Iraqi Schools and the U.S. Military

February 16, 2004

Two reports from CENTCOM in the past few weeks highlight just one part of the U.S. military's role in the rebuilding of Iraq.

Staff Sergeant Nate Orme writes of one artillery officer, and his mission to help Iraqi schoolchildren. When First Lietenant Kyle Barden's unit was put in charge of the Kurdish town of Laylan in Northern Iraq, he noticed a problem:

Barden said one of the biggest problems was that the town’s eight functioning schools did not have any supplies for the students.

“I emailed my older brother, who is a stockbroker in Charlotte, N.C., and asked him to send some school supplies,” Barden explained. “He started by writing a letter to extended family, friends and church. Before you knew it, it was huge.

By "huge" he means that the first shipment of school supplies was twenty metric tons, donated by businesses like Office Depot and private citizens.

“The intent was to square my schools away. In Laylan there are approximately 2,000 kids. We’re going to saturate Laylan then start going to other towns,” Barden said.

Meanwhile, in Baghdad, Specialist Chad D. Wilkerson writes of the rebuilding of the Kalid Al-Walid School by a Civil Affairs Battalion and an Artillery Battalion, both from the Army's First Armored Division.

It all started when Lt. Colonel Richard Bowyer had a visitor from the States:

Bowyer met with Earl Rawlings, a representative from the Rawlings Foundation, a charitable organization in the [United States]. Rawlings had been looking for a project to assist in the reconstruction of Iraq. Bowyer recommended the school.

These guys must have their hands full, with multiple projects competing for time and resources, and here this guy wants to rebuild a school.

But apparently, it's all in a day's (actually two months') work, for these soldiers routinely work on schools in Iraq, according to Staff Sergeant Steven Ayers:

“With as many schools as our teams have worked on, we were able to assist (4-1 FA) with project,” Ayers said. “We monitored the contractors’ work and made sure the sponsor got what they paid for. We are quality control.”

The Kalid Al-Walid elementary school is one of 55 schools located within the 4-1 FA area of operations. Nearly every school in the area has an ongoing project or is scheduled to be renovated by the artillerymen and civil affairs personnel in the near future.

Emphasis ours. (Quick! Someone remind them "it's all about the oil!")

Ayers said the task of rebuilding Iraq is going to be most effective by starting at the ground up with the children.

“Fixing these schools is a big part of our responsibility because these children will eventually become the future of Iraq,” said Ayers. “In the past they were taught ‘Saddam Hussein is victory,’ but with the correct instruction, the right tools and good facilities, we can help these children grow and turn Iraq into a great country.”

We're proud of our troops.