Photo By Master Sgt. Andrew Lee | Lt. Col. Manuel Saenz, Regional Contracting Center - North commander and San Antonio...... read more read more
MOSUL, Iraq - Without being seen or heard, contracting airmen are significantly impacting the lives of U.S. Forces and the local Iraqi populace on a daily basis.
Airmen assigned to the Regional Contracting Center – North in Mosul, Iraq, spend hours drafting up contracts to ensure deployed services members have the support they need to complete their missions.
“We’re behind the scenes but a lot of the contracts we work on have an impact every day,” said Staff Sgt. William Blakeman, RCC - North contingency contracting officer and Chesapeake, Va., native. “It’s a nice feeling knowing I’m having a positive influence on the war.”
The joint team, which is comprised of airman, soldiers, sailors and civilians, has administered 459 commodity, service and construction contract actions since Oct. 1, 2010, for all of Northern Iraq including three U.S. Army brigades.
“The main mission for us here at RCC - North is to support the units embedded at Mosul and throughout Northern Iraq,” said Staff Sgt. Mark Barber, RCC-North contingency contracting officer and Medford, Ore., native. “We cover all the locations from Tikrit and Kirkuk to any outer laying forward operating base and checkpoint.”
The contracting center currently has 224 active contracts.
“We get critical services to the war fighter,” said Blakeman, who is deployed from Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. “Services range from latrine cleaning to actual construction projects. Anything under the sun the war fighter needs, we’ll get the money and find a contractor to do the work.”
As part of a contracting initiative, the team is helping stabilize the region by hiring from the community and putting money into the Iraqi economy.
“The big push is the Iraqi First program, which means we go to an Iraqi vendor to get services and supplies directly from the locals to support the Iraqi economy,” Blakeman said. “If we can boost the economy and keep people employed, it will add more stability to the region.”
The regional office has awarded more than $12.1 million in contracts and about 90 percent of the allotted funds have gone to local vendors.
“Our contracts, while that may seem small, at the end of the day are making a huge difference,” Blakeman added. “The jobs our contracts create allow families to put food on the table which in the long run will bring stability to Iraq. I think it’s moving in the right direction. It does look like their economy is growing and moving forward.”
In addition to hiring locals to do work on the base, the contracting team has helped with projects outside the gate as well. Recently completed projects include a water treatment facility and a local school.
“It’s all about giving the Iraqis the tools to build their communities,” said Barber, who is deployed from Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England. “You can see these projects improve people’s lives and that’s the amazing part. Knowing the school we helped build is allowing children the chance to go to school, which they didn’t have before, is a really awesome feeling. These are things that matter to people’s lives. It’s remarkable.”
The center is currently working on a project to pave a road from Mosul to the city’s main landfill. The team wrote a contract for workers, all Iraqi and all local, to develop the road.
“With the help of the Iraqi government, we decided to pave the road so people can travel safely,” Barber added. “When we started, it was a dirt road with potholes galore and drained toward the middle. The Iraqis designed the whole road we just provided support. It is an Iraqi project that we are just overseeing.”
Working with the Iraqi government and the local community on these types of projects will have numerous benefits and increase the future success of the region.
“The mission is twofold,” Barber explained. “We can cut down on insurgency by building better relations with the locals, and we are building up the country so they can support themselves when we are no longer here. The whole point of it is to make their lives better and give them the ability to continue that after we transition control back to the Iraqi government.”
Even as the Iraqi government continues to take control of the region, contracting officers will be working until the end.
“We will be here to provide support for as long as we can,” said Lt. Col. Manuel Saenz, RCC-North commander and San Antonio native deployed from Wright-Patterson Air Base, Ohio. “We will continue to kick out contracts and communicate with vendors to get U.S. service members what they need.”
| Date Taken: | 04.25.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.25.2011 01:09 |
| Story ID: | 69297 |
| Location: | MOSUL, IQ |
| Web Views: | 177 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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