Found this on another site and thought it looked interesting. Not that I am interested in it... well you guys know what I mean.
http://www.ArmyTimes.com
February 06, 2006
MITT duty a career-booster for soldiers who make team
By Gina Cavallaro
Times staff writer
Getting on a Military Transition Team may be the hottest gig in the war zone.
The formalization of the small-team approach to training security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan is seen as a key to handing over full security responsibility and, eventually, to the withdrawal of U.S. forces.
More immediately for the individual soldier, MITTs offer a career-boosting opportunity.
The MITTs are headed by senior combat arms majors and include other combat arms officers and noncommissioned officers. They can also include members from other branches, in some cases.
Cultural sensitivities and the same gender rules that apply to direct combat in the U.S. military bar female soldiers from joining a MITT. However, women are involved in similar small-team training activities above the brigade level.
Many troops working on these small teams in Iraq and Afghan-istan are logging extra combat tours and getting noticed by promotion boards.
“The bottom line in terms of MITTs and all the transition teams is that it is a large investment of Army leadership to help train and advise these Iraqi units as they form and become operational,” said Lt. Col. Reginald Allen, a future operations officer with the Army G-3.
The soldiers who make up the MITTs have trickled in from all the major subordinate commands, which have been tasked to fill teams. They are also being pulled into the teams from brigades on duty in country.
The officers and NCOs are currently hand-picked via directives sent down through the major Army command to the brigade level. The profile of a good candidate starts with some basic requirements:
• Recent operational experience.
• Strong personnel file and evaluations.
• History of strong midlevel leadership positions — for an enlisted soldier, squad or section leadership experience and platoon leadership; for an officer, company command.
• Demonstrated ability to train and instruct soldiers.
• Experience in career field or military occupational specialty.
Although there is no formal move to seek volunteers right now, soldiers interested in being on a MITT can raise their hands if they meet the basic criteria.
About 35 percent of U.S. troops working on MITTs in Iraq are from the other services, and some have coalition members on board. Reserve and National Guard soldiers are also working on MITTs.
Most of the teams are at the battalion level. There are other types of teams that train police and border guards, but the most common type of team in Iraq with the largest number on the ground is the MITT, which comprises six officers and five NCOs:
• Team chief, major.
• Operations officer, captain.
• Intelligence team, captain and NCO.
• Logistics team, captain and NCO.
• HQ logistics adviser, captain
• Fire support team, captain and NCO.
• Communications NCO.
• Medic NCO.
According to Allen, about half the officers and NCOs picked to be on the teams are combat veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan.
“The directive we received is to try to fill these teams with the best and brightest officers and NCOs that we could find,” Allen said.
That guidance comes from U.S. Central Command.
“It’s absolutely a positive thing [for a soldier’s career]; it’s considered a combat tour,” Allen said, describing his own recent experience sitting on a board.
“I’ll tell you, if you see a guy who’s had two deployments — where he was deployed with a combat brigade in theater, then two years later he did a year on a MITT team — that guy is going to have a leg up in my opinion,” said Allen, who commanded 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry, 4th Infantry Division, until last summer.
Like a Korea tour
Soldiers are currently tasked to the MITTs through a temporary change of station — not necessarily the best scenario, because it complicates personnel management, doesn’t provide for a backfill assignment when that soldier leaves his unit, and allows no flexibility in follow-on assignments.
The Army is looking at switching the mission from a tasking to a formal assignment, according to Army G-3 Chief of War Plans Col. James L. Boling, who said that by the end of September, assignment to a MITT will look more like a one-year tour in South Korea, with a permanent change-of-station status and a guaranteed follow-on assignment.
The details are being worked on at Human Resources Command and Army headquarters, Boling said, noting that a PCS move wouldn’t be a solution for Reserve and National Guard soldiers who serve on MITTs.
The soldiers selected for MITTs are tasked for a full year. While their tour of duty in Iraq could be less than that, it would be an exception to the 365-day base the Army has adopted for the sake of mission continuity.
When that soldier finishes his year on the MITT, for which he receives the same combat pays every soldier in the war zone gets, he returns to his original post.
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