Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
January 3, 2007
Pg. D1
Federal Diary
By Stephen Barr
A reminder that federal employees are regularly heading to Iraq for duty:
Nancee Needham, who has worked for the Defense Department inspector general's office for nearly 18 years, begins a one-year tour in the war-torn country this month.
Needham, a civil service employee, will serve as the inspector general's program director for audit operations there. She spent eight weeks in Iraq last year on an auditing project and calls her decision to volunteer for a year-long Baghdad assignment "my turn to pay back" the department and the nation for providing her with a rewarding career.
Tim Walsh, a technology manager with the Air Force, joined the government four years ago and spent six months in Iraq in 2004. He has volunteered for a second assignment in the war zone. "You work for the DOD and they depend upon you during peacetime. You got to pony up during wartime," Walsh said.
As a general practice, federal agencies prefer to rely on volunteers like Needham and Walsh for duty in war zones. Volunteers have helped staff the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, restore electrical power plants and operate post exchange stores.
But with the Iraq war in its fourth year, there has been some concern that the ranks of civil service volunteers are growing thin.
The Iraq Study Group, chaired by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former House member Lee H. Hamilton, has recommended that agencies order civilian employees to fill key jobs in Iraq if not enough volunteers step forward. The recommendation grew out of a sense that agencies are not contributing enough personnel to Iraq, a commission aide said.
John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, questions how civil service employees could be ordered to Iraq when the violence in Baghdad makes it exceedingly difficult to move around and perform jobs.
"This is a slippery slope," Gage said of the Baker-Hamilton recommendation. "Security issues have to be upfront and resolved before you think of sending untrained federal workers over there."
The government does not keep count of how many federal employees are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. By most accounts, the Army has the largest number of volunteers in Iraq -- usually about 2,000 at any one time. (In fiscal 2006, it deployed more than 4,000 civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, an Army spokeswoman said.)
About 1,000 Americans from various agencies staff the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, according to the Congressional Research Service. They have come from the State, Defense, Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, Transportation and Treasury departments and the Agency for International Development, the CRS reported last October.
Some agencies, such as the Air Force, assign civilians to U.S. bases outside Baghdad. Walsh, for example, worked on the Horned Owl project in 2004 at Camp Anaconda and the Balad air base in northern Iraq. His small team gathered data from an airplane equipped with sensors that can detect some bombs buried in roads and some types of weapons caches.
Walsh, who manages technology systems for an Air Force office in Northern Virginia, helped set up a secure electronic network, coordinated intelligence activities and relayed information to the Army about possible threats.
In a war zone, Walsh noted, federal employees can be called upon to work outside their areas of expertise. During the battle of Fallujah, he helped out at a military clinic because medics were overworked and needed extra hands to care for wounded troops.
To some degree, Walsh said, he may feel more attuned to the military than other federal civilians because he once served in the Kansas Army National Guard and because his father was a career officer. He is not married.
Needham said she found last year's stint in Baghdad's Green Zone to be "a rewarding experience." In her second week there, she said "I decided I can do this," and signaled her intent to volunteer for this year's tour.
She will supervise seven auditors and will be in charge of auditing at two locations. Her team will review some of the Defense Department's financial management practices and look at internal controls on spending.
From her first stay in Baghdad, Needham learned that living and working accommodations cannot be taken for granted, especially when electrical generators shut down. "Everything is more difficult in Iraq, and things don't work all the time," she said.
Like Walsh, she comes from a family with ties to the armed forces. Her father served in World War II and headed an American Legion post when she was growing up. She has four children and 13 grandchildren and is divorced.
Asked how her family reacted to her plans for a year in Iraq, Needham quipped that her announcement was met with "stunned silence," much the way her family responded when she bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
The family's surprise over her decision to go back quickly turned to pride, Needham said. "My family very strongly supports the troops over there."
January 3, 2007
Pg. D1
Federal Diary
By Stephen Barr
A reminder that federal employees are regularly heading to Iraq for duty:
Nancee Needham, who has worked for the Defense Department inspector general's office for nearly 18 years, begins a one-year tour in the war-torn country this month.
Needham, a civil service employee, will serve as the inspector general's program director for audit operations there. She spent eight weeks in Iraq last year on an auditing project and calls her decision to volunteer for a year-long Baghdad assignment "my turn to pay back" the department and the nation for providing her with a rewarding career.
Tim Walsh, a technology manager with the Air Force, joined the government four years ago and spent six months in Iraq in 2004. He has volunteered for a second assignment in the war zone. "You work for the DOD and they depend upon you during peacetime. You got to pony up during wartime," Walsh said.
As a general practice, federal agencies prefer to rely on volunteers like Needham and Walsh for duty in war zones. Volunteers have helped staff the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, restore electrical power plants and operate post exchange stores.
But with the Iraq war in its fourth year, there has been some concern that the ranks of civil service volunteers are growing thin.
The Iraq Study Group, chaired by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former House member Lee H. Hamilton, has recommended that agencies order civilian employees to fill key jobs in Iraq if not enough volunteers step forward. The recommendation grew out of a sense that agencies are not contributing enough personnel to Iraq, a commission aide said.
John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, questions how civil service employees could be ordered to Iraq when the violence in Baghdad makes it exceedingly difficult to move around and perform jobs.
"This is a slippery slope," Gage said of the Baker-Hamilton recommendation. "Security issues have to be upfront and resolved before you think of sending untrained federal workers over there."
The government does not keep count of how many federal employees are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. By most accounts, the Army has the largest number of volunteers in Iraq -- usually about 2,000 at any one time. (In fiscal 2006, it deployed more than 4,000 civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, an Army spokeswoman said.)
About 1,000 Americans from various agencies staff the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, according to the Congressional Research Service. They have come from the State, Defense, Agriculture, Commerce, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, Transportation and Treasury departments and the Agency for International Development, the CRS reported last October.
Some agencies, such as the Air Force, assign civilians to U.S. bases outside Baghdad. Walsh, for example, worked on the Horned Owl project in 2004 at Camp Anaconda and the Balad air base in northern Iraq. His small team gathered data from an airplane equipped with sensors that can detect some bombs buried in roads and some types of weapons caches.
Walsh, who manages technology systems for an Air Force office in Northern Virginia, helped set up a secure electronic network, coordinated intelligence activities and relayed information to the Army about possible threats.
In a war zone, Walsh noted, federal employees can be called upon to work outside their areas of expertise. During the battle of Fallujah, he helped out at a military clinic because medics were overworked and needed extra hands to care for wounded troops.
To some degree, Walsh said, he may feel more attuned to the military than other federal civilians because he once served in the Kansas Army National Guard and because his father was a career officer. He is not married.
Needham said she found last year's stint in Baghdad's Green Zone to be "a rewarding experience." In her second week there, she said "I decided I can do this," and signaled her intent to volunteer for this year's tour.
She will supervise seven auditors and will be in charge of auditing at two locations. Her team will review some of the Defense Department's financial management practices and look at internal controls on spending.
From her first stay in Baghdad, Needham learned that living and working accommodations cannot be taken for granted, especially when electrical generators shut down. "Everything is more difficult in Iraq, and things don't work all the time," she said.
Like Walsh, she comes from a family with ties to the armed forces. Her father served in World War II and headed an American Legion post when she was growing up. She has four children and 13 grandchildren and is divorced.
Asked how her family reacted to her plans for a year in Iraq, Needham quipped that her announcement was met with "stunned silence," much the way her family responded when she bought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
The family's surprise over her decision to go back quickly turned to pride, Needham said. "My family very strongly supports the troops over there."