Lt. Col. Stanley P. Fugate, deputy commander for Civil Capacity 1-3 AAB FOB Falcon, Baghdad, Iraq
Lt. Col. Stanley P. Fugate is the 1st Advise and Assist Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, deputy commander for Civil Capacity in Baghdad, Iraq. This is his first deployment to Iraq, but he has been deployed to Kuwait three other times. Fugate is the second in command of the Brigade.
If progress in civil capacity and the critical need for essential services are ever going to get better in Iraq it is going to have to be started and led by leaders in the new government of Iraq – from its provincial council members, its tribal leaders (sheiks), to its Iraqi Security Forces leaders. One way of working toward this goal is to do what the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division started in their area of responsibility in eastern Baghdad – an area that my brigade (1-3 AAB) took responsibility for in July.
To get the leaders in their area to talk and work together, the brigade (2-10) hosted an Iraqi Unity Conference with representation from across the Rusafa area and the local Iraqi society. The event was attended by approximately 100 Iraqis, comprising of Government of Iraq officials – Provincial Council members and National Assembly representatives, tribal sheiks, Iraqi Security Forces brigade leaders, community leaders, and representatives from the Provincial Reconstruction Team and United States Forces.
Sheiks, provincial council members, and Iraqi Security Forces attend a Unity Conference hosted by the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division in the Rusafa Area of Baghdad earlier this summer. Photo courtesy of Lt. Col Stanley P. Fugate, 1-3 AAB FOB Falcon, Baghdad, Iraq.
The Unity Conference’s main discussions focused on agriculture, water, and electricity for irrigation needed by the Rusafa area farmers. The participants were all noble leaders who are critical to building prosperity in their specific areas but also within the Rusafa region. This conference was a method by which influential people were brought together, allowed to present the current and future plans for each of the topic areas the Government of Iraq was working on to increase the capacity and productivity for farmers in the communities.
Those in attendance represented the ministries of rural water, agriculture, and electricity. The Green Mada’in Association for Agriculture Development was present to provide information to the tribal leaders on the equipment and monetary loans available through their association.
The local community leaders and tribal members were also able to directly address their questions and concerns to the attending provincial council and assembly members. Sometimes the discussions over the lack of essential electricity and water got heated, but there always was the calm presence of the elder tribal sheik or a senior provincial council or National Assembly representative that kept the discussion peaceful, even though the temperature outside of Sheik’s Sammi Al-Jabouri’s home had reached 120 degrees.
At the conclusion of the Unity Conference the concerns and recommendations discussed were restated to the audience with the results to be sent in writing to the Provincial Council for their follow up future assistance. If you look up the word “unity” in the dictionary it means – “the state or fact of being united or combined into one, as of the parts of a whole; unification”. Our unit as an Advise and Assist Brigade (AAB) located in the Baghdad Province plans to sustain this venue of holding monthly Unity Conferences to bring together all the parts of the Iraqi society into one and assist in forming a new Iraqi government and way of life for the Iraqi people.
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