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David Burge , El Paso Times Published 2:02 p.m. MT May 14, 2017 | Updated 6:38 p.m. MT May 14, 2017

Lt. Col. Mike Bandy and CSM Marcus Alford talk about 1AD headquarters' upcoming deployment to Iraq. Wochit

Soldiers with the 1st Armored Division practice the key skill of breaking down and moving their battlefield command post during the Warfighter exercise in February. This exercise was part of the train-up for Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion as it got ready to deploy to Iraq.(Photo: DAVID BURGE/EL PASO TIMES)Buy Photo

After months of training, soldiers from the 1st Armored Divisions headquarters are ready to deploy and get on with their new mission.

About 400 soldiers from the divisions Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, with a small contingent fromDivision Artillery, will deploy to Iraq in June.

The team will include Fort Bliss and 1st Armored Division commanding general Maj. Gen. Robert Pat White and division Command Sgt. Maj. Danny Day.

Related:Taking care of families part of Iraq deployment plan

Soldiers have been training really hard for the past year, said 1st Lt. Carlos Valenica, the executive officer for Headquarters Support Company with HHBN, as the headquarters battalion is more often called.

So finally being able to enact that training in a real-world scenario, I think a lot of soldiers are very excited to get out the door, said Valencia, from Austin, Texas.

White will lead what is called the Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command in Iraq. In that role, the 1st Armored Division will be responsible for mission command over coalition forces who are training, advising and assisting Iraqi security forces in their fight against the Islamic State and other threats.

The deployment is expected to last nine months.

In February, 1st Armored Division soldiers, including those from Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, practiced moving their battlefield headquarters during the Warfighter exercise.(Photo: DAVID BURGE/EL PASO TIMES)

Division headquarters around the Army regularly deploy, but this is the first time that the 1st Armored Division headquarters has deployed since it moved to Fort Bliss from Germany in 2011, said Lt. Col. Mike Bandy, the commander of HHBN.

These Fort Bliss soldiers will take over the mission command role from the 1st Infantry Division headquarters from Fort Riley, Kan., and will officially start the mission in July.

The Gladiators, as the headquarters battalion is nicknamed, contain a diverse array of soldiers who specialize in military intelligence, supply, maintenance, human resources and signal support, among other functions.

The battalion will bring representatives from all those different specialty areas and will provide a wide range logistical support so White and his staff can conduct mission command while in Iraq, Bandy said.

Since Bandy took command of HHBN on Jan. 19, the battalion has been working nonstop to prepare for this deployment, he said.

The battalion took part in the large-scale Warfighter exercise in February and recently completed a mission readiness exercise called Iron Gauntlet that mimicked what it will experience in Iraq, Bandy said.

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Before coming to Fort Bliss, Bandy, a Green Beret, served as the operations officer for Special Operations Joint Task Force-Iraq, when he was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Bandy served a six-month deployment in Iraq lasting until July 2016. So, he is quite familiar with the mission set and conditions on the ground there.

Soldiers from the 1st Armored Division headquarters and the division's Sustainment Brigade both participated in the recent Warfighter exercise in preparation for upcoming deployments.(Photo: DAVID BURGE/EL PASO TIMES)

One of the challenges the battalion will face is it will operate with smaller teams in several locations while deployed, said Maj. Tam Dam, the battalion operations officer from San Jose, Calif.

The challenge is maintaining communication when we are down range, Dam said. We already have a plan in place. Thinking through those kinds of things will probably reduce a lot of the friction when you go down range.

Battalion Command Sgt. Maj. Marcus Alford, of Dillon, S.C., said HHBN is absolutely ready for its Iraq mission.

I think the soldiers want the opportunity to get out and show that they are trained and prepared for this, Alford said.

Any mission America calls us to do is important, Alford added. We will get out there and continue moving forward with the Iraqis in their development.

David Burge may be reached at 546-6126; dburge@elpasotimes.com; @dburge1962 on Twitter.

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1AD HQ ready to 'get out door' on Iraq mission - El Paso Times

One of the bodies, partially charred, lies face down; by his chest is webbing where he had kept magazines for an automatic rifle. The other, with long matted hair, faces the Humvee's bullet-pocked windshield. His ragged pants are pulled down around his knees, a piece of green and yellow electric wire loosely wound around his ankles.

Two Iraqi soldiers step in front of the Humvee. Raising his phone, one takes a selfie of the two in front of their trophy. For a moment, they flash a smile.

We are just about one hundred meters from the most forward line of the Iraqi Army's Ninth Armoured division. In the background, there is the steady thud of mortar and artillery fire. Helicopters circle overhead, occasionally flying further into the city, noses down. A line of black smoke shooting out in front signals a rocket has been fired.

ISIS renamed 17th Tammouz to "Fatah," harking back to the lightning conquests of the early Islamic empire that spread the realm from the Atlantic to the borders of the Indian subcontinent.

It was just a few years ago that one of the mottos of ISIS was "the Islamic state is here to stay and will expand." And for a brief moment it seemed they were unstoppable. That now seems like ancient history.

"Da'ish is now calling 17th Tammouz 'wadi ath-thabat,'" the "valley of resolve", says Lieutenant Colonel Abu Fatima (not his real name -- he wasn't authorized to speak to the media).

There, he says, they will make their last stand in Mosul -- not, as many expect, in west Mosul's Old City, where on July 4, 2014, the self-declared "caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his first and only appearance.

From a bullet- and shell-pocked glass-littered three-story building, once a photography shop overlooking 17th Tammouz, Lt. Col. Abu Fatima and his men have a panoramic view. 17th Tammouz rises gently up a hill before them. A thick cloud of black smoke billows into the sky. It's a densely packed neighborhood of small houses. While small arms fire rattles constantly, there is no movement in the empty streets and alleyways.

Lt. Col. Abu Fatima, from the Baghdad district of Adhamiya, has been speaking by phone with residents inside. "They're almost completely out of food. They're eating grass," he says. "Tragic" is how he describes their plight.

A hundred meters further south is the final line of Iraqi forces. There, a young officer in a crisp uniform who declines to give his name says they've spotted a family in a building on the edge of 17th Tammouz. "They want to get to us but they're afraid of being shot by ISIS snipers," he says.

"Yesterday, the snipers shot a woman who tried to flee," chimes in one of his men.

We duck into a building across the street to try to see the family. "Watch out for the snipers," a soldier accompanying us says as we duck down to run across the roof and take cover behind a wall. The soldiers have knocked holes in the breezeblocks to keep an eye on movements in 17th Tammouz, and occasionally to fire at anything that moves.

"They keep running back and forth between the houses and a white truck out there," says one of the soldiers, peering through the hole with binoculars. Loud bangs echo from the floor below as the soldiers fire across the field into 17th Tammouz.

CNN camerawoman Mary Rogers has put her camera up to another hole, filming the void before her. A loud crack, and the wall shakes. Through her viewfinder she sees a puff of white powder where the round hit just inches away.

Moments later, shots ring out from below as the soldiers respond.

And then, quiet. We bid the soldiers farewell, crouch and run off the roof, down the stairs and back into the rubble-strewn street.

A group of five women in black, two teenage boys, four children and a baby are huddled by a wall. They've just crossed over from ISIS territory.

"We left early this morning after taking cover for days in the bathroom," says Sina, holding a child in her arms. "Our menfolk told us, 'Go! Go!' We said we can't because of the shelling, but then we put our faith in God and we left." She declined to give her full name out of fear for her safety.

The baby in her arms is her 11-month old granddaughter, Hajar, Arabic for the Biblical Hagar. In Arabic, hajar means to move, to migrate.

"We moved four times in the last three years because of the fighting around Mosul," says Sina, nodding to the little girl.

Retired policeman Abu Said (he asked we not use his real name, fearing for the safety of relatives still inside ISIS-controlled territory) didn't flee the fighting. As the fighting reached his neighborhood of Mushairfa, he and his family huddled under the stairs.

We ran into him as he was leading troops around the area, showing them houses that ISIS members occupied.

He recounted his ordeals under ISIS. "They told my son, your father is a kafir, an infidel, because I worked for the Iraqi government. That dog, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said anyone who worked for the government is an infidel. Of course, I'm a Muslim. I pray, I fear God, but in their minds I'm a kafir."

For almost three years, since June 2014, he prepared for the day Iraqi forces returned to Mosul. "I gathered information, I watched them. I wrote down their names. I kept an eye on what they were doing."

"This is the day of reckoning," he tells me, pointing the soldiers to another house. Inside, they rifle through cupboards and drawers.

Among the toys, plastic cars and trucks on the floor are a crumpled uniform and an empty ammunition box. In the adjacent room, they find medical kits, complete with condoms, and a homemade plastic placard with a likeness of the black banner of ISIS.

Abu Said smiles.

Read more:
On the frontline of ISIS' last stand in Iraq - CNN

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Officer James D. McNaughton

An NYPD officer who volunteered to serve in Iraq where he was killed in a dangerous mission was honored Saturday evening in Washington, D.C.

Staff Sgt. James D. McNaughton was honored at the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial. His name was added to the memorial and a candlelight vigil was held in his honor, along with393 officers that were killed in the line of duty.

McNaughton became a police officer shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, and volunteered to serve to Iraq in 20015, the Army said. He was a military police officer in the Army reserve.

"We gathered all the civilian police officers in the unit and told them what the situation was. They were to train Iraqi police," said Brig. Gen. John Hussey, who was at the time McNaughton's battalion commander.

"Jimmy McNaughton stepped forward," Hussey said. "He stepped up because he knew a lot of these guys were married and had kids, and he didn't want them to be put in harm's way."

The first attempt to get McNaughton's name on the memorial was rejected. His supporters tried again, this time submitting the application through the Army instead of the NYPD, and were successful.

Published at 4:03 PM EDT on May 13, 2017 | Updated at 8:49 PM EDT on May 13, 2017

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NYPD Officer Killed in Iraq Honored in DC Candlelight Vigil - NBC New York

by: Tom Regan Updated: May 13, 2017 - 7:29 AM

Gov. Nathan Deal ordered flags to fly half-staff at all state buildings, calling it a mark of respect for a Georgia soldier killed in action.

First Lt. Weston Lee, 25, of Bluffton,Georgia, died while on patrol in Mosul, Iraq. The body of the 25-year-old paratrooper arrived home Friday morning.

His close friend told Channel 2s Tom Regan the loss is hard to put into words.

Joshua Walker told Regan he's proud to speak about his selfless, courageous friend. The two were fraternity brothers and both served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Walker recalls his shock and profound sadness on learning his friend was killed by a bomb while on patrol in Mosul in April.

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He was your ideal army officer, so it just kinda ripped my heart wide open, Walker said. I had to immediately go to my friends who were also close to him for support."

Both men attended the officer's training program at the University of North Georgia.

Walker said Weston deployed to Iraq a couple of months ago as a paratrooper platoon leader who supervised security patrols and training. They exchanged messages the day before he was killed.

Iraq is not a safe place, Walker said. But's that exactly what he wanted to do. And he was dedicated to every aspect of his life to be an army officer. He was right where he wanted to be."

He said Weston worked hard, trained and demonstrated the character of a true leader.

A great friend, Walker said. He would do anything if you called him up.

I honestly believe if he made a career of the army, 20 plus years, you would be reading about his leadership, Walker said.

Walker and others have established a scholarship fund at the University of North Georgia in memory of Weston.

You can donate to the fund HERE.

A memorial service will take place Saturday in the Mangham Auditorium at Early County High School at 2 p.m.

2017 Cox Media Group.

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Scholarship fund to honor Georgia soldier killed in Iraq | WSB-TV - WSB Atlanta

Friday, May 12, 2017 at 12:22 p.m.

The inspector general for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission submitted his letter of resignation to Governor Greg Abbott Thursday, following questions from Texas Monthly about his consulting work related to the Iraqi government.

Stuart Bowen, who was tasked with overseeing $40 billion in health and welfare spending in Texas, was appointed to the post by Governor Abbott in 2015 after he had been the U.S. inspector general for the reconstruction of Iraq. Texas Monthly started inquiring about Bowen's remaining ties to the country after discovering that his name popped up quite a bit in a Washington, D.C. lobbying and law firm's multiple letters to the Trump Administration, asking the president to remove Iraq from the travel ban. Which Trump did.

Texas Monthly's R.G. Ratcliffe found that Bowen was contracted at $300 an hour with the Washington firmBrownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck which is registered as a foreign agent for the Iraqi government to consult about anti-corruption efforts in the country's financial services sector. In the firm's lobbying letters to the Trump Administration, the firm identified Bowen as a "senior adviser to our firm" and urged Trump officials to set up meetings with a senior Iraqi aide to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

In one letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis, the Brownstein firm wrote:Stuart Bowen the former Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction under President Bush and has worked with you in the past, is a senior advisor to our firm. Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general, at one time commanded troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When Trump issued his second executive order days later that temporarily barred travel from several Muslim-majority Middle Eastern countries, Iraq was no longer on the list.

Ratcliffe notes how odd it is that, for a guy tasked with overseeing billions of dollars in health spending, tasked with rooting out any fraud within the Health and Human Services Commission, he for some reason was never required to disclose this interesting relationship with a firm lobbying for Iraq.

In a statement to TM, Bowen denied that his work for the firm breached any code of ethics and denied having anything to do with removing Iraq from the travel ban.I have never worked for Iraq and was not involved in any law firm activities regarding the travel ban issue," he said.

The governor's office released the following statement to the magazine:This was a serious and unacceptable lapse in judgment by Mr. Bowen. The day the governor was made aware, he took immediate action and asked Mr. Bowen to resign. The governor is confident the next Inspector General will continue the good work the office has been doing.

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Top Texas Health Official Resigns Amid Questions About Iraq Connection - Houston Press