The Ramadi Glass factory – Huge enterprise just a few hundred meters from our Marine camp.

1. The Ramadi Glass factory – Huge enterprise just a few hundred meters from our Marine camp.

2. In early November 2004 we raided and closed the RAMADI GLASS FACTORY because we received enemy rifle fire from there on more than one occasion. I was assigned to lead the team that would satisfy the conditions for re-opening the factory and assist the factory workforce in making repairs and resuming production. The mission required dozens of patrols March – August.

3. A ghost town when I got there in March. 2nd Marine Division saw the need to get it re-opened and get people back to work. As the Civil Affairs Officer on the Division staff, I got the nod to make it happen.

4. The Director General , his deputy, and I walk the factory grounds while the factory was still closed

5. Products: • Bottles and jars • Sheet Glass • Tableware

6. Production line shut down when we raided and closed the factory in November 2004

7. “Oh No, Pepsi bottling operations have stopped”

8. The factory was vandalized and looted after it was shut down as various Iraqi units were allowed to occupy it. A large part of my mission was to reasonably reimburse the Iraqi’s in order to get the factory running. I also had to solve all the problems caused by being so close to our camps – it was imperative our troops be safe.

9. A view of the damage to the heavy equipment and warehouse doors. Unknown who damaged everything, although the mashing of the trucks together was clearly our fault.

10. “Okay Men, this is what we’re going to do.”

11. GySgt Rodriguez, my friend “Kha’ tan”, and me. Khatan was the most senior person at the factory and is really a likeable fellow. He would make tea for us and bend over backwards to move things along. Speaks some English. He has worked there for 32 years and is considered the foreman for the entire 2300 person workforce – sort of like the Factory Sergeant Major. Everyone defers to him, and although the workers might talk back to him, they always do what he says. When I left he said, “Mr Lystad – you very good man. I afraid for you” . He meant that he wants me to be safe, not that there was a specific threat against me…I think. And he said he wants to visit America someday.

12. Notice that the top factory managers are pitching in. But Khatan, the senior foreman, directs the action.

13. Electric power is huge problem here. Power is on for roughly 15-18 hours per day, but you never know which 15-18 hours they will be. Here we are trying to move a portable generator into a useful position.

14. Holding court. “I want you to clean this place up!”

15. Here is the Glass Factory “armory” used by the security force. It’s a wall locker inside a secure room. “Secure” is a fuzzy term for the Iraqi factory guards. We re-trained 153 security guards and told them they could not let insurgents into the factory. I still have my fingers crossed.

16. Receiving and accounting for repair materials

17. 2 May 2005 – A good day for us and the Iraqi’s. We gave them back their factory. Repairs began in earnest that day. But that was only the halfway point of my team’s involvement. We had three more months of working to help them make repairs and restart production. Here, the Director of the factory expresses his appreciation.

18. Partially Re-Opened for business on 2 May 2005. 2,300 families regain source of income

19. One of the many meetings at the Ramadi Glass Factory. The Iraqi’s like to meet as a group. The top managers don’t want to meet one on one – this is a very collectivist society. But when we do meet, it’s almost always very cordial.

20. We gave the Iraqi’s one month “make-up” pay as a goodwill gesture. With the factory shut down, workers only received unemployment checks, roughly 50% of normal pay. We made up one month’s difference, which equated to approximately $50 per worker. The factory had been closed for 6 months. This day, I had to recover from a cultural faux pas. I tried to move three women to the head of the line because they were covered from head to toe and it was 120 degrees – I though they would pass out. The men, the ones I had befriended, told me “No”-the women had to wait until the end.

21. The leaders of the Ramadi Glass Factory re-opening team. Gunnery Sergeant Joe Rodriguez (son of a Mexican immigrant, me (son of a Norwegian immigrant), and Staff Sergeant Ernest Stonecifer (Native American). Marines are obviously a diverse group.

22. More meetings with the key managers (after the new furniture had arrived)

23. One of our infrequent testy conversations. Much of the compensation was a negotiation. The top dog, Director General Hamad Enaizy, was a very smart guy – a masters degree in engineering and almost fluent in Japanese and English, in addition to his native Arabic.

25. The view from the factory administration building into southwest Ramadi, the worst part of the city. We were constantly alert. Just yesterday five US soldiers were killed there.

26. The Glass factory was built in 1959 by the Soviets, with additions from the Japanese, Belgians, Italians, and Americans. The factory staff liked to tell us the “American Plant” was the best. On the grounds there is a huge medical bottling plant that has been under construction since 1995. it was designed to make glass medicine vials etc, but economic sanctions prevented the plant from being completed. All of the capital equipment (machinery etc) is still in crates. The Director General of the factory told me that the sanctions really hurt the Iraqi people.

27. The factory is a labyrinth of buildings and plants. It is old and inefficient, but it kept people employed. It probably can’t survive in a free market, but that’s for the Iraqi’s to deal with.

28. Here the Director General briefs Brigadier General Williams on the plan to restart the furnaces

29. Mounting up for the last time – mission complete. Five months and a lot of long, hot days, but it was most worthwhile task I’ve had in Iraq. We retrained the guard force, ensured insurgents can’t get back in, and got repairs well underway. Although it will take a few more weeks to get the furnaces running and glass production resumed, my team’s job was done.

30. Goodbye to the Ramadi Glass factory. The men at the gate don’t hate Americans, they just hate that we occupy their country and that life has not returned to normal. We did a good job convincing them American forces won’t stay in Iraq