G-4: Iraq drawdown effort is mostly finished - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

G-4: Iraq drawdown effort is mostly finished

The Army’s drawdown effort in Iraq is 75 percent complete, however the hard part is still ahead, according to the Army’s top logistics officer.

“An optimist would say, ‘We’ve got three-quarters of the work done,’ but a pessimist would say, ‘But, the hard part is left to go,’” said Lt. Gen. Mitchell Stevenson, deputy chief of staff for logistics (G-4). “Both would be right.”

The military used to occupy more than 400 bases in the country.

“Today, we sit on 88,” Stevenson said. However, the bases that are left to close are among the largest, making them more difficult to shut down, he said.

In addition to closing bases and moving people and supplies out of the country, the Army is also overseeing an enormous transfer of equipment to the Iraqi government.

To date, the Army has transferred more than 904,000 pieces of equipment to the Iraqi government, including 559 up-armored Humvees, according to Army spokeswoman Devon Hylander.

The equipment transfer is broken down into several different categories.

“Number one, there’s equipment that’s excess to the Army’s needs,” Stevenson said.

These are called excess defense articles and are transferred to the Iraqis through a longstanding process that allows sales of excess equipment to foreign governments.

Stevenson said there are ongoing sales of this kind and to date, the sales total about $500 million.

“Another category is equipment that they would like to have to stand up their Army more quickly that is not excess to the Army,” Stevenson said.

In the FY10 defense authorization bill, Congress gave Defense Secretary Robert Gates authority to order the services to leave behind non-excess equipment.

“The Iraqis have come to us with a wish list and it totals up to about $101 million for the Army,” Stevenson said. “These are items they need to defend themselves after we leave.”

The other services got their own lists.

Gates has approved the Army’s list and it will go to Capitol Hill next to be ratified by Congress, according to Stevenson.

Another category is for equipment the Army can sell to the Iraqi government and then use that money to replace the sold items.

“A good example of that is ammunition,” Stevenson said. “As you know, [the Iraqis] bought some M1 tanks. We have M1 tank ammunition sitting in Iraq. It’s convenient for us and convenient for them if we just sell them that ammunition. We take the proceeds from that and replenish our stocks.”

Those sales equal about $21 million, Stevenson said.

The last category is called foreign excess personal property.

This category includes things like concrete barrier walls, housing units and entry control point towers.

“It makes no sense to bring those home,” Stevenson said. “They’re probably going to break if you try to move them and the Iraqis can use them.”

With the housing units, which Stevenson described as “flimsy,” the Army tried to transfer them to Afghanistan, but it didn’t work well.

“The market value of what we transferred under FEPP so far in 300 some bases that have closed is around $160 million,” he said.

Army commanders in Iraq have authority to approve up to a certain dollar value and beyond that they have to get approval from the Department of the Army, Stevenson said.