Soldiers move into newest post

[unhappycamper]

taff Sgt. Charles Warne, of Glen Willard, Pa., and Spc. Levi Lavalla of Georgia, Vt., build a tower platform at Combat Outpost Salie in Narwan, Iraq. The two joined fellow soldiers from the 8th Battalion, 64th Combat Engineers to help build the base from scratch within 30 days.


Soldiers move into newest post
By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, November 19, 2007


NARWAN, Iraq — As sunset prayers played through a mosque tower’s loudspeakers across the street, soldiers worked on sprucing up their new home.

Combat Outpost Salie still needs a few finishing touches, but the 3rd Infantry Division began moving soldiers to its newest post Thursday.

A couple of years ago, U.S. commanders pondered “smaller footprints” and isolated bases in Iraq. Combat Outpost Salie is about 50 yards away from a large outdoor market and it is surrounded by homes, businesses and a communications tower. It also connects to an Iraqi police station.

Its existence is a reflection of the Army’s new counterinsurgency strategy to live within neighborhoods instead of just patrolling them, say officers from the 3rd Brigade’s 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery.

Some soldiers said that when they first began flattening the earth in mid-October, they were surprised at how many rooftops could be seen from the site. However, Narwan has been peaceful in recent months and construction went very smoothly over 30 days, said Maj. Luis Rivera, 1-10 battalion executive officer.

“The only ‘attack’ during construction was when a contractor was threatened while putting up T-walls,” said Rivera, of Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50371



uhc comment: Previous thread about Narwan --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=7023