CMO Soldiers Help Rebuild City

Courtesy Photo | First Sgt. William Doherty, Headqurters and Headquaters Battery, 1st Battalion, 10 Field Artillery Regiment discusses the location of a new rebuilding project in Baqubah, Iraq with the mayor, Khalid Al-Sanjey while Capt. Neil Orechiwsky looks on August 10 in at the mayors office in Baqubah, Iraq.  

IRAQ

08.19.2005

Courtesy Story

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Sgt. Daniel W. Bailey
22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

FORWARD OPERATING BASE GABE, Baqubah, Iraq -- Task Force Liberty Soldiers are working with Iraqi officials in Diyala Province to plan and produce projects that will improve the Iraqi peoples way of life.

Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery Regiment, are helping to bring fresh drinking water, consistent electricity, paved roads and sewage systems to the city of Baqubah and its suburbs.

"We're really focusing in on high-impact projects, 'said Capt. Neil Orechiwsky, Civil Military Operations Officer, 1-10, and a native of Philadelphia, Penn.

The projects that are being focused on are those that will impact the largest number of citizens such as getting fresh water and sewage service to those who have never had them before, he said.

Orechiwsky said he meets several times a week with political, economic and security leaders as well as Iraqi security forces to discuss project ideas and issues.

"It's really an open-forum discussion," he said. "We come with what we see as our priorities and we try gather what their priorities are and hopefully try to make those two goals meet in the middle so we're both accomplishing what we see is going to lead to success for the people of Iraq."

Khalid Al-Sanjey, the mayor of Baqubah, said he is happy and excited to have the Coalition Forces working with him in the effort to repair and fix up the city.

"The work being done is very good because the people who work these issues, they work hard to help the Iraqis," he said. "Now we are working to (provide) fresh water to the city of Tarear. Now for the first time, the citizens will have fresh water in summer time."

In the past most of the ideas for projects came from Coalition Soldiers but Iraqi officials are now learning what important projects are and how to get them accomplished, Orechiwsky said.

"The military and Americans tend to think in a point A to point B fashion. We have a real set idea for where we want to go, what we want to do, what our long-term goals are and what are the short-term steps to get there," he said. "As time has gone on, even in the last several months, a lot of political leaders have grasped a lot of these concepts and they're taking more and more of a lead in taking ownership and responsibility for these ideas and also for their outcome."

Staying out of the spotlight and keeping these projects Iraqi-driven is something the Coalition Forces are trying to do so the people can see their government working for them, Orechiwsky said.

"We try and stay low visibility on the coalition side and let the Iraqi leaders put an Iraqi face on these projects," he said. "They go out there and make it happen and it's been working."

Working so well, according to Orechiwsky, that, "we've got $30 million in reconstruction projects done already this year, an additional $30 million in funds obligated towards 90 projects in various levels of work and another 20 projects waiting for funding and another 20 that we're drawing up the plans for."

The mayor said he has high aspirations for Baqubah and believes that with the help of Coalition Forces his city will prosper.

"My temptation through my job is to see my city blossom into a beautiful city where all the people live in peace and it will be the center that all the people will look at," said Al-Sanjey. "It will be green and peaceful, because this city deserves from the leadership to have it renovated and projects done for it."

• Date Taken: 08.19.2005
• Date Posted: 08.19.2005 18:36
• Story ID: 2801
• Location: IQ