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Multi-National Division - Baghdad praises, counsels Soldiers
08/08/08 - 11:00 AM
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CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - The 4th Infantry Division has been in Iraq since November 2007 and has reached a milestone of sorts in their deployment:
they are halfway through a 15-month rotation.
In a recent interview, Major General Jeffery Hammond, who serves as commanding general of Multi-National Division - Baghdad and the 4th Infantry Division, spoke about the success of the division so far, where they had come from and where they are going, expressing his gratitude to the fighting men and women of MND-B and the 4th Inf. Div. July 23. He also took time to give counsel to the Soldiers he leads and to outline his expectations for the remaining months of the deployment.
Following are the questions Hammond was asked and his responses.
Q. When the division got here, what were some major goals that you
had set?
A. “‘Mission, Soldier, Family, Team.’ Our mission was to protect
the people of Baghdad, to secure and protect the people, and I think we are doing that quite well right now. The amount of violence in the city is at an all time low. We’re further developing the Iraqi Security Forces so that they can protect the people long down the road. And overall conditions right now are relatively stable. That doesn’t mean that we’re out of the woods. It means we are moving the right direction.

“The other goal I had was to make sure our Soldiers were well-trained, ready to execute their mission without failure, and I see that every single day. The reason that the mission has succeeded to date is because of the Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division. And other units are here with us doing their job as I would expect they have been trained to do, but more important, as they choose to. They choose success. They choose to win. These youngsters are winners, they are America’s credentials.
They are the best thing we have going in our country today.
“It was critical that our families were taken care of back home, so my goal of ensuring the needs of the families were met is moving in the right direction as well. I have a fantastic rear detachment commander in Col. David Thompson and the same for every battalion, brigade, and company that we have both at [Fort] Carson and [Fort] Hood. I believe that our Family needs are being consistently met. I talk to my wife almost every night and we talk about the families and a day doesn’t seem to go by that I don’t take the opportunity, search for the opportunity, to try to do something for a Family member somewhere in the world.
“And the final goal was to keep this team tight. We have different types of units that all come together to make the Multi-National Division - Baghdad; one team of Soldiers, of families, of teammates all with a single mission.
“So my goals were “Mission, Soldier, Family, Team” and I am very comfortable right now, very proud of what I have seen to date.”

Q. Have any of the goals that you had when you started out changed
with the mission? Has the mission emphasis changed since the beginning and if so how?
A. “It hasn’t. Nothing’s changed. Our mission remains ‘steadfast
and loyal,’ focused on taking care and protecting the people of Baghdad.
Now, an enduring element in all of that is protecting our Soldiers. I consider protecting our Soldiers weaved in everything we do from top to bottom. Not just in protecting the people of Baghdad but in everything we do. So nothing’s changed. We are here to protect the people, protect our Soldiers, protect and care for our families, and over a 15-month period, get the job done and come home so we can continue on with our lives.”
Q. What would you say has been the division’s greatest success or
accomplishment up to this point?
A. “I think history will show that, to date, the effort we made
with respect to Sadr City. We went in with a plan to isolate Sadr City, knowing full well that something would have to occur with Sadr City in order to be successful in Baghdad. We isolated it, and eventually put ourselves in a situation where we were able to seize control of over one-third of Sadr City. Simultaneously, the Iraqi Security Forces controlled the rest of Sadr City.
“We have spent over $30 million on improving the quality of life and services for the people of Sadr City. In the long run, I think the success of Sadr City has been a major story, as well as the efforts of our Soldiers on a routine and daily basis on all security matters, both kinetic and non-kinetic, to bring the violence down to a level where it is just about less than four attacks a day here in Baghdad. That’s pretty remarkable. Most people wouldn’t believe me if we went back two years ago and I told them that we’re going to get down to four attacks a day. They would say, ‘Impossible.’ It is possible. Anything is possible with a 4th Inf. Div. Soldier.”
Q. What is going to be your focus going into the second half of
this deployment?
A. “Nothing changes. I told the guys and gals from day one that
this was a basketball game. We’re not playing defense at half-court; it’s a full-court press. We’re a run-and-gun sort of division. We’re going to maintain contact with the enemy across the entire spectrum. We are going to maintain the momentum that we have achieved. We’re going to capitalize on the success we have found with security, particularly in what I will call the non-kinetic areas: government, economics and essential services. We’re going to try really hard over the next seven months to capitalize on that element of security, to create jobs, to transition Iraqi Security Forces into an owning security arm, to include the police. We’ll probably work a little bit harder on some of the other important things here, which include the governance roll with local government stepping up, assuming responsibility for the people as we move toward elections.”
Q. What do you think the Soldiers themselves can do in order to
ensure that the second half continues with the same momentum?
A. “I think our Soldiers need to continue to do the things that
they are trained to do, that they are executing so absolutely and incredibly well. “

“I would like to see them do a few other things a little bit better.
We’ve had a series of negligent discharges with weapons. I’d like to see that clear itself up through individual self-discipline.
Safety is always foremost in my mind, particularly as you get closer to the halfway point and the end of any deployment. We can’t take safety for granted. The Soldiers need to continue to be more aware of themselves and their surroundings and not make safety related mistakes.
I’d also like to see us spend just a little more time thinking about the things that we are so well-prepared to execute here, that easily could become eroded over time. What I am talking about is the understanding of the rules of engagement and the escalation of force procedures, to reacquaint ourselves with that so that we’re ‘steady, boy, steady’ as we take this thing through the second half of this operation.”
Q. “When you came to Iraq, what was your view of Baghdad and the
area that the division would have responsibility for?
A. “When we came to Iraq, I definitely had a view of Baghdad having
served here previously for a year as a deputy commanding general with 1st Cavalry Division. I had the same campaign strategy that then Maj.
Gen. Pete Chiarelli was executing. I felt though that coming in this time security had improved and we just might have a better opportunity to capitalize on such a strategy, which is essentially maintain security, turn that into sustainable security, and then try to work the governance, the economic lines of operation to enhance security to give the people a vote on their future. I knew coming in that we’d have conditions that the Cav had presented for us to make those adjustments and that’s exactly what I’ve seen here. We’ve further enhanced the physical security factors here. We’ve taken the attack levels down significantly and now we’re working hard to get the governance and the economics pieces bigger than what it was. For example, for years here they always wanted to reopen, remodel, and revitalize what they call Airport Road, but they’ve never been quite able to get that going. Well, we’ve been able to get it going with a $60 million Iraqi investment. As we speak today, major reconstruction going on will be completed in the next six months. Major projects like that I see coming alive now through the sweat of our Soldiers working with the government and the locals as a team, as a partnership to get this done. It’s very positive.”
Q. You said that 1st Cav. had left you a sort of step you could
build on. Do you feel that you have left another step, or a couple of steps, for them to build on when they come back?
A. “Absolutely; I feel that the Soldiers of this division, the
magnificent men and women of this division, have poured their hearts out into this environment and made a big step forward in the right direction. We’re almost to the point where we can say we have achieved sustainable security. Now, I’m not ready to say that. But we are at the point in time where we’re able to make some adjustments and further capitalizing on not only the success of the 1st Cav., but, I think, the even greater success the division has achieved. I look forward to handing over to the 1st Cav., when we conduct a relief-in-place here in about seven months, with the conditions handed back from us even better to put them in a position to maybe just put the final touches on this.”

Q. When we leave Baghdad, what do you envision as being some of the
things that the division will have accomplished?
A. “I hope that when we leave Baghdad, the people will have a smile
on their faces when you mention the great United States Army’s 4th Infantry Division, and they’ll have a good feeling in their hearts because they will know that we will have brought them progress and a better future.”
Q. What has been your greatest experience with the troops since you
have been here?
A. “My greatest experience happens every day. I wake up a division
commander of the greatest little division in the Army, surrounded by men and women I love who have volunteered to serve their country. They’re the best, just the best this country has to offer and I work for them, I serve them, and it can’t get any better than that. It just can’t. I have been gifted with the sacred responsibility of command leadership of this special division. It’s not something I take lightly. I reflect on it probably a half-dozen or more times a day and when I hit my knees at night I thank God for this opportunity and I pray that I didn’t squander another day being selfish, that instead I invested another day in service to our Soldiers and, maybe more important quite frankly, to our families back home. It’s a great honor to be a part of this division and to be a leader here and I think all the leaders here would tell you that the greatest honor, the greatest piece of this whole deployment, is the opportunity to work for a Soldier.”

Q. Earlier, you said “Soldiers are our nation’s credentials.” What
does that mean?
A. “I believe that the basic fundamental right of every citizen is
to pursue ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ and I believe that the conditions to do that rests on the shoulders of our nation’s defense, on the ability of the United States Army, on the ability of this division ... At the end of the day the bottom line is, if all else fails, you can always rely on duty, honor, country. I find that in one person and one place and that is the American Soldier, the credential, the Nation’s Credential.”
Q. At the halfway point, is there anything that you would like to
say to the Soldiers out there in the 4th Inf. Div.?
A. “I’d like to thank our Soldiers and our families for their
absolutely incredible performance of duty. I know it’s been a great sacrifice. We’ve lost way too many Soldiers. One Soldier is way too many. We’ve had way too many Soldiers wounded. One Soldier wounded is way too many.
“Years from now, I think we will all thank God that we were a part of this division, that we were blessed to be a Soldier, to be forward in this great fight against this evil force, this force of terrorism. I promise you, years from now, that despite the challenges, the hardships that are imposed upon our Soldiers and their families, years from now when they’re older and sitting around a table on Thanksgiving or Christmas and everyone is all talking around and over each other, your thoughts will draw back to your time with 4th Inf. Div. when you were deployed during a Thanksgiving, during a Christmas.

When you choose to speak around that table, everyone will go silent because they will want to hear what you have to say because you served, you fought. You’re forever a member of the brotherhood and sisterhood of war and the 4th Infantry Division, something no one can ever take away from you and it’s something years from now you will thank God you were a part of.”
Q. Is there anything you would like to cover concerning the fact
that we’re halfway there?
A. “We are halfway there, but what does halfway mean? It means it’s
the halftime of the ballgame. There are some good second half teams and there are some bad second half teams. We’ve got to be a great second half team. The second half, we’ve go to be our strongest. We’re going to face not only provincial elections here in Baghdad; we’re also going to face the national election of the United States of America. I anticipate the return of some form of militia that is going to challenge us in Sadr City and throughout Baghdad. And I anticipate that although al-Qaeda is definitely fractured right now, there will be some sort of effort on their part to challenge the security here. The only thing that’s certain is there are people out there who wish to take away what we have achieved to date. On the other hand, there’re people out there, people here in Baghdad, who want to move ahead with their lives. These are two forces, those who are voting for tomorrow and those who are voting for something in the past, and that’s ignorant, that’s evil, and we’re in the middle of that. We’re trying to pull this thing in the right direction and we are moving in the right direction, but it’s not over until it’s over. We’ve got to churn each and every single day. We can’t take anything for granted. We cannot relax. We cannot take a deep breath and pat ourselves on the back. The enemy expects us to do it because that’s the American way.

We have got to dispel that. We’ve got to show this enemy something different. We’ve got to show them that we’re that wolf growling at their door, and we’re not going to walk away, we’re not leaving. We’re here to stay. We put our stake in the ground. It’s not coming up until the time we pull it up and hand it over to the 1st Cavalry Division. But until then, persistence, patience, and perseverance. We’ve got a hold of the enemy and we’re not going to let him go, and we’re going to protect these people and we will succeed. We are winners, no doubt about that.”

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