Book Description

The role of the Organized Reserves in the history of the U.S. Army has taken many twists and turns since the nation's founding. The organization and missions of the Army's reserves, both the National Guard and the Army Reserve, are once again undergoing fundamental change to meet the needs of the 21st century. In "Iroquois Warriors in Iraq," Steve Clay analyzes the role played by the "Iroquois Warriors" of the U.S. Army Reserve's 98th Division. In an unprecedented move, the soldiers of the 98th (Institutional Training) were called on in mid-2004 to deploy to Iraq and to fulfill a critical role in the building, training, and advising of the new Iraqi Army. Prior to 2004, a U.S. Army Reserve institutional training division had never deployed overseas to a theater of operations, nor were they designed to function as unit trainers and combat advisors. The author highlights the challenges faced by the 98th Division as it trained for and deployed to Iraq for this unusual mission. Among those challenges were how to train and prepare for the mission, who to send, how to integrate reservists into the new Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I), and whether to deploy the 98th as a unit or as a collection of individual soldiers. Throughout the turbulent period of 2004 and 2005 in Iraq, the soldiers of the 98th Division added to the proud legacy of the U.S. Army Reserve. This monograph presents issues connected with the mobilization, deployment, training, and integration of Reserve Component units and personnel in general; the use of units to perform tasks not part of their mission essential task list (METL); and issues associated with the major task assigned to the 98th Division -- training and advising a foreign army. It finishes with an analysis of the overall mission and provides conclusions and recommendations for consideration.