Thursday, February 15, 2007
Iraqis remove rubble for their community

Story and photo by Cpl. Virginia K. Lawrence, 4th Civil Affairs Group, Naval District Washington

RAMADI, Iraq – Marines with the 4th Civil Affairs Group, Washington, D.C., work with contractors and local Iraqis here for projects known as the Rubble Removal and Government Center Clean-up.

“(Rubble Removal) is a clean-up effort after demolition,“ said Gunnery Sgt. Matthew A. Knight. The 41-year-old provincial civil military operations chief from Denver works on the project taking place across from the government center complex in Ramadi.

The demolished buildings were used by insurgents. In order to deny that terrain to the insurgency, Coalition Forces actually destroyed the buildings. From that point forward, the work has centered around removal of the rubble, Knight explained.

Ar Ramadi is the Al Anbar provincial capital. When this place starts looking like a provincial capital, through these reconstruction efforts, people may have more confidence in it, said Knight.

The rubble removal process has taken four months, from the bidding process to the awarding of the contract, but the active rubble removal has been going on for about two-and-a-half months, according to Knight.

Civil Affairs Team Leader 1st Lt. Phillip S. Noack, a 25-year-old from Georgetown, Texas, explained how these come to be 4th CAG projects. They are funded under detachment 4-3, but administered by both detachments 4-3 and 4-4. Major Scott J. Kish from 4-3 was projects manager for both. He, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mark E. Butkovich, Knight and Noack are the four main project coordinators, Noack said.

Butkovich is also project manager for rubble removal. He was in charge of getting the contract signed and the administrative tasks associated with the project.

“The main focus of this event was to get the whole Government Center area cleaned up,” Noack said. ‘‘Eventually, we're going to try to put a park out there and have more local Iraqis coming into this area, making it safer and better for everyone.“.

Noack was project manager for Government Center cleanup. The amount of debris was due to a long period of neglect. The Government Center Clean-up project, with only a few finishing touches remaining before completion, took three weeks from start to where it is now.

The project work is done strictly by locals. They work here, they live here and the people who benefit are going to be the people of Ramadi, said Knight. According to Noack, it's a process in the works, but the local workers are making great progress.

“They're definitely anxious to get working. Obviously there are some limitations because of the security; sometimes they're putting their lives at risk in order to do this and that's very commendable,“ he added.

They're cleaning up the government center, which not only sets up municipal security, but functions as a place for the government to work. The Iraqis provide their own security as well.

“I think it's very important that everyone sees that the locals are working with local Iraqi police to provide that security,“ said Noack.

‘‘That is a primary concern for both sides. We do feel for their safety out there because the entire project is on their shoulders, including the security aspect,“ said Knight.

The Iraqi Police provided security by escorting the workers to the rubble removal and Government Center sites. Once the workers were inside the compound, the Marines took over security because this is the battle space of 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. They're not going to let something happen to the workers, said Knight.

The 4th CAG acted as liaison between the different groups so that everybody understood the scope of the contract, the purpose behind it and what was the desired end-state.

At the Government Center, the CAG Marines acted as a point of coordination between the contractors, the riflemen providing security, and the new residents who have been moving into the government center complex.

The interior of the Government Center wasn't neglected either. The next steps are the finishing touches, such as getting the electricity going again and actually moving government workers in.

“It really is a beautification program. It would be similar to me looking at Denver as the capital city of Colorado and seeing rubble everywhere around the state house. That's not going to instill confidence on my part in the government,“ Knight said. “But by having it cleaned up, looking nice and everything out of the way, then we're going to get that confidence in that local population.“

“The rubble removal project is going to be what the people of Al Anbar Province and the people of Ramadi are really going to see because it's high visibility,“ Knight said. “But it’s the Government Center clean-up that’s going to expand the capacity of the government here to a greater degree.

‘‘ The government center is going to allow more people to come in here and do their jobs and make this a more functional government,“ he continued. “It was a smaller project, but in my mind it was probably more important because it makes this entire area more workable for the government.“

“When we get to a point where they can rebuild their city, it will give them somewhere to start from,“ said Cpl. Nathan M. Miller, a civil affairs Marine from Denver.

“It's definitely going to take a little bit of time, but the key purpose here is we are using local Iraqis, we are putting money back into the economy, and we are getting them moving in the right direction and doing it on their own,“ Noack said.

The Marines see and interact with the locals often.

“That really is the highlight of my deployment,“ said Miller. “Seeing the people, especially the kids, and the look on their faces when we give them a small thing, like a piece of candy or a toy. It's priceless.

“Some of the things we work for and do for them here are real simple to us,“ Miller said. “They don't have what we have. But hopefully in everything from assisting in the city clean-ups to giving the kids a piece of candy, we are leaving an impression on them for their future.“

Ellie