Army colonel with New Ulm roots makes news

Mansoor, Ready First trains

Iraqi police

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

BAGDAD, Iraq -- While stories about Iraqi rebels launching rocket and mortar strikes on coalition forces make headlines, A U.S. Army Colonel with New Ulm roots helps create good news that may not get the attention of CNN, the Associated Press and other major media.

Col. Peter Mansoor, the godson of Denis and Dorothy Warta of New Ulm, is a tank man. Commanding the First Brigade Combat Team, First Infantry Division near the Martyr's Monument in Bagdad, he and his fellow soldiers helped an Iraqi teenager live out his childhood dream by sending him to the 21st Annual California International Marathon in Sacramento Dec. 7.

Sixteen-year-old Ali Hashim Hamda Al-Bahadly completed the 26.2-mile marathon in three hours, 16 minutes.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Police Service Officers got the chance to hone their firearms skills on alive-fire weapons range for the first time with the help of soldiers of the 382nd Military Police Detachment. The Army Reserve Unit from San Diego was assigned to the 18th Military Police Brigade, part of a First Armored Division Task Force.

The weapons training was part of a three-week course called the Iraqi Police Integration Program. It taught Iraqi police basic weapons fundamentals and police skills tactics. The training will make them more effective police officers, particularly since some of them hadn't ever fired a weapon prior until the First Armored Division came to town.

Iraqi police spent two days in the classroom learning weapons use and safety measures. They spent four days on the weapons range.

A team from the 490th Civil Affairs Battalion Army Reserve Unit did renovations and repairs at two elementary schools to the delight of Iraqi students.

These stories and other appeared online in "First Armored Division, Old Ironsides, America's Tank Division."