They’re overcoming barriers to protect one U.S. and Azerbaijani troops work together at Iraq's massive and critical Haditha Dam
By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer
HADITHA DAM, Iraq — Even before Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled, U.S. military planners knew that this mammoth hydroelectric dam about 150 miles northwest of the capital was important to Iraq's future.
To prevent retreating Iraqi troops from destroying the dam and flooding the region, Army Rangers seized the site on the night of April 1, 2003, a week before the fall of Baghdad, while warplanes hammered an Iraqi army unit nearby.
Nearly two years later, as U.S.-led forces battle an insurgency that has targeted much of the war-ravaged country's infrastructure, protecting the 10-story dam that provides electricity for a third of the country remains a priority.
The job is split between U.S. Marines and a company of soldiers from Azerbaijan.
The Marines, notoriously tough in their evaluation of other military forces, say the Azerbaijanis have been impressive with their discipline, respect for authority and careful handling of their weapons.
"If the Marines are an 8, the Azerbaijanis are at least a 4," said Sgt. Refugio Llamas, 38, of San Jose. "The Iraqis, well, they're not on the scale."
The Marines, members of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Regiment, a reserve unit from Houston, provide security to the area's towns and roadways. The Azerbaijanis, in their crisp tan and green field uniforms and pith helmets, are responsible for security inside the dam and within its fenced perimeter.
Each day, the Azerbaijanis search Iraqi dam workers as they arrive and leave. Some of the workers have made their displeasure known, but the soldiers appear unmoved.
"They don't like us," said Maj. Elkhan Shalbuzov, the top Azerbaijani officer. "Our soldiers tell them nothing. We are not here to talk to Arabian people but to catch terrorists."
Since gaining independence in 1991 from the former Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has made military service mandatory for young men and sent troops to Kosovo and Afghanistan. The U.S. has responded with military aid for the nation of about 8 million people.
Haditha, Iraq's second-largest hydroelectric dam, was a showpiece for the Hussein government. The structure was designed by Soviet engineers and built by 2,000 workers from Eastern Europe. After eight years, the first phase was completed in 1984.
During construction, the course of the Euphrates River was altered and archeological sites and small villages were flooded.
Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, American officials worried that Iraqi forces would blow up the dam to swamp the region and slow the advance of coalition troops.
Officials now fear insurgents may strike Haditha to signal their determination and intimidate the populace.
No serious attempts to attack the dam have been made, though insurgents are active in the region, especially after a U.S.-led offensive in November drove many fighters out of Fallouja, 100 miles to the southeast.
Militants occasionally fire mortar shells at the dam, but the rounds fall hundreds of yards short.
A raid on an insurgent stronghold uncovered a diagram of the dam, its checkpoints and patrol routes.
Marines from the 4th Platoon of the Small Craft Company patrols the Euphrates and the dam's immense reservoir, Lake Qadisiya, in small watercraft. They recently discovered several caches of weapons and explosives along the banks of the river, within striking distance of the dam.
Days later, a squad was ambushed by insurgents while on patrol.
A lance corporal was killed and a captain lost an arm.
The river unit is constantly on patrol while the Azerbaijanis staff the lookout towers.
The two military units live on opposite sides of the dam but share a chow hall and Internet room.
The Azerbaijanis are polite but reserved, and there's little interaction between the two groups, as the chasm of language and culture appears to be too wide.
On the Marine side, signs of Texas are plentiful: a state flag above the dam and a "Texas Born, Texas Proud" sticker on the gun turret of a Humvee, among others. The Azerbaijanis watch their national equivalent of MTV.
The Americans and Azerbaijanis must use stairs: 290 of them in the structure.
Like much of the dam's internal operations, the elevators do not work.
Haditha shows the deterioration common to Iraqi infrastructure during the final years of Hussein's rule. Walls are moldy, some cracked and crumbling, and offices and workspaces smell of sulfur.
By one account, the structure was functioning at 30% capacity when the Army Rangers descended and rounded up the workers.
A $12-million improvement project was administered by Colorado-based CH2M Hill and overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers. Two turbines were rehabilitated and by last June, the dam was functioning at capacity for the first time since 1990, providing 660 megawatts of electricity.
The presence of the Azerbaijanis allows the Marines to launch missions in the countryside without worrying that insurgents might use their absence to attack the dam.
"No problem, we are here," said Azerbaijani Lt. Rashad Garayev.
New Radios Improve ANA Communications and Enhance Military Operations
Story and Photos by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Mack Davis, Office of Military Cooperation – Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan—The Afghan National Army can now talk freely—from Kandahar, to Kabul, to Herat—thanks to recently received communication equipment that replaced Soviet-era radios and systems.
Implementing the new communications system was a complex task. Attempting to set up and manage all the different aspects of the country-wide tactical communication network was even more difficult, requiring the procurement and deployment of various equipment types; installation into different environments; and training for administrators, operators and maintainers.
The Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan assigned that task to its communication section in Kabul.
According to Sgt. 1st Class David Miller, an Army Reservist with the 3rd Battalion Signal Command, Anderson, Ind., and head of the OMC-A tactical communication section, “We are on track with what we have to complete. This is a challenge, but of a good sort. I thought I would be repairing radios here, and was surprised that I was honored to have such a high level of responsibility.”
In the past the ANA relied on older, Soviet-style radio equipment, the R130 and the R123 for high frequency and very high frequency communication. They also used the PRC-77—a man-pack short-range VHF radio the United States deployed during the Vietnam War era.
The difficulty was finding someone to conduct the training and maintain the radios once deployed.
According to Capt. Stephen Robinson, Alabama Army National Guardsman and embedded trainer during Coalition Joint Task Force Phoenix II, the Romanian Army used to provide some communications training and repair at the ANA’s Pol-e-Charki site.
“The biggest challenge for them was making daily repairs on the Soviet radios while trying to conduct training at the same time,” said Robinson. “Repair parts were almost non-existent, and the U.S. embedded trainers had never seen the radios before.”
Mixing Afghan soldiers, U.S. trainers, Romanian instructors, several interpreters and Soviet radios presented some challenges.
The first mission for the OMC-A communications team was to find a company that had some experience with similar circumstances. They assembled a summary task list of equipment and initiated a bid process in the United States. U.S. company Datron World Communications Inc. won the contract to provide communication equipment and training to the Afghan Army.
OMC-A chose four types of radios and repair part kits to give the army both long-range communication capabilities and squad-level abilities. The Datron RT7000 long-range high-frequency radio and the PRC-1099 man-portable HF radio will replace the R130 Soviet-style radios. These radios have the capability to communicate between Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Gardez and back to Central Corps in the Kabul area.
The Datron PRC-1077 man-pack radio and the PRC-1070 hand-held radios will be very high frequency and will complement the U.S. PRC-77. The ANA will use these radios for platoon and squad-level communications.
Maj. Brad Letner, Materiel Officer for OMC-A, said the U.S. government has spent $46.5 million dollars on radios and $1.7 million on repair parts for the Afghan National Army. The British Government provided an additional $6 million dollars.
Each of the repair part packets was put together to give the radios a 10-year serviceability.
After the equipment started arriving in Afghanistan it was time to begin the training process.
Robert Fable is the project coordinator for Datron in Afghanistan. A retired Marine master sergeant in the communication field, Fable has worked for Datron for four years.
Fable’s first visit to Afghanistan was in March 2004, when he set up Datron’s program. His first step was to develop administrator-level training, which focused on how to program the radios and properly deploy them for optimum use. Training included choosing the appropriate antenna, setting up communication networks and procedures for handling radio traffic. He also initiated operator-level training, primarily a non-technical approach to equipment use.
At the same time Fable was trying to get his training program off the ground, the U.S. embedded trainers and the ANA were deploying throughout Afghanistan.
Said Fable, “During the day I would teach one-week classes to the ANA on how to use the different types of radios, and at night I’d meet with the ETTs to bring them up-to-date on the equipments’ capabilities.” One key difference between the older radios and the new Datron equipment was the new radios are digital.
Fable continued to work almost around the clock in Afghanistan until June 2004, training 100 ANA soldiers and many U.S. advisors. While “a lot of the Afghan men do not have a formal education,” said Fable, “They are really sharp and pick up on the equipment. They have a genuine interest on learning the radios so they can do their jobs.”
Because of the tremendous growth in the Afghan Army, Fable has returned again to train the ANA soldiers. During the next five months, Fable will concentrate on intermediate and depot-level maintenance courses.
To maintain the equipment throughout its lifespan, the Afghan Army and the Ministry of Defense will have to be able to troubleshoot and repair the Datron radios. Saad Forouk, Afghan Ministry of Defense Communication Officer, said, “I welcome the training we are receiving. It will be my office that will be responsible for the fault identification and advanced trouble repairs, and I want to learn all I can while the instructor is here.”
The ANA has used the radios in Afghanistan since March 2004, allowing Fable to concentrate repair training on faults appearing in the field environment. He has prepared the ANA to sustain the equipment in the future, through train-the-trainer programs. While the Ministry of Defense will provide some future training, future communication mobile training teams from the United States will include classes on the Datron radio as part of their Signal Course.
Whether calling in reports from Kandahar to the Central Corps in Kabul, or calling for additional troops when quelling a riot in Herat, the Afghan soldiers will have the equipment to enable their efforts to provide peace and security to the people of Afghanistan.