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Minnesota's
'Adopt a Highway' idea takes hold in Iraq
Minnesota's
Adopt a
Highway program is helping secure major roads in southern Iraq, a
Minnesota National Guard officer said today.
Maj. Jake Kulzer, a civil affairs officer for the
1/34th Brigade Combat Team and a North Minneapolis resident in
civilian life, said the brigade is using the Minnesota model to have
tribes protect and clear the highways through parts of southern Iraq.
Much of that area is remote and the land along the highways belongs to
tribes or tribal leaders.
Kulzer, a native of Brooklyn Center, spoke with Minnesota reporters this
morning during a conference call arranged by the Minnesota National Guard.
He said the 1/34th brigade has convoy security responsibilities for major
roadways that reach from near the port of Basra northwards to beyond the
city of Nasiriyah.
The brigade's base of operations is about two-and-a-half hours drive south
of Baghdad and about three hours north of the Kuwait border. Other
military units have security responsibility farther north as the roads
lead into Baghdad.
The brigade, known as the Red Bulls, includes a majority of the
approximately 2,000 Minnesota Guard soldiers serving in Iraq. That unit
lost two members to roadside bombs, called improvises explosive devices (IEDs)
in June, prompting the brigade to look at better ways to secure the remote
stretches of highways.
Kulzer is credited with developing a program known as Civilian
Transportation Improvement Team that arranges for local tribes to protect
and clear highways through their land. In turn, the program also provides
employment for tribal members in an area of Iraq that has about 60 percent
unemployment, Kulzer said.
Like the Minnesota Adopt a Highway program, the adjacent tribal members
protect their area and keep it clear of debris, trash and abandoned tires
and auto parts that could mask a bomb, Kulzer said.
The program pays about 150 highway maintenance people each day the local
wages of from $10 to $15 per day. In contrast, a fully equipped Humvee
used by U.S. soldiers on patrol of those highways cost about $370,000, he
said.
"This is a much more effective method of securing the roads," Kulzer said.
Meanwhile, these local eyes to the ground also repair culverts, potholes
and alert military and Iraqi police when they spot something suspicious.
"The best way to defeat an IED is to discover it before it can go off," he
said.
No Iraqi has been killed, injured or even threatened for participating in
the program since it was phased in during the summer, Kulzer said. He
credits the benefits it brings to the tribal people who are protected in
their own neighborhoods.
Kulzer said the Adopt a Highway, or CTIT program, is unique to the Red
Bulls' area of security. But other units closer to Baghdad are now
beginning to adopt it, he said.
BY LEE EGERSTROM
Pioneer Press
November 17, 2006 |
