Photo By Sgt. Amanda White | A U.S. Soldier working with C Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment speaks...... read more read more
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By Spc. Amanda Morrissey
5th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
HAWIJA, Iraq – U.S. Soldiers lined up behind a humvee as evening set in the city of Hawija, while a bank of speakers atop a vehicle blared out a message in Arabic, announcing the presence of the troops. Anxious locals peered out from gates and windows.
The Soldiers of C Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Division and Iraqi army soldiers conducted an early evening mission, meeting with local residents in a specified neighborhood in order to map out the area and hand out school supplies to the children.
"The mission at hand is to just get a good message out to the people of Iraq about our presence there and also to get a good grasp on who lives where in the city of Hawija," said Sgt. Jason Bonney, a squad leader for the team in charge of providing security on these missions.
The Soldiers perform what is known as soft knocks, versus a more aggressive approach to enter the houses. They announce their intentions to enter houses over a loud speaker, asking the residents to unlock their front gates and doors and wait inside their homes for the U.S. Soldiers to come to them.
"It's a different tempo than what we originally started with and what the unit before us was operating under. But now we realize it's better to put out our message in a kind of soft knock form," said 1st Lt. Gregory Luttman, the platoon leader in charge of this mission.
"That's basically what we do, just come in real soft and try to engage the people, not frighten them, and set them at ease so that we can effectively get our message out and get information from the people," Luttman continued.
The troops visit every house in the designated area in the early evening, shortly after the curfew. This plan of action allows them to meet with the residents while they're still awake and in the safety of their own homes.
"We avoid having to engage the insurgents on their terms where, in the daytime, they're mixed in the crowd and the civilian populace can get caught in the middle," Luttman said. "We lessen the collateral damage and make it a more comfortable environment for the civilian populace. It's a good way to engage the people without coming through and getting them caught in the middle."
The troops talk with the people about their concerns about the violence in the city, and let them know what they can do to help the Iraqi security forces (ISF) combat the insurgency in the area.
They also take the opportunity to reassure the locals as to what the goals of the coalition forces are in their city. They want to let the residents know that when incidents occur, such as mortar fire and IEDs, the coalition forces are there to help them and make them safer, said Bonney.
"We're getting our message out there, which is we're here to help, and we want to restore ISF control of security in the city itself so that daily life for these people can go back to being as normal as it possibly can," Luttman said. "We're actually here to build their city back up with them in the lead."
| Date Taken: | 03.19.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 03.19.2007 11:54 |
| Story ID: | 9489 |
| Location: |
| Web Views: | 165 |
| Downloads: | 38 |
This work, U.S. Soldiers Knock Softly to Make a Big Impact, by SGT Amanda White, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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