FORT BLISS, Texas -- During Operation Iraqi Freedom, what could be considered a simple contract to clean up trash was used as a commander's tool to achieve much greater military objectives.
Lessons learned from this type of effects-based contracting have led to a shift in the way the Department of Defense handles the planning of Operational Contract Support for military operations.
At the height of OIF, a stretch of road near the Baghdad International Airport, known to U.S. service members as Route Irish, was reported by many as one of the most deadly routes in the world due to casualties caused by Improvised Explosive Devices hidden along the road.
At the time, U.S. Air Force Col. Renee Richardson was the theater-wide contracts division chief in Iraq. She recalls one commander's plan to decrease casualties involved a contract using local nationals to clean up the trash on Route Irish, taking away the enemy's opportunity to hide IEDs.
"I asked if one mechanized truck, with one driver, picking up trash would work and the commander said he wanted to employ as many Iraqis as possible," Richardson said.
Richardson said at first she didn't grasp the commander's true intent -- to keep the potential enemy busy and possibly build a relationship with the host nation.
Richardson's team put the contract in place and in time, the IED incidents on Route Irish significantly decreased.
The contract employed more than a hundred Iraqis, who picked up the trash and instead of disposing of it, placed it on the flat roofs of buildings at night and placed it back on the road in the morning in order to have work the next day, Richardson said.
"The employment was keeping the Iraqis busy and putting a little bit of money in their pockets," she said.
The majority of the men employed by the contract were 18-25 years-old. Statistically, this age group was more likely to join the enemy cause, but the job and the money helped to turn that tide, according to Richardson.
Not only did the contract contribute to a significant drop in U.S. casualties, the cost was less than the launch of one tomahawk missile, according to Richardson.
"With a smaller amount of money, we achieved a greater effect and without any collateral damage," Richardson said.
Because the Iraqis never really removed the trash from Route Irish, the contract could be considered a failure at the tactical level, but the strategic-level effects were invaluable.
These types of second and third-order effects of Operational Contract Support, intended or unintended, suggest that integrating lessons learned into future OCS planning and operations is imperative to success.
"In 2006, we had been on the ground in Iraq for a while, but we were just realizing the strategic effects of OCS," Richardson said. "What we're trying to do now is back the clock up, so that as leaders plan, they are thinking of OCS as a weapons system."
Richardson is currently acting as the director of Operational Contract Support Joint Exercise 2015, a joint, combined event focused on improving OCS capabilities within the contracting and non-contracting workforce, creating shelf-ready products for future OCS operations and increasing senior leaders' awareness and understanding of OCS as a skill set. She says her goal is culture change.
"We tend to think because we wear a military uniform, our only solution is kinetic," Richardson concluded. "What we need is a shift in culture to where our leaders understand that non-kinetic OCS can achieve impactful political and economic effects."
Social Sharing