Multi-National Division – Baghdad “First Team.....Team First” Thursday, April 30, 2009

Maintaining base defense on JSS War Eagle

Baghdad, Iraq — Brewster, N.Y. native, Pvt. Michael Slocum, raid camera operator for the base defense op-erating cell (BDOC), 115th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division climbs a tower to release the brakes that allow the tower to de-scend to its resting position April 26 on Joint Security Station War Eagle, north of Baghdad. The BDOC cleans the raid tower to ensure optimum performance.

Pvt. Michael Slocum, raid camera operator for the base defense operating cell (BDOC), 115th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cav-alry Division checks the tension in the wires of the raid tower April 26.

Baghdad, Iraq — Irving, Texas native, Sgt. Malinda Fox, wipes the camera lenses off during a routine raid tower cleaning April 26.

Detroit native, Staff Sgt. Bryan Moses, engages the brakes in order to lower the raid tower April 26.

Photo by Sgt. Shejal Pulivarti, 1st BCT PAO

Photo by Sgt. Shejal Pulivarti, 1st BCT PAO

Photo by Sgt. Shejal Pulivarti, 1st BCT PAO

Photo by Sgt. Shejal Pulivarti

PAGE 2 April 30, 2009

See PATROL, Pg 4

Water treatment facility opens in Abu Ghraib By Sgt. Dustin Roberts2nd HBCT PAO, 1st Inf. Div.

BAGHDAD — Close to one-thousand families in the Khandari area of Abu Ghraib can have clean water for everyday use.

The Khandari Water Treatment Facility opened with a ribbon-cut-ting ceremony April 27 in the Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad.

Contracted through the lo-cal Iraqi Government and Multi-National Division—Baghdad, the facility, which took close to three months to complete, treats and pu-rifies five-to-eight million gallons of water per-day.

“This is a culmination of the efforts of many people, to include Coalition forces and the local gov-ernment,” said Lt. Col. Samuel Hayes, a native of Newport, Pa., commander, 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment. “We have been working with the Iraqis very hard to make sure that everybody in Abu Ghraib has clean water to use every day.”

The water facility will also help about 500 additional families by preserving the water that flowed

through the original pipeline prior to the construction of the facility.

“I am so glad that these families are being taken care of,” said Ali Ishmael, the director of the Nasir Wa Salam Water office. “This place will be a very big help in the future, especially in the summer months.”

To provide more assistance to the people, the battalion’s lead-ers continue to work with the lo-cal government to carry out more water treatment projects, electric-ity projects, a market opening and school projects in the Abu Ghraib district.

Hayes said that essential service projects demand hours of planning, but the average citizen doesn’t no-tice.

“This is a physical example of the government’s desire to help the individual Iraqi,” Hayes said. “When they drive by [the water treatment facility] they see this facility and when they turn their faucet on at home they have clean water and they know they can safely use it.”

A concern of the local citizens in Khandari is keeping the facility secure from insurgents and special group criminals.

Hayes said the Iraqi Security Forces, who lead in securing the fa-cility, have improved immensely at combating violence in Abu Ghraib.

“Certainly there is an ongo-ing concern about the security in Abu Ghraib and there is still work to be done there, but I don’t think we would have been able to do this two years ago,” he said. “There has been a lot of effort by Coalition forces, but more importantly, the Iraqi Security Forces have made great progress in this effort.”

Kamil Abbas, the chairman of the Abu Ghraib District Council, cuts the ribbon at a ceremony signifying the opening of the Khandari Water Treatment Facility in Abu Ghraib April 27.

Photo by Sgt. Dustin Roberts, 2nd HBCT PAO

Dismounted patrol: Walking with warriors of Cobra CompanyBy Capt. Cory Angell56 SBCT PAO

BAGHDAD — At Joint Se-curity Station Hor al-Bosh, the day for Company C, 1st Bat-talion, 112th Infantry, begins around a briefing board mount-ed on a wall. Soldiers gather around as they receive the day’s mission; again reminded of the threats that they could face.

“We brief them on the mis-sion, making sure everyone knows what task they will per-form and the purpose for per-forming it,” said Staff Sgt. Bert Finland, from St. Mary’s, Pa. “We cover the risks we face and if any of those risks become re-ality, the actions we will take.”

It’s a ritual that the Soldiers have ingrained in themselves after more than three months TAJI, Iraq — Sgt. Mike Gallo, from Pittsburgh, talks with the Soldiers mounted in the

Stryker vehicles by radio as they conduct a patrol in Taji Market.

Photo by Capt. Cory Angell, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team PAO

PAGE 3 April 30, 2009

Dagger hosts 2nd ‘Media Round Table’By Sgt. Dustin Roberts2nd HBCT PAO, 1st Inf. Div.

BAGHDAD — Iraqi report-ers took advantage of another opportunity to meet with the U.S. Army commanders operat-ing in northwest Baghdad and Abu Ghraib.

In a “round table” setting, Col. Joseph Martin, command-er, 2nd Heavy Brigade Com-bat Team “Dagger,” 1st Infan-try Division, Multi-National Division—Baghdad, and four battalion commanders in the brigade, hosted the second me-dia-focused event April 26 since the brigade arrived in northwest Baghdad in early October 2008.

For U.S. commanders, it was an effort to inform the Iraqi pub-lic of the joint security mission with the Iraqi Security Forces, the essential services and civil capacity projects in the area and the continuing implementations of the signed security agreement between the government of Iraq and the U.S. government.

The Security Agreement, enacted in January of this year, states that Coalition Forces will “pull out of the city” by June 31.

Many members of the Iraqi press wanted to know exactly what that means to not only the population of northwest Bagh-dad, but to the Dagger Brigade Soldiers.

“We are still in negotiation with the government of Iraq as to how things will work beyond the 30th of June,” Martin said. “Many of the Soldiers in the cit-ies will move to Victory Base Complex or other locations. Anything that is remaining of the cities will be at the request of the Iraqi Security Forces.”

Along with the security agreement, the members of the media were equally concerned of the recent suicide attacks at the Kadamiyah Shrine, which

killed more than 60 people and wounded about 120.

“It was a regrettable tragedy what happened two days ago at the Kadamiyah Shrine; my unit’s heart goes out to all those families who suffered losses that day,” said Lt. Col. John Vermeesch, a native of Mar-shall, Mich., commander, 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd HBCT, who operates in Kadamiyah. “We continue to gather evidence

with our ISF partners to deter-mine what terrorist group was responsible.”

The Dagger commander continued by saying that hatred for peace and democracy is still present in Iraq.

“Nothing is perfect; the en-emy still exists, but the enemy is weaker than he ever has been before,” he said.

Martin added that over two years ago an average of 30 at-tacks per day occurred in the

area the Dagger Brigade oper-ates in.

“Now this area experiences over 2.3 attacks per day,” said Martin. “[It is still] an unac-ceptable number, but a signifi-cant improvement from Janu-ary 2007.”

In other improving areas, he also explained how the Dagger Brigade has conducted over 437 essential service projects, such as electricity improve-ment, sewage removal and re-construction, by comparing the progress to an almost-full bottle of drinking water.

“When it comes to essential services, if the [Iraqi] govern-ment is able to at this point in time fill [the water bottle] up to 90 percent, we will be able to do what we can to try and fill it to the top,” he said. “This way the people receive the services while the government contin-ues to improve.

As the government becomes more sustainable, Martin said the ISF are doing the same.

“You look at the leadership of a brigade that commands es-sentially 5,000 Soldiers, but in partnership with our Iraqi Se-curity Force partners we now are 21,000 plus strong,” said Martin. “We are there to partner with them, sustain, support, ad-vise and assist them in any way we can to be successful, but we are there side-by-side with our Iraqi Security partners.”

After the conference, the Iraqi media again had a chance to sit and talk with the leaders of the Dagger Brigade over lunch with an understanding of how the brigade continues to help secure and develop northwest Baghdad and Abu Ghraib’s environment.

“We all come here with one simple agenda,” said Martin. “That agenda is so that prog-ress can continue over time.”

Lt. Col. John Richardson, IV, a native of Tallahassee, Fla., commander, 5th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regi-ment, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st ID, MND-B, speaks to several members of the Iraqi media at the Freedom Rest Center in Baghdad April 26.

Members of the Iraqi media interview Col. Joseph Martin, a native of Dearborn, Mich., commander, 2nd HBCT, 1st ID, over lunch at the Freedom Rest Center April 26. Mar-tin answered questions about the security agreement, civil capacity and the recent bombings in Kadamiyah.

Photo by Sgt. Dustin Roberts, 2nd HBCT PAO

Photo by Sgt. Dustin Roberts, 2nd HBCT PAO

PAGE 4 April 30, 2009

Soldiers tribute their success to the dismounted patrol

Cav Round-Up radio newscast available

in Iraq. Each Soldier is called on to brief something; indicators of an improvised explosive device, actions on identifying a threat, and evacuation of wounded. All of them repeat the steps as if they were second nature.

“We have been fortunate here” said Capt. Nicholas Buchheit, of State College, Pa., commander of “Cobra Company.” “We haven’t had much in the way of di-rect action with the enemy and I think that’s because we are out there interacting with the people every day.”

Buchheit said the unit has conducted approximately 300 joint patrols with Iraqi Security Forces to include about 20 joint cache clear-ances since they arrived in February.

“The Soldiers have been working hard every day,” said Buchheit. “We recently uncovered a cache that included 219 different pieces of explosives.”

Many of the soldiers at-tribute their success to the dismounted patrol where they leave their Stryker ve-hicles and simply walk.

“One of the things that

benefits our company is the fact that we are continuously dismounted,” said Finland. “You get better results on

the ground; you gather more human intelligence, you get to interact with the Iraqi Se-curity Forces and offer them

mentorship and guidance and it just puts us in the commu-nities.”

The Soldiers of Cobra Company walk their beat in different environments from the Taji Market; busy and bustling with people, activity and buildings, to the town of Zorba; with cows, sheep and open farm fields.

In both environments, Staff Sgt. Steven Jones, from Brad-ford Pa., has the soldiers in-vestigate anything suspicious, talk to people, and meet with Iraqi Security Forces as they come to their checkpoints.

“We find that some places are very friendly,” said Jones. “Then there are some places that they aren’t so friendly. It all depends on the area.”

In the city, the children take the time to challenge Jones to a soccer match. In the county, farmers wave from their porch and the Sol-ders respond in kind.

“I served in Iraq before and it’s kind of nice to come back and see the fruits of your labor,” said Sgt. Mike Gallo, of Pittsburgh. “In some ways people are doing better, in oth-ers they need more work. It’s just good to walk the streets and see that they are working to better themselves.”

from PATROL, Pg 2

TAJI, Iraq — Members of Company C, patrol a main road in the town of Zorba, Iraq, before returning to their Joint Security Station in Hor al-Bosh.

TAJI, Iraq — Staff Sgt. Steven Jones, of Bradford Pa., takes time to kick back a soccer ball while on patrol in Taji Market.

Photo by Capt. Cory Angell, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team PAO

Photo by Capt. Cory Angell, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team PAO

MND-B PAOBAGHDAD — The Cav Round-Up

is a three-minute radio newscast from Baghdad covering military units and events across Multi-National Division — Baghdad.

Today’s Cav Round-Up No. 56 was produced by Sgt. Lisa Heise, MND-B Public Affairs Office.

The April 28th newscast includes the following stories:

1. Pennsylvania soldiers from the

111th Infantry Regiment, conduct their first air assault mission in Iraq. MSG Sean Wheylan, 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Public Affairs Office.

Partnering with Iraqi Army to protect-ing populus. Air assault missions with helicopters o recon with IA in helicopters to set up traffic control points to search for weapons smugglers.

Historically, area has not had coali-tion presence. A clear message was sent to smugglers.

2. Iraqi Security Forces and soldiers

of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team find a major weapons cache near the village of Uhm Najim. Three weap-ons caches discovered 214 pieces of or-dinances.

To hear the Cav Round-Up, click on the following links:

NIPR LINK: Cav Round-UpSIPR LINK: Cav Round-UpCheck out more news at the 1st Cav-

alry Division’s homepage:www.cavcountry.net

PAGE 5 April 30, 2009

Iraq 3-Day

Weather Report Today

95° F | 69° FTomorrow 91° F | 66° F

Saturday89° F | 68° F

On This Day In Military History 1789 - In New York City, George Washington, the great military leader of the American Revolution, is inaugurated as the first president of the United States. In February 1789, all 69 presidential electors unanimously chose Washington to be the first U.S. president. In March, the new U.S. constitution officially took effect, and in April Congress formally sent word to Washington that he had won the presidency. He borrowed money to pay off his debts in Virginia and traveled to New York. On April 30, he came across the Hudson River in a specially built and decorated barge. The inaugural ceremony was performed on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street, and a large crowd cheered after he took the oath of office. The president then retired indoors to read Congress his inaugural address, a quiet speech in which he spoke of “the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” The evening celebration was opened and closed by 13 skyrockets and 13 cannons. As president, Washington sought to unite the nation and protect the interests of the new republic at home and abroad. Of his presidency, he said, “I walk on untrodden ground. There is scarcely any part of my conduct which may not hereafter be drawn in precedent.” He successfully implemented executive authority and made good use of brilliant politicians such as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson in his cabinet.

DID YOU MISS THE APRIL 15 DEADLINE TO FILE FOR YOUR TAX RETURNS? Ifyoumissedthenormal15Aprilfilingdatefortaxes,fearnot.Yourdeadlineforfilingtax returns is automatically extended for 180 days after you redeploy from the combat zone. In addition to the 180 days, your deadline is extended by the number of days you were inthecombatzone,duringthetaxseason;1January-15 April. However,ifyouwanttofileyourtaxes,whilestilldeployed,theMND-BLegalAssistanceOfficewillcontinuetoprovidebasic tax assistance for the remainder of the deployment.Ourofficehasseveralcomputersavailable for Soldiers to input and process tax returns. TheLegalAssistanceOfficeislocatedinside the Camp Liberty Mayor’s Cell, across the street from the De Fleury DFAC, onStranskyRoad.Officehoursare0900-1800 Monday – Sunday. POC is CPT Daniel Cummins at daniel.cummins@mnd-b.army.mil or SVOIP 242-7668.

ATTENTION!

Washington

Here’s an invitation to play Wordplay!

Find words inside of words.

Today’s word is: UNIFORM

Proper nouns do not count, nor does the word shown.

Words should be at least 5 letters long.

Try to find 4 words. Good Luck!

The next issue of the Daily Charge will reveal the answers.

PAGE 6 April 30, 2009

Multi-National Division - BaghdadPublic Affairs Office

Commanding General:Maj. Gen. Daniel Bolger

Public Affairs Officer:Lt. Col. Philip Smith

Public Affairs Chief:Master Sgt. Nicholas Conner

Editor:Spc. Jon Soles

Staff Writers:Sgt. 1st Class Ron Burke

Sgt. 1st Class Joel QuebecStaff Sgt. Mark BurrellStaff Sgt. Jon CuppStaff Sgt. Peter Ford Sgt. Joshua Risner

Spc. Howard AlperinSpc. Laura Johnson

Spc. Phillip Adam Turner

The Daily Charge is an authorized publication for members of the U.S. Army. Contents of The Daily Charge are not official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government, Department of the Army, or the 1st Cavalry Division. The appearance of advertising in this publication, including inserts or supplements, does not constitute endorsement by the Department of the Army, the 1st Cavalry, or The Daily Charge of the products and services advertised.

All editorial content of The Daily Charge is prepared, edited, provided and approved by the Multi-National Division – Baghdad Public Affairs Office.

Do you have a story to share?The Daily Charge welcomes columns, commentaries,

articles, letters and photos from readers. Submissions should be sent to the Public Affairs NCOIC

nicholas.conner@mnd-b.army.mil and include author’s name, rank, unit and contact information. The Daily Charge reserves the right to edit submissions selected for the paper.

For further information on deadlines, questions, comments or a request to be on our distribution list, email the Editor at jon.soles@mnd-b.army.mil

Pvt. Murphy by Mark Baker

PEGASUS OASIS DFAC HOURSBREAKFAST 0530 TO 0830

LUNCH 1130 TO 1330DINNER 1700 TO 2000

MIDNIGHT CHOW 2300 TO 0100SUNDAY ONLYBRUNCH 0730 to 1330DINNER 1700 to 2000

MIDNIGHT CHOW 2300 to 0100

Quote For Today “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

— George Washington, 1732-17991st President of the United States

10) Is piracy a recession-proof industry?9) How am I at ducking sniper fire?8) Is there enough swash in my bucket?7) Before committing, should I temp as a Pirate?6) Am I doing this just to get babes?5) Is there an all-inclusive meal plan?

4) Will I get to meet Johnny Depp3) Will I get along with Ross Ohlendorff? (sorry, that’s a question to ask yourself before becoming a Pittsburgh Pirate)2) Is there opportunity for advancement?1) How’s the commute from Jersey?

David Letterman’s Top 10 — Questions to ask yourself before becoming a Somali Pirate