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| Security a priority along with improving essential services. |
| By Spc. L.B. Edgar, 7th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment |
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BAGHDAD, July 2, 2007 — Only one man knew what was coming. From afar he completed the circuit and braced for the blast’s impact. None of the Iraqis going about their daily life were ready and the sound cut through the hustle and bustle of daily life on the streets of the eastern Raabi neighborhood in the Iraqi capital’s Adhamiyah District.
The following day, paratroopers of Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, nonchalantly passed the twisted metal once a vehicle June 29. The day’s mission was not to dwell on yesterday’s vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack, which claimed the life of one Iraqi policeman, wounded two others and injured another two passersby. Rather, the paratroopers gauged the attitude of locals and randomly searched vehicles for weapons, kidnapping victims or illegal identification cards, said 1st Lt. Jeremy Tillman, the leader of the battery’s 1st Platoon. Tillman, a native of Walnut Ridge, Ark., estimated that questions would be answered within 48 to 72 hours. “We’re still milling over the ‘who and why’ and how to prevent it from happening again,” the 25-year old Tillman said. “It was an array of eight to ten mortars in the backseat of a vehicle. The vehicle was in that position for 30 to 45 minutes before it was detonated. It was remote-control detonated, so the trigger man had to have line of sight. No trigger man was caught or found.” The attack did not come as a surprise to the paratroopers, who have come to expect the unexpected, he said. “We all know it’s just a matter of time before these things happen in our sector,” Tillman said. “An insurgency (wages) guerrilla-type warfare to disrupt a good thing; a drop of oil in water that spreads.” While the vast majority of people in Raabi, a neighborhood with a mixture of Sunni and Shia, are supportive of paratroopers’ efforts to improve their lot in life, there is a minority intent on wreaking havoc, Tillman said. “You’ve got small factions here and there who are power hungry and greedy religious zealots,” he said. While one or more of those zealots lashed out with a cold and calculated attempt at destabilizing Raabi, the paratroopers of 1st Platoon are still right where residents can find them – every day with the people. Grounded paratroopers The genesis of Operation Fardh Al Qanoon brought the paratroopers of the Battalion to Adhamiyah, a volatile district of Iraq’s capital. The paratroopers entered Raabi, a neighborhood in Adhamiyah, with a heavy-handed approach in keeping with the operation’s focus of clearing neighborhoods. They captured many terrorists and insurgents before moving onto the second phase of the Baghdad Security Plan, engaging the local populace, Tillman said. “We dismounted out of the gate. We started patrolling immediately and started getting to know the local people. We’re now to a point where we know their names, we know their faces and we know their families. They trust us. We trust them,” said 1st Lt. Larry Pitts, the 2nd Platoon leader. “With the correct mentality, we can make a difference in this sector.” Though the paratroopers of 2-319th are field artillerymen, they are performing an infantryman’s job and utilize the dismounted approach to securing civilians, said Pitts, who hails from Fayetteville, N.C. |
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“We’re with the people every day; 98 percent of our patrols are dismount patrols,” Tillman said. “We’re dismounted every day. We’re good to good people; we’re bad to bad people.” Project progress: essential services While security remains a priority, improving essential services such as adequate sewage, readily available clean water and regular trash pick-up is also an important mission for the paratroopers, said Capt. Josh Richardson, Battery B commander. The battalion is using a two-pronged attack to improve essential services. Its leadership is working with the upper echelons of the Iraqi government to create long-term solutions. The Battalion subcontracted a company to place trash cans and regularly pick them up, Tillman said. Plans are in the works for two gas stations to open up in the community, he added. “We hope to get the people … essential services, such as electricity. They want essential services,” Tillman said. “All the essential services that make your hometown back in America clean, this area needs.” Besides improving the quality of life, local projects to provide essential services also create jobs, thereby pumping money into the local economy, Tillman said. Help on the way The success of 319th’s paratroopers was put on display for the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, when he visited Coalition Outpost War Eagle, the Battalion’s home June 27. Subsequently, 2nd Platoon took Crocker on a tour of Raabi’s “Fish Market.” “We took him to some of our previous trouble spots. We were able to show him the change that we’ve created over the last four or five months during the surge and some of the projects we’re working on. With his influence, we’ll be able to show the Iraqis’ progress,” said Pitts, who led the tour. “It shows the surge plan working. It’s safe enough where we can get the ambassador to come down, walk our streets, even have chai (Iraqi tea) with several of the locals.” Crocker’s visit was an opportunity for the battalion to showcase its successful dismounted approach to engaging Raabi residents. “It’s important to have somebody with that level of importance in our area, so that we can demonstrate to them that we think we have a foothold for transition. We got to show him some good things and some things that needed improvement,” he said. “Transition is the ultimate goal for us and he saw a population and a Coalition Force that are working pretty well together. We definitely have a ways to go, but the people know because we’re out there a lot walking the streets that we care about the future of this area.” |
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