About 25 officers from Fort Hood’s 1st Cavalry Division spent approximately an hour Tuesday afternoon taking a crash course in how to set up a city-run government, not because they are interested in running for office - they were learning how to help the Iraqi people help themselves.
“This is a presentation by the Killeen city government to give us a Government 101 block,” said Capt. Patrick Blankenship, who serves in civil operations for the 1st Cavalry Division.
The instruction, Blank-enship said, was aimed at the company commanders within the division who often work closely with Iraqi citizenry.
“When they deploy again in less than 12 months and are partnered with an Iraqi city government and they are both the military and the political go-to guy, they will understand how our model of city government works,” Blankenship said.
The effort is indeed a history-making event for Bell County and Fort Hood, because no one else is doing it, Blankenship said.
“We felt we didn’t have to go far to see what a model government was,” he said.
The instruction is a grassroots effort that many in the division hope can bring a quicker end to the war if the Iraqi people in those regions are willing to take control.
City Manager Connie Green, who provided most of the instruction, likened his role as city manager to that of a head coach.
“You let those individuals who specialize in those areas do their job,” Green said. “I try to hire the best and most qualified department heads. I try to relate to them the policies and directives from our city council and I let them do their job.”
The 3rd Brigade Combat Team began laying the groundwork by attending three sessions, which included city council meetings and city council workshops.
Tuesday’s meeting, the final session for the division, provided the officers with the opportunity to ask questions of the heads of the different areas of city government.
Capt. Brian Slotnick, a veteran of two previous tours to Iraq, said the city governments in Iraqi cities were far different than how Americans conduct their business.
Slotnick said he hopes to take the knowledge he gained from the instructions and do something good.
On his last tour, Slotnick was on a military transition team and spent a lot of time dealing with municipal leaders.
“The requests for different projects (in Killeen) is the same that we see there,” he said. “Their police need to be equipped and they need to be able to recruit personnel.”
Blankenship said the division still couldn’t say when they will go or whom they will be interacting with.
“We will go somewhere and we will be doing these things,” he said.
