War News
Uganda and Afghanistan
Monday, April 23, 2007 3:27 PM
Works In Uganda
LIRA, Uganda, April 23, 2007 — After six months of providing much-needed support to the surrounding areas of Lira, Uganda, Civil Affairs Team 412 recently turned over its projects to a new civil affairs team which will continue the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa mission.
That mission includes coordination with Ugandan leaders and the Uganda People’s Defense Force military to help carry out the government’s plan for recovery, development and peace. This initiative resettles displaced persons into villages where infrastructures have been restored.
While there, civil affairs team members repaired 63 wells in Lira and Pader districts at a cost of $120,000, positively affecting 250,000 villagers.
“By repairing wells away from the internally displaced person’s camps it assists in the movement of villagers away from the camps to smaller resettlement villages,” said U.S. Army Capt. Scott Hagerty, Civil Affairs Team commander. “By occupying the land, the villagers increase the stability of the region. The camps limited resources aren’t strained anymore due to the fact that people aren’t occupying a small space and passing diseases amongst each other,”
The rehab of the wells also gives the villagers the opportunity to use the water to make mud, which is then placed in wood form and allowed to dry in the sun before being baked to create bricks.
“The population figures have tripled since we had the wells repaired,” said Hagerty. “This is a real success story for the returning villagers who were in survival mode prior to the rehab of the well,” he said.
The civil affairs team also started the ground work for two major bridge projects and donated over $750 to the Lira Baby Orphanage, which made a positive impact on the community as well.
“The money we donated raised the standard of living from just surviving to actually thriving and being able to care for all the babies,” said Hagerty.
Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa is a unit of United States Central Command. The organization conducts operations and training to assist partner nations to combat terrorism in order to establish a secure environment and enable regional stability. More than 1,500 people from each branch of the U.S. military, civilian employees, Coalition forces and partner nations make up the CJTF-HOA organization. The area of responsibility for CJTF-HOA includes the countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
With The Troops In Afghanistan
BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan, April 22, 2007 – Extensions, training and congressional support topped the list of topics discussed at a town hall meeting here yesterday with Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Pace and his senior enlisted advisor, Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, addressed servicemembers from all service branches and answered questions as part of a visit to the air base.
The chairman began the meeting by congratulating the troops and commending them on their actions during the Taliban’s attempted spring offensive. “This year’s spring offensive, you all have them trying to figure out what they’re going to do next,” Pace said.
He took questions on a variety of topics and attempted to settle concerns about media and congressional support for the troops and the war effort. “The American people are with you,” he said. “There are Americans who support the war and Americans who do not. They all support you.
“If you go all the way back to 2001 and remember the initial attacks on Afghanistan and in 2003 the attacks on Iraq, there was 24-hour coverage,” he continued. “Over time, the amount of time on TV allocated to the war has gone down. What gets on television is the bombs going off, not the well being dug. We can either wring our hands about this or realize what the environment is and adjust to it.”
Despite what troops might hear on television, Congress continues to support them in the field, Pace said. “Our Congress has continued to fund everything we ask for,” he said. “They will come to whatever compromise they need to come to, to give us what we need. That’s why you’re here: to protect the right to have those kinds of debate.”
The chairman said troops can help shape that debate by talking to people when their deployments are complete. “When you come home, talk to some group in your hometown,” he encouraged. “If all of us do that, there will be more Americans who get a bit of information here and bit there.”
Pace also addressed the recently announced extensions that soldiers in U.S. Central Command, which includes Afghanistan, will now serve. “We did it to stop the just-in-time decisions,” he told the troops, “to stop telling people they’ll be home for 12 months and then nipping away at that.”
The general added that he understands the sacrifices soldiers and their families are making. “It really is the families sacrificing the most here,” he said. “You know when you’re in danger. They don’t, so they think about you in danger a lot.”
At the end of the town hall meeting, Pace shook all the servicemembers’ hand and thanked them for their sacrifices. “I don’t know how to thank you properly,” he said. “You’re making a difference.”
(Air Force Staff Sgt. Thomas J. Doscher is assigned to the Regional Command East Public Affairs Office.)
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