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"Skip"Stuck, 3rd Brigade Combat Team safety officer, looks out of a Black Hawk UH-60 during an aerial reconnaissance Oct. 25.
Story by Pvt. Mary Gurnee
Photos by Sgt. 1st Class Kerensa Hardy
3rd BCT 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) PAO
CAMP STRIKER, Iraq — Rakkasans are beginning to take the lead in conducting full-spectrum counterinsurgency operations in southwest Baghdad.
Soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), are undergoing a relief-in-place process in which they assume authority from the Commandos of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y.
“It’s a very complex part of any operation over here in Iraq,” said Lt. Col. Matthew D. Redding, 626th Brigade Support Battalion commander, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT). “When you have a brand new unit coming into someone else’s operational area, it’s a very delicate and detailed process of handing over every mission a unit has formed in combat to the brand-new units.”
The Rakkasans are in their initial phase of assuming authority and it will take time and effort to complete the transition.
The RIP process is lengthy because it reaches all the way down to the individual Soldier level.
“You’ve got to have a lot of patience,” said Lt. Elton J. Thomas, the product purchasing officer for 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. (LI).
Elton will continue to do his job while teaching his Rakkasan counterpart, Capt. Rodney James Thomas, the product purchasing officer for 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT).
“Basically he’s coming when we are at the point [in our deployment] where we are starting to slow down a little bit,” Elton said.
Even though things are starting to slow down for Elton, the RIP process will not be complete for days.
“We give him four days of right-seat riding where I am showing him everything I can, and four days for left-seat riding when he actually takes hold of the reins,” Elton said. “Once he takes hold of the reins he will take control of the projects,” Elton said. “They will be actual projects, not templates or tests.”
Rodney said he is up to the challenges that await him.
“The big joke when I was coming over here was that I was taking over a lieutenant’s job,” Rodney said. “So as far as replacing him with a higher rank it looks good … but as far as expertise, the guy I’m replacing does hold a masters degree in this area, so it seems overwhelming, but I know I am more than up to the task.”
Specialist Natasha Powell, an intelligence analyst for 3rd Special Troops Battalion, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT) is another Rakkasan learning from her Commando counterpart.
“This is actually my first RIP,” Powell said. “Last time we deployed we didn’t have anybody here. We basically had to set up everything by ourselves and learn on our own.”
Specialist Tracey Cunningham, an intelligence analyst for 2nd BSTB, 2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div. (LI), is Powell’s Commando counterpart.
“I have a lot of faith in my new counterpart,” Cunningham said. “She’s very smart and catches on very quickly. This process is trial and error and you’ve just got to keep trying until you get it right.”
The Commandos have done a fantastic job of changing things for the better in Iraq, Redding said.
Rakkasan Operations Sgt. Maj. Kevin Martin said he agrees.
“We could not have fallen in on a better unit,” Martin said. “That will be our mission: to take their success and continue to make it grow.”
