Tinker Airman earns Bronze Star training Iraqi police, then returns to Oklahoma recruiting Published April 10, 2009 By Howdy Stout Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., -- The attacks were constant. Iraqi insurgents used heavy mortars to keep Forward Operating Base Phoenix in Baghdad under fire. The attacks came unexpectedly, killing and wounding coalition soldiers. "Day and night," explained Capt. James D. Couch. "It was common, I'd be in my trailer and I'd hear the alarms go at two in the morning and the trailer would be shaking. That's how close it was. We took a lot of incoming that first three months." It was an unusual place to find a recruiting officer. On detached duty from the 349th Recruitment Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, the security forces specialist was assigned to help organize training efforts for the Iraqi National Police, training thousands of recruit policemen and earning a Bronze Star in the process. "I was surprised," he said. "I'm honored that the people I was working for thought I deserved it. I didn't do anything heroic. I was just doing my job." Serving as the National Police Training Coordinator for the Iraqi National Police, Captain Couch assisted in establishing training camps for police recruits in addition to overseeing ongoing training of more than 16,000 current police officers. "Captain Couch assumed the daunting task of assisting in the daily planning, coordination and implementation of a retraining program for the National Police," reads his Bronze Star narrative. "The effort directly reoriented the National Police towards traditional police functions and developed the service into a professional special police organization..." As a captain, and the sole Air Force officer in the program, Captain Couch coordinated the establishment of training camps, with an emphasis on teaching the Iraqi National Police how to teach its own recruits. "Everything to do with training," he said. "We worked 14-hour days." Because of the demands made on Army manpower and the Air Force's similarity in security training, one of the advisor billets is assigned to the Air Force. Civilian advisers were also used to augment the uniformed instructors. But when Captain Couch arrived last March for his year-long tour of duty, police training had ground to a halt. "It was like a ghost town," he said. Captain Couch and his colleagues worked with Iraqi leadership to re-establish the training camps, advising them on subjects from how to handle the intake of up to 2,000 recruits at a time to how to feed those same recruits. The advisors also developed the training curriculum, instituting a 9-week basic training course with another four weeks of specialized training. Serving Iraqi policemen were also given advanced training in conjunction with Italian Carabinieri, Italy's national police force. "It was a big job," he said. "Everything that everybody was doing there was geared to making them a better force." Captain Couch and others also convoyed to outlying training areas, journeying outside the "safety" of the Green Zone and into areas of potential hostile fire. "Captain Couch conducted more than 30 combat missions to various training sites, operating within an area of Baghdad repeatedly attacked by insurgents with fire," reads his award citation. Despite a chronic shortage of trained police and the lack of a tradition of trained police, Captain Couch said he could see visible results of the training efforts. Iraqi police were becoming more aggressive in their sweep-and-clear missions, with ordinary Iraqis feeling safe enough to venture outside their homes. "You'd see children playing in the streets," he said. "You didn't see that before." Despite cultural differences, Captain Couch said the Iraqis appreciated the training and were eager to take on as much responsibility as they could rather than continuing to rely on foreign assistance. During his tour, Captain Couch said he formed many friendships with the local populace. "They are worth fighting for," he said. In addition to his training duties, Captain Couch and others engaged in humanitarian missions, such as delivering toys to local children. And while at FOB Phoenix, he organized aid and litter details to help the wounded. Although Captain Couch deployed to Turkey at the end of the first Gulf War and to Egypt for Operation Bright Star, this posting was unlike any he had experienced before. Captain Couch worked closely with retired U.S. law enforcement personnel as well as counterparts from Coalition forces and the U.S. Army, Navy and Marines. "I learned a lot," he said. In August, Captain Couch will take that experience and his positive attitude to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. as a security forces Operations Officer.instructor. On arriving in Iraq, Captain Couch said he told his commanding officer that he just wanted to do a good job and to make a difference. Captain Couch said, "He just patted me on the back and said, 'Don't worry. You will.'"