DVIDS Hub works best with JavaScript enabled

Soldiers Driven to Point of Refusal

Courtesy Photo | British Lance Cpl. Neil Dicken, 42nd Engineer Regiment, Royal Engineers, Hermitage,...... read more read more

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

08.15.2005

Courtesy Story

DVIDS Hub

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq -- The weight of their body armor combined with the strain of having to lift a jackhammer over their heads makes their arms quiver like jello.
Sweat pours down their faces and burns their eyes, but they won't stop now. They can't.

One after another, they connect four-foot stainless steel rods together and drive them further below the surface. Thirteen rods and 52 feet later, they have finally reached their breaking point -- the rods refuse to be driven anymore.

The engineers assigned to Multi-National Corps - Iraq don the rod that protrudes from the surface with a custom access cover and insert a fluorescent orange sign that signifies the location is ready to be surveyed.

The team of U.S. and British Army geodetic surveyors has successfully established another reference point along the road to reconstruction in Iraq, one of many in the first Iraqi Geospatial Reference System that identifies geospatial locations using names or numeric coordinates.

Coalition and Iraqi engineers use the data collected by IGRS to create accurate maps of Iraq and safely rebuild the country's roads, bridges and pipelines.

"Establishing a geospatial reference system is the first and most crucial step to reconstructing Iraq," said Motaz Mostafa, noncommissioned officer-in-charge of one of six MNC-I geodetic survey teams and assigned to the 175th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Brigade, Fort Bragg, N.C.

The joint Coalition team began working on the project in April, which is modeled in the likeness of the National Spatial Reference System in the United States.

Geospatial reference systems have already proven to be quite effective in helping the United States and several other countries in Central and South America, Africa and Eastern Europe recover from natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. War-torn countries like Iraq require the same geospatial reconstruction, said 1st Lt. Kenneth Joyce, IGRS project leader assigned to the175th Eng. Co.

By the time the project is completed around June 2006, the IGRS will be comprised of six hubs called Continuously Operating Reference Stations and about 300 different reference points known as High Accuracy Reference Networks that are geographically located throughout Iraq.

Using Global Positioning System-based data collected by the International GPS Service and American- and British-established reference stations and networks, Iraqi engineers will be able to determine near-precise distances between two locations.

"They will be able to pinpoint a distance that is so precise, there is only a few centimeters of error if any at all," said Joyce. "When you are talking about building something as major as a sewage system, for example, having a minimal amount of error becomes rather important if you don't want a mess on your hands."

The benefits of having such a precise geospatial reference system is something that the team of IGRS engineers have already experienced first hand.

"We have been out setting up HARNs and made a wrong turn a couple times," said Mostafa. "We radio to one of our guys who are monitoring the CORS, and they tell us exactly where we are at, where we need to be and how to get there."

Since April, the American and British team has established six CORS and 69 HARNs.
While establishing the remaining 231 HARNs in as little as 10 months may seem like an impossible feat, the engineers seem confident and credits the projects success so far to their "one-team, one-fight" mentality.

"Before we started the project, we did 30 days of convoy, communications and installation training, and that's when we really came together," said Mostafa. "The first day, we had the U.S. on one side and the U.K. on the other. â?¦ At the end of the 30 days, we had a confirmation exercise, and we were no longer U.K. and U.S. We were one team -- Team IGRS -- and that's how it's been ever since.

Aside from helping Iraq take the first step toward a new future, the Coalition team has laid down the building blocks for a lasting partnership.

"I've met a lot of amazing individuals that I plan on being friends with for a lifetime," said Mostafa. "I am going to look back on this as one of the biggest achievements of my life. We'll always be the first people to make history in Iraq (with geodetic surveying), and we did it together."