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Commander of 133rd delivers hopeful message

Aug-16-2005 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

The 113rd provided engineer support to both the 3/2 and the 1/25 Stryker Brigades

Link to Full Article
By Darcie Moore, Times Record News

BRUNSWICK - Brunswick Rotary Club admitted Monday that they've been discouraged by media reports about the reconstruction efforts led by American military forces in Iraq. But they received far more encouraging news from one of the hundreds of Mainers sent to Iraq to rebuild the war-stricken country.

Lt. Col. John Jansen of the Maine National Guard 133rd Engineering Battalion attended Monday's Brunswick Rotary Club meeting at the Atrium dressed in camouflage and black boots. He came armed with a slide show.

The pictures he chose were to give club members an eyeful of more than what they see in televised news reports. While Jansen showed images of piles of explosives found by his soldiers, there were also smiles on the faces of many of the Iraqi people he met. The majority of Iraqis want to move forward with their lives, Jansen said.

In Mosul — the city of 1.8 million people where Jansen's unit spent most of its deployment in Iraq — only a handful of Iraqis want to disrupt progress, the commander said. Those groups are organized, Jansen said, so his troops had to change the way they operate from day to day. This makes it difficult to answer questions about what day-to-day routine was like. [...]

The battalion did projects on every base and camp in northern Iraq. Their job was unique in that they were able to get out into the villages and work with the people. One of the pictures was of a completed culvert the battalion installed, maybe not the most significant job they did, but the road crossing over the culvert connected two villages that had never before been connected.

Jansen also shared a photo of a school room where students crowded the room two to a desk, illustrating the importance of one of the new schools the soldiers built.

The outpouring of supplies for Iraqi villagers sent from back home required the battalion to build an extra mail room. To keep up with the demand, materials come in regularly on convoy made up of 20 tractor-trailers.

With their nation's infrastructure strained and dilapidated, Iraqis look at the infrastructure in the United States and expect them to be able to build one like it in Iraq in much less time than is realistic, Jansen said. Major infrastructure projects are dangerous, Jansen explained, and soldiers become a target for those who are still trying to impede their progress. Members of the old regimes like the Baath Party are examples of such groups. Jansen and the battalion have experienced casualties. He asked club members to remember one of his injured men, Sgt. Harold Gray, in their prayers.

Asked to say candidly if he thinks the effort to rebuild Iraq and turn it over to a democratically elected government can succeed, Jansen mentioned a recent sign that gives him hope.

The turnout during the Jan. 30 Iraqi national elections far exceeded expectations. [...]

From the time he received his first orders, "It was not about us or the United States, it was about them," Jansen said, referring to the Iraqi people.

Asked if initiating federalism in Iraq is a good idea, he said, "It's amazingly complicated. ... I think the question is, can (the conflicting ethnic groups) come together and make some concessions, and I don't know the answer to that."

Whatever happens, "I left there — and I know my soldiers did — feeling like we made a difference, and that's very important," Jansen said.


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