America's North Shore Journal

Only a short time ago the city of Fal­lu­jah served as strong­hold for insur­gents. Daily skir­mishes, impro­vised explo­sive device det­o­na­tions and pub­lic unease made oper­at­ing a busi­ness in the city very difficult.

Today, with improved secu­rity through­out the region, the low price of 4,000 dinar, or $3.50, will pur­chase a full meal at the recently estab­lished Ken­tucky Fried Chicken in the Hey Al Dubat area of the city.

The KFC is the first to open for busi­ness in the city. Before improved con­di­tions in the city, insur­gents threat­ened busi­ness own­ers, demand­ing money to sup­port acts of terrorism.

After a quick visit to the Fal­lu­jah Busi­ness Cen­ter dur­ing rou­tine oper­a­tions July 16, Marines with Reg­i­men­tal Com­bat Team 1’s Secu­rity Pla­toon and with Infor­ma­tion Oper­a­tions, talked with employ­ees at the fran­chise to eval­u­ate its success.

“We stopped to check up on the KFC to see how things were going,” said 1^st Lt. Michael C. Bryant, pla­toon com­man­der with Bat­tery M, 3^rd Bat­tal­ion, 11^th Marine Reg­i­ment, RCT 1. ”You can tell that the area is return­ing to nor­mal, espe­cially when you see fast food places in the area doing so well.”

The restau­rant has sev­eral employ­ees, and three that work full time. Employ­ees there serve an aver­age 25 cus­tomers per day.

The Marines often take time to assess eco­nomic progress and gauge com­mu­nity activ­i­ties dur­ing mis­sions in the city.

After sev­eral short con­ver­sa­tions with employ­ees and patrons, the Marines ordered food to take back to Camp Fal­lu­jah for lunch.

“I think it is awe­some to see a busi­ness doing so well in Fal­lu­jah, and not have to worry about safety or cor­rup­tion,” said Bryant, a 25-year-old from Col­orado Springs, Colo.

Secu­rity over the past sev­eral years has reached an all-time high in Fal­lu­jah and many of the sur­round­ing areas. The increase can be accred­ited to coali­tion forces con­duct­ing patrols and secu­rity mis­sions, as well as Iraqi police and Iraqi army retak­ing con­trol of a major­ity of the Anbar region.

“I remem­ber when I was here last in July 2004 and things were much dif­fer­ent than they are now,” said Sgt. Steve J. Arnoux, a 25-year-old vehi­cle com­man­der from Brown­ing, Mont. “When we would go out on con­voys in the city, the atti­tude was a lot dif­fer­ent. It seemed like we were just wait­ing to get ambushed. Now we stop at KFC.”

Cit­i­zens of the area can now work steady jobs, where as prior con­di­tions kept many from even com­ing to work on a daily basis.

“I love the work here, because we have the oppor­tu­nity to go to work every day,” said a KFC employee.

DVIDS
By Cpl. Chris T. Mann
Reg­i­men­tal Com­bat Team 1 Pub­lic Affairs Office