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Gunnery Sgt. Arthur Avitia, II, CMOC operations chief, 5th CAG, (center) checks ID cards on March 26, 2005 while Chief Joe Segar, Navy Seabee project manager (left), waits to escort an interpreter and an Iraqi.

Reserve Marines Reach out to Fallujah

Story by Capt. Julianne H. Sohn

CIVIL MILITARY OPERATIONS CENTER, Fallujah, Iraq -- The line of local Iraqis sometimes stretches to the main street in front of the Civil Military Operations Center, but the Marines, soldiers and sailors here do their best to address their needs.

Gunnery Sgt. Arthur Avitia, II, a Flagstaff, Ariz., resident and the CMOC operations chief, 5th Civil Affairs Group, greets everyone at the door with a smile.

“I’m like the ramrod during working hours,” said Avitia, 40, who is a reserve Marine and is an Arizona Highway Patrol trooper. “I greet people at the hatch, direct them to meetings and set things up. I kind of do a little of everything.”

The CMOC is a hub of activity on most days. It is a meeting hall for local leaders, an identification badge center and a venue where residents go for help. Recently it was the site of the first compensation payments for those whose homes were damaged during Operation Al Fajr.

“There are important meetings going on here with people trying to govern their city,” said Avitia, who has spent a total of 22 years in the Marine Corps. “It shows how important the CMOC is to help rebuild the city.”

Avitia supervises the day-to-day operations at the CMOC and works with Marines like Lance Cpl. Jacob H. Rodrigues-Pereira, 23, a Springfield, Va. resident.

Rodriguez-Pereira, who joined the Marine Corps due in part to September 11th, stands near the door one morning and is one of the Marines who provides security for all the people using the compound.

“We get to have a lot of interaction with the local Iraqis,” Rodrigues-Pereira, who majored in Economics at George Mason University prior to deploying with 5th CAG. “We get to meet the movers and shakers.”

Like most of the Marines at the CMOC, Rodrigues-Pereira said he enjoyed working here.

“I think everyone is learning a lot out here,” he said. “I’m even learning a little Arabic.”

The Marines get lessons in Arabic by interpreters like Raad Yousif, 49, a Baghdad resident. Interpreters facilitate the work between the Marines, soldiers and sailors at the local Iraqis.

“We can’t go the next step until we work together,” said Yousif, who learned English by watching movies.

And that is what Lt. Col. William M. Brown, CMOC director, 5th CAG, is working to build.

“The people of Fallujah wouldn’t come here if they didn’t think we would listen, help them and keep the safe,” said Brown, 40, a Milford, Ct. native.

Brown is responsible for all the CMOC does and fails to do and his biggest focus is on safety for those in the building and being available to the locals. Iraqis have a clear sense of structure because everyone belongs to a tribe and so if someone wants something done, they go straight to the chief, said Brown.

Lt. Col. William M. Brown, CMOC director, works on his computer in the center's Combat Operations Center.

“We want them to have direct access to me, because they understand our rank structure,” said Brown, who spent about seven years on active duty and is now a reserve Marine and assistant U.S. Attorney.

And many people do come to Brown to help solve problems and to get things done. He attends all the major meetings and works with the local Iraqi community leaders such as sheiks, lawyers, judges and government officials to rebuild Fallujah.

But before all this happens, the local Iraqis have to come through the front door where Avitia stands like a traffic cop at the gate with the Marines of 5th CAG.

“The CMOC is a focal point,” said Avitia. “It brings together people to rebuild the city.”