Last week, I went on a site visit to a project south of Mosul. The nearest town, Al Shura, is about 7 kilometers away from this water compact unit (WCU) that is being built. Although the site is only about 30 miles south of Mosul, the drive lasted about 2 hours. The trip there was worth it. This WCU is going to provide clean drinking water for 5 small villages in the area. The WCU draws water from the Tigris River, purifies it, and then pumps it into the water distribution network for the villagers. While we were visiting the site, there were some local kids swimming in the Tigris.
Of course after inspecting the status of the construction project, we still had a 2 hour drive to get back to FOB Diamondback. My Project Engineer for this site, Gene, didn’t enjoy the ride at all. He was feeling a bit quesy by the time we were done. In the picture above, Gene is standing with his back toward the camera. He is wearing his Desert Combat Uniform (DCU) with body armor and kevlar helmet. When we go outside the wire, the Department of the Army (DA) civilians wear the DCUs; while we are on the FOB, they generally wear civies. Gene has been working for USACE for over 44 years now. Gene’s an inspiration. He’s pushing 70 and volunteers to deploy to Iraq!
I went on another mission to Dahuk. That sounds a lot cooler than saying I took a trip to Dahuk. BG Walsh, the commander of the USACE GRD was visiting my office as part of his farewell tour. BG Walsh is my bosses boss. BG Walsh leaves command next month. As part of his visit to my office, I escorted him up to the Dahuk office to visit a couple of projects. In the morning, we looked at two schools that are currently under construction. Then we visited the governor of Dahuk. Actually, BG Walsh and COL Pfenning, the Commander of GRN (my immediate boss) met with the Governor. I waited in the hallway with the security detachment. After that meeting, we went to lunch at the Zheyan Hotel in Dahuk.
Our host for lunch was the Deputy Governor for Dahuk, Gurgis Shlaymun. He is on the left side of the photo below. BG Walsh is in the middle, and on the right of the photo is Engineer Masood, one of the Project Engineers who works in my Dahuk office.
Mr. Shlaymun is an Assyrian Christian. In his conversation with BG Walsh, he made reference to the second coming of Christ. It was very interesting listening to his conversation.
Life outside the wire is very different!
On Monday, I took my first trip outside the wire. This means that I left Forward Operating Base (FOB) Diamondback for a mission. The target for this mission was Dahuk, a town of about 500,000 in northern Iraq. Dahuk is about 30 miles south of Turkey and feels to be about a million miles away from the rest of Iraq! I spent the day visiting various project sites that are in my area of responsibility. That evening, I went out to dinner at the Malta Restaurant in Dahuk. Here’s a picture you won’t find in just about any other report on operations in Iraq!
From left to right: Peshmerga Guard, Glenn Myrick (Project Engineer), SSG Gene Weil (NCOIC Erbil Office), Aziz (Contractor), Me, Riza (Contractor), Gee (my right hand man), MSG Curt Kaseman (NCOIC Mosul Office)
Riza has a family owned company that provides support to my project office in Dahuk. Aziz is one of Riza’s brothers. There are 7 brothers and 6 sisters in their family. When Riza’s company was awarded the contract with USACE, Aziz was living in Canada. He returned to Dahuk to run the contract because he is fluent in English. In addition to providing all life support for the Dahuk office, such as renting a house for office and living space, Riza’s company also coordinates the security guards for Dahuk. The guards are members of the Kurdish Army and are called Peshmerga.
To put it mildly, Riza is very well connected. Riza is always arrmed with at least two handguns. He knows every important person in Dahuk. Every few minutes, Riza would offer to get me whatever I needed. I never asked for any details on this offer! At Malta Restaurant, we were Riza’s guests. The owner of the restaurant came out to greet Riza personally and to make sure that everything was good. At the end of the meal, after drinking our traditional glass of chai tea, the owner insisted in giving us a tour of the restaurant. Here I am at the end of the tour with the owner.
