The brigade commander of 3,500 Schofield Barracks soldiers in northern Iraq said U.S. forces continue to recede from the forefront of combat operations, and he expects by June to consolidate from 20 locations to eight command-and-control "nodes" with Iraqis, along with maintaining a presence on some of the bigger bases.

Col. Walter Piatt, who commands Schofield's 3rd Brigade in Salah ad Din province, told The Advertiser his main effort is building government capability in the region of 1.2 million people north of Baghdad.

"We have fought in these last few years, including the last time the (25th) Division was here, to really win the fight," Piatt said last week in a telephone interview. "Now, the phase that we're in is we have to win the peace, and that process focuses on building government capacities."

Since taking over security responsibility on Nov. 22, the brigade has had one soldier killed in action, one accidental death and about eight serious injuries — including a soldier losing a portion of his leg — that have come largely from small-arms fire or grenades being tossed at the soldiers in crowded urban environments, Piatt said.

Roadside bomb effectiveness is "drastically down" with civilian "Sons of Iraq" security forces watching the roads, he said.

The 3rd Brigade and 25th Infantry Division headquarters, with Piatt as an operations officer, returned from 15 months in northern Iraq in October 2007, and deployed again a year later.

Piatt, speaking from Contingency Operating Base Speicher near Tikrit, said 65 percent of Salah ad Din's largely Sunni population voted in recent provincial elections, the highest voter turnout in the country.

Sunni Arabs boycotted 2005 elections, but are seeking a larger stake in the Shiite-led central government.

Of coming concern is whether the Baghdad government will make good on a pledge to re-employ and re-train the largely Sunni force of nearly 100,000 "Sons of Iraq" who have been paid by the U.S. as a citizen security force.

Piatt said he started the registration process to next month begin the transfer of more than 9,000 "Sons" in Salah ad Din to the government of Iraq.

"It's a good plan. However, it is faced by a lot of anxiety by the Sons of Iraq themselves because they've done so much for the security of this province and all of Iraq, and they want to make sure they are not forgotten," Piatt said. "They are fearful they are going to be fired and not paid, which is not the plan, but they are fearful of the changes."

A Status of Forces Agreement signed with Iraq that went into effect on Jan. 1 means that Hawai'i soldiers in Salah ad Din only go out with Iraqi counterparts on missions, and with Iraqis usually in the lead.

The 3rd Brigade is matched with about 17,000 Iraqi army soldiers and 17,000 police, Piatt said. Another change has been a policy of "giving back the roads" to Iraqis, he said.

Several years ago, with a spike in vehicle suicide bombs, U.S. forces warned Iraqis to stay away from convoys with placards on Humvees. Getting too close could mean getting shot.

"We changed our movement techniques to avoid high-traffic times," Piatt said. American Humvees also have started to drive with traffic and to allow Iraqi vehicles to pass, he said.

The Status of Forces Agreement requires U.S. combat forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities by June. Piatt said he expects in June to keep the eight command-and-control centers he has now that are manned by about 30 to 40 U.S. soldiers and Iraqi counterparts, with the Iraqis being the "action arm" for operations.