Post from Iraq

Expeditionary Workforce

 

                                                                                                      Aug. 9, 2007

 

I am James McCoy. I normally work as a power plant senior controller in the Tulsa District, Robert S. Kerr Power Plant. I have almost 34 years of government service and I’ve been fortunate to have been overseas twice before, once at Camp Humphries, South Korea, and once at Wildflecken, West Germany.

I am presently assigned as a construction representative in the Gulf Region Division, North District, Kirkuk Area Office, Forward Operating Base Warrior, Iraq, and the officer in charge is Lt. Col. Robert Ruud.

My deployment to Iraq has made me more appreciative for what I have as an American citizen. The types of projects that I am now working on are security and justice, public water treatment and distribution, agriculture development and health clinics. The Iraqi infrastructure suffers from over 35 years of neglect and damage from conflict. Gulf Region North covers a 66,000-square- mile area of Northern Iraq. Since 2004 GRN has completed more than 1,152 of its 1,477 planned construction projects.

There are three districts in Iraq. Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh is our commanding general. My headquarters for the Kirkuk Area Office is in Tikrit, Iraq, and Col. Mike Pfenning is the commander.

My impression of the people of Iraq that I have seen and met is that they are pretty much life-loving people just like the Americans I know. They just want to live their lives in peace, enjoying their families and cultural traditions. Unfortunately many of them are just barely getting by compared to the life I have back in the Tulsa District. Perhaps with the assistance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the Iraqi people will one day be a people with a grand infrastructure.

 

                                                                 Jim

 

Jim McCoy during duty escorting local nationals to USACE Kirkuk Area Office.

Inspection of a water supply project —  The workers will connect the pumps to a large header.

This high-profile project is a fielding tent for the new MRAP, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, vehicles. The hardened tent is where Soldiers put the different add-ons to the MRAP and learn all about it as they trade in their HUMVEES.

The final picture from Iraq.  McCoy received a brown Corps hard hat with his co-workers autographs, the certificate for the Civilian Service in a Combat Zone (Iraq) pin, an Achievement Medal for Civilian Service, and a Gulf Region North Commander’s Coin.  He left Iraq in late February and will return to duty at the Robert S. Kerr Powerhouse.