By Norris Jones
Gulf Region Central District
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers |
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 16, 2006 — "We’re helping shape a nation,” said Kevin Powell in describing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ reconstruction mission in Iraq.
Powell is concluding a six-month tour as Gulf Region Central District’s Deputy Commander for Program Management. He’s Mobile District’s Florida Area Office Area Engineer and as such manages a program valued at $42 million yearly. While in Iraq he was overseeing programs involving more than 1,200 projects valued at $2.3 billion.
He and his wife Susan have been married 24 years and have a 9-year-old daughter, Kelly.
Powell has taken a blue Bevis Elementary School T-shirt to many of the places he’s visited while in Iraq. He snaps a photo and has been emailing them home so Kelly can share the adventure with her friends at school. In his final week in Iraq, he asked the Gulf Region Central District staff to sign their names with their hometowns and he will present that T-shirt to the school located in Riverview, Fla.
He said he’s learned a lot during his six-month tour.
“People serving in Iraq come from every USACE District as well as the private sector,” he added. “They all have different viewpoints and are an amazing resource for new ideas and problem solving. It’s amazing how much work is accomplished here with such a small staff (currently Gulf Region Central District has about 125 employees).”
He said he’s particularly pleased to take home some lessons learned regarding Resident Management System - how to use it not just for record keeping but as an effective management tool and also how to mine information from it that would normally require a lot of man hours to create.
“The biggest challenge in Iraq is dealing with a totally different construction culture,” he said. “Their pride in craftsmanship has just not evolved yet. Trying to instill a basic standard of quality among our contractors and their workers has been a constant battle.”
Powell said he came to Iraq because he couldn’t see asking his staff to go on temporary duty missions if he wasn’t willing to do it himself. “It would be hard asking them to make sacrifices if I wasn’t willing to step up to the plate as well.”
Powell has worked for the Corps of Engineers for 23 years. He says early in his career he picked up a reputation as the guy who enjoys working on large projects. He helped build the $179 million 38-acre Eastern Distribution Center in Pennsylvania, worked nine years on the Pentagon renovation, and last year helped Florida rebuild after four hurricanes. |
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| Kevin Powell, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will present this Bevis Elementary School T-shirt to his daughter’s grade school in Florida along with photos documenting all the places it has been during his six-month tour in Iraq. Photo courtesy of Gulf Region Central District |
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He said it was all great preparation for the world’s largest reconstruction effort … rebuilding Iraq … from huge electrical generation and distribution systems, water and sewage treatment plants, schools, hospitals, airports, courthouses, police and fire stations, roads and bridges.
“Any success we’ve enjoyed while I’ve been in Iraq is because of the people who work with me and for me,” he added. “I’m impressed with their dedication. This is absolutely an awesome mission.” |
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