Engineer, Construction, Build, Infrastructure tasks for Iraq & Afghan Security Forces

[Surferbeetle]

No promises...

USACE Gulf Regional Division

Mission Statement

GRD provides engineer expertise, manages contract construction, develops partnerships with designated Government of Iraq Ministries, and builds engineering and construction capacity in the Iraqi theater of operations...

Iraq Transition Assistance Office (ITAO)

Mission

The Iraq Transition Assistance Office (ITAO) provides a programming and oversight role to executive departments and agencies in concluding the remaining large infrastructure projects in Iraq. In addition, ITAO works in concert with the various Mission elements to facilitate Iraq's transition to self-sufficiency, as well as assist in maintaining an effective diplomatic presence in Iraq and throughout the region. The chief activities for ITAO are:

Providing support to the US Mission and implementing agencies to hasten transition to Iraqi self-sufficiency. This support includes the provision of Ministerial and Management Capacity Development Programs in order to improve core functions of the Government of Iraq. ITAO also provides Subject Matter Expert advisors to each of the Iraqi Ministries to supplement capacity development efforts.

Coordinating oversight of the Iraq Reconstruction Relief Fund (IRRF). IRRF I & II includes roughly $21 billion in US funds, appropriated specifically for the reconstruction of key sites in Iraq’s infrastructure. Reconstruction projects cover repairs to Iraq’s vast oil pipeline network; construction of new water treatment facilities to provide services to all of Iraq’s population; and rehabilitation of the national electrical grid. While the majority of IRRF has been spent, a select few projects do remain. In addition, ITAO coordinates Ministerial capacity training, as well as sustainment funds for operations and maintenance.

CIMIC Centre of Excellence

The CCOECivil-Military Cooperation Centre Of Excellence is a multinational sponsored, NATO accredited, Centre of Excellence. It provides added value, innovative and timely advice, and subject matter expertise on CIMIC for both civilian and military customers. The primary focuses of the organisation’s efforts are in enhanced education and training along with conceptual and doctrinal development.

[Rob Thornton]

Steve, thanks - its a start. I'll pass it to our AF ENG who is working on the guide.

Best, Rob

[davidbfpo]

Rob,

Why not look at the possibly better documented role of engineers in UN peacekeeping missions and under various "hats" the work in Bosnia?

I can recall the Slovak Army engineers gathered a reputation for road building in Bosnia (in the SFOR era) and somewhere on SWC is an item on Kenyan troops (engineers?) in body recovery on the Eritrean-Ethiopian border.

[Rob Thornton]

David nice catch. I know our guy has tapped some of the Bosnia stuff, but I doubt he's hit all of it. He has also hit some of the schools up, unfortunately there is a lot of undocumented stuff in theater that came out in FRAGOs or was sent out electronically and never made the loop back to the generating force.

This is broader than just this category, we've run into some cases where significant ammounts of good information was just deleted to make machines run faster. Often there are no formal processes for archiving, collecting, categorizing and then getting the information to folks for analysis at the unit level. While there are some lessons learned organizations that are doing good work, there is still I think a large ammount that just goes away.

Best, Rob