haven't had a company command. The second thing I think is that the officers should have some operational experience. They should have been deployed somewhere before and understand warfighting other than theory and training. The third thing is that the officer needs to be culturally aware. He needs to understand the culture and be willing to work within the culture."

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