COB SPEICHER, TIKRIT – A small ceremony marked the return of Salah ad Din prov.'s most important grain storage site to the GoI, Oct. 6. The Samarra Silo, formerly known as FOB Brassfield-Mora, had been occupied by U.S. military forces for several years, as U.S. Soldiers first fought an insurgency and later supported reconstruction efforts in the central Iraqi prov.
As the security situation in the prov. improved and reconstruction efforts turned to agriculture, Soldiers realized the importance of their base to the prov.'s farmers. "We've been putting so much effort into rebuilding the agricultural infrastructure and yet here we were, sitting on the most important storage facility in the prov.," said Col. Walt Piatt, the 3rd IBCT, 25th ID cmdr. "We decided to return this facility to the GoI as soon as possible. We wanted to make sure we did it before we left the prov., so the incoming unit wouldn't have to worry about it," said Piatt.
"If you were to drive around the prov about 8 weeks ago you would see a lot of the wheat crop was piled outside, and in various local refineries because they had no place to store and refine the wheat," said Maj. Kareem Montague, EO of 2nd Bn., 35th Inf. Regt., the bn stationed at the Silo. "By returning this silo to the GoI, we're returning Samarra's wheat storage and refining capability," he said
The mammoth task of removing all the equipment and returning the base in pristine condition to the GoI in just over 2 months showed the dedication of the Soldiers and civilian contractors stationed at the Silo. More than 400 housing trailers, nearly 200 concrete bunkers, 65 shipping containers, 1,600 concrete barriers and 200,000 sandbags had to be removed from the base, according to Montague. It took more than 200 convoys to transport all of the equipment off the base, he added.
Soldiers from the 4th IBCT, 1st ID, the 3rd Bde's replacement unit, will oversee reconstruction projects to renovate the seed separator, scales, warehouses and administrative building, to return the Silo to operational capacity in time for the 2010 wheat harvest.
