Welcome To The District Six Website

From April 23rd to May 7th, at the invitation of General Turner of the US Army's 101st Airborne, I joined Fresno Police Officer Brian Burry and Fresno lawyer and Fresno County Sheriff Reserve Deputy Ron Sawl as representatives of Fresno based Operation Soldier for a visit to Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. Operation Soldier's mission is to collect surplus police equipment (such as ballistic vests and helmets) from police departments around the country and deliver it to US military authorities in Iraq and Afghanistan. They then provide this vital personal protection equipment to the civilian police personnel. The purpose of the trip was for the team to be able to personally assess the needs of the civilian Iraqi Police forces in the Salah ad-Din Province.

We were imbedded with the 3rd combat brigade under the command of Colonel Michael Steele and were assigned to Major Michael Elliot (who is from Fresno). We also had the honor of having Lt. John Pettis from San Francisco as our liaison officer. During our time there we had the opportunity to visit Saddam Hussein's home town palace complex in Tikrit, the Provincial Police Headquarters and Government Center in Tikrit, the Headquarters and a police sub-station in Bayji and a Blackhawk helicopter trip to Northern Iraq to visit the Police Academy in Sulaimaniyah in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

The mission of the 101st Airborne is quite simple. They are working to help the Iraqi's establish the proper local government and police functions so they can function on their own. When they can do so, mission accomplished and they can come home. The Iraqi people we met were all enthusiastic about having their freedom and it is clear they are working hard with the US military to learn what democracy means and how it works. It is important to remember that for 30 years under Saddam, freedom to the Iraqi people was only a dream. They have much to learn and they are making significant progress.

During our trip there we were able to talk to and spend time with countless US Soldiers, US civilian there to train the Iraqi Police, Salah ad-Din Provincial Governor Hamad Hamood Shekti, Provincial Police Chief General Mazher Taha Ahmad as well as many other police officials and Iraqi civilians. There was no place we could not go and no one we were not allowed to talk too.

Map Of Iraq

Click on map to enlarge Note: city names are in native Iraqi spelling

If you would like to see the photo album made from pictures I took on the trip, please click on a link below.

Please click to view photos

To see May 3rd, 2006 KSEE Channel 24 news story about the trip, click here

To see the May 4th, 2006 KFSN Channel 30 news story about the trip, click here

To see the Op-Ed story about the trip to Iraq, published by the Fresno Bee on Friday, May 26, 2006, please click here

To see mission report on Operation Soldier website, click here

 

 

Not paid for at taxpayer expense