HELPING HAND Iraqi apprentices frame structure in Falluja, with Seabee supervisors’ help.

While reconstruction efforts being run from Baghdad’s Green Zone are moving too slowly for critics in the U.S. and in Iraq, a Marine-Seabee contingent working in nearby Al Anbar province is quietly expanding infrastructure repair efforts with help from the local population. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Engineer Group (MEG) is helping rebuild schools, water and wastewater treatment plants, roads and security facilities in one of the toughest of Iraq’s governates.

"By mid-July, we will have over $100 million in contracts under way in Al Anbar, on 188 projects," says Rear Adm. Charles R. Kubic, commander of the MEG and the 1st Naval Construction Division. The group’s responsibilities cover a small portion of the $18.4 billion in U.S. funding now allocated for some 2,300 reconstruction task orders identified across all of Iraq, but far more than Kubic expected when the war began. "At most, I thought we’d have $10 million to $20 million under contract," he says.

The MEG is quartered about six kilometers outside of Falluja, one of the roughest towns in one of Iraq’s toughest governates. U.S. planes bombed a suspected insurgent safe house in the town July 5, killing 13. Three Marines died nearby the same day as a result of ambushes. "It’s just a tough place," says Kubic. "You’ve got Baathists, foreign mujaheddin, former Iraqi military, tribal leaders and local thugs, all slugging it out. Even before the war, Falluja had a reputation as a place that fought outsiders–even people from 20 kilometers away."

After four contractors were killed in Falluja this spring, the Marines went into the town with force, but pulled back as the global press reported high civilian casualties. Since then, the Seabees have been working with the mayor and local clerics to hire young Iraqis to rebuild mosques damaged during the fighting. In nearby Ramadi, Al Anbar University engineers are providing design, construction and inspection services. At present, Seabee projects in Al Anbar are employing 3,600 Iraqis, although some vanish when violence escalates. The key to success, Kubic says, "is not being wed to your plan. You have to be willing to make adjustments when the situation changes, and do it quickly."