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For two months Sergeant Kevin "KC" Connaughton of Texas has been working on a class, a map reading class for the Iraqi Army.  The halfway success of this class, which was for the Iraqis by the Iraqis, explains a lot about the Iraqi Army.

See, in the American Army, sergeants constantly train Soldiers with classes over and over on basic skills.  The Iraqi mentality is somewhat different; they don't.  Take map reading for example, it is a basic Soldering skill.  However, very few Iraqis Soldiers know how to read a map.  This is partly to ensure orders are followed.  Make no mistake, quite a few Soldiers and officers did not even know that they were heading towards Kuwait during the invasion.  So, KC worked on getting one Iraqi sergeant trained up to teach a class--teaching him to teach.  They class went well...for the first half.

Sergeant Saaf studied map reading for weeks and practice giving KC the class in private repeatedly.  Finally the big day arrived, and his 'class' was eleven other Soldiers and one officer, a captain. Some of these Soldiers had been in the Army for decades and had no idea how to read a map.  Saaf explained a map quite well.

Saaf explained the difference between magnetic north and grid north (north as shown on a map), distances in reference to map scales and ratios, what colors represent, common symbols, and elevation as denoted by contour lines.

Saaf was not perfect.  His lack of experience teaching a class showed.  He moved at an aggressive rate, as the class may or may not have caught on to the concepts.  However, his true downfall was one member of the class--the captain.

Half way through the class, the captain moved in, waved Saaf off, and took charge.  He started over from the beginning, covering the same topics more slowly.  To his credit, the class appeared to understand better.  However, the goal of the class was not to train map reading skills.  The point of the class was to teach the sergeants to teach. 

Our goal couldn't have been more undermined than when the captain explained, "Guys, Saaf tried, but he just does not know what he is talking about.  He knows nothing of maps.  I am an artillery officer.  I can explain this topic better."

As you might imagine, this was a very difficult concept to explain to the captain, the new mortar company commander.

As the captain taught, KC was the bug in my ear.  He furiously demanded that I interrupt the captain and set him straight or else he would.  Knowing that I had to exercise tact, I waited for a pause and requested, "Khalid, please, come with me to see Major Brott [, my boss,] on upcoming training."  The captain responded, "What?  I do not care about that right now.  I want to teach these Soldiers how to read a map."

Seeing him so genuinely interested his Soldier's knowledge was touching, but I had little time to consider this, as KC jumped into the conversation.

As KC led the captain to a corner and began, "Look here, Sir..."

This is when I interrupted KC, taking the captain by the elbow.  After an ensuing discussion, the captain understood quite well our intentions.  He agreed to help prepare Saaf for part two of the map reading class.  The rest of the class went mostly smoothly.  Saaf would cover a topic and the captain would clarify.

Hopefully, we achieved our goal at least in part thanks to KC's efforts.

Saaf begins his class. The US Soldiers in the background (left to righ): Evan the interpreter, KC, Lieutenant Jay Alaniz, and Sergeant Brian Parker.

Saaf explains contour lines and elevation. All eyes are still on him.

Saaf is losing his audience, and the captain looms.

Saaf goes in to explain a question about how to measure distances on the map before returning to the front of the table.

But the position at the front of the table was already taken. "I'll take it from here Saaf," says Captain Khalid.

Captain Khalid, "Listen, men, don't blame Saaf. He does not know what he's talking about." Saaf sulks.

Captain Khalid makes like Bill Nie the Science Guy.

Saaf is demoralized, "I got hosed." Or perhaps, "I've just been Wentworthed."