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The Dutch Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kunduz teaches Afghan students 'rule of law'.

4/20/2009 - FORWARD OPERATING BASE LION, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- A team of nearly 80 individuals, including 25 Airmen and 12 Soldiers, come together to perform a critical mission in Afghanistan's Panjshir Province. All of the servicemembers come from different walks of life, but now come together to help the impoverished province. One year ago, Staff Sgt. David Nielsen was repairing military vehicles at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M.; U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel Kelley was an Army Reserve Soldier serving with the 426th Civil Affairs Battalion in Upland, Calif.; and Lt. Col. Mark Stratton was serving with Joint Headquarters at the...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE GARDEZ, Afghanistan, Feb. 27, 2009 – A trip along a bumpy, dirt road deep into the eastern Paktia province gives way to village after village of mud and straw “qalats,” or fortresses, that have served as refuge for generations of extended Afghan families. Children come out to greet a U.S. military convoy hauling members of the Paktia Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan, Feb. 11, 2009. As the convoys roll through the villages, children run to greet them giving them the “thumbs up” sign. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

FORWARD OPERATING BASE GARDEZ, Afghanistan, Feb. 27, 2009 – Few improved roads across the rural and mountainous Paktia province all but stop any real efforts for development here. Semitrucks hauling goods to eastern Afghanistan travel along the narrow and dangerous “K-G Pass” that works its way through steep mountains and connects the Khowst and Paktia provinces. A $100 million, 62-mile improved road, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, is slated to start construction through the pass this summer. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. A 25-mile trip to a northern...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 21, 2009 – Members of the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province visited Zirat village this month to assess the effectiveness of completed projects and to develop ideas for future initiatives. Members of the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province inspect the condition of a canal used by villagers to irrigate their wheat and corn fields in Zirat, Afghanistan, Jan. 18, 2009. NATO photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Until February of last year, the main income for the villagers was earned by harvesting poppy. Since the eradication of poppy production, the villagers...

FORT BRAGG, N.C., Oct. 24, 2008 – Humvees rolled along a gravel road cut through the center of the small village made up of nondescript, cinder block buildings, stones crunching under their large tires. Army Sgt. Arnulfo Gomez, an infantryman with the Illinois National Guard’s B Company, 1st Battalion, 178th Infantry Regiment, pulls security duty outside a building as other team members play Afghan tribal leaders during a training scenario at Fort Bragg, N.C., Oct. 9, 2008. Gomez and his unit are a part of a provincial reconstruction team scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan’s Khowst province. U.S. Army photo...

CAMP STRIKER — Operation Marne Piledriver kicked off in earnest April 15 with an Iraqi Army-led air assault and clearing operations in the Mahmudiyah area, about 26 kilometers south of Baghdad.Although the IA has led air assaults in the past, this particular mission showcased its abilities. “This … showed that Iraqis are securing the area, ridding it of the last bastion of [al-Qaeda in Iraq] and simultaneously injected projects, both US- and Iraqi-funded, such as clean water, agricultural and other business opportunities and [aimed] to grow the trust in Iraqi Security Forces,” said Col. Dominic Caraccilo, commander of 3rd Brigade...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan, May 21, 2008 – Every day, provincial reconstruction teams roll out of bases in Afghanistan with mixed bags of services and skill sets, bound by the necessity of their mission. Army Sgt. Al Walkowiak, a tanker from West Pittstown, Pa., smiles as he hands out a bag of candy to children in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province. Walkowiak is part of a provincial reconstruction team charged with working with the Afghan government to improve the quality of life for Afghan citizens. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Paul David Ondik, 82nd Airborne Division  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON — A Military Transition Team stationed at FOB Falcon, about eight kilometers south of Baghdad, plays a rigorous and important role in rebuilding the capacity of Iraq. The MiTT helps the Iraqi Army to operate in an optimal manner, said Sgt. Chad Highland, Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). Soldiers from the MiTT, assigned to 1-33rd Cav. Regt., teaches a five-day Iraqi basic training course using U.S. Army knowledge converted into something Iraqi Army Soldiers can execute. “It’s basically a course to teach basic...

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE ADDER — Members of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, Australian Army and Italian Provincial Reconstruction Team of Dhi Qar Province teamed up to train members of the Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police and 4th Military Academy on international law and human rights recently. A group of 18 Iraqi servicemembers attended a 10-day course to learn basic principles of the Law of Armed Conflict, human rights, police ethics, and their legal obligations and responsibilities while conducting operations. “The course was focused on training legal advisors and operators for the Iraqi Security Forces,” said Capt....

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — More than 1500 Iraqi farmers attended the Mada’in Agricultural Technology Exposition in al-Wahida, Iraq, recently. The expo resulted from efforts by the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team, attached to the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, to revitalize farming and agribusiness. The 3rd HBCT ePRT leaders emphasized agricultural initiatives in the qada to provide long-term economic stability in the primarily agrarian district east of Baghdad. Fifty-eight percent of the Mada’in citizens are farmers, and another 15 percent are in farm-related businesses, said Col. Bud Jameson, from Sherwood, Ark., ePRT deputy team leader. During the expo, Baghdad PRT...

Going to work these days for Martin Miller means carpooling in an armored Humvee. He's also adjusting to life thousands of miles from his Kansas home - living in an 18-foot-by-10-foot room in a dusty city nearly 150 miles north of Baghdad. Not that Miller minds. The Hutchinson resident has gotten used to the way of life. It's all part of his new duty to bring a war-torn Iraq into the 21st century. "I'm part of something that is making a difference," Miller said Monday during his short visit to Kansas. "There's a little bit of progress going on, and...

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2008 – U.S. led economic-development programs for Iraq’s Wasit province are based largely on providing local farmers with the tools and knowledge needed to build profitable and sustainable agribusinesses, an official said in a teleconference with online journalists and “bloggers” yesterday. Wasit’s provincial council estimates that agricultural production accounts for about 30 percent of the province’s economy, and the major industry there is agricultural processing, said Mark Wilt, the U.S. Agency for International Development economic representative for the Wasit provincial reconstruction team. Iraq’s agricultural provinces suffered when farmers lost heavy subsidies they received under Saddam Hussein’s regime,...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — The Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team leader and 214th Fires Brigade commander briefed the Wasit Provincial Council last week on reconstruction efforts in the province. More than $38 million dollars have been spent on those efforts in Wasit province since Jan. 1, 2007 by Coalition forces and the PRT. “We have done a lot as a team, and it has been a team effort,” said Col. Peter Baker, the 214th FB commander, “but there is more to do so that essential services are available to all. “We are working on developing processes and systems to put...

My work here in Kirkuk, Iraq is falling into a normal routine that I, and probably everyone else who is aware of my current U.S. State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) employment, would not have thought possible. The normal Iraqi work week is Sunday through Thursday. On those days, I travel to the KGB (Kirkuk Government Building) to work with local Iraqis. Friday and Saturday, I stay back at the PRT office to work with all of the PRT staff. The PRT staff is divided into several smaller sections focusing on infrastructure, rule of law, education, economics, agriculture, governance and...

3/25/2008 - BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- When Airmen of the 819th RED HORSE Squadron here were faced with a $400,000 challenge in March, they used ingenuity to save the Air Force hundreds of thousands of dollars. A water-well drilling rig was shipped from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., in September 2007, but a series of incidents prevented the rig to arrive as scheduled and it was damaged. After reaching a port in Pakistan, the rig was loaded onto a flatbed trailer to be hauled to Bagram Air Base, but en route the driver got the 34-ton piece of...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE JALALABAD, Afghanistan, March 4, 2008 – Task Force Pacemaker engineers expanded housing for the Jalalabad Provincial Reconstruction Team recently. Soldiers from 1st Platoon, 76th Engineer Company, Fort Knox, Ky., build a Southeast Asia-style hut in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Task Force Pacemaker provides quality of life and force protection facilities for coalition forces in Regional Command East. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. First Platoon, 76th Engineer Company, from Fort Knox, Ky., led by Army 1st Lt. Scott Williams and Sgt. 1st Class Patricia Thompson, built two new B-huts and a Southeast Asia-style hut and...

FOB KALSU — Sixteen prominent Sayifiyah landowners gathered with members of the Baghdad-7 embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team (ePRT) at Patrol Base Whitehouse in Sayifiyah, Feb. 28, for a farmers’ union meeting. As security returns to the region, Coalition forces are focusing on restoring the agriculturally-based economy in Sayifiyah. Efforts include reviving the poultry and beekeeping industries, increasing the productivity of vegetable farms and creating new industries like fish farming and chicken processing plants. All of these efforts were discussed at the meeting, the union’s third gathering. "We're here to restore the area to the farming community it once was," said...

Paul O'Friel has simple advice for his Iraq Provincial Reconstruction Team: "Eat the goat, drink the tea," he says. It's O'Friel's way of instilling in his team members the importance of engaging with the local leaders and people in an area of Iraq pulverized not by IEDs, but by poverty and thirst. "There are some villages here that look like they came out of the Middle Ages," O'Friel told me in a phone interview from Iraq yesterday morning. As head of the PRT in Al Muthanna province, O'Friel is in charge of bringing this forgotten realm of a broken country...

KAPISA PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Hundreds of community members and several civic leaders attended two ribbon-cutting ceremonies Nov. 27 in Kohistan II, recognizing the completion of months of work and cooperation between the Bagram Provincial Reconstruction Team and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Kapisa Gov. Kwaia Kholam and Army Capt. Jordan Berry, Bagram PRT Kapisa Civil Affairs team leader, presided over the ceremonies officially opening the Dihat Dasht Girls School and the Jamalagha Basic Health Clinic. According to Berry, the Dihat Dasht Girls School is an eight-classroom facility that will accommodate approximately 160 students. The $150,000 facility includes four faculty offices,...