Mar 14th, 2010
Former Pussycat Doll, Kaya Jones entertained the Soldiers assigned to Contingency Operating Station Endeavor, Iraq, Feb. 24.
Jones and her dance team danced and sang for an appreciative audience for over an hour, before signing autographs and posing for pictures with their audience.
“We love you,” said Jones. “We miss you back home. We thank you for what you are doing out here.”
Mar 5th, 2010
The school, which has been under construction for four months, was built with the village’s future in mind and to house the students in the growing community.
“The old school had only three classrooms, said Arif Jabbar Mutar, the chairman of Tikrit City Council. “It’s not enough to absorb all students from the village.”
With six classrooms, working latrines and two rooms for the teachers, this school will pave the way toward education. The new school has enough room to house 200, 6-to-12-year-old students and their teachers.
Jul 9th, 2008
Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, are redeploying back to Fort Stewart, Ga., this month.
The 2nd BCT deployed in May 2007 as the fifth surge brigade. Its mission was to block accelerants from entering Baghdad, protect the local population, defeat sectarian violence, continue to increase the capacity of the Iraqi Security Forces, foster local governance and economic systems, and to set the conditions for long-term self-reliance.
Jun 20th, 2008
The last of the five Army brigades to deploy with the “troop surge” in Iraq will return in July after a 13-month deployment, during which soldiers detained more than 800 terrorist suspects and helped foster Iraqi self-governance.
Jun 6th, 2008
In an effort to revive the local economy, the Baghdad-7 ePRT worked in conjunction with 2nd BCT Civil Affairs, using money as their main tool. Armed with U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development funds, Soldiers and civilians on the Baghdad-7 ePRT looked for projects which would benefit the community as a whole. Civil affairs Soldiers used their battalion’s bulk funds to stimulate individual small businesses through a series of $2,500 microgrants. Though most of the projects focused on agriculture, which dominates the local economy and employs the largest percentage of people, other avenues were explored as well.
May 15th, 2008
A mix of force, good governance and economic stimuli has resulted in a turnaround for an area in Iraq that once was a hotbed of Sunni and Shiite insurgents.
The 3rd Infantry Division’s 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team is completing a 15-month tour as part of Multinational Division Center, and the unit commander, Army Col. Wayne W. Grigsby Jr., spoke to Pentagon reporters yesterday about the deployment.
May 5th, 2008
Have you read this in your paper? Nope. The third of five surge brigades will be coming home in the next several weeks. Umm… misson accomplished!
Apr 24th, 2008
The new fish farms have potential to add at least 5,000 direct and indirect local employment opportunities to the region. In al-Hillah, the Euphrates Fish Farm alone will employ at least 500 people.
The start up or renovation costs for running fish farms are relatively low, especially for farmers using existing ponds or marshland pools. Nonetheless, the expense can be prohibitive in this local economy, devastated by years of war.
To provide farms with the necessary initial support, Maj. Gen. Lynch authorized the distribution of microgrants, using Commander’s Emergency Reconstruction Program funds. The CERP funds provide commanders with economic resources to distribute among businesses and projects that need assistance the most.
