Photo By Sgt. David Hodge | First Sgt. Patrick Gongora, first sergeant for Company D, 404th Civil Affairs...... read more read more
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By Sgt. 1st Class Brent Williams
1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division-Baghdad
FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq — The Civil Affairs Teams of Company D, 404th Civil Affairs Battalion, attached to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, are working to break new ground in the Rashid district of southern Baghdad.
The civil affairs mission for the U.S. Army Reserve unit, deployed to Forward Operating Base Falcon in support of the "Raider" Brigade, is to conduct civil military operations, said Maj. Mike Brockway, commander, Co. D, 404th CA Bn.
"It's a catch-all for just about everything we are doing these days here in Baghdad and Iraq to legitimize the local government, increase their ability to provide essential services, and govern themselves within a self-reliant economy to set the conditions for a transition of the responsibility of Iraq to the people of Iraq," said Brockway, a U.S. Army Reserve civil affairs officer from Monroe, N.Y.
One of the main efforts of the 1st BCT CA Teams is to work with the local governance to take care of the needs of their citizens, said Brockway, who annotated significant progress in Baghdad compared to previous years.
The CA teams still advise commanders in prioritizing needed projects based on operating budgets, said Brockway; however, he said the responsibility is placed squarely upon the neighborhood and district leadership.
In comparison to his deployment to Baghdad in 2004, today's beladiyat, or local district leadership, accomplish projects and make progress on their own initiative without necessarily the support of the coalition forces, he said.
As a result, Brockway said that he sees the civil military operations shifting toward public information in efforts to educate Iraqis.
"The battalions and the brigade and the Infrastructure Coordination Element Team are spending all sorts of money to hit key problems, such as electrical, water and sewer," he said, "but once it percolates down to the individual citizen, they still have problems."
Instead of working through their local leaders, often Iraqis who find the neighborhoods or communities without power or water when the systems break down, will attempt to circumvent the problem, tapping into other water lines or bootlegging electrical power, which taxes the networks and causes the systems to fail further up the line, he explained.
"Where once they had Saddam, who might have provided for them, now the onus is upon the Iraqis to employ civic responsibility to take care of what has been provided to them," Brockway said.
As a CA company commander, Brockway said that he sees the importance of educating community leadership in the Rashid district's neighborhood and district councils to work with their constituents to make a change to the lifestyle and its mindset.
"At this stage of the game, the Iraqis have to take care of themselves, whether it's the government, the military or the police they have to stand on their own," he said.
The process will take just as much time as oversight, added Brockway, who works as a systems engineer for a major communication's company when not on duty.
As the security situation continues to improve throughout Baghdad, Iraqi security forces are increasingly taking the lead in military and security operations, to include civil military operations, said Brockway.
The Iraqi national police in the Rashid district have developed a relationship with the local populace to the point where the local citizens trust their security forces enough to help keep criminals and their weapons off the streets, he said.
"The biggest change [to operations] is in what our particular skill sets are looking at in terms of security, looking at what other CA companies are out there doing: training ISF, taking local NPs and training them to do our jobs, and the national police here actually understand the value of it," Brockway explained.
"We are training shurtas [policemen], training officers and enlisted how to conduct CMO and why it is important," he said said. "Every shurta needs to understand that the problems of the people are the problem of his people."
Attached to the 1st Special Troops Battalion, 1st BCT, 4th Inf. Div., the company has more recently focused its efforts into training Iraqi NPs and ISF on civil military operations, working with leaders to identify civil affairs representatives, shurta who take on the added responsibility as an additional duty, said Sgt. 1st Class Norberto Flores, civil military operations center noncommissioned officer-in-charge of tracking the five CA teams that support the "Raider" Brigade.
"First we showed them basic civil affairs doctrine, and then we have taken them out and did projects, such as cooperative medical exercises, and basically having them hand out school supplies and doing basic assessments as far as infrastructure is concerned," said Flores, a U.S. Army Reservist from Albany, N.Y.
The CA teams show the Iraqi law enforcement agencies how to coordinate with existing agencies, governmental and nongovernmental agencies to get problems solved at their level of operations, he said.
The intent is to build the ISF civil affairs capacity to cement the IPs and NPs role as authority figures in the local communities and neighborhoods, explained Flores.
"If the community trusts their security forces, then I think that goes a lot further than handing out a [school bag]," Flores said.
The role of the CA Team has not changed much during the past five years, said Flores.
What changed from previous operations is the level of involvement from the brigade combat team and its organic units, he said.
In recent years, the brigade combat team and its maneuver units increased their involvement in the CMO process taking more responsibility at the lower levels, said Flores.
"At this stage, I think the maneuver battalions understand civil affairs so much better now that they are out there doing CMO every day on their mission, which, in turn, makes our job a lot easier," he said. "The Army's just doing a better job with CMO."
From the perspective of the civil affairs teams, the platoon leaders and Soldiers are increasingly engaged in non-kinetic operations and have dedicated their efforts to building a rapport within the neighborhoods and communities; while in the past, CMO was strictly a command priority, said Flores.
As security improved through the years, so has the willingness of local governance to represent their citizens and provide constituent services for their neighborhoods and communities, said Maj. Felix Acosta, civil affairs officer, assigned to the 404th CA team working with the 1st BCT's Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team.
Felix and his team of civil affairs Soldiers are partnered with the 1st BCT EPRT to improve civic capacity for the approximately 1.6 million people of the Rashid district. The CA Soldiers are force multipliers for the EPRT concept, said Acosta, who added that the company brings a wide array of skills and experience to the brigade.
"We are Soldiers," he said. "We are warriors first; however, we have a skill set that is more in mind with civil society and its related issues."
Civic capacity is the ability of a society of people to organize itself in a civil structure that is representative of the communities and neighborhoods, said the U.S. Army Reservist from Philadelphia.
Keeping the public informed and making the people aware of the function of the local governance is the key to the success of the ISF's and CF's efforts to build upon civic capacity, explained Acosta, who has more than 15 years service as a Pennsylvania State Trooper.
"We are operating on the ground level with the neighborhood and district councils, but ask the guy on the street what is going on, he is not going to concern himself with the national level strategies," Acosta explained. "The people are more interested in someone who is going to work for their problems, their neighborhoods, work for them."
The communities must understand that as the government of Iraq is working to restore essential services and improve living conditions for the people of Baghdad "that there is not a lack of planning just a lack of communication," he said. "The people out there are out there doing their job, but unless that plan is shared with the people, they think that no one is trying to work on their behalf – or there is no plan."
The team is currently working on the creation of an operating radio station at the Rashid District Council Hall in Doura, where the district leadership will be able to get their messages to the people, said Acosta.
"This will allow the local leadership to develop project prioritization and communicate essential services issues and civic events, community news and an emergency broadcasting system," explained Acosta. "It is another way for transparency to be shown in government.
"We are looking to get things operational in the next month or so, once we receive all the proper approvals," he said.
Stationed out of Fort Dix, N.J., the 404th CA Bn. is part of the 353rd Civil Affairs Command, United States Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, currently deployed in support of MND-B and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
| Date Taken: | 12.06.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 12.06.2008 06:02 |
| Story ID: | 27256 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 367 |
| Downloads: | 269 |
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