Young Lieutenant brings fresh look to Northern Range

Photo By Staff Sgt. Sj Duga | Thanks to the tenacity of this young Lieutenant, Ashely Henderson, 549th Military Police, the Iraqi police have a firing range they can use with pride. She takes time get greet some young children in Iraq, Iraq.  

IRBIL, IRAQ

05.29.2006

Courtesy Story

345th Public Affairs Detachment

Irbil, Iraq (May 5, 2006) -- Thanks to the tenacity of a young lieutenant with just over two years of service, it took only two days to get the ball rolling to repair and redevelop a Iraqi Police training range in Irbil, Iraq

1st Lt. Ashley Henderson, training operations liaison officer, 549th Military Police, and native of Savanna, Ga. has been an officer in the Army for just over two years. But it didn't take her long on her first deployment to see a problem with the training conditions for the IP in the northern region of Iraq.

"I'm very proud of the range," said Henderson. "Before we got here, the local police had not received much help, and they were very frustrated from the lack of assistance from Coalition forces."

According to Henderson, she originally came out with the local police chiefs and decided that the range was still an excellent site for training, and the decision was made to fix it up.

Within two days of arriving in Irbil, Henderson arranged a meeting with local officials and the ministry of agriculture to obtain bulldozers and equipment to start rebuilding the range.

According to Henderson, in just the first two weeks of rebuilding the range with the assistance of the Kurds, they not only fixed it up, they actually built a whole second side of the range, and were ready for use.

"The range is now used as the primary training site for all weapons exercises," said Henderson. "Since completion, we have turned over control of the range to the IP's who man it 24 hours a day and maintain their own check points."

"It is accomplishments like completing the range and being able to provide quality training to the Iraqi's," said Henderson "It makes me glad that I joined the Army."

• Date Taken: 05.29.2006
• Date Posted: 05.29.2006 10:16
• Story ID: 6549
• Location: IRBIL, IQ