More than two dozen Iraqi Army Soldiers from the 6th IA Division participate in a marksmanship course at Forward Operating Base Constitution, July 31. Photo by Sgt. Philip Schratwieser, 1st Infantry Division.

BAGHDAD

During the week-long course, the Iraqi Soldiers split their time between the classroom and live-fire training on the shooting range.

"Trying to communicate what we expect of them is the biggest problem," said Staff Sgt. Matthew Lynch, lead sniper with the 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment. "They're just like American Soldiers; they'll do really well, then they might forget a step. They just need repetition."

The class is one of the U.S. Army's "train-the-trainer" classes, designed to saturate the students with knowledge so they can go back to their units and train their fellow Soldiers.

"The instructors are very knowledgeable and have given us so much to help make us better Soldiers," said Sgt. Mustafa, 6th Iraqi Army Division, who shot 37 of 40 targets on his first try.

The targets are 25 meters from the shooters and are sized down to appear between 50 and 300 meters away.

"We have a good group of instructors here,” said Lynch.  “We have snipers, squad-designated marksmen and certified instructors [who] know what they are talking about. With the help of some pretty good interpreters we can pass this knowledge onto the Iraqi Army."

Each Iraqi Soldier successfully completed the training after proving their ability to accurately put rounds on target.

(By Sgt. Philip Schratwieser, 1st Infantry Division)