Situation report from Iraq, Mosul Reconstruction Operations Center (MROC)

[CoolVanilla]

Hey guys. My brother in law, Major Eric, is back in Iraq for his second tour. He's had to "go dark" for the last couple of weeks, and today we got his report on why. I found this incredibly interesting. Its the kind of stuff you'll just never hear or see or read about in the news. I thought you might find it interesting too.

Please, no politics, no religion, no garbage. This is a true accounting from a US Soldier on the ground in a war zone. Please respect it as such.

Mosul Reconstruction Operations Center (MROC) Situational Report
17 OCT 2008

I safely arrived at COB Speicher in the afternoon of 29 SEP from Kuwait. The C-130 transport plane ride was approximately 1:40 hrs long. We were packed in the cargo hull like sardines and my butt was numb with pins and needles for a good five minutes or so when I stood up. My living arrangements were (there is a reason for the past tense wording) outstanding. I shared a room with my roommate from Ft. Dix in which he and I pushed our wall lockers together making a barrier for some privacy between us. I had Iraqi Wi-Fi internet in the room and cable TV set up. Of course being the experienced Civil Affairs officer and knowing how to make living conditions in a warzone comfortable, I had all intentions to purchase a small refrigerator and TV from one of the officers of the unit we were replacing and even increased my masters degree courses to three a semester unknowing that my “happy place” will slowly came to an end.

We were given the rest of the day and the next day off when we first arrived on base. On the next day, I ran into my active duty battalion ops officer (neither of us were understanding the extent of what happened to our positions at the time) who advised me that there was some high profile mission concept going on but was unaware of the details. He told me my Battalion Commander was looking for me to talk with him. I then later ran into my battalion executive officer at the PX when he asked me if I had spoken with the boss yet and recommended for me “not to get to comfortable” at COB Speicher but didn’t know all the details. I don’t know if it is just me, but the Army sure has funny ways of notifying me of my near term military destiny soon to come…. I never did make contact with the Battalion Commander that day until the morning of 1 OCT at our official battalion in-brief with the unit we are relieving.

My boss was not in the room for more than five minutes and rushed over to me to give the word of the mission our battalion was tasked with. He explained to me that he hand-picked a small team from the battalion headquarters to establish a Mosul Reconstruction Operations Center (MROC) focusing on reconstruction and essential service efforts for the city of Mosul. It will initiate in conjunction with a kinetic joint Coalition Forces, Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police operation in the city and in the next couple of days GEN Odinero will be briefing Prime Minister Maliki on the concept plan we need to develop. He continued to explain that it is very high profile and he was learning details about the initiative daily which was only approved less than a week ago. He said that he, me and other key personnel from the 1st Armor Division HQs are hopping on the Division Commander’s Blackhawk helicopters tomorrow afternoon to conduct a leader’s recon of where in the city our unit will be living and operating from. Of course I consider myself to be a selfless Soldier to the Army and knowing that my career is coming close to the end and that I have an awesome family waiting for me back home I could not help myself to be concerned what was being told to me. I asked for clarification about living in the city and I reminded him of the intelligence and operations briefing we received a few days earlier identifying the city of Mosul and surrounding province of being the “wild west”. He must have been prepared and knew that I would be asking about the security concerns for the Soldiers on the mission, so without hesitation, he explained why he chose me to be his operations officer for this mission and the original active duty operations officer (the one I ran into the day before) has been reassigned to my original position conducting civil-military operations plans for the Division HQs. I said to myself, wow so this is how the Army rewards their good people with 21 years of stellar service—throw them into the fire and clobber them with the pan once in it. He told me to pack for about three days and then we’ll come back to gather the rest of our belongings to live up in Mosul for a couple of months. I think the conversation took no more than five minutes. Luckily, later after doing all the reconnaissance if different living location options, it was determined for us not to live downtown for now due to ongoing operations and insurgent activity.

Continued...

[CoolVanilla]

...

The next afternoon, we hopped on our Blackhawk helicopters for an hour long ride up north along the Tigris River to Mosul. It was difficult for me to keep a cool war-face and not let my Battalion Commander know how excited I was to get a “free” ride in the general’s bird. Of course I flew in them many times over my career but this time the doors were wide open and we had additional shooters on both sides of the helicopter with locked and loaded M4s mounted with ACOG scopes in addition to the standard machine-gun gunners. As I looked at these guys, I answered whatever questions I may have had of what the treatment is like for Commanding Generals flying in their assigned helicopters. I’ll tell you that these Soldiers and the pilots did not mess around and were very experienced. We flew nap of the earth hauling as fast as we can to reach our pad in Mosul. My duffle bag was strapped in the seat across from me and closest to the door. The wind was so strong that it unbuckled both of the straps attached to the back of the bag. We then came to a point where we dropped down even closer to the earth and flew directly over the winding river below. If I only had my IPod with me, I would have definitely played some Credence Clearwater Revival, or Jimmi Hendrix or something out of the Vietnam War flicks I used to watch as a kid (yeah, yeah, and still watch now …) It was definitely the coolest ride I had in my career so far.

After we landed and ate chow, I met the Colonel who is the MROC transition team chief and was there to mentor me and my boss for success. I knew immediately that this “ring knocker” was shooting for his first star and wanted to make this assignment his last hoorah for the remaining two months the division has in theater. He asked if I played football and told me that he played defensive end for West Point. Defensive end was my position in college so I knew I was going to be in with him. It was very unique on how he would discuss his vision on measuring success. He almost related everything to us as if he was a coach leading his team in a football game. I’m finding out in my career now that when I come across successful high ranking leaders, almost all of them have played some sort of college sport and will definitely tell you about it one way or another. He referenced what he thought would be successful reconstruction effort events to phrases like “move the chains to set up the conditions for the next project”, “kick a quick field goal so the populace can see immediate results”, “score a safety against the enemy with a project that would delegitimize their efforts”, “make a touchdown so we can publicize what we are doing for the people”, etc. At times he would even joke and end our meeting with saying, “Ready, Break”. There was one time when it was very late at night and we were all getting pretty burnt out. He said to us, “sometimes you will have to get down in a three point stance and blow snot bubbles to make this work”. I almost fell of my chair and started chuckling for a moment. I felt so comfortable in my setting that his comment reminded me of the times with my fellow lineman buddies on the football field. I told him that he was just awesome for saying something like that and he and I banged fists in the air and continued on with the conversation without missing a beat. Looking further into this comment, I remember my lineman coach used to tell us phrases like that when we were down by a few touchdowns but he had enough confidence in us that we would pull it together to score big to win the game. This Colonel knew that Mosul was the last significant al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold in all of Iraq and what the MROC does in the next few months will change the outcome for the future success of the Iraqi people and for the success of the Iraqi elections to happen in late January.

It was the evening of 4 OCT and there was no letting up on making this beast happen. The Colonel continually was hammering us on what meetings need to be done with the local leaders, how the physical set up and dynamics of our facility should look like, providing us with ideas of what projects are needed to immediately help the local Iraqis, etc. His conversations with me and my boss about what still needed to get done within a week or so was what I felt to be a test to see if we two Reservists had what it takes to take the initiative to maintain the operational tempo this program needs and not pass the buck to someone else as we returned to our base. I knew we had our return flights to COB Speicher lined up for the next day, that I had limited clothing and that I was unprepared for an extended stay.

Anyway, I told the Colonel of my experiences with my off the base Civil-Military Operations Center (CMOC) and initiating the first Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kirkuk, Iraq and setting up the MROC on my own would be totally in my lane to accomplish. The conversation ended with me volunteering to stay at FOB Marez until at least the 22nd to allow my Battalion Commander to get back to his soldiers and be trained by the outgoing Battalion Commander before time ran out for him. It was at this very moment, I knew that I was completely in my element, that this position is exactly what I needed to expound on all the great deeds that were accomplished on my last tour and to further the much needed help to the Iraqi populace.

The city of Mosul is a very interesting one. I learn more about it each day. It is the third largest city in Iraq with its population about the size of 1.73 million people very similar to the city of Philadelphia. Although the Multi-National Division-North battle space consists of over 60,000 square miles, this city is a huge concern to the Iraqi government and Coalition Forces. Interestingly enough, the city does have agricultural lands surrounding it but the recent droughts over the last few years really hit this area hard and it’s in bad shape. In the Nineveh province, there are many references of the various historical sites in this area to the Bible. It very much reminds me of the Kirkuk area and I intend to visit as many of these sites as I can to take pictures and tell the story. Although it has the largest Christian population in all of Iraq, the local populace is predominately Sunni Arab and infested with Al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents. Unfortunately, the insurgents know this and have been targeting Christians in the city for what we think to change the outcome of the upcoming elections to maintain the Sunni majority foothold in this area. There is much play about these brutal actions against Christians in the press, hence the reason for some significant kinetic operations against al-Qaida to have it stopped. Also, I’m tasked to see if some of the projects that end up being approved can help this one section of Mosul that has five churches within a few blocks of one another that have been recently targeted by the enemy.

One early morning at approximately 0415 hours, I was awakened from my sleep to what sounded like a pack of howling wild dogs. As I listened more closely, it was the Call to Prayer from the Sunni Sheikhs on their loud speakers blaring from their mosques. I’m telling you that there are so many of them here in the city that it sounded like a war cry and chant while each one was trying to pray louder to cancel the other sounds out. I was accustomed to hearing the prayers outside the FOB walls of Kirkuk, however the prayers were much clearer and at least sounded like phrases. One can only imagine what they were praying for to their God in a city that has the highest improvised explosive device rate predominately planted by Sunni insurgents, too many areas with rubbled buildings and failing infrastructure and what I’m finding to be the most corrupt provincial governments in all of Iraq. Mosul is a terrorist’s heaven and breeding ground and my unit has been tasked to help square this place away and conduct what the general’s call the theater’s CMO surge. (Now that I look back and try to remember about the prayers that woke me up, I’m not sure if this was the same morning that I was awakened by the explosion that I will later discuss. I have since been awakened by the prayers, which leads me to believe that perhaps the abnormal sound of the prayers that morning were for the key al-Qaida leader we recently whacked.)

[CoolVanilla]

...

The original concept of me staying for three days has long passed and the MROC sponsored our first event with the local and national Iraqi officials at the Provincial Hall located in downtown Mosul on 13 OCT. During this three day event, many local planners and seventeen central government reconstruction and essential services ministers were split into work groups respective to their expertise. I was selected to manage the roads and bridges work group. Of course all I know about roads is that I’m told that I drive too fast on them and for bridges, not to jump from them…… Even though I lack knowledge in these subjects, my main job was to play “GI Oprah” and ensure that the Iraqi’s discuss the issues needing to fix the city and have them document at least five issues that can be started as soon as possible. At this conference, there were a total of eleven workgroups specializing in different functions that will help rebuild the city. The main significant outcome of this conference is that it looks like the Government of Iraqi will discuss committing $357 million to be utilized exclusively for Mosul managed by the MROC and local Iraqi officials. Our next goal is to compile all of this information, determine which projects make sense and have the maneuver commanders and local Iraqis to jointly agree on which projects they choose to make the biggest impact to help the Mosul citizens. You can further read about the conference in a news article that was recently published:
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23040&It emid=128

If you have not heard by now in the news, as planned, the MROC was put into operation on the same day of initiating a large joint Iraqi Police, Iraqi Army and Coalition Force kinetic operation in Mosul.
MROC project execution will be focused in the neighborhoods consisting of the counter insurgency kinetic targets. Operations will be similar to the “hold and build” concept that was brilliantly conducted in the Sadr City mission. Mosul insurgents will be eliminated in order for the cleared areas to be held by Iraqi Security Forces in order to facilitate local Iraqi contractors to build the MROC’s reconstruction plan projects being tracked. Since this operation is so huge, President Bush called the Nineveh Provincial Reconstruction Team Chief (Department of State employee) to receive a status of the outcome of the conference and how the Mosul citizens will be helped in the near future.

It wasn’t until recently discovering that Abu Qaswarah, al-Qaida in Iraq’s number two man (head of operations in all of northern Iraq), was killed by Coalition Forces here in Mosul. What is interesting, I actually heard the close air support bomb that blew him and his house up at about 0315 in the morning. I actually thought it was an IED going off because I didn’t put two and two together of the sounds of jet whizzing by in the distance. During the morning brief, we were told that an insurgent shot one of our Soldiers and fled into a house when we tried to capture him. Why we made every attempt to try and have the insurgent come out of his house to be arrested by the Iraqi forces is beyond me in my opinion, but his continued refusal to come out of his stronghold only led to a 500 pound bomb destroying his house and delaying the identification of the insurgent’s remains up to a week later. We were all surprised of the significance of the great kill and kudos to the Air Force pilot that was right on target!

Although I focus on the reconstruction efforts in the city of Mosul, my operations still requires Civil Affairs Teams to conduct assessments of the projects being built and determining what is of most concern to the local populace. Due to the atrocities that have been conducted against the Christians and citizens of Mosul by the insurgents, I still am asking for communities in the United States to continue to help the Soldiers to do their job in the field. Please collect and send donated supplies for the children out here so we can help them to return safely to their homes and get them settled. The insurgency still strives strong in this area and if we are successful not for long. With our continued efforts to give young Iraqis miscellaneous donated items when Soldiers are patrolling about the battle space, American support will help quell the violence in the long run and disrupt the need for the insurgents to continue their attacks. The supplies that were sent to me on my last tour are no different this time. Items such as tooth brushes, tooth paste, sports equipment like footballs, baseballs and soccer balls, used clothing with minimal logos or designs, small stuffed animals or toy cars to fit in our cargo pockets, small school supplies, etc. Items that you think would be your trash would be some Iraqi child’s treasure. If you wish to send items for my Soldiers’ personal use, please ask me first since conditions are pretty nice here and we have access to some pretty nice stuff. Here is my address if you wish to send donated items to my unit.

MAJOR ERIC BOETTCHER
MROC, 448 CA BN
FOB Marez
APO, AE 09334

It has been a very hectic two weeks for me and I see that my progress was well worth the pain in order to set the conditions to help these people. I am compiling a number of pictures regarding my whereabouts on FOB Marez and in downtown Mosul. My next report that I will publish soon will focus on providing information about the pictures that I have been taking. I hope this report has provided you with a better understanding of what a simple Soldier like myself can get thrown into and the enormous impact that he/she can make to the people of Iraq daily.

[dudeiwin86]

read the whole thing from the top,
awesome letter CV, its so cool to hear whats really going on in such flawless detail!

[MY - HEMI]

Thanks for posting CV. And thank you Major Boettcher for your service!

[Motor]

Dang

[Green_Manalishi]

Thanks for the insight. I have always had faith in our service men and women to do the work they have been sent to do... despite the lack of reporting by the MEDIA. (See my avatar)

[Junior]

Top to bottom. That's a well-written narrative.


I just heard about Abu Qaswarah a couple days ago - interesting to hear about it from a few miles away...

[imahemi]

that was a good read (read all of it)... thanks for post Jason...

[Super T]

Regardless of how you feel about the whole debacle, you can't help but respect people like your brother-in-law. Tell him I said "thanks."

[stevesrt8]

Thanks to the Major in a tough place doing a thankless job.

It's a real pity the media fed masses don't realize the incredible job these guys are doing in Iraq.

[Buffalo]

Thanks for posting CV. And thank you Major Boettcher for your service!

[NC-SXT]

Thanks for posting this CV. He drew me right in.

[LaMag]

I can read stuff like this all day. Very well written

[Leadfootluke]

Thanks to the Major in a tough place doing a thankless job.

It's a real pity the media fed masses don't realize the incredible job these guys are doing in Iraq.

I agree, I have friends and soon family over there. I hear stories of this nature a lot. Glad it'd getting out.