This is the fifth and final post of our Leaving Iraq series, detailing the logistics involved in ending military operations in Iraq.

Vehicles streamed by, neon blurs of yellow and red. Cars, vans, and 18-wheelers alike honked their “hellos” to the group of paratroopers walking along the dark edge of the highway. Their footfalls came quickly in an attempt to warm their feet, numbed from the cold, until they fell in cadence with the morning Call to Prayer blaring over loudspeakers.

Armored vehicles convoy past as a military policeman assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, who takes a knee along a road outside Camp Taji, Iraq, during a dismounted patrol Dec. 2, 2011. Photo by Sgt. Kissta Feldner

It was barely 5 a.m. and these troopers were already on the streets, their mission to check the route for roadside bombs and ensure the security of the road for U.S. convoys passing through from Baghdad. This was the day Camp Victory was to transition to Iraqi control.

These were not infantry Soldiers, but a group of military police paratroopers who have grown familiar with the area they patrol every day.

The MPs assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, had been conducting daily missions in the area since moving to Camp Taji from Al-Asad Air Base in early October.

“We’re the only platoon that’s rolled out every day since we’ve been here,” said Pfc. Tyler Laflamme, an MP.

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This is the fourth post of our Leaving Iraq series, detailing the logistics involved in ending military operations in Iraq.

Two MI-17 Iraqi helicopters made their way over the city of Ramadi, and the Euphrates River to land at the helicopter-landing zone on Camp Ramadi in November.

Staff Brig. Gen. Hussein Mostof, the senior military advisor to the Receivership Secretariat and his team from the Government of Iraq’s Basing Committee had arrived to supervise the transition of Camp Ramadi from U.S. Forces to Iraqi Security Forces.

Paratroopers with 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, load up the weapons from the guard towers before leaving Camp Ramadi, Iraq, Nov. 15. Photo by Staff Sgt Nancy Lugo

As they exited the aircraft, the group made its way to a small building where Brig. Gen. Hatim of the Habbaniya Location Command was waiting with Lt. Col. Steven Hart, the Reposture Assistance Team Officer In Charge with 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, going line by line over the list of equipment that would be left for the Iraqi Army when the camp was turned over after the completion of the paperwork.

“The reposture effort was a priority from day one of arriving in country,” said Hart. “The bottom line is that transferring bases, facilities, infrastructure and equipment to the Iraqi Security Forces translated into increased capability for them and represents an investment by the American people in the enduring strategic relationship between our two countries.”

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This is the second post of our Leaving Iraq series, detailing the logistics involved in ending military operations in Iraq.

Another aspect of the installation transition process includes ensuring that the location meets U.S. Central Command and  United States Forces-Iraq (USF-I) environmental regulations. While Iraq itself has no environmental regulations, Donahue said, USF-I remains “very good stewards of the environment here. Our aim is to protect the natural environment as well as human health and safety,” he said.

Pfc. Antwan Logan, left, and Spc. Justin Willems, both with Company A, 299th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Advise and Assist Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, prepare a shipment of ammunitions at Forward Operating Base Hammer, Iraq. Photo by Capt. Matthew Einhorn

Before a base is transitioned in Iraq, USF-I conducts several environmental site closure surveys. “Our goal here is to mitigate any of our environmental challenges and minimize any of the environmental impacts,” Donahue said.

The USF-I works to “mitigate,” not “remediate” environmental issues in Iraq, he added. Fuel spills, for example, are something they routinely mitigate.

“We do that through environmental response and cleanup teams,” Donahue said. The teams go out and assess a spill, or a lagoon, for instance “and determine what we need to do to restore these facilities in accordance with CENTCOM 200-2.”

The general was careful to point out that installations in Iraq are not being returned in accordance with U.S. environmental regulations. “That would be unrealistic and impractical, and extremely costly,” he said.

In Iraq, burn pits have been removed and replaced with incinerators. Hazardous waste treatment centers have been set up and cleanup actions, such as oil spills, have taken place at more than 600 sites in the last year.

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