Challenges Ahead

As the saying goes "nothing ever comes easy" and that seems to be the motto around here as of late! The big push here has been getting the generator farm (15 1MW generators on line). Thanks to the 1st Cav Division they paid the monies to have RMS start up the generator farm which has been dormant since December 2006 because of lack of fuel. At the same time the generator farm was being checked out, they were also high potting and checking out the 11KV lines that run to the various parts of the post, the transformer boxes and inspecting the lines.

We had been approved for our first fuel delivery but as the motto goes that still wasn't a reality. As you all probably read several weeks back a bridge that is located along the main route between Baghdad and Taji was partially destroyed and that has created a huge chokepoint along this route for various meetings. All traffic going north and south now has to use the same lane at the bridge site and this is a four lane road (2 lanes on each side). Additionally the bridge site is protected by the Iraqi Army (IA) and unless they are made aware of certain deliveries or convoys the wait there can be several hours long and many vehicles get turned back. Our fuel delivery was tied up because of this bridge. Then the contractor didn't send us the required info to get them past the bridge. When we finally offered them US Convoy security support, the issue was his drivers didn't want to be seen with American troops, then it was the drivers didn't want to go to Taji and he would have to switch out drivers. At that point I picked up the phone and called the contracting officer and told him this contractor wants American Greenback and now it's time to have him walk the walk! And if there was any other delay in the fuel I would request another vendor and this guy can go to hell! All this unfolded when the 7 day vehicle curfew was imposed to prevent any violence during one of the pilgrimages to a shiite shrine. Now I thought us Roman Catholics had a lot of religious holidays but these guys take the icing on the cake!!

As RMS has continued to inspect the various power generation equipment they have noted numerous deficiencies from the work of the company that built the generator farm and installed the high and low voltage lines through out the base. Unfortunately for us until some of these deficiencies are resolved we will not be able to start pushing power out to the grid. Stay tuned more to follow next blog.

The first shipments of equipment that were purchased for the Small Arms, Generator Repair and DPW facilities will arrive next week. I had originally thought that I would have to sign for the equipment and then get it added to the Depots Property Book as a US Army asset. Instead I have been advised that since this equipment was brought for the IA by US funds that it can not be added to the US Army property book but instead the IA will have to sign for the equipment after I approved the receipt of the material and sign off on the DD250 which will then allow the Army to pay off the vendors who shipped us the equipment. Property Accountability in the Iraqi Army leaves a lot to be desired because signing for property means taking responsibility for something and in the old regime if you were responsible and something went wrong than you were screwed with either prison or an early meeting with the grim reaper. So getting them to not get so uptight when it comes to taking responsibility for property or actions is trying at times. I will be letting them know what will have to happen prior to arrival of the equipment and ensure that they get their property book set up properly to annotate their new property.

SGT A who was loaned to our group in mid June left our group since he was redeployed to another location in Iraq. He has already been missed since he was here for over 8 months and knew all the ins and outs as to how to get things done, who to contact etc. Good news is that I hired from the IZ Major Y who had come up here earlier to interview for the Deputy PMO slot. I told her to finish up what she was working on at J-4 and to schedule her arrival here NLT 10 Sept. Her arrival should help since I will be able to hand off some of the day to day activities and concentrate on some of the longer range items that are sticking their ugly heads out and keep me up at night. AMC has sent us three new individuals to support this project, and this should help us since we will be required to do the technical review for the equipment that the bidders will purchase as part of the contract they bid on.

Well that it for now, the big question is when I post my next blog will we have power in out depot area?

The Colonel