Neighborhood advisory council returns to Hateen Headquarters in Western Baghdad

Neighborhood advisory council returns to Hateen Headquarters in Western Baghdad
Black Anthem Military News
By 1st. Lt. Brian Cooke, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment
Jun 30, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Encouraged by improved levels of security, a western Baghdad neighborhood advisory council, or NAC, decided to return to its former headquarters in Hateen June 23.

Hateen, a neighborhood in the western Baghdad district of Mansour, established a NAC during a 2004 initiative by Coalition Forces to improve local governance. The Hateen NAC originally held its meetings in their purpose-build NAC Hall, but moved to the larger Mansour District Advisory Council Hall when violence escalated in their neighborhood last year.

In February, Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment, attached to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, assumed control of Hateen as part of the greater Baghdad Security Plan. The battery's constant presence on the streets has quelled violence in the neighborhood, according to their commander, Capt. Brian McCall, of Junction City, Kan. McCall has attended every NAC meeting since arriving in Hateen and made bringing the meetings back to the neighborhood one of his top priorities. The Hateen NAC returned to its former headquarters last Saturday.

The Hateen NAC is chaired by Mohannid al-Saadi Abbas, and has three representatives, Hadi Zaid Hamza, Hassan Jafer Choban, and Abdul Karim Hussein Elwi. The four NAC members met with McCall June 23, along with his Iraqi Army counterpart, Maj. Muhammed of 2nd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Infantry Division, and had what McCall described as an extremely positive meeting.

"The NAC enjoyed being back in their old building," McCall said, "and were telling old stories about it."

The NAC members discussed a number of infrastructure improvement projects and a program to hire more workers in Hateen. More importantly, the Hateen NAC decided to permanently move back to their original headquarters. They also started to design a plan to expand the Hateen NAC Hall and add a park for children on the NAC grounds.

"This meeting was entirely NAC-driven," McCall said, impressed with the focus of the meeting. "This has been a welcome change to the sometimes reluctant pace of Iraqi politics."

Joint Military Seminar Held In Baghdad

Joint military seminar held in Baghdad
Media Newswire
Black Anthem Military News
By 1st Lt. Brian Cooke, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery
Jun 28, 2007

BAGHDAD - Battalion leadership from the U.S. and Iraqi armies held a leadership seminar focusing on joint operations and battle staff operations June 23 and 24.

Senior leaders from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, the "Falcon" battalion, visited Camp Liberty to meet with the senior leaders of Task Force Patriot, the 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery.

The two battalions are partner units operating in the western Baghdad neighborhoods of Hateen and Yarmouk. Falcon and Patriot battalions patrol together on a daily basis and the senior leaders from both battalions have been meeting weekly since April to discuss operations at Joint Security Station Torch in Yarmouk. However, this was the first chance for the Iraqi leaders to observe the Patriot headquarters in action.

Col. Ali Al-Obaydi, commander of 2/5/6 IA, brought with him his executive and operations officers, and his top noncommissioned officer.

The 2-32 FA's executive officer, Maj. Jim MacGregor, led the formal portion of the seminar, briefing the Iraqi leaders on the composition and function of the Patriot staff. MacGregor focused on the staff's planning and targeting process, highlighting how the process supports the battalion commander's ability to make timely and informed decisions.

Once the formal briefing was over, Ali and Lt. Col. Mike Lawson, the Task Force Patriot commander, led an open discussion on the major challenges facing the units in their mission.

Lawson then took the Iraqis on a tour of the Task Force Patriot Tactical Operations Center. The tour gave the Iraqis a chance to see the way in which the battle staff tracks the battalion's operations and how the staff integrates all of its digital assets to provide an accurate picture of the battlefield to the commander.

"We're all soldiers, regardless of the flags we wear on our uniforms," said Lawson. "We're working together day-in and day-out to defeat a common enemy, and today was simply a great opportunity to remind ourselves why we're here in the first place."

Fixing Anytime, All the Time

Fixing Anytime, All the Time
2BT Newsletter: Daggers Edge V1, Iss16
SGT 1Class Gary Sarapa
June 27, 2007

The motto of the Maintenance Platoon of Golf Company, 610th BSB, which supports 2-32 Field Artillery is, “We fix anytime, all the time.” It is a motto by which every Soldier in the platoon lives. They know that their way of supporting the war is ensuring that all of the equipment used by the “Proud Americans” is not only fully mission capable, but to high operational standards as well. The platoon itself is a miniature maintenance company, capable of performing field level maintenance on every piece of equipment owned by 2-32 FA. It is comprised of an automotive section, ground support equipment (GSE) section, service and recovery (S&R) section, communications and electronics section, armament section, and a maintenance control section.

During the past month alone, the automotive section has put in over 200 man-hours, bringing most deadlined vehicles back to FMC status the same day. They work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When the call comes in that a broken vehicle is returning from a patrol, the parts, tools, and mechanics are all standing by, waiting for the vehicle, ready to pounce on it like a NASCAR pit crew. The section also provides a three-man team with a wrecker and contact truck each week at Joint Security Station Torch. The forward team repairs equipment utilizing minimum resources until it can be brought back to the Forward Operating Base. They also provide welding and lift support for JSS improvement, as well as maintenance and repair of the generators on site that provide the JSS with power.

With the hot temperatures of late, the GSE section has also stayed busy repairing and recharging 14 vehicle air conditioners, earning the GSE section sergeant the nickname “Mr. Freeze” from the Soldiers in the battalion. He is the only air conditioner mechanic by MOS in the platoon, but he has ensured all of his Soldiers are crosstrained to provide seamless support to the Proud Americans and keep them cool. They have recently started replacing all of the front and rear evaporators in our battlehardened M1114 fleet, making a significant improvement in their cooling efficiency.

The S&R section, besides providing the recovery and lift capabilities for the battalion, has made its biggest impact on the battalion performing annual services on the battalion’s vehicles. Over the past month, they have completed services for ten vehicles, with an average turn-around time of only 24 hours each. This performance is impressive because, according to the Maintenance Allocation Chart, it should take them close to 37 hours each. This quick turn-around allows a vehicle to get back in the fight with the assurance that it is in the same shape as when it rolled off the showroom floor. A key part of the S&R section are the welders who have fabricated anything the battalion has asked for from warning light and pope glass brackets to crew-served weapons stands at the JSS.

Besides the vehicle services, there is also the requirement to maintain night vision devices, weapons, and communications equipment and this is where the C&E and Armament shops jump in to do their part. The C&E section inspected, purged, and repaired over 40 NVG during platoon services and the armament shop inspected, gauged and repaired over 60 individual and crew-served weapons. In their “spare time,” the C&E shop installed MP3 players into our vehicles’ public address systems so the platoons can transmit messages during their patrols.

The speedy repairs accomplished by all of the sections in the Maintenance Platoon could not be accomplished without the parts provided by the Maintenance Control Section. The parts specialists are constantly on the road, requesting and picking up parts from every warehouse on every FOB on the entire Victory Base Complex. They have already logged hundreds of miles without even leaving the wire.

Baghdad Residents Say Electricity, Water as Important as Security

Baghdad Residents Say Electricity, Water as Important as Security
By Margaret Besheer Baghdad
Voice Of America News
GlobalSecurity.Org
26 June 2007

The deployment of 28,000 additional U.S. troops to secure Baghdad is now complete. The troops began arriving in February, and have been focusing their mission on clearing troubled neighborhoods of al-Qaida and illegal militias. From Baghdad, VOA's Margaret Besheer reports on one area where U.S. and Iraqi forces are working to bring security and return basic services to residents.

The streets of Yarmouk are quiet in the searing mid-day heat. This western Baghdad neighborhood is one of the wealthiest in the capital and many of its residents have fled the sectarian killings, kidnappings, and bombings that have been gripping the capital during the past 16 months.

But after four years of war, residents here complain as much about the lack of electricity and water as they do about security.

Standing in her garden, as the generator hums in the background, a middle aged mother who identifies herself as Mrs. Samir says the municipality provides only one hour of electricity each day, there is trash everywhere, and cooking gas has become very expensive. She says the long lines at gasoline stations are particularly frustrating.

"One night my son goes from five o'clock in the morning, and he is still in the station at seven [in the] evening and he did not get anything," said Mrs. Samir.

Next door at Abdul Melhem's house, his family is in mourning for his brother who gunmen shot dead two days before. He agrees basic services are in shambles.

As his eyes fill with tears he says, it is one thing to lose services, but to lose people is a different issue. He says no one is safe at home or on the street.

But Iraqi Army Colonel Ali al-Obeidi, whose unit is responsible for security in the area, along with the U.S. Army's 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery, 1st Infantry Division, says in recent weeks about 100 families have returned to the area, a sign their confidence is rising.

He says the biggest problem security forces in this area faced was from al-Qaida. But in his view, all the al-Qaida members in Yarmouk have been now been apprehended and the area is relatively quiet.

Before the surge began in February, about 1,200 U.S. soldiers patrolled the Karkh security area, which includes Yarmouk. This 107 kilometer area of Baghdad now has about 3,000 U.S. soldiers. Working alongside them are 10,000 Iraqi soldiers and police.

Captain Jason Morgan of the 32nd Field Artillery says when his unit arrived four months ago there was one road in Yarmouk where they regularly found dead bodies.

"In past three months, we have had zero body drops on that road," he said. "I would say that is a pretty good metric for success."

Yarmouk's biggest problem appears to be the neighborhoods to the west and north of it, where problems still abound.

On a recent afternoon VOA visited the local police station, which also has responsibility slightly north of Yarmouk. A few hours later, the police captain in charge was killed.

He and other officers responded to a call about two dead bodies on a street in the northern area. When they arrived the booby-trapped bodies exploded and small arms fire rang out. The captain was killed and one of his men was injured.

When VOA visited the same police station about two months ago, the captain's uncle had just been kidnapped and killed.

Yet despite the violence, Yarmouk is safer than most Baghdad neighborhoods for locals and U.S. troops. Since American forces arrived in the area in February, not one U.S. soldier has been killed.

Multi-National Soldiers Secure Vulnerable Site

Multi-National Soldiers Secure Vulnerable Site
Defend America
Free Republic
BlackAnthem Military News
By Multi-National Division – Baghdad
Public Affairs Office
BAGHDAD, June 25, 2007

Iraqi and U.S. soldiers from the Multi-National Division-Baghdad are now fortifying a western Baghdad gas station that has been the target of recent insurgent attacks in the neighborhood of Yarmouk. The gas station, which serves the residents of southeastern Mansour, has come under small arms fire and two car bombs exploded within 100 meters of the gas station in recent weeks. These attacks prompted leaders from the 2nd Battalion, 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Division and 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery to take action.

“We’ve already begun to see an improvement in the traffic flow. Black-market fuel peddlers can no longer cut in the waiting line, customers are safer, and the whole process seems faster now.” U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ryan Stidum Col. Ali Al-Obaydi and Lt. Col. Michael Lawson, who assumed command of Task Force Patriot two weeks ago, made reinforcing the gas station one of their top priorities.

“The ability of this gas station to operate free from attack is vital to giving the Iraqi people normalcy in their lives,” Lawson said. He also stressed that keeping the gas station secure is one way that the battalions are working to safeguard the populace as they go about their daily lives.

Soldiers from the Iraqi army battalion took the first step in protecting the gas station by observing the traffic patterns at the station over the course of several days, noting trends in high-traffic times and looking for possible ways insurgents might attack the waiting customers. They turned their observations over to the combined staffs of the two battalions to come up with a plan to reinforce the gas station with concrete barriers.

In one night, soldiers from 299th Forward Support Battalion and Golf Company, 610th Brigade Support Battalion used heavy equipment haulers to move the barriers from Camp Liberty out to the gas station. They worked throughout the night to download the material from their trucks and used heavy-duty cranes to maneuver the barriers into position while soldiers from 2/5/6th Iraqi army and 2-32 Field Artillery provided security.

The overall effect, according to 1st Lt. Ryan Stidum, 2nd Platoon Leader, Bravo Battery, is a well-protected, better-organized gas station.

“We’ve already begun to see an improvement in the traffic flow,” said Stidum, “Black-market fuel peddlers can no longer cut in the waiting line, customers are safer, and the whole process seems faster now.”

photo by 1st Lt. Mike Hayhurst, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment

Dagger Brigade Weekly Slides

Dagger Brigade Weekly Slides
Dagger Brigade Combat Team Official Site
Week: June 18 - June 24
Slides: 19, 20, 21

Alpha Battery Soldiers Reenlist

CPT McCall
1LT Nguyen
PFC Michael Smith
SSG Magalit
SGT Michael Evans
SSG Frank Woode

Golf Company Reenlists

CPT Bandy
SSG Magalit
SGT Gary Payne
SGT Joel Starling
SGT Adrian Ray

Bravo Battery Undergoes CLS Refresher Training

PV2 Chapman
SGT Vincent
PFC Hutson
PFC Merritt
PFC Laing