Engineers from the 1st Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team built six police stations in six days earlier this month in Samarra, Iraq, according to a news release from the 1st ID-led Task Force Danger in Tikrit.
The engineers, from the 216th Engineer Battalion and other units, constructed the stations at Forward Operating Base Speicher out of conexes at a cost of about $100,000 apiece, the release said. Then they were trucked to Samarra, a city of 200,000 people northwest of Baghdad that until recently had been under rebel control.
The stations, for Iraqi police, were fortified with concrete barricades able to withstand rocket-propelled grenades, car bombs and mortars, according to the release. The engineers also furnished them with desks and chairs and even paper and brooms. The release said more construction on schools, hospitals and streets is planned. The rebuilding of Samarra has fallen behind other Iraqi cities because of rebel activity.