Photo By Staff Sgt. Edward Siguenza | On the morning of Iraq's historic national parliamentary elections, Cpt. Arthur...... read more read more
BAGHDAD — As millions of Iraqi citizens voted in their nation's parliamentary elections, following multiple morning attacks intended to scare them from going to the polls, Guardsmen worked together to help ensure that this historic vote was brought to the attention of the world and a world leader was brought to the people casting votes.
On March 7, the headquarters and headquarters troop of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment and the 301st Chemical Company secured the escort of Ad Melkert, the special representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations for Iraq, to a voting site in Central Baghdad.Along with Melkert, the 278th and 301st escorted news crews from CNN and from the popular Middle East news agency, Alarabiya.
As the outgoing unit, re-deploying after nine months of conducting personal security escort missions in Baghdad, the 301st considered this mission as their most significant. Cpt. Gary Barr of Evansville, Indiana was the senior officer from the 301st directly participating on the election security convoy. For him, the mission was historically important. At the end of the mission brief, before the start of the mission, Cpt. Barr told the group of 301st and 278th Soldiers, "Today, you are making history. This will probably be one of the most important days of your military career. You will never forget this day."
To ensure that this historically important mission did not fail, the day before the election, the 301st and the 278th traveled to the polling site the SRSG would visit. During this reconnaissance, they made sure their routes were correct and their security plan made sense.
This preparation paid off. On the day of the elections, the Guardsmen linked up with the SRSG's security coordinator, and escorted him and the media to the designated polling site without incident. Once the SRSG spoke to Iraqi voters and poll workers at the voting site, the 278th and 301st escorted him to a press conference near Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission. Safely escorting the SRSG to his press conference marked the end of the 301st's mission in Iraq and the beginning of the 278th's mission.
This security mission to support Iraq's national elections was the conclusion and culmination of a 10-day Relief in Place between the 301st Chemical Company and the Troop from the 278th. For approximately 10 days, the Soldiers of the 301st Chemical Company worked closely with the Soldiers of the 278th to ensure they were prepared to successfully takeover responsibility for securing the transport of the Baghdad Provincial Reconstruction Team and officials of the United Nations Assistance Mission to different Baghdad venues.
Although the Soldiers in the two units began operating together in Iraq, Cpt. Arthur Richards, commander of the Troop from the 278th, began communicating with the commander of the 301st, Cpt. Travis Huber, when Huber began mobilizing his company twelve months ago.
"Cpt. Huber has been great. I contacted him when he was at Camp Shelby, and stayed in touch the whole time. I've not been blindsided by anything," said Richards."They've gone out of their way to make the transition easy. I could not ask anything more from them."
Capt. Gary Barr, the senior officer from the 301st who participated in the security convoy, is confident that the 278th will continue providing outstanding support to UNAMI officials.
"We are here for them. My group did a lot of good over here, and I'm positive the 278th will do a fine job," said Barr.
Staff Sgt. Michael Dement, a 301st veteran of more than 100 personal security detail missions in Baghdad, reinforced the readiness of the 278th and the importance of the United Nations mission.
"Today's mission was the most important mission I've been on, during this deployment. The 278th did a very good job. It was a great way to end our tour," said Dement.
| Date Taken: | 03.27.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 03.27.2010 10:22 |
| Story ID: | 47308 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 328 |
| Downloads: | 197 |
This work, Guard units support each other to support Iraqi democracy, by 1LT William Marquez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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