Wednesday, 26 December 2007 By Spc. Ben Hutto
3rd HBCT, 3rd Inf. Div.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — Staff Sgt. Robert Butler expresses a range of emotions when someone asks him what he thinks about Salman Pak.

The platoon sergeant, from Excelsior Springs, Mo., for Headquarters Platoon, Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division has handed out candy to children there, has fought insurgents, lost friends and helped the National Police provide security.

In his mind, the former resort town has a lot of potential, but he readily admits that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before it can reach that potential.

The recent opening of the courthouse in Salman Pak and a recent push by the 489th Civil Affairs Battalion, Knoxville, Tenn., currently attached to 3rd HBCT, 3rd Inf. Div., to help stimulate local business are important steps in building the city, but security is still the main issue according to Butler.

“Right now, I don’t think that they are at a level where we can fully concentrate on economic stabilization,” said Butler. “There are still some security issues that we need to work on with the Concerned Local Citizens and the National Police. We still have a little way to go there. It has come a long way from where it was, but we still have hot spots that we need to clean up.”

Butler has seen firsthand how far Salman Pak has come and how the citizens’ view of him and his 3rd HBCT brethren has changed.

“When we first started patrolling Salman Pak, the people there were very stand-offish,” he explained. “We would go down the street and people would go inside. A few weeks later, they started coming out.”

Gradually troops in the area earned the local residents’ trust, said Butler.

“Their children come out and greet us. Merchants try and give us drinks,” he said. “The establishment of the Concerned Local Citizens there has improved their view of us even more.”

Staff Sgt. Raymond Cotrell, from Zanesville, Ohio, Co. A, 1-15 Inf. Regt., was one of the Soldiers beside Butler on many of those patrols and agrees with his assessment of the town’s improvement.

“Everyone knew when we first got here that there had been little to no Coalition presence here,” he said. “Since we’ve been here, I’ve seen Salman Pak improve tenfold. Contact rates have gone down. IED (improvised explosive devices) attacks have gone down. They are seeing their town improve and know that we are here to help them.”

The help that Cotrell and his fellow Soldiers have provided the people, while important, is not as important as what the townspeople are doing to help themselves according to Cotrell.

“They are helping themselves now,” said Cotrell. “Part of the reason IED attacks are down are because of the CLC checkpoints that have been set up. The people here see the CLCs and are becoming more confident in their security. In short, the program is working. As security has improved, the people have started coming out to the markets. They have started opening up their businesses again. It’s just getting better. This isn’t all talk. Compare what the market looks like now to when we first started patrolling here. It’s like two different places.”

When he is asked for details about how much different it is, Cotrell clarifies his point.

“When we first came here, the people saw us rolling through in our Bradleys and tanks and they just closed up shop,” he said. “I think people were scared. They were scared of us. They were scared of the insurgents. We roll by now and they stay open. They wave. You can see they are not afraid. It is easier for us to do business with them. They really just want to get back to living a normal life and taking care of their families.”

Maj. John Wolfe, from Scottsboro, Ala., team leader for Civil Affairs Team 915, is using his team to help the people of Salman Pak get back to living a normal life through Operation Market Garden.

“The primary purpose of the operation is to improve business economics in the Salman Pak area,” he said. “We are trying to give small business owners information to run their businesses profitably and giving them financial assistance to help them get a leg up.”

The program will provide business owners with classes designed to help them make better business decisions and financial assistance to help them build their businesses.

“We are doing this in small steps,” said Wolfe. “They have got to be able to do this on their own. We like to give them the tools and confidence to be successful.”

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