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There is something compelling that keeps me coming back. Part of it is the people, both Iraqi and many others in the international effort. Part of it is the mission: it’s hard to get a better mission than this. And part of it is the invisible hand pushing me forward.
On my first tour in the Gulf Region Division (GRD), as deputy director for Restore Iraqi Electricity, I worked with a great team closing out that program in country and moving it back to the Transatlantic Programs Center for the audit and contract closeout phases. I was also the first Joint Security Program Manager blending the Aegis and Erinys contracts under common management. It was quite a time then.
Now that I’m in my second tour here, the operations are more sustained than when I was here a year ago. The living conditions have changed, too: the compound is fully lighted, and the life support is outstanding.
My job now is the GRD Contract Closeout Program Manager – potentially the most unglamorous job in Iraq, but I’m getting to travel to all the districts and most of the area and resident offices. Closing out nearly 4,000 projects is a challenge that we’re taking one bite at a time. With 2,346 projects completed out of 3,737 total projects, more than 500 are already closed. Considering the constant changeover of personnel, the security situation, and the massive effort involved, it’s remarkable that we’re planning to close out projects and contracts so quickly. No stateside projects close this fast.
We’ve developed a comprehensive contract closeout procedures document with a detailed user’s guide. It’s about 24 pages with another 30 pages of attachments. We have servers at more than 50 sites across the country on which documents sit on two distinct networks – one for GRD and another that serves the sectors and the Joint Contracting Command, Iraq. Pulling the documents together is quite a challenge.
When I compare this experience to my stateside experience closing contracts, we are moving so much faster. In fact, when I’m here, the work world is in hyperspace, and I have no personal life. When I return home, no matter what I’m doing, it’s slower than Iraq, but then the personal life returns at warp speed.
Sometimes it seems hard to get a sense of how much work is going on in Iraq. Like many large projects when there is so much going on, we tend to focus only on the problems. But when you’re able to look at the reality of what’s happening here, you can see that a great deal has changed – even the traffic. Now there are traffic circles, signs everywhere, and traffic police. In the southern part of the country, I saw commerce on the roads and in the towns and villages. There are trucks everywhere with large cargoes and long lines at the gas stations. Every house has a satellite dish, and generators are everywhere. There is private housing construction going on throughout Iraq. When you get away from the major cities, the country takes on a very rural appearance.
Iraqi people vary from region to region and province to province; many are quite pleasant and happy; others aren’t, particularly those in the central region around Fallujah and Ramadi. The faces of war are prominent, very different from the faces in the north and south.
I remain incredibly impressed with the people who are dedicated to the Iraq mission. They all pull together for the common cause and complement each other in their work. That doesn’t mean there aren’t problems. The people here take them in stride, solve them, and move on.
There are several constants in the program: the people involved are some of the best our nation has, and they come from all walks of life and all parts of our country; exactly the right person drops into exactly the right critical spot over and over again; and everyone who comes here comes with an underlying drive to accomplish something that is bigger than themselves and the mere sum of the parts.
It’s clear that our mission here is making a big difference in this country and this region. The jumpstart on critical infrastructure that we have given the Iraqis will change this region of the world in a positive way forever.
William C. Ryals, part of the Transatlantic Programs Center team in Winchester, Va., returned from Iraq in May and is now serving in the Iraq Division as project manager. |
