COB BASRA – A Basra native brings 50 years of experience as an architect, a master’s degree and a resume that reads like a travel guide ranging across Europe, the Middle East, and even Japan to his job as leader of the Iraqi facilities engineering team.
Abrahim Timimi leads 6 other Iraqi electrical, civil and mech. engrs hired to take over the job of the U.S. AF’s facilities engineering team. Timini’s team will oversee quality assurance and control for all facilities, utilities and construction on the base, in a capacity that’s the military equivalent of city planners. The small city that's COB Basra is more complex than many would guess.
The base has full sewage, water and electrical systems, roadways that are constantly being adapted and improved, and any number of ongoing construction projects.
“The goal is that the AF [team] would never have to come back, and that the Iraqi [team] would be able to do everything,” said AF 1st Lt. Joe Gallegos, an electrical engr with the 150th Civil Engineering Sqdrn. “We’re trying to work ourselves out of a job, basically.” However, as contractors, the Iraqi team can't do some things, and even when the next – and last – AF team leaves in about 6 months, the Iraqi engrs will have a military officer to whom they can take their issues.
Still, with local contractors doing much of the work around the base, the Iraqi team can do some things that would be more difficult for their military counterparts. The Iraqis have language barrier to overcome, and Timini and his colleagues know how to get materials locally, allowing them to propose cost-saving alternatives.
The Iraqi team members said they enjoy working with U.S. forces, and Mustafa even made a crack about grabbing onto the treads of the U.S. vehicles and hitching a ride at the final drawdown.
Haitham’s story is one many soldiers on deployment may find familiar. With limited time off and a wife who works a good distance across the country, he'll go months without seeing the woman he married only this year, he said. The couple is working to develop a base of funds for their future, but that is not easy in Iraq, he added.
