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Crosscurrents

Vol. 26, No. 12 December 2003

District gives time, toys toNeighbor-to-Neighbor non-profit

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December 2003

Crosscurrents

Crosscurrents is an unofficial publication,

authorized under the provisions of AR

360-1. It is published monthly by offset

for the St. Paul District, U.S. Army

Corps of Engineers.

Editorial views and opinions are not

necessarily those of the Corps of

Engineers, nor of the Department of

the Army.

Address all inquiries to:

Editor,Crosscurrents

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

190 Fifth Street East

St. Paul, MN 55101-1638

Phone: 651-290-5202

District Engineer Col. Robert L. Ball

Public Affairs Chief Mark Davidson

Media Specialist Shannon Bauer

Editor Peter Verstegen

E-mail: [email protected]

Teamwork andcoordination createsynergy

By Col. Robert Ball

District Engineer

One of the big concepts of

USACE 2012 is that we are all

members of a team of teams. If you

updated your performance

objectives recently, you were asked

to add an objective that dealt with

you being a member of a team of

teams. If you are like me, you

struggled with what that meant. Let

me share with you what it means to

me.First, none of us does our jobs in

isolation. Each of us is a member of

some team, whether it is a product

delivery team or a dive team or the

graveyard shift at Lock and Dam 9,

Lynxville, Wis.

Most of us are members of

several teams, and we need to

coordinate our actions with other

team members. No news there

coordination is part of our project

management business process

training.Second, there are lots of teams

within what you and I call the St.

Paul District. Within some teams,

there are other teams. An example

would be the environmental team

working within the navigation study

project delivery team.

Its common sense if a team that

is part of another team does not

coordinate its efforts, the product of

the larger team will suffer.Third, no matter where we are in

the organization, we depend on

other team members to deliver a

product or service. I cannot

command this district without

Brig. Gen. Don Rileys help, the

assistance of the gang of five,

and the calm advice of Mary Kay

Linder (to name a very few.) Of

course, Riley commands Mississippi

Valley Division; the gang consists

of the chiefs of engineering,construction-operations, office of

counsel, the deputy for programs

and project management and the

executive assistant. Linder is

administrative assistant in the

executive office.

To command the division and his

staff, Riley depends on the six

district engineers and Army Corps

of Engineers headquarters staff. If

you think about it, theinterdependency is true for you as

well.

The point is that the Corps of

Engineers is made up teams that

are nested within other teams. We

need to realize that our actions not

only impact ourselves but also

other teams throughout USACE.

Learning to thrive in such an

environment of interdependence is

going to be our challenge for the

future and I look forward to learning

what skills you find helpful.

Photo by Mark Davidson

Cover photo

From left are Aaron Snyder,Dan Yang and Matt Pearcy.They were among 22 fromthe district to present giftsdonated by St. Paul Districtemployees at Neighbor-to-

Neighbor in St. Paul, Minn.,Dec. 19. Gifts included $220in cash, 125 toys and 263 lbs.of food.

Participants:

Col. Robert BallRichard BeattyNan BischoffMark DavidsonStephanie EhnstromRobert EngelstadTim FellCarol JohnsonMichael Knoff

Jodi KormanikMolly McKegneyDarrell MoreyJames MurphyJeannette PreamPat Rogers,Michelle SchneiderJoseph SkupaKenton SpadingTerry Zien

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CrosscurrentsDecember 2003

Alberico assuresdata quality forIraqi contractsBy Shannon Bauer

Teri Alberico, project management, stayed

on in Baghdad another month-and-a-half

after her team left, helping to orientate a new

Corps team to the mission.

It was a great place to be, and a great

time to be there, she said. Progress was

really being made in terms of getting Iraq

back on its feet.

Alberico served in Baghdad from June 22

to Nov. 24. She was supposed to leave Oct.12 but volunteered to stay on to provide

institutional knowledge to the next team of

Corps civilians.

With a background in emergency

operations, readiness, geographic information

services and database management, as well

as environmental, the Corps selected

Alberico to fill the power engineer slot at

its Iraqi Reconstruction Office. No actual

power engineers availed themselves. She

was to help set up and maintain a databaseto manage the governments billion-dollar

reconstruction contract with Bechtel.

She said Bruce Boldon, St. Paul District

construction chief and then chief of party in

Baghdad, asked her team leader to get her to

Baghdad as soon as possible, so she and two

others were secured passage on a Chinook

helicopter and arrived earlier than the rest of

her team. The database, she explained,

needed to be up and running as soon as

possible to help the U.S. Agency for

International Development, or USAID,monitor the Bechtel contract.

For the first half of her tour, she provided

quality control for the information being

added into the database by Corps engineers

serving in Iraq. She made sure they put in

the right kind and the right amount of data.

She also served as the telecommunications

sector manager, which required her to work

with USAID and Bechtel to monitor the

progress of the telecoms job orders.

For the second half, she helped to improve

the database outputs. She served as a liaison

between those in Baghdad and the CorpsCold Region Research and Engineering Lab,

which manages the database and provides

programming support. She would explain to

CRREL staff what they needed in the field.

While in Baghdad, she watched conditions

improve for the Iraqis. With an office in the

St. Paul District photoTeri Alberico pauses on the retainingwall at the entry of the convention centerin Baghdad in August.

Alberico,continued Page 10

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December 2003

Peak retainslasting images ofchildren in Iraq

The following article first appeared in

Alabama Alumni Magazine, winter 2003.Reprinted by permission.

By Anna Thibodeaux

It was not Iraqi President Saddam

Husseins numerous, lavish palaces that

stood out in Jim Peaks mind, but rather the

sight of them standing near so many

neglected schools.

They were tired of giving to Saddam,Peak observed of the Iraqis nearly six

months after the U.S. government invaded

their country and deposed Hussein. They

were just looking for some help basically.

The people were very hardworking and were

looking for the same things we look for a

good education for their family and to make

a good living.

Peak, 51, is a 1975 civil engineering

graduate from the University of Alabama

and 28-year civilian employee of the U.S.

Army Corps of Engineers who now works

in St. Paul, Minn. as the assistant chief ofengineering. The Double Springs, Ala.,

native recently returned from a near three-

month mission to help restore schools in

northern Iraq.

The idea of helping restore freedom to an

oppressed people appealed to me

appeared to be a very noble cause, he said

of volunteering for the mission. Peak also

felt it was answering destinys call, offering

his experience from earlier working in Saudi

Arabia and Japan, as well as with thecontractor. It was a little like the Forrest

Gump movie all these seemingly unrelated

events seemed to be converging toward a

destined purpose. And I felt it was the right

thing to do spiritually, morally and

idealistically.

As expected, it was hot as Peaks four-

member team entered southern Iraqs flat,

desolate region on June 25. As they traveled

further northward, the terrain got slightly

greener and more so as they made way into

the river valley. Villages lined the way witha few camels crossing the road and lots of

goods for sale. Baghdad was more modern

than Peak anticipated, although he observed

some sites bombed by the U.S. military in

the war and others simply in need of

ordinary maintenance. Peak observed that

Hussein apparently didnt spend much

money on public facilities.

After a short stay in Baghdad, the team

continued north until they reached their

destination of Mosul, the countrys second

or third largest city of about 1.5 million

people. Work began there and extended into

four surrounding major, northern cities:

Dahuk, Arbil, Kirkuk and Sulamaniyah.

It was so hot, he recalled. The military

was out there with battle gear. Those guys

were cooking, and they never really

flinched. They