New life for Trenchard Lines

Photo By Spc. Andrew Slovensky | A handler with security personnel for the U.S. Consulate in Basrah plays fetch with a K-9 on Contingency Operating Base Basra, Oct. 9. The military support element turned the soccer field on Trenchard Lines, a living sustainment area, into a fenced in area for the dogs to get exercise.  

BASRA, IRAQ

10.12.2011

Story by Pvt. Andrew Slovensky 

362nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq – Many U.S. soldiers and civilians serving in Iraq have inhabited Trenchard Lines, a living sustainment area on Contingency Operating Base Basra since British forces left the camp in 2009. Earlier this year, it was vacated.

The camp’s namesake, British officer Hugh Trenchard, lost a lung and was partially paralyzed after sustaining a gunshot wound to his chest during a battle in South Africa in 1900. In a bobsledding accident during his recovery in Switzerland, Trenchard regained the ability to walk unaided and went on to become Marshal of the Royal Air Force. Today, he is known as the father of the Royal Air Force.

To properly house security personnel for the U.S. Consulate in Basrah, Trenchard Lines needed its own miraculous recovery to make it livable once again. Army Reserve soldiers with the 414th Civil Affairs Battalion, 352nd Civil Affairs Command, worked with contractors to bring new life to the formerly vacant camp.

“We needed to figure out a way to resuscitate it and to have it operational as a safe environment for … people who are providing crucial services to the consulate,” said Piper Campbell, consul general for the U.S. Consulate General in Basrah. “We wouldn’t have been able to stand that camp up, to have people move in there and live in conditions of security and safety and all the necessary sanitation … if it hadn’t been for the work of the military support element.”

The offices and containerized housing units, or CHUs, of Trenchard were missing air conditioners and furniture, or didn’t have power, said 1st Lt. Raymond Bixler, officer in charge for the military support element for the consulate.

“We were able to … start sweeping the trash out and hauling it off,” said Bixler. “We would clean the CHUs out and install [air conditioners]. We fixed the lights and put in new smoke alarms, doing anything we could do to make the camp livable.”

The soldiers and contractors installed new latrine and shower facilities, found equipment for the gym, turned empty offices into an Internet café and recreation room for camp residents, and installed outdoor lighting. They turned the soccer field into a fenced in playground so the handlers of working dogs could give their furry companions proper exercise.

“Whatever needed doing, that’s what we did to get this camp stood up,” said Staff Sgt. Carl Pascocello, camp manager for Trenchard Lines. “When we came here, Trenchard was literally falling apart. It took some sweat and some love, but we put it back together again.”

• Date Taken: 10.12.2011
• Date Posted: 10.14.2011 03:09
• Story ID: 78467
• Location: BASRA, IQ