November 19, 2005
It's been a continuous adventure.
We like the changes. We like traveling.
I think almost everybody in the military thrives
on building teams and starting over in new locations.
~Army Brig. Gen. Jim Chambers~
Children and soldiers of Company A, 20th Engineer Battalion, clean a field in eastern Baghdad during an effort to convert the field from a trash dump into a park. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jan Critchfield
Division Turns Dump into Children’s Treasure
Soldiers, children work side-by-side to clean up field and make it a playground.
By U.S. Army Spc.
Jan Critchfield
122nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
FORWARD OPERATING BASE PATRIOT, Baghdad, Dec. 8, 2004 — With several million dollars’ worth of infrastructure projects under way in Sadr City, the 1 st Cavalry Division’s 1 st Brigade Combat Team has been moving forward to bring progress to the once conflict-torn streets of eastern Baghdad.
Although larger, more expensive projects such as sewage lift stations and electrical distribution networks will benefit the people of Baghdad in the long run, smaller, quicker projects allow multinational forces to show locals their true colors—that they are in Baghdad to help the Iraqi people.
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“We tried to draw the community together by getting different families to help us with this project,” 1 st Lt. Gerald Kubicek, a platoon leader with Company A, 20 th Engineer Battalion. |
“As we do patrols in the area … (locals) have always been good to us and helped us out as much as possible,” said 1 st Lt. Gerald Kubicek, a platoon leader with Company A, 20 th Engineer Battalion. “So, we thought that since we use their neighborhood so much, we ought to give a little back.”
On Nov. 30, soldiers of Company A teamed up with local children and cleaned a trash-covered area in the middle of an eastern Baghdad neighborhood, converting the land into a park. Infrequent visits from the city’s trash trucks and no trash bins for locals to use resulted in what was turning into a local trash dump, threatening the health of those living nearby.
Seeing U.S. vehicles entering the area, local children ran to meet the soldiers and ask for candy, which soldiers often bring for them. This time, however, the soldiers distributed tools that the children could use to help in the cleanup.
“Kids always approach us and want candy, but this time we had something for them to do,” said Kubicek. “We wanted to encourage the local children to help themselves by using the rakes and shovels we provided to help clean up. Since there were a lot of kids out there, we gave school supplies as a token of our appreciation after the work was done.”
Kubicek said getting the neighborhood energized was essential to the success of the project.
“We tried to draw the community together by getting different families to help us with this project,” he said.
Since trash disposal had been the problem that made the field unusable in the first place, a trash pit was constructed so families have a centralized place for refuse.
The following day, a local contractor delivered two swing sets and other playground equipment, giving kids a place to hang out and play football (soccer), the Iraqi national pastime.
“Now we have a nice, open park, two swing sets, and a place for them to deposit their garbage, instead of having it laying all over the place,” Kubicek said. “We have a vested interest in giving something back to the Iraqi people. Projects like this one are a reminder that the American people are here to help.”
song playing....You Light up My Life