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By Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva, 1st Marine Division  Iraqi Police from the Ameriyah Police station carry in boxed furniture. Department of Defense photo by Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva.
New office furniture, including desks, chairs, wall lockers and filing cabinets arrived courtesy of Marines from Regimental Combat Team 5 to help upgrade the Iraqi police station here Sept. 22. The supplies also included incubators and a medical waste incinerator going to a hospital in nearby Ferris.
“We’ve been fighting to get them furniture here for a long time,” said Army 2nd Lt. Jill M. Glassenapp, a 23-year-old police transition team leader from Mauston, Wisconsin. “They’ve done such a good job on their own.”
Glassenapp said Iraqi police furnished the station themselves until now. The station was stood up several months ago, and Iraqi policemen brought furniture from their homes themselves, including a couple of desks, chairs, tables and even beds.
 Iraqi Policemen load up on belts of ammunition before heading out on a patrol in Ameriyah. Department of Defense photo by Gunnery Sgt. Mark Oliva.
“This will now give them their own space,” said Army Staff Sgt. Jason K. Garrison, a 27-year-old from Newport, N.Y., assigned to RCT-5’s police transition team. “They won’t have to use MRE boxes. They’ll have file cabinets to keep records and files organized.”
More importantly, the gesture of furniture is a tangible signal from Coalition forces that the troops take the needs of Iraqi police seriously. Coalition forces provided police with pickup trucks for patrols and weapons, but they were for the direct fight against insurgents in the region. This delivery demonstrated a larger vision the Coalition has for police. It signaled that Soldiers support them as the stabilizing force for years to come.
A Marine convoy pulled up to the Ameriyah police station with two loaded seven-ton trucks. Palletized boxed items from refrigerators to folding chairs filled the flatbed trucks. Iraqi police, many who were not on shift, but arrived anyway, climbed onto the truck and assisted Marines and Soldiers toting the gear inside the station.
“This is very good,” said one Iraqi policeman as he carried in chairs.
“This is satisfying for me to see,” Garrison said. “I gave them my word we’d get this stuff for them and I want to keep my word. I want to show them that I do care.”
Garrison said that aside from the equipment donated to the police station, the delivery helped to continue to cement the relationship between Iraqi police and Marines and Soldiers. They know that their concerns are taken seriously and Marines and Soldiers aren't just relying on them for more firepower.
“It shows them that we trust them when we give them the items they need to run a station, whether it’s desks or thousands of rounds of ammunition,” Garrison added. “It takes time but they see we’re good on our word.”
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