Terrorist Recruiting Center Now A New School

Joint effort turns terrorist recruiting center into school
LUTIFIYAH — For American schoolchildren, libraries, restrooms and desks and chairs in the school are a given. For many Iraqi children, however, those elements of school life would be regarded as luxuries.
Thus, the exuberant celebration surrounding the re-opening of the Jolen School, reclaimed from terrorists who had overtaken the building.

“This school was once used as an al Qaida recruiting facility,” explained U.S. Army 1st Lt. Aaron Hall, civil affairs officer, 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Military Transition Team. “I remember when this building was covered with graffiti.”

Hall asked his battalion commander, Lt. Col. Bob Morschauser, to approve the use of Commander’s Emergency Response Program funds to renovate the school for the children after the terrorists were driven out and the area was secured.

Once the project was approved, the 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) worked with the 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division and Iraqi contractors on the renovation project.

“We used a contracting company that was widely known for its work before the war started,” Hall explained.

Within a few months, the fruits of everyone’s labor showed as hundreds of Iraqi children gathered to see their newly renovated school.

“This really makes me happy,” said Mustafar, a student at Jolen School. “Our school has never been this nice.”

The two-story school is now large enough to house 1,200 students; 600 during the day and 600 at night. The school is equipped with a computer lab, new desks, renovated classrooms and even a playground in the school yard.
But it is the small amenities that really make the school special.

“Before the school had broken windows and only one bathroom that all 1,200 students used,” Hall said. “Now there are several bathrooms and all of the windows are fixed.”

School renovations are just a small way to show Iraqis the importance of their future, Hall said.

Iraqi Army Brig. Gen. Muhammad Ali Jassim al-Frejee, commander of the 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, concurred, smiling as he walked through the schoolhouse and pausing to chat with students and to reflect on what the opening of a renovated school means to the local citizens.

“All of this is for our future. Our time is gone,” Ali said, speaking of the Iraqi elders as he looked at the children, “but our future is right here.”