Interview with Col Toby Hale

From March through August 2004, Colonel Toby Hale led a team of five mobilized reservists serving under the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team (CMATT) that was tasked with advising the commander and staff of the 3rd Brigade of the Iraqi Army. Also under Hale were two active duty Army teams and one mixed Active/Reserve team from the US Marine Corps that were to advise the various battalions within 3rd Brigade, all of which had to be stood up from scratch. In this interview, he begins by discussing the total lack of advisory-specific training he and his Taji- and later Kirkush-based team members received prior to going to Iraq. One thing Hale points out early on was that, in his estimation, CMATT wasn’t prepared to receive them. “Nobody had figured out where do the CMATT advisor teams go to get medical supplies” he said. “Where do they go to get maintenance? Where do they go to get whatever? That dynamic, at that point in time, hadn’t been worked out.” Hale then talks about the very small experience base that Iraqi NCOs had, the overall lack of interpreters, and the fact that their Iraqi brigade and battalions were seriously wanting for firepower and adequate body armor, saying at one point that he’s seen Boy Scouts with better protection. He also praises the “extreme degree of dedication” exhibited by many Iraqi soldiers and recalls the praise his own reservist advisors received from their active duty brethren. About the advisory mission in general, Hale said that, “This is a mission that everything you put into it will be paid back to you with dividends. If you put a lot into this mission, you’ll get a lot out. If you don’t put very much into it, don’t expect a lot out of it from your counterparts.”