Task Force Konohiki had one of the most important missions among the jobs performed by Hawai'i National Guard and Reserve soldiers in Iraq this year.

The task force of 32 soldiers — about 17 of whom were from Hawai'i — helped train the Iraqi Army 4th Battalion north of Baghdad to "stand on its own, so we can go home with honor," Lt. Col. Steve Hawley, Konohiki's commander, said in late June.

The training is central to the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. And President Bush recently said that "as Iraqis stand up, we will stand down."

With the Konohiki mission over, Capt. Christian Knutzen, who trained Iraqi scout platoons, said by e-mail that as "far as basic training and soldiering, the 4th Battalion is doing great."

Knutzen, 30, who works for Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm in Honolulu, said platoons began patrolling on their own in July without American assistance. Three companies have performed independent operations since September, he said.

That means they plan, coordinate, rehearse and conduct the missions on their own.

"The 4th (Battalion) is out there, on a regular basis, interacting with the people, asking the hard questions ... and now the people go more to the (Iraqi Army) instead of the flashy Americans," Knutzen said.

But he also said "there is still more training to be done at the higher levels," and that is "a lot harder than training a company commander on tactics and techniques."

Konohiki, based in an above-ground ammunition storage bunker next to a swamp at Forward Operating Base O'Ryan, recently turned over its mission to a group of Marines and moved to Logistics Support Area Anaconda about 10 minutes to the north in preparation for the return home.

More than 1,500 Hawai'i National Guard and Reserve soldiers are winding down operations in Iraq. The first of the departing soldiers will leave Iraq for Kuwait shortly after Christmas and head to Hawai'i soon after.

Knutzen, who has family in Anahola, Kaua'i, used to live in Manoa, and said he misses daily rains.

The training of Iraqi security forces is a key measurement of progress in Iraq, and proficiency has been cast and recast in a confusing array of definitions to the point the Pentagon even admitted earlier this month that it had done a bad job of explanation.

Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, last week said one Iraqi division, four brigades and more than 30 battalions are "in the lead," meaning they do the planning and conduct the mission with U.S. forces assisting.

"I think you'll see the smaller units (and) the brigades coming online in a fairly large way by the summer," Casey said. He added, "I think the divisions, you'll see in the lead here, probably in the late fall and end of the year. So we're making very good progress there."

There are 130 Iraqi battalions. In September Casey said one was able to operate independently of U.S. forces.

Knutzen, a National Guardsman who was tasked with guarding a State Department compound in Baghdad, in early June moved to Task Force Konohiki and patrolled with Iraqis, sometimes without U.S. forces, leaving him vulnerable.

"They want to make Iraq a safe, secure peaceful place, too," Knutzen said. "They hate the bombings (and) click their tongues when they hear about more people dying, so they are good to me, I would like to believe, because I believe in them and give them the best I can."

The force of mostly Shiite soldiers commanded by a Sunni colonel was not entirely trusted by all task force soldiers, in part because an American lieutenant with Konohiki's predecessor unit was intentionally shot in the head and killed by one of the Iraqi soldiers.

Knutzen had a close call when an Iraqi accidentally fired a round over his head from about 10 feet away.

Still, as he prepares to leave Iraq, Knutzen said many of the Iraqis have become brothers in arms and trusted friends.

"I have never seen a current Iraqi soldier run from a fight," he said. On the contrary, when word came of an attack, "jundes" (Iraqi privates) would pile into trucks and blaze off to find the fight.

"Granted, we are in the countryside, the enemy is small cells of cowardly (roadside bomb) placers, financiers, or scouts, but the (Iraqi Army) on the line are confident in their patrol teams, confident with all the bullets they now have, confident they will kill the enemy if they can just find him."

More than 15 Iraqi soldiers with the battalion had been killed by early July because they worked with the Americans, and the battalion intelligence officer's head was cut off half a year before.

"In my opinion, we turned the Iraqi Army into an effective fighting force. They had the people, we had the ways and equipment, and together we made an army," Knutzen said. "Supporting that army will require incredible effort, on all parts, and it will be hard."

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.