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First deployed as a soldier, now serving as a civilian
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| By: Amber Gieseke |
July 08, 2009 |
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Steve Zeltner is being deployed to Iraq as a civilian through the department of the Army Civilian Corps of Engineers. He will head overseas mid-August and return mid-February and alternate every six months between Pittsburgh, Pa., and Iraq for four years.
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After retiring from active duty and being hired by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers six years ago, a former Chetek resident will be going overseas to serve six months out of each of the next four years.
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A few months ago, Steve Zeltner, a 1976 Chetek graduate, took a new job in Pittsburgh, Pa., after working in Tulsa, Okla. This new job is the something exciting he'd been looking for after recently hitting the 50-year mark.
It's a deployable position, he explained. Meaning he rotates every six months between Pittsburgh, and the Tallil Air Force Base in Iraq, which is about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad.
Zeltner stated there are about 1,000 positions in the Middle East that are spread through four corps of engineer districts. These staff positions are filled by civilians who rotate either on a six-month basis as Zeltner is doing or on a yearlong basis.
The staff is there to support the department of defense and to lead construction efforts overseas.
While in Iraq, Zeltner's title is district deputy of program and project management. He's the senior civilian in his district and is responsible for a $2 billion construction project covering roughly a third of the country, he said.
He'll be managing hundreds of projects and coordinating bits and pieces of each while making sure everyone stays on schedule and within budget.
Their efforts are meant to get the country setup so they can start rehiring and manage construction and maintenance on their own, Zeltner explained. They will rebuild new government infrastructure, water treatment plants, hospitals, clinics, schools, sewer systems, etc. What they need to run a democracy, he said.
It's a four-year commitment he is ready to take. He served a few times while on active duty, but this is something new he is excited to try.
"It should be interesting," enthused Zeltner. "I haven't been over there in a while, so it's my turn.
"When you go as a soldier, it's one thing, but it's different as a civilian. You get to really help them out, so I'm looking forward to it," he remarked.
With a 65-hour work week of six 10-hour days and one five-hour day, they are there to "get things built," he expressed.
But on their free time, there are many ways to get involved in the community.
"We can't change how adults feel about foreigners being there, but we can show the children we are there to build friendships," asserted Zeltner. "We are allies now and they need to know we are there to help them."
His wife Connie isn't so excited to say goodbye to her husband for six months at a time. She will return to Oklahoma, where they have two children enrolled in the state university.
She'll keep busy, said Zeltner.
He believes their children- Stephenie, a 2008 University of Wisconsin-Stout graduate working in Wisconsin Rapids, Zachary, a 2007 graduate of Oklahoma State University working in Tulsa, Teresa, a senior at OSU, and Nicole, a sophomore at OSU-are excited and upset about his leaving.
"They are a lot more worried about it than I am," divulged Zeltner. "When they were growing up, their friends were all part of military families and I was still active so it was common for us to go overseas. That's just what we did. But now that I'm a civilian, it's a little different."
This step just seemed logical to him.
"I spent 21 years as an officer in the Army then a few in the corps," he explained. "It's part of my job to fill these positions, so it's sort of 'do as I do.' I'm leading by example. It's just my turn."
He's not just doing it to set an example, though.
"It's fulfilling," he announced. "I enjoyed what I did while over there on active duty, and now it's time to help by fixing things," said Zeltner. "Infrastructure is needed to have democracy and those are the first things to be destroyed in war, and they need help getting it back; it's their priority now."
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©The Chetek Alert 2009
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