Time to Tell the Untold Story of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Lt. Col. Rod T. Arrington, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, met on July 25 in the Iraqi village of Al Kabani with Muktar Ismael Hamaad, the village leader, and Thayer Hamdallah, a government representative. Their discussion was not about suicide bombers or attacks by insurgents. They gathered that day to cut the ribbon on a water purification plant for the small fishing village in western Iraq. Arrington’s battalion, based at nearby Camp Taqaddum, paid the $175,000 cost and advised the local workers, who toiled 10-hour days to provide 3,000 people with clean water for the first time in eight years.

That meeting was one small chapter in the untold story of Operation Iraqi Freedom. While the evening news is focused on the war, the sea services and other U.S. government organizations are building water plants, opening clinics and turning on the electric power throughout that war-weary nation. Elementary age children who once endured makeshift desks and squalid school yards now study in facilities that are clean, well lit and amply supplied, thanks to the help and friendship of the men and women of our military forces.

The idea is not simply to do good deeds, but to build lasting relationships that will bind the Iraqi and American people together and nurture stability and democracy in a country that yearns for lasting freedom. In the town of Ar Ramadi, scene of fierce fighting between Marines and insurgents earlier this year, Omar Turkey Farhan, 22, said, “Most everyone likes the Americans being here when they help us. We’ll be glad when … there is no more fighting. But as long as the Americans want to help us get back on our feet, I like them being in Iraq.”

Thousands of Americans want to help. Back in the states, family members of 3rd Battalion Marines are shipping school supplies for the people of Al Kabani, to be distributed by Marines during future visits to the village. The local school also has received 104 new desks, a refrigerator, chalkboards and shelves, all requested by the teachers.

That small school is one of many that have been refurbished by U.S. organizations. More than 67,000 Iraqi children at 90 schools in the Ninawa’ Governorate will have clean running water and functioning toilets when they return to classes this month. The U.S. Agency for International Development has refurbished an additional 2,358 schools; distributed 2.3 million kits containing pens, pencils, paper, math supplies and other essentials; and printed and distributed 8.8 million math and science textbooks throughout Iraq.

Similar chapters of this untold story are being written in health care. Eight million Iraqi children have been immunized against measles, mumps and rubella. High-protein biscuits are distributed regularly to 240,000 children and pregnant and nursing mothers. More than 100 primary health clinics have been rehabilitated and dozens of traditional birth attendants are being trained for rural areas.

Iraq’s marshlands, destroyed by the Hussein regime, are slowly being restored to their natural state. The Marsh Arabs who once made a home in the huge wetlands ecosystem are receiving economic assistance from the United States. The nation’s electric grid is generating more power today, relative to prewar levels, and young women in the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad, regularly hone their computer skills at the Fatima Al-Zahra Center for Women’s Rights, established in part by local women and the former Coalition Provisional Authority.

The highlights of this untold story are not found in statistics, but in the new light shining from the eyes of the many Iraqis enjoying the first days of their lives with clean water, regular health care and the glistening hope of a better future for themselves and their children. Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Susan Diekman saw that light as she and other members of Port Security Unit 311 distributed medical supplies and school equipment in the port city of Umm Qasr. Outside the Jerusalem Primary School, a woman searching for water insisted on having her picture taken with Diekman. As the camera snapped, the woman reached out and clasped Diekman’s hand. Diekman remembers it as a gesture that really “touched my heart.”

The men and women of Port Security Unit 311 obtained basic medical supplies from the Navy’s Project Handclasp, and then began emptying their own packages from families back home for food and sundries to distribute to local Iraqis. “It’s the beginning to years of making it better,” said BM1 Tracy Randall. “I want to give more.”

That is the American way. When the history of Operation Iraqi Freedom is written, this untold story finally will receive the prominence it deserves. In Iraq, sea services men and women are earning their place in history because of their humanity and compassion for others. We will always remember what they have accomplished. And so will the people of Iraq.

Sheila M. McNeill, National President