As I have mentioned on various occasions, my son-in-law is in Africa. He has served in Desert Storm, OIF and now in Africa working with USAID. Anytime that I can get direct info on him or his mission I will post it. Although he is not in Iraq, that does not lessen his mission. Considering the fact that he is in Sudan on a daily basis, an area that is still a hot bed, he still faces some hostility. His name is Capt. Scott Hagerty, in the article from CJTF they have misspelled his name. May not be top of the line news, but it is family.
Story by U.S. Army Maj. Greg Tzucanow Bravo Company, 413th Civil Affairs
Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa
LIRE DISTRICT, Uganda - Sporadic but heavy rain threatened to make an already challenging day more challenging when U.S. military personnel assisted U.S. Agency for International Development in the Lira district of Uganda in early December.
The soldiers traveled along the muddy roads that intersect farms, jungle and forest to designated small towns to conduct inspections on current and future water well projects. These projects support a population returning after being displaced by years of war between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan People’s Defense Force.
Internally displaced persons will soon return to towns designated by the Ugandan government. This is a planned return to normal life for more than two million people affected by the 20-year conflict. That plan includes accessing and preparing chosen sites for the residents’ return.
“For the towns to survive, they have to have clean and sufficient sources of water” explains U.S. Army Sgt. Somchai Knorr. “We assist USAID by reporting the conditions of existing well sites, inspecting proposed sites, talking with the villagers and then providing accurate assessments on the attitudes of the population”.
Participating in the projects and providing the assessments hasn’t been easy for the teams.
“Usually we are on the road early at about 7 a.m. and stay out until 6 pm. We encounter the usual amount of snakes and wild life around the borehole sites, poor road conditions, inclement weather and very curious onlookers,” said U.S. Army Capt. Scott Hagerty. “In the past week we have had to dig our vehicles out of numerous mud holes and deal with broken down vehicles, but that is nothing compared to what the men, women and children go through in the IDP camps.”
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