Combat team provides barrier security in Iraq

Combat team provides barrier security in Iraq
The Leave Chronicle
By 101st Airborne Division Public Affairs
January 14, 2008

Since arriving in theater, Company A, 526th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, has been providing barrier movement and emplacement support throughout the greater Baghdad area.

Recently, the company was tasked with another mission of significant importance. The new task also involved concrete barriers; however, these barriers are not your ordinary highway dividers found on roads in the United States.

The barriers used in Iraq are a lot bigger. In fact, there are several types of barriers, all with different heights, lengths, widths and even shapes. Some barriers have the capability of interlocking with each other. These interlocking barriers are used to secure roads leading into a neighborhood or to divert vehicles through a checkpoint controlled by Iraqi security forces.

During the most recent barrier mission, Company A was tasked to support the 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery Regiment. By supporting the artillerymen, they are helping them improve their relations with the local nationals. The soldiers accomplished their mission in the nighttime hours by providing a forklift, operator and ground guide for safety while using night-vision devices.

The crew has also emplaced barriers in Baghdad neighborhoods for protection or as a trash collection point. The trash collection points provide the people of those neighborhoods a place to store their trash before it is burned or disposed of.

"The challenges that these neighborhoods face in protecting themselves is totally different than what we go through in the U.S. We have to respect that," said Sgt. Jesse Veeser, with Company A, 526th BSB.

The gesture of creating trash points and walls for the neighborhood watch groups to defend themselves helps create a strong bond between the Iraqi people and the coalition forces.

"Working with 2-32 to improve these neighborhoods is easy for us," says Sgt. James Aycock, Company. A, 526th BSB. "They (2-32 FA) protect us and our forklift and talk to these guys [Iraqi citizens from each Muhallah] before we come out to get exactly how they want the barriers emplaced in their [Iraqi] neighborhood."