Interview with MAJ Mark Holzer

UNCLASSIFIED A project of the Combat Studies Institute, the Operational Leadership Experiences interview collection archives firsthand, multi-service accounts from military personnel who planned, participated in and supported operations in the Global War on Terrorism. Interview with LTC Wayne Sylvester Combat Studies Institute Fort Leavenworth, Kansas UNCLASSIFIED Abstract In charge of the 439th Military Police Detachment and deployed in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM from November 2003 to January 2005, Army Reserve LTC Wayne Sylvester, while in country, ran the Baghdad-area detention facility known as Camp Cropper. In this capacity, he was responsible for all the former top Iraqi regime officials in U.S. custody, the so-called Deck of 55 people that included Chemical Ali, Tariq Aziz, Doctor Germ, as well as Saddam Hussein himself. The principal challenge with guarding such High-Value Detainees, Sylvester said, was the “non-doctrinal nature of it.” Army doctrine, he observed, “does not adequately cover what you do with former regime members when you go into a country. Because of that, there were a lot of unique tasks and requirements.” Special security measures, accommodating interrogators and other agencies that needed access to detainees, dealing with the International Committee of the Red Cross and with prisoner complaints and protests were but some of these. In this interview, Sylvester also discusses the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib Prison, what he feels went wrong, and what measures he took to ensure that Camp Cropper remained a model detention facility. “There is no question in my mind,” he said, “that the adversary can’t hold a candle to us over there.” What’s paramount, though, is “the information side of things and our ability to present our side of the picture so that it’s believable to the people we’re trying to help.” Turabian: Sylvester, Lieutenant Colonel Wayne. 2005. Interview by Operational Leadership Experiences Project team with Combat Studies Institute, digital recording, 20 October. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. [Digital recording stored on CD-ROM at Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.] MLA: Sylvester, Wayne. Personal recorded interview. 20 October 2005. [Digital recording done by Operational Leadership Experiences Project, Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, KS, in possession of Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, KS]. APA: Sylvester, Wayne. (2005). Personal interview with the author on October 20, 2005 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. [Digital recording done by Operational Leadership Experiences Project, Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, KS, in possession of Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, KS]. Government Printing Office: Transcript. Interview of Wayne Sylvester, Oct. 20, 2005; Operational Leadership Experiences Project/Combat Studies Institute; Records of the Combat Arms Research Library; Fort Leavenworth, KS. [Online version on MONTH DATE, YEAR, at http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/contentdm/home.htm]. UNCLASSIFIED Interview with LTC Wayne Sylvester 20 October 2005 JM: My name is John McCool [JM] and I’m with the Operational Leadership Experiences Project at the Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. I’m interviewing Lieutenant Colonel [Vernon] Wayne Sylvester on his experiences during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. The time is approximately 1100 hours, today’s date is 20 October 2005 and this is an unclassified interview. Before we begin, sir, I’d like to say that if you feel, at any time, we’re entering classified territory, please couch your response in terms that avoid revealing any classified information. And if classification requirements prevent you from responding, simply say you’re not able to answer. Could you please start out by saying what unit you were serving with during your OIF deployment? WS: I transferred into and took command of the 439th Military Police Detachment in Omaha, Nebraska, a Reserve unit that was identified to support OIF II operations. That occurred in November of 2003 and we subsequently mobilized through Fort Riley and deployed to the Iraqi theater. JM: What was the time period that you were deployed? WS: We were mobilized in November of 2003, deployed through 2004, returned to the mobilization station in January 2005. The unit was demobilized in February and returned to Reserve status at that point. JM: Could you tell me about the 439th MP Detachment – its equipment, its size, its capabilities, its chain of command? WS: The 439th is one of the six – now eight as two more were added to the force starting in FY 05 – camp liaison detachments in the Army inventory. The wartime mission of those units is actually for liaison with the [South] Korean Army, to coordinate with established prisoner of war camps in that theater of operations. The METL [Mission Essential Task List] tasks, if you will, were – or still are focused – on that wartime mission. The organization and structure, it’s a 12-man Enemy Prisoner of War/Civilian Internee detachment, primarily focused on checks and inspections of detention operations for compliance with Army regulations, the Geneva Conventions and other international policies or guidance. As such it’s fairly lightly armed; it is lightly armed, with individual weapons only. Two Humvees for transportation and it derives most of its support from the unit to which it’s attached, whether it is an MP brigade or some other organization at corps-level. JM: Maybe we could proceed from generally a chronological perspective. Could you describe the circumstances surrounding your mobilization order: where you were located at the time, when it was received? WS: Personally or as a unit? Operational Leadership Experiences Project, Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 3 UNCLASSIFIED JM: Personally and then as a unit. WS: I had just left the 89th RSC [Regional Support Command] provost marshal’s office and transferred up to the 530th MP Detachment in Omaha, which was a new CLD [Camp Liaison Detachment] being organized. The area support group commander, under which we were organized, which was our higher headquarters, gave me a phone call one night and said, “Hey, your sister unit, the 439th, has been activated to support OIF II and is short on people. Will you go?” I agreed and as a result, I transferred into the unit at the end of November along with seven other personnel from around the 89th RSC, from around the region, to fill out the unit and prepare for deployment. Fortunately, a lot of the soldiers that transferred in, I’d worked with previously as part of the provost marshal’s activity in the 89th. I knew them personally and had a pretty good working relationship with them. Transferring seven of 12 people to a detachment while trying to prepare for movement, going through the personnel records and getting all the checks done – it was a pretty hectic time. As far as the Unit goes, we were mobilized in November of 2003 at our home station in Omaha, Nebraska. We conducted approximately two weeks of training and preparation in Omaha before we moved to mobilization station at Fort Riley in December. We conducted pre-deployment training and validation for deployment at Fort Riley from mid-December to mid-January. The 439th deployed from Fort Riley in mid- January 2004 via Forbes Field in Topeka to Kuwait. We conducted additional training and preparation for movement for 10 days in Kuwait while at Camp Udairi. Once validated for forward movement by the III Corps Deputy Commanding General, the unit divided. Sergeant Major Carpenter, Major Napier and I flew to Baghdad on a C-130 and arrived at Baghdad International Airport around 2100 on 17 January 2004. Major Kuhlenengel, the Executive Officer, and the rest of the unit moved north in the Unit’s two Humvees in a consolidated convoy. The main body arrived without incident at Camp Cropper, our FOB [Forward Operating Base], at 1100 on 20 January 2004. The unit conducted its assigned mission at this location until 1000 on 13 January 2005 when all unit members flew back to Kuwait for redeployment. The 346th CLD arrived 4 January 2005 to conduct mission training and transfer of authority prior to our departure. We departed Kuwait on 17 January and returned to Fort Riley to complete demobilization training and processing prior to returning to home station in Omaha on 21 January. JM: Was there any particular training you received before you deployed? WS: We went through the theater-specific training requirements identified by CFLCC [Coalition Forces Land Component Command] as necessary for units to deploy into theater, as well as the mandatory weapons qualification, NBC [Nuclear, Biological and Chemical] certification, etc. We went through that whole regimen of training both at home station and then at the mobilization station. We did a larger percentage of the theater-specific training at the mobilization station at Fort Riley: convoy movement, FOB security, FOB force protection and things like that were done there. JM: How would you assess that training? Was it adequate? WS: At the time, not having a frame of reference, it seemed good. It definitely allowed us to form as a unit. With only 12 guys trying to do everything to get ready to ship out, as well as get trained and get certified, validated for deployment, we met ourselves coming and going often. Operational Leadership Experiences Project, Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 4 UNCLASSIFIED A lot of the training, looking back on it, was more refresher-type training. Close-quarters combat, individual movement techniques and a lot of those type basic-level training events, as opposed to the more – if you want to call it “collective tasks” that we would end up doing in Iraq. We really didn’t train towards what you would call the METL or the mission. As a matter of fact, we didn’t find out specifically what the mission was going to be until we hit the ground in Iraq and only partially received the information while we were about a week out at the mobilization station.

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