Iraq War Pre-Surge: Things Go Wrong

[March 30, 2025]  The good news was that by the end of February, the weather in Iraq was getting nice, with clear skies and temperatures in the upper 60s and low 70s. Of course, with Surge units about to arrive and construction in full swing, I was moving about Iraq, seeing how this construction was progressing. There is nothing better than seeing for yourself how troop and contracted base building was going. Overall, we were making significant progress, but because speed was necessary, mistakes were being made, and things were definitely going wrong. My biggest fear was someone getting killed, and that was a line I’d drawn, never to cross. Fortunately, I’m happy to say that none of those working for MNC-I were ever killed while carrying out our Engineer Surge mission.

Butler Range would become the most difficult and complex site on which to build, with the most challenging problems. The base had been absolutely devastated by the U.S. Air Force in the war, and there was nothing like having to clean up huge pieces of concrete that had been a part of a building and cleaning up UXO before any construction could commence. These Surge bases would be built without the typical niceties like Air Conditioning and the commanders, naturally, were unhappy. But I did now have a list of inbound units, size and the location where they would go, with approximate Main Body arrival times.  All this crucial information had initially been denied. Things were coming together well enough for me to leave the theater for a few days to attend a CENTCOM Engineer Conference in Alabama. I’d first arrived at the CENTCOM HQ in Tampa, Florida for a meet and greet.

Before I left for my trip to the states, I had first to put out a few fires. One problem we had on ASR Aspen was the road was inadequate for heavy traffic. The only realistic solution to the narrow road was to build turnouts spaced evenly the length of the ASR, so our large HMETT heavy haulers could pass side by side.  Another fire was when a good-idea fairy had thought of putting up solar-powered lights throughout Baghdad City. I think this originally came to be a USAID initiative, and it was dumber than dirt to think these street lights would last in the dusty, grimmy, hot atmosphere of Iraq. I killed the idea, but every time I left the theater, it seemed to re-emerge stronger. This “good idea” was similar to the environmentally-friendly, foam-insulated tent cover idea. No one liked to think through the concerns, but I killed these overpriced, risky, “good for the environment” but ultimately unreliable projects every time they popped up.

The CENTCOM conference was good for networking and, of course, most of those attending were interested in my take on Engineering in the difficult desert environment. Since I was the Corps’s Engineer Facilities OIC, I had my finger on all the problems, concerns, what went right and the most valuable, useful techniques. Getting me out of Iraq may seem easy to do, but it was difficult. And my flight itinerary was screwed up, and planes were delayed. I also had to use my personal credit card because SATO had messed up my flights. I did get to see a couple of entertaining movies on the flight back to the States, and the first I’d seen since arriving in the country. I left Iraq on a Friday and was in airports or on a plane for about 30 hours in total.

We all faced challenges in the war zone, but the Engineering aspect was unique. I had one of the more popular presentations. Here are the “biggest challenges” in Iraq for design and construction (nowhere else have these been listed or discussed since that Monday, back in 2007):

• MILCON thresholds.  The solution is to raise the minimum and reduce the huge bureaucratic obstacles that slowed the project and added more costs.
• Legal Issues. Potential and actual Anti-Deficiency Act violations took time to repair. This problem had been ignored until I stepped in and started to raise awareness.
• Contingency Construction Authority (CCA) speed was still too slow.
• Construction Inflation.  As expected, with units independently contracting civilians, there was pressure to use better contractors, escalating costs.
• Shifting Security Threat. Operating in a war zone means the enemy has a vote on whether, when, and where to attack.
• LOGCAP Limitations. LOGCAP IV was inbound but still had not reached the point where we could use it for new construction.
• Manpower and Skill Set Shortages.  We never had enough military or civilian engineers or contractors who knew how to operate efficiently and safely in the Iraq war zone. This hindered us at every step.
• Environmental and Lack of Resources.  Our requirement to adhere to U.S. environmental regulations was one of the dumbest things we were required to do. And the resources we needed were often extracted at unknown environmental costs.
• USACE.  The Corps of Engineers.  Too slow, too expensive, and too bureaucratic.
• Troop Labor.  The entire American military engineering effort would not have been enough. If we intend to do extensive troop construction in the future, we’ll need to plus-up the number of Engineers.
• Quality in Construction. If it can go wrong, it will. Books will be written on this topic someday, and we will be shocked at the poor quality of materials and lack of skills.

There were other helpful discussions, such as how to properly employ the Force Provider war stock we were getting for Butler Range. I would fly out the following Saturday, March 3, and was made aware that on March 1, near us, a massive EF4 tornado hit a high school in Enterprise, Alabama, killing nine. I saw the National Weather Service video footage with catastrophic damage. By this time, I’d become largely immune to news of deaths, but this one made a particular impact on me for reasons I didn’t understand.

Returning was largely uneventful, except my luggage was lost (it would be found two weeks later).  At the U.S. military issuance facilities in Kuwait, I picked up my helmet and body armor and wore it over my khaki pants and light blue shirt. As I was disembarking the USAF C130, I did get a few odd looks for my mixed uniform appearance. The plane arrived at BIAP at 1530 hours. One of my USMC NCOs picked me up, and I went straight back to the C-7 Boathouse to work. I met up with COL Mary Whitworth, a loggie, to discuss designs and construction of “strategic fuel” that would be held in large steel tanks and caught up on what had transpired the week I was gone. She also updated me on the pace of T-wall concrete construction, Bucca Detainee facility expansion, and Butler Range (where we were falling behind).

On March 19, we had a Butler Range meeting to discuss that progress was falling behind schedule. This was obvious and 43 Soldiers of 3/3’s Advance Party would arrive at Butler Range in four days. We did not yet have a Main Body arrival date, but we could expect about 800+ within 30 days. MG McDonald told me to get out to Butler and “grab those engineers by their pubic hair and get on schedule.”  I would go, but first, I had to attend a high-level meeting of the Joint Planning Commission, a civil-military capacity planning group made up of mostly American Flag Officers. Balancing this “reconstruction” effort with my main job as a “construction” Engineer would stretch me very thin. I would soon travel to a Butler Range to speed up their progress.

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).