North Pole Man Sentenced to Five Years in Prison on Explosives and Weapons Convictions

ANCHORAGE—U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler announced today that Coleman L. Barney from North Pole, Alaska, was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage to five years in prison for conspiracy to possess grenades and silencers and to five years in prison for possession of an unregistered destructive device, with the two sentences to run concurrently.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Bryan presided over the trial in this case and also imposed the two five-year concurrent prison terms on Coleman Barney.

On June 18, 2012, a jury returned guilty verdicts against Coleman Barney, Schaffer Cox, and Lonnie G. Vernon on a majority of charges alleged in the superseding indictment and acquitted them on several other charges. Cox, a local militia leader, and Vernon, a fellow militia member, were found guilty of conspiring to murder federal officials, which carries a possible life sentence. Barney, a fellow militia member, was convicted of conspiracy to possess unregistered silencers and destructive devices, as well as possession of unregistered destructive devices. The jury could not reach a verdict as to one of the counts, which charged Barney with conspiracy to murder federal officials, and that count was later dismissed. The verdicts represented the culmination of an extensive investigation that included obtaining recordings of Vernon, Cox, and Barney discussing the murder of numerous state officials in retaliation for attempting to arrest Cox.

Barney’s sentencing is an important step toward concluding this investigation, which resulted in a six-week trial in June. Sentencing for the Vernon’s and Schaeffer Cox are scheduled to occur this coming November.

Ms. Loeffler said, “The actions of Mr. Barney and his co-conspirators presented a very real and dangerous threat to our community.” She commended “the professional work and dedication of law enforcement in protecting citizens and public servants from these threats.”

Mary Rook, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Alaska added, “This investigation and prosecution found its genesis in the voice of concerned citizens that a group of people, operating under the auspices of a sovereign militia, were planning to murder state and federal officials. As a result of the investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Alaska State Troopers, Coleman Barney and his co-conspirators were arrested before they could carry out their murderous plans.”

Ms. Loeffler commends the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the United States Marshals Service; the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Alaska State Troopers; and the Fairbanks Police Department for the investigation of this case.

Afghanistan: Alaska Army National Guard members play pivotal role in Afghanistan

By Army National Guard Maj. Guy Hayes

Alaska National Guard

CAMP DENALI, Alaska  — Alaska Army National Guard members from B Company, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 143rd Infantry Regiment are settling in to their roles as security forces for Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Afghanistan.

More than 126 Soldiers departed Camp Atterbury, Ind., in late February after finalizing their pre-deployment training, and according to their commander, Army Capt. Jason Caldwell, they are proudly representing the Alaska Army National Guard.

“B Company Soldiers are rising to the challenge of each location and are completing their unique mission in a professional manner,” Caldwell said. “As I talk to them and their Provincial Reconstruction Team commanders, I hear nothing but praise for their professionalism and ability to adapt. We have outstanding Soldiers here.”

With units split between multiple forward operating locations, the Alaska Guard members are now conducting daily missions to assist the PRTs in potentially dangerous areas to rebuild infrastructure, assist with agriculture, build wells and provide healthcare.

“We range out into the rural areas of the provinces, completing mounted and dismounted missions,” Caldwell said. “Most days we complete multiple convoys to multiple areas.”

With a heavy operation tempo expected to continue throughout the deployment, Soldiers are extremely busy, but on deployment, busy is good, according to Caldwell.

“The first sergeant is keeping everyone in line and moral is high,” Caldwell said. “I assure you that our Alaska Soldiers continue to put their best foot forward and represent Alaska in the best manner possible.”

The deployed Guard members are expected to return to Alaska in November 2012.

Staying Power: Air Force Major Returns to Eradicate Explosives that Nearly Killed Him

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

Nov. 24, 2008 - It's just after 5 on a weekday evening at Air Force Maj. Matthew Conlan's home in a leafy Northern Virginia subdivision. Conlan's son, Cameron, is home from college for the summer and playing with their dog in the three-story townhouse. Conlan's wife, Becky, just got home from work and is on the phone with a utility company. The dog hears the familiar "click" as the electronic garage door opens and, like clockwork, he starts barking like crazy. The long-time family pet knows Conlan is home, and that it's almost time for their evening walk.

The Conlans' life, for the most part, appears to be normal. But like some 440 other airmen seriously wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Conlan and his family have struggled for normalcy. While on the surface, their life now looks like a slice of Americana, underneath the layers of Conlan's uniform, and behind the smiles on the faces of his family, lie the scars and memories of a bomb blast three years ago that nearly tore them apart.

Conlan grew up an Air Force "brat" immersed in the military. He was born in an Air Force hospital in France. He graduated from high school in Alaska. His father retired from the Air Force and his mother, too, spent some time in the service. His two brothers became Marines. So it was natural for him to sign up for the Air Force in 1989 after attending Air Force ROTC at Arizona State University, even though his father was against the idea.

"He said, 'I served 20 years on active-duty so you wouldn't have to,'" Conlan recalls. "I said 'That's not true, Dad. You served 20 years so I would have the option to choose what I do with my life. And I choose to serve.'"

Conlan joined as an acquisitions officer and later transferred to civil engineering. He worked his way through the ranks in various assignments, and in 2005 was serving as the deputy airbase squadron commander at the Royal Air Force Croughton in Oxfordshire, England, when a deployment opportunity opened with the 455th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron heading to Afghanistan.

Conlan volunteered. His wife, Becky, prior military herself, was supportive of his deployment. "She knows that's why I wear the uniform," Conlan said.

Staying With His Troops

On June 17, 2005, just outside of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, Conlan was out with an explosive ordnance team collecting and destroying some of the thousands of unused munitions scattered across the country's landscape. Many artillery shells, landmines, grenades and other explosives remain from the country's near decade-long war with Russia that ended almost 20 years ago. The Taliban and other extremist groups often arm the munitions with homemade triggering devices and propellants to use in attacks against coalition forces.

Conlan's job as the expeditionary civil engineer squadron commander didn't require him to be "outside the wire" with the ordnance troops. His main job was to keep the old, 10,000-foot Soviet-built airstrip open.

Built in 1976 primarily as a landing strip for small fighters, the United States and other NATO forces were landing huge cargo planes there, as many as 50 flights per day.

"I loved it. It was one of those assignments where you actually see the results of your efforts," Conlan said. "Every time an aircraft landed it was because we were keeping that runway adequately maintained. It was literally falling apart. It was taking a lot of heavy use and it was just crumbling."

Not the kind of guy to give orders from behind a desk, Conlan, the only officer in the squadron of about 80, went out that day with a group of about 30 troops, ordnance experts and others, to help haul away the munitions. "Whatever my guys were doing, I'd be out there with them," he said.

'What the Hell Happened?'

"All this stuff was just lying around all over the place," he said of the munitions scattered about.

Conlan noticed an artillery shell mostly buried in the ground, nose first. One of the ordnance crew, Air Force Staff Sgt. Christopher Ramakka, dug around the shell to see if had been expended, or if it needed to be destroyed.

Ramakka and Conlan stood next to the shell talking for a few minutes. When they stepped away, a bomb exploded.

"I did not hear the explosion. It was all a visual sensation like somebody was flipping the lights off and on really fast," Conlan said. "I was falling, and as I was falling I was thinking, 'What the hell is going on?' And then I'm lying on the ground on my back and I'm thinking 'What the hell happened?'"

What Conlan didn't know at the time was that Ramakka had been standing upon a buried anti-personnel mine. It had activated when he stepped onto it. When he stepped off, it exploded. Officials later said that the mine was likely placed there by the Taliban because they knew the troops regularly collected the old munitions and that the artillery shell would attract the ordnance team's attention. In other words, it was a booby trap.

After the blast, Conlan lay in the dust, mud and blood trying to sort out what just happened.

"It was a very surreal experience," Conlan said. His vision was clear. He looked over at Ramakka.

"I looked and there's this leg waving around with no foot, and I'm like 'Oh crap.' Of course I used stronger language at the time," Conlan said.

Between them, there was a smoking hole in the ground.

Still stunned and not yet feeling any pain, Conlan said he then went into "self-assessment mode." His right leg was bent backwards, and there was hole in it with blood and bone oozing out. He couldn't straighten his left leg, so he ripped open a tear in his pants over his left thigh.

"There's this giant hole in there big enough to stick my fist in," Conlan said. "I remember sticking my fingers in there to see if there was blood spraying out. I was thinking that there's an artery there and I couldn't get a good look at what was going on."

By this time, members of the group began gathering around, offering up emergency medical treatment mixed with words of encouragement.

His crew gave him fluids and blood intravenously, snapped a field tourniquet on his right leg to keep him from bleeding to death, and called for a medical evacuation. And then the pain hit - pain so bad that Conlan couldn't describe it.

"You do go through all of those emotions," Conlan said. "'I'm going to die. I'm never going to see my wife and kid again.'"

He said he was angry at one point, "cursing a blue streak." This was not the way he wanted to leave Bagram Airfield. But, Conlan said, he knew his mission there was done.

At times, he also was talking and joking with Ramakka. "Anything to take your mind off of what was going on," Conlan said.

Surgery at Bagram returned blood flow to the right leg, cleaned the wounds and stabilized him. Conlan then had to break the news to his wife. He started the phone conversation by beating around the bush, talking about how the day started and the mission, but then reluctantly told her that he and Ramakka had been injured by the blast.

Conlan told her he'd probably lose the right leg because blood flow had been cut off for more than an hour. Becky asked to speak to a doctor. Her only concern was that Conlan come home alive.

"She's like 'I don't care about the leg. We can get him a new leg. I just want to make sure he's not going to die,'" Conlan said.

Conlan met his wife and son in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. A few days later they flew to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and then on to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Conlan would spend the next year recovering at Wilford Hall Medical Center, the Air Force's largest medical facility.

Conlan had a grapefruit-size chunk of muscle and bone blown out of his right leg, just below the knee, and a fist-size hole out of his left thigh. The artery was exposed there, but not damaged. There were other holes in his legs, one the size of a soda can and another the size of a silver dollar. He had burns on both legs, and blast damage on his hands, arms and face.

Doctors were not promising they could save his right leg, but they laid out an aggressive treatment plan to try.

It took 10 surgeries on his legs to get Conlan upright again. He had lost a lot of muscle on his right calf and inside left thigh. On his right leg, doctors rotated part of his calf muscles upward to make up for what was lost. Skin grafts and bone grafts were needed on both legs.

For months, Conlan had to wear an external bridging fixture that attached to his thigh bone and screwed into his shin to immobilize his right leg.

Becky's background in the military and experience in operating and emergency rooms proved useful as she helped with Conlan's care. "She could talk to them and understand everything that was going on," Conlan said.

Every day, Becky changed intravenous fluid bags, gave Conlan injections and changed bandages. Conlan's son took part in his care, too. Cameron would clean the area around the screws inserted into his father's leg.

Getting Back on His Feet

The Air Force changed Conlan's duty assignment to Lackland and shipped the family's belongings there. The family stayed in a Fisher House on the base, which Becky described as a "God-send," for a little more than a month and were later given on-base housing.

It was September 2005 before Conlan could start putting weight on his leg. By the middle of that month, he walked across the living room without help. Every day after, he made a little more progress in rehab.

"Once I put the crutch up, I pretty much didn't use it any more," he said.

At the start, Conlan couldn't lift his right foot up to walk. Because the nerves were so damaged, he probably would never be able to lift it, the doctors told him. Despite that negative prognosis, Conlan said he now has some function back.

"They tell me I shouldn't be able to do what I'm doing, but I'll take what I can get. I'm pretty happy with the way things have gone," Conlan said.

In November 2005, Conlan went back to work. A friend at Lackland's security forces center offered him a job. Nothing too demanding, he said. He still had rehab and numerous medical appointments. He went to work about 7:30 a.m. and went home at lunch time.

"That was a big deal for me. It was one more step towards normal -- getting back in the game," Conlan said. "It was just getting out of the house, and going somewhere and sitting at a desk and saying 'Okay, I'm at least back part time. I'm contributing to the mission.'"

In December 2005, doctors loosened the struts on the frame supporting his leg. About a month later, they removed the frame.

In May 2006, Conlan took a different job at nearby Randolph Air Force Base. It was in the civil engineer directorate and was "nearly full-time," Conlan said. Technically,

Conlan was assigned to the medical wing, and was working more or less as a volunteer. But he was an Air Force engineer and his fellow engineers thought it would be better if he was around. They didn't want him falling through the cracks, Conlan said.

It was about that time that Conlan started having trouble sleeping. When he did sleep he had bad dreams. During the day Conlan sometimes suffered from what he called "unfocused anger."

"I would go from going perfectly happy to completely pissed off for no reason. I couldn't tell you why I was mad," Conlan said.

Working through his recovery was not easy for anyone in the family, and his mood swings made it considerably less easy.

One day, Conlan came home to find Becky holding a piece of paper. "She said 'These are the symptoms of [post traumatic stress disorder] and you pretty much have all of them. And I can't help you with this. So you either go get help or I'm going to have to leave because I can't do this,'" Conlan said. "That caught my attention."

Conlan walked into Wilford Hall's psychiatric services and asked for care. They gave him medicine for his sleeping problems, and counseling for his PTSD.

Returning to Service

By late August 2006, Conlan was on self-directed physical therapy. He still had a host of other related medical appointments. But the time had come for his physical evaluation board. Would he be allowed to finish his career in the Air Force? At that point, Conlan lacked only a few years from reaching the 20-year goal he set for himself when he joined.

"It was like a mental thing with me. I wanted to finish what I started. I was that close," Conlan said. He wrote a letter to the Air Force board, asking that they allow him to stay on active duty. The Air Force, since the war began, has tried to be generous in its allowances to keep wounded servicemembers who want to stay in the service on active-duty. Remarkably, Conlan's board results came back that October with no duty limitation.

The reason, Conlan said, was that he had worked up to walking three miles. It hurts, he said, but he can do it.

"Their rationale was if I can walk that far, I could run 100 yards in an emergency," Conlan said. "They're probably right. If somebody was shooting at me I could probably run 100 yards. It wouldn't be pretty. It wouldn't be fast, but I could probably do it."

In September 2006, Air Force officials began setting up an office in Washington, D.C., to counter improvised explosive devices, otherwise known as roadside bombs. They called Conlan and said they needed a civil engineer and asked if he would be interested.

It was a desk job, at Air Force headquarters. But Conlan knew his days in the field were over. And he would be helping the Air Force buy the right products to combat the radio-controlled bombs that the enemy is using against U.S. forces.

After talking it over with Becky, Conlan accepted. He wanted to keep others from having to endure what he had.

Conlan still has pieces of the Afghanistan landscape embedded in his nose, face and ears. Small fragments of sand and rock continue to work themselves out of his skin. He has been called a "medical marvel." Doctors never thought he would keep his leg. They never thought he would move his foot. But, today, Conlan can lift his foot, and his leg is still there.

He can't run because his knee won't take it. Errant bone is growing in his leg -- a phenomenon common in blast victims in this war -- and grating against his bones, and osteoarthritis has set in. Eventually, Conlan will have to have his knee replaced. His foot needs realignment, but doctors can't fix that until they replace the knee.

Conlan weaves sometimes when he walks, and when he gets tired, his limp is more pronounced. He is in pain every day.

Still, he hops on his Yamaha Majesty 400 cc scooter and rides about 35 miles to work everyday. He used to ride a motorcycle, but since the blast, Becky has vetoed anything that requires a foot break. His Yamaha has all hand controls. He's put 19,000 miles on the bike since his assignment here.

In the afternoons, Conlan escapes from his desk and for physical therapy walks a couple of miles through the cavernous tunnel system of shops and restaurants below his office in the Crystal City area of Arlington, Va. He stretches and does leg lifts and other exercises in the stairwell at work. At night, he walks his dog.

"I was sitting there one day and I told my wife, 'Man, I've got ugly legs now.' And she's like 'Yeah, but they are your legs,'" Conlan said. "I've got wicked-cool scars."

Conlan also is active in speaking to military groups and commanders about PTSD and the signs to watch for. He hopes speaking out will help break the stigma attached with asking for help.

"I've got nothing to lose," Conlan said. "I'm very vocal about talking about it because it is a problem."

Conlan also still keeps in touch with Ramakka, who also is back on active-duty wearing a prosthetic leg and teaching at the Air Force's explosive ordnance disposal preliminary course at Lackland.

To this day, Conlan said he regrets none of his choices - his choice to serve, to deploy, to go out with the troops that day and his choice to remain on active duty. He will retire next May with his 20 years of service.

"We are returning people to duty, and life does go on and your career doesn't necessarily end," Conlan said. "Yeah, I'm going to have physical limitations for the rest of my life, but I firmly believe that my decision to go out that day was the right decision. I absolutely belonged out there with my guys.

"That's the way I choose to lead," he said.

Bush Praises Troops for Helping Others 'Realize Blessing of Free Society'

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

Aug. 4, 2008 - President Bush praised troops for their efforts to help others "realize the blessing of a free society" during remarks today to servicemembers in Alaska. Stopping at Eielson Air Force Base ahead of his scheduled trip to Asia, Bush addressed a group of airmen and soldiers, which included one of the first Army brigades to serve an extended 15-month deployment in Iraq.

"It's ... in our national interest to help others realize the blessings of a free society, so that when we look back at the initial chapters of the 21st century we will say we've done our duty; we defended the United States of America, and we laid the foundation for peace to come," he said.

In addition to praising Alaska Air National Guardsmen, the president thanked the more 200 airmen from the base currently deployed around the world, including many in the Middle East, and expressed gratitude for their families' sacrifice.

"Their service in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere is making this nation safer," he said. "And for the family members of those airmen: God bless you, and thank you for standing with your loved one."

Among soldiers in the audience were members of the Task Force 49 Stryker Brigade from Fort Wainwright, Alaska. The unit was one of the first to spend 15 months in Iraq after Army tours were extended from 12 to 15 months in April 2007.

Soon after the extension took effect, however, Pentagon civilian and military officials urged a return to 12-month deployments. Last week, citing a four-year low in violence in Iraq, Bush reduced future Army service there to year-long tours of duty.

"The other day I made it clear that our policy on rotations is now 12 months in, 12 months out," Bush said today to a rousing applause. "I know the Stryker Brigade from Fort Wainwright was one of the first brigades to extend, and I understand it puts stress on the families.

"Because of the progress we're making in Iraq, there's now certainty in the rotations," he said.

Bush acknowledged the difficulty that deployments cause, but said there are necessary for a nation at war. He added that some incorrectly characterize deployments as a form of law enforcement.

"Well, if it's a law enforcement matter, that means you react after the crime," he said. "I think it's important, and I know most of you here think it's important, to stop the crime from happening in the first place."

The president said that the United States must "stay on the offense," pressure its enemies and bring them to justice to prevent future attacks on American civilians. He urged that the United States never forget the "the transformative power of liberty."

"I know free societies yield the peace we all want," he said. "It's in our national interest to keep the pressure on the terrorists, to give them no safe haven, no place to hide, to keep them on the run."

Bush told the troops that the United States is thankful for their service.

"All here have my pride and have my gratitude," he said. "And you have the thanks of our entire nation. We honor your service.

"There is no finer honor than being the commander in chief of a fine group of men and women, and I'm proud to be in your midst," he added.

Program Supplies Iraqi Veterinarians

By Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

Dec. 13, 2007 - Members of Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team Baghdad 5, attached to the 1st "Ironhorse" Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, working alongside personnel from 492nd Civil Affairs Battalion, are bringing supplies to Iraqi veterinarians throughout the brigade's area of operations. As part of a newly established veterinarian assistance program, the EPRT and 492nd CAB gave supply kits to four Iraqi veterinarians at the Taji Modular Governance Center here Dec. 10 during a class that familiarized them with the program.

"One of the problems in this country is that there are a lot of unemployed veterinarians, and what this EPRT has done is identified vets in the area who we can provide equipment to through a short contract and ensure that they get back to work," said Palmer, Alaska, native Army Maj. Kevin Wellington, a veterinarian with the 492nd CAB, attached to Multinational Division Baghdad. "We assist them by giving them veterinarian kits and a knowledge base of the equipment -- how to use it and what it's for."

Each kit contains instrument trays for cold storage, test tube equipment for blood samples, basic microscope accessories, hoof testers to identify animal hoof abscesses, nose leads for livestock, stomach tubes and a speculum, among many other tools of the veterinarian trade. "We want this to be a program that helps you make a good living for the services you provide," said Lt. Col. Harvey Fitzgerald, senior agricultural business advisor for EPRT Baghdad 5, as he spoke to the vets during the class.

"What's important to remember is that some of these supplies will run out, so you must charge a fee for services to buy back more replacements for this kit. This is a one-time gift of this equipment," Fitzgerald, who hails from Hermosa, S.D., added. "Perhaps your practice will be successful, and you will be able to help another veterinarian get started."

In return for the kits, the veterinarians must participate in a one-year program in which they are required to report how they are using the kits every three months.

In each quarterly report, the veterinarians will relate how many farms they visited, how many cattle, poultry or other animals they have treated, and the nature of their visit, such as to vaccinate animals or perform a health check due to a disease problem. They also will annotate in their reports the most serious health problems they have encountered.

Once they have completed the one-year program, the kits are the veterinarians' to keep.

"We would like to have your feedback, which will help others in Iraq who participate in this program in the future," Wellington told the veterinarians. "Techniques and procedures change, so your feedback is very important in helping us make improvements.

"Also, if there is a serious outbreak of disease, we need to know about it," Wellington added.

Much of the information garnered through the program will be used to help improve agriculture in Iraq with regard to things such as animal production and reproduction, according to Raad al-Diwan, an Iraqi veterinarian who works with veterinarian operations for Multinational Division Baghdad.

Diwan teaches an animal husbandry course for Iraqi veterinarians, along with other classes designed to aid in improving situations for farmers who raise livestock.

"For the Iraqi farmer, his animals are everything," Diwan said. "When vets give a hand to helping his animals, they are initiating strong, lasting relationships with the farmer.

Projects that help rural areas have vets who teach farmers how to take care of their animals are "the kind of thing that will be important in helping us to sustain veterinarian operations in Iraq and reach our target of improving animal production and reproduction in the country," Diwan added.

Fitzgerald said that being able to participate in the program has been a worthwhile experience.

"To have the ability to enable these Iraqi veterinarians to travel and deliver their services to farmers who need them is very important," Fitzgerald said. "We're very excited to be able to deliver the kits to them."

(Army Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp is assigned to 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Public Affairs.)

'Civilian Surge' Key to Securing Self-Sufficient Iraq

By David Mays
American Forces Press Service

Oct. 22, 2007 - The recent surge of troops and embedded provincial reconstruction teams to Iraq is providing unprecedented opportunity for Iraqi citizens, a coalition commander said today. "It really wasn't until the EPRT, the 'civilian surge' ... and the surge forces arrived that we began to make what I will call measurable progress along our lines of operations," Army Col. Mike Garret told online journalists and "bloggers" during a conference call from Forward Operating Base Kalsu, south of Baghdad, shortly after he provided a televised operational update via satellite.

Garrett commands the "Spartan" 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, deployed from Fort Richardson, Alaska. Created just two years ago, the Spartans are America's newest airborne unit and the only one located west of the Mississippi River. Garrett and his soldiers are assigned to Multinational Division Center, where for the past 13 months they have patrolled the Iraqi provinces of Babil, Karbala and Najaf and recently have begun working with their civilian counterparts to help rebuild Iraq.

Garrett said he originally had doubts about the effectiveness of the embedded provisional reconstruction team in his area because of the group's small size. "But I tell you, what I found almost immediately as I was introduced to the team leader who was a senior foreign service officer who had served in Vietnam, ... he was focused on the right level," Garrett said. "He was focused at the local levels of government here, and he brought with him and his very small team expertise, that we quite honestly, didn't have."

Garrett said he was impressed at the speed with which the EPRT assigned to his unit acted. "They didn't come into the brigade and talk about projects that would show progress a year or six years from now," he said. "They talked about impact that we would be able to see in 30 days."

One such program carried out by the EPRT working with Spartan Brigade had immediate impact on Iraqi farmers in the mostly rural provinces where Garrett and his soldiers patrol.

"We were providing seed, farm equipment and other things to help our farmers maintain their farms," Garrett explained. "What the EPRT has done for us is to take these agricultural unions, push them more towards a business-like approach. Now they are buying their own seed, they are setting prices for their produce, they are buying farm equipment that they can maintain and rent out to other farmers."

By enabling small groups of Iraqi citizens to become self-sufficient, Garret said, embedded provincial reconstruction team members form a crucial link in a chain that reaches from tiny agricultural communities all the way up to the capital of Baghdad.

"One of the purposes of the EPRT was to increase capacity at the local level and then try to link the local to the provincial levels of government," Garrett explained. "And then the provincial reconstruction teams, which are located throughout Iraq, had the mission of linking the provincial levels of government with the local level and national levels of government."

While Garrett and his team had facilitated economic development programs like a small business training class taught by an Iraqi professional, he said EPRT members have kicked off many other imperative initiatives such as micro-grants for Iraqi entrepreneurs.

"What they've done is taken it to the next level," Garrett said. "The EPRT has been very, very important to us, and they've made a very big difference in terms of our ability to make progress in the governance and economic lines of operations."

While Garrett and his soldiers have seen their share of danger and death during a year of deployment, including the loss of 53 Spartan paratroopers, it is gratifying to know that his unit is truly making a difference in the lives of Iraqi citizens, the colonel said.

"I always felt we were making progress, but there were many days where it was only a feeling," Garrett said. "Today I can tell you that we are making measured progress, and we can see that through the (decreased) numbers of attacks, the increase in employment, the increase in economic development, the programs, the entrepreneurship we're seeing at the local levels, which really does give me cause for optimism."

(David Mays works for the New Media branch of American Forces Information Service.)