Christian and Peter’s
description of service on a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), elsewhere on
this website, is still generally valid.
By now, I’ve visited PRT Diyala, Regional Embassy Office (REO) Basrah,
and Regional Reconstruction Team (RRT) Erbil, which means that I have a direct
experience of PRTs or PRT-like organizations in the center, south, and north of
Iraq. Christian and Peter focused their
description on Contingency Operating Base (COB) Speicher, and this is generally
appropriate for most PRTs. The majority
of PRTs, and even embedded PRTs (ePRTs), are located on a military COB or else
a military Forward Operating Base (FOB).
Living conditions will be defined by the amenities available on the
base. Christian and Peter’s description
of COB Speicher, for example, fits FOB Warhorse, where PRT Diyala is located,
to a “T.” There won’t be swimming pools
or golf courses, but there will generally be PXs, dining facilities (DFACs)
with generally good food in generous quantities, U.S. television in the form of
Armed Forces Network, religious services in English, access to the U.S.
military fitness center, APO postal service and laundry services, and the
ubiquitous MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) karaoke night.
I had initially
concluded, therefore, that differences for a certain group of PRTs would be
minor. Certain questions could help to
define the exact living conditions and available amenities. How dangerous or unstable is the province,
and how readily will I be able to meet local contacts? Can I get internet access in my room? Will I have a television? Will I be getting a “wet” or “dry” CHU
(containerized housing unit)? (At one
time, the usual term was “trailer” or “hooch,” since the living quarters are
indeed trailers that resemble modified shipping containers, but the common term
now seems to have moved to CHU. A wet CHU
includes a toilet and shower, whereas a dry CHU requires the occupant to walk
to adjacent bathroom facilities for a shower or access to a toilet. People assigned to Embassy Baghdad are
familiar with this arrangement, since the living quarters at the Sully Compound,
where we stay on the way out of Baghdad, are dry.)
The real delta seemed
to be between the PRTs and an Embassy Baghdad assignment. The difference has become especially stark
now that the people at Embassy Baghdad live in apartments, which provide
hardened overhead cover and the Baghdad security situation has substantially
improved, even as people in PRTs commonly continue to live in dry CHUs. There are other amenities, such as a PX that
stocks liquor, an in-door swimming pool and basketball court, outdoor tennis
and volley ball courts, and reasonable internet connections and flat-panel TVs
with 70 satellite channels in all, including Armed Forces Network (AFN). In addition, however, service at PRTs is a
step more isolated. We are part of a
large, cohesive organization in the form of the Embassy, so we can socialize
outside the office with people who are friends from previous assignment or with
whom we have common interests. The PRTs
strike me as more limited with regard to socialization, since they are smaller
and have the status somewhat of “guests” on the military base so that they
might not easily fit in with the majority military tenants of the base.
A friend at an ePRT
says that the difference is so marked that now the reasons that colleagues at
her ePRT advance to make trips to the Embassy are scrutinized closely. The suspicion is that the trips might have
been arranged simply to get a break for a few days from the relative
deprivation at the ePRT.
Along with the general
isolation, an additional hardship is the difficulty of getting in and out of
Iraq, with the big exception of RRT Erbil described below. The State Department has arranged with the
Department of Defense for dedicated military air (milair) flights from the
Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) to either Jordan or Kuwait. While we must arrange to get to BIAP (which
is usually a Regional Security Office, RSO, flight to BIAP), our counterparts
at many PRTs must first get to Baghdad, which is not always a simple
matter. While we have to add an extra travel
day to get out of Baghdad, PRT personnel have to add at least one additional
day on either side of travel to get to Baghdad and finally out of BIAP. People at the PRTs located in southern Iraq,
however, have the option of flying directly to Kuwait and onward. In addition, my colleagues at PRT Diyala
noted that the “milk run” helicopter circuit that they usually rely on to get
to Baghdad flies on Thursdays. Since the
regular milair flight to Amman leaves on Thursdays and Sundays, PRT Diyala team
members arrive in Baghdad on Thursdays and must wait until Sunday to actually
leave Iraq.
My recent travel to RRT
Erbil is an example of the difficulty that this can pose.
My colleagues and I had
to cancel our originally scheduled trip because a severe dust storm grounded
all helicopters. We faced adverse
weather conditions again, which appeared likely to ground us a second time, but
the helicopter took off. We landed at
COB Speicher to off-load a passenger, and then we headed out, but were then
forced to turn around when we encountered low cloud cover. The pilot first told us that we would have to
return to Baghdad, but, en route south, he stopped at Balad Air Base to refuel
and informed us that he would head north again in an attempt to reach
Erbil. He landed at Mosul to drop off
other passengers, refueled again, and then we finally reached Erbil. The flight had taken five hours (note that
the return flight took almost exactly two hours). I commented that the flight had taken as much
time as the commercial flight between Amman and Frankfurt, without the benefit
of an on-board toilet, in-flight entertainment, meals, or reclining seats. We were freezing as well, with no heating on
the combat helicopter. Anyone leaving or
returning from a PRT has to deal with similar uncertainties when going on an R&R
or RRB.
While I had focused on
the relatively minor differences in amenities offered by each of the supporting
military bases, my colleague at PRT Dhi Qar pointed out that the differences
were actually major, even among the PRTs that operate off of U.S. military or
coalition bases. His PRT, PRT Muthanna,
and PRT Maysan are all housed in Tallil Air Base, for example. Since PRT Dhi Qar is physically located in
the province, his PRT can get out fairly readily to meet with government
officials and local contacts to carry out its work. PRT Muthanna and PRT Maysan, however, must
travel an hour or two to get to their operating locations, and team members
must “deploy” to field locations with minimal amenities for several days at a
time before swapping out with colleagues to return to the PRT main location to
decompress and take care of tasks like getting laundry done. My friend also mentioned that the security
situation at the field location is poorer for one of the PRTs.
I’m sorry that I can’t
shed much light on what the actual work is like at a PRT. With our State Department perspective, my
colleagues and I tended to suppose that PRTs are like consulates, the
constituent posts in other countries.
Consulates have a representational function, but also have a primary
reporting function, providing a regional perspective on conditions in a country
outside of the capital. PRTs do have
IPAOs, Iraq Provincial Action Officers, whose primary responsibility is
reporting, but I think that the PRTs’ primary role is the “R” in the title -- reconstruction. How this is done is still mysterious to me,
but PRTs have various subject matter experts on subjects such as rule of law,
local governance, and specific governmental responsibilities such as
agriculture or business development.
The word
“reconstruction,” however, does appear to be a term of art. While I consider reconstruction to be a
general label that covers any effort to assist Iraq to recover and stabilize, I
should point out that the PRTs are moving away from construction in the
sense of using funds to build structures and infrastructure, such as by using
Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP) funds to build schoolhouses, and
are now moving more toward “capacity development.”
I would recommend a
review of my previous posting on “Pre-deployment Musings,” which I have found
to be a quite accurate listing of the challenges that I have subsequently
encountered in Baghdad. I think the
challenges are true in spades for service in PRTs. Because the PRTs depend so heavily on a
counterpart military brigade or battalion for support, such as security and
transportation, the PRT’s viability will depend on the PRT leader’s
relationship with the brigade or battalion commander and the latter’s understanding
of the PRT’s role and mission. A poor
relationship will have a serious impact on the PRT’s ability to fulfill its
role. The PRT is also a heterogeneous
mix of State Department (DOS) Foreign Service Officers and short-term “3161”
employees, whose qualifications, previous overseas experience, and ability vary
widely. Finally, PRT personnel also work
closely with “BBAs,” bicultural, bilingual assistants; DOS linguists; and
locally hired subject matter experts.
Of the PRT or similar
organizations that I have visited, conditions at both RRT Erbil and REO Basrah
are quite different, since both have not had a relationship with a U.S.
military unit or base. RRT Erbil exists
independently of any military unit, since it was formerly in an area under the
control of the South Koreans and REO Basrah was located in the British
military’s area of operations. (PRT Dhi
Qar is also under the leadership of the Italians.) REO Basrah seems relatively fortunate, since some
members of the team are scheduled to move into hardened concrete rooms that are
permanent structures, although others will have to remain in CHUs. REO Basrah is also located at an airport in a
base that will transition to U.S. military control with the departure of the
British military. RRT Erbil, on the
other hand, seems to be somewhat disadvantaged, since team members do not have
individual CHUs, but have bedrooms in a common “house.” My friend, for example, has a bedroom along
with three other colleagues in a building that has six bedrooms in total. The four share two bathrooms, but the common
tenancy might also promote a sense of camaraderie and “family” feeling. RRT Erbil also does not have some of the
amenities associated with military bases, such as a DFAC or gymnasium. A very, very big advantage, however, is that
RRT Erbil personnel can leave and return quite simply on Austrian Air, which
flies four times a week from Erbil Airport.
In short, every PRT is very different and worth researching.
Finally, the PRT “footprint”
is likely to change gradually and shrink with the U.S. and Coalition military’s
departure. President Obama has outlined a way forward and a thorough review is underway
and basic decisions must still be made.