Brightly colored Iraqi workers clean the streets of Jamilla Market, the economic hub of Sadr City on Jan. 28

Under the direction of Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Talley, commander, 926th Engineer Brigade, Multi-National Division–Baghdad, the last ten months brought significant engineering progress to Baghdad, specifically in Sadr City.

The creation of Task Force Gold and Gold Spike provided reconstruction projects aimed at employing the people of Baghdad and improving essential services.

“We bring employment back into the community,” said Master Sgt. Tracy Jackson, TF Gold Spike’s operations non-commissioned officer in charge. “And keep the projects equal on both sides; Sunni and Shia.”

The 926th Eng. Bde. is in the process of handing this reconstruction mission over to the incoming 225th Engineer Brigade, under the command of Col. Owen Monconduit, of Pineville, La.

Since arriving in Baghdad just over a week ago, the Col. Monconduit has toured construction projects throughout Baghdad with Col. Jared Olsen, TF Gold’s commander.

“The projects are impressive,” said Monconduit. “They were of good quality and very professional. The 225th Eng. Bde. will maintain work on a continuum of the same level of quality that has a direct impact on the local economy.”

Formed in September, 2008, TF Gold acted as a catalyst towards the successful reduction of violence in Sadr City, after achieving similar results in the Rusafa district of Baghdad. Jackson said the 926th engineers assembled a team to work closely with the local government and Iraqi contractors to enhance the quality.

Monconduit explained his Louisiana-based engineers will continue to build relationships in the community and with Iraqi leaders.

“We will work in partnership with the government of Iraq and provide a ‘can-do’, positive environment, a safe environment, that the community can self-sustain and really build themselves. It’s in the capacity of the community to provide that work.”

The al Fadhel district of Rusafa, once filled with standing pools of raw sewage and piles of trash to walk, now have cleared alley ways and streets, all signs of progress in the area. Freshly painted columns lining the main streets and areas slotted for solar lights are additional projects the commanders surveyed.

“Some of the main projects include trash, sewage, sidewalk repair, solar light installation and column repair,” said Staff Sgt. Christopher Rogers, pay agent for TF Gold Spike.

In Jamilla Market, the economic hub of Sadr City, delivery trucks lined the busy streets while the interior was packed with shoppers and goods for sale on the newly paved streets and sidewalks, a sign of the revitalization of the area that has improved dramatically over the last year.

“The combination of U.S. and Iraqi funds, coupled with the hard work of local Iraqis and coalition forces, have positively impacted the essential services and public infrastructure in both the Sadr City and Rusafa sectors of Baghdad,” Olsen. “These positive impacts contribute to sustained security and create a sense of hope for the citizens in these areas of Baghdad.”

DVIDS
By Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jennifer Keefer
926th Engineer Brigade Public Affairs Office

Along a road a man sells hot, fresh rotisserie chicken under a string of lights. Nearby, two men stand in warm coats and knitted caps casually sipping a hot drink at a store front where another man in a blue “USA” sweatshirt moves quickly back and forth behind a glass counter tossing fresh ingredients in warm pitas for a growing line of patrons.

It’s just a typical evening Dec. 18 along the street market near the Jamilla and Al Quds Road in Baghdad’s Sadr City district.

“It’s really bustling isn’t it,” said Lt. Col. Michael Pemrick deputy commanding officer for the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division Baghdad.

Pemrick is excited when he walks this street now because only seven months ago his Soldiers along with their partners in the Iraqi Army, fought a pitched battle on this street, and others like it to take control of this once volatile district.

“Before, when you heard the word Sadr City, you pictured an urban war zone,” he said. “Now, the people are relaxed, they are comfortable around Americans, and the IA have a good relationship with the people.”

Today, store fronts once littered with broken glass, and doorways that once covered U.S. and Iraqi Soldiers from sniper fire and rocket propelled grenades are home to barber shops, clothing stores and restaurants.

“Looking back on it, it just doesn’t seem like the same street,” said Staff Sgt. Jason Condreay, a military policeman for 3rd BCT, 4th Inf. Div. and patrol leader for Pemrick’s command security detachment.

He believes the change in Sadr City is largely in part to the rise in confidence and professionalism displayed by the Iraqi Army who patrol the streets there.

“The IA have become very productive. They have a real sense of pride in what they’re doing,” Condreay said.

Pemrick spoke with Iraqi Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 42nd Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division before touring the street and talking to citizens.

“We’re glad you’re here,” he tells an Iraqi company commander. “You’re doing a great job.”

The Iraqi Army have controlled Sadr City north of the wall along the Jamilla and Al Quds Road since May, and they partner with Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers south of the wall where many of Sadr City’s markets operate and thrive thanks to the reconstruction efforts of 3rd BCT, 4th Inf. Div.

He said he thinks the efforts of the IA have effectively defeated the criminal elements that once terrorized Sadr City and have now set the conditions for a much better future for all of Sadr City’s residents.

“The cooperation between the U.S. and the IA has turned this place around,” Condreay said.

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As Iraqi flags waived in the air, Iraqi civilian and military dignitaries broke ground on the Army Canal Rehabilitation Project in Baghdad’s Sadr City district Dec. 1.

This ceremonial groundbreaking marked the beginning of a commitment by the Government of Iraq to spend $50 million during the next three years in reconstruction efforts along the al-Kanat Road and surrounding areas, with construction slated to begin Dec. 17.

The Army Canal, which runs a total of 25 kilometers spanning from Adhamiyah in northeastern Baghdad to Rustimiyah in southeastern Baghdad, was built in 1959 by Abd al-Kassem Quassim the former president of Iraq. The canal was meant to provide fresh drinking water and irrigation to the people of northeastern Baghdad, but after years of damage and sediment buildup the canal has been unable to provide water for the people who rely so heavily upon it.

Now, with this groundbreaking marking the beginning of refurbishment to this vital lifeline, the canal will soon flow again with its much needed water.

“This marks a source of hope for the Iraqi people and an example of what the future holds,” said Naeem Abub Misayd Al-Kabi, deputy mayor of Baghdad.

The Army Canal rebuilding is just the first step in an extensive three-year plan by the GoI to improve Baghdad.

In conjunction with this project, the Sadr al-Kanat pump station will be refurbished, several parks and recreational areas will be built, numerous shops and stores will be created, and trees and plants will be sown along the canal to improve life not only in the area surrounding the canal but throughout Baghdad.

This epic project has the potential to employ more than 50,000 people through its lifespan and push Baghdad to the next step in providing essential services to the people who so vitally need them.

“This project will change the face of Baghdad,” said current Baghdad Mayor Navet Alessawi during the ceremony.

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“I think education is the greatest weapon in the people’s hands,” said Buad Abdul Sadr, the senior engineer in charge of refurbishing the Jawala’la school in Sadr City.

Schools are now in session in Sadr City, an area six months ago was home to some of the fiercest fighting of this five-and-a-half-year-old conflict. The rooms that children now fill at this school in northeastern Baghdad were once home to militia fighters who would daily launch attacks against the government of Iraq, Iraqi security and coalition forces.

Now, after two months of work by Buad and his crew, the Jawala’la school and its 12 classrooms are filled with students decked in new uniforms provided by the Modern Sewing Company in the neighboring Adhamiyah District.

“Now we are able to send our children to school to get educated. Before we were not able to send them to the schools and now we can,” said Ali Sewadi, a member of the Sadr City District Advisory Council.

Sewadi and other members of the District Council as well as the Iraqi Army’s 3rd Battalion, 42nd Brigade, 11th IA Division, helped hand out backpacks and uniforms to the school children during a visit there on Oct. 9, 2008.

The uniforms are something the students in this northeastern Baghdad District are proud to wear.

“I think, the children when you give them something, they are very happy,” said Raya Suhad Alani, the Women’s Committee chairman for the Sadr City DAC who also helped organize the uniform delivery for the students.

Once fighting in Sadr City diminished in May, one of the first steps taken was to identify the schools in the area and their condition. The Jawala’la School was one of the first visited by the 404th Civil Affairs Battalion, which is currently attached to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad.

Sgt. Vincent Ruiz, a Toms River, N.J., native, was one of the first into the area assessing the schools. He said it wasn’t uncommon to be running between buildings, evading gunfire during an assessment. Now, the situation is almost 180 degrees different.

“The goal is for the children to have a brighter future than their fathers and mothers might have,” he said.

This school is a step in that direction.

“When the people of Sadr City look at the schools and look at their kids in these schools, I think they will do the same thing. They will think again before they carry any kind of weapon,” Buad said.

DVIDS
By Sgt. Zach Mott
3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division

This year the children of Iraq will have safer, refurbished schools thanks to the work of Renegade Soldiers.

Before Company A, Task Force 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, arrived in Sadr City’s Jamilla neighborhood, the schools here were not even used for classes; militants were using the grounds as makeshift hiding places and torture cells. At the few schools that remained open, militants would kidnap children as they went to or from school and hold them for ransom.

“The schools in Jamilla were places of terror, not places of learning,” said 2nd Lt. Nicholas Boykin, Co. A, TF 1-6, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, which is currently attached to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad.

Before repairs could begin, the neighborhood needed to be secure. As Task Force 1-6 arrived in Jamilla, Soldiers immediately improved the security and began chasing the criminals and militants out. The wall built by Renegade and the other companies in the Task Force isolated Jamilla from the rest of Sadr City, scaring many of the militants out of the area and allowing the economy and civil society to flourish.

As Soldiers prepared projects to rebuild and refurbish the schools in the area, Renegade Soldiers saw just how bad things were at the schools of Jamilla. There are 12 schools total, ranging from kindergarten and elementary schools to all-women schools and high schools in Jamilla.

While some of these schools were in fairly good condition, others were in near shambles. Almost all of them had no electrical power and no air conditioning, which is something essential no matter what time of year in Iraq. The desks were broken, the walls were crumbling and bullet holes could be found punched through the windows and rooftops.

For the repairs to begin, MND-B Soldiers conducted a variety of escort missions to bring personnel from the Civil Affairs Team, Task Force Gold, and from the Government of Iraq’s Ministry of Education to scout out conditions on the ground.

After a complete assessment had been made, TF 1-6 initiated projects to completely overhaul the structures. Renegade Soldiers watched as all of the schools underwent a transformation. Government-hired Iraqis went to work and replaced wire and electric facilities, installed air-conditioning units, desks, dry erase boards, new playground equipment and repainted the inside and outside of the schools.

“The rebuilding and transformation of the schools was like night and day. It really showed the neighborhood who was on their side, trying to make Jamilla a better place,” said Sgt. Mario Braxton, Co. A, TF 1-6.

As a result, children across Jamilla will begin the school year in freshly painted rooms, at a new desk with air conditioning and electric lights. For long-term development in Iraq, the school projects form the cornerstone of Renegade’s efforts to improve the lives of the Iraqi people.

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