Baqubah, IRAQ-Iraqi police officers now have more protection thanks to the recent donation of 2,000 protective vests by a nonprofit group in the United States.

The new vests, many of which were presented during an Aug. 15 ceremony here, were delivered through the efforts of an international shipping company and the U.S. Army.

When Lt. Col. Jodee Kautzman, intelligence and operations officer in charge at the 40th Corps Support Group, was mobilized, she had a plan that not only included completing her mission but to also have an impact in the lives of the Iraqi people.

"When I received my mobilization order, I had a 5-month-old baby and a 3-year-old and I promised them that I wasn't going to come to Iraq a just do my time … I was going to make a difference," she said.

And with one email from the Brotherhood of the Badge founder Mike Harris, she did. The organization, founded in 2003, collects used police gear from all over the United States and sends it to Iraq to help the national police force.

"In past operations, the Brotherhood of the Badge would send the donated equipment by ship, which would take months, to Kuwait and then convoy it to where it needed to go," she said.

This system was cost effective because most of the gear was shipped free through boating companies that would sail past Iraq. The difficulty was that the ships had to have available space for the equipment which meant everything arrived at different times, Kautzman said.

Also, since the equipment would take so long to arrive, the points of contact that were established earlier in the process would be gone and the equipment would sit at the docks until it could be sorted out.

"It was like reinventing the wheel since 2004 … by the time the equipment arrives, the original point of contact is gone," Kautzman said with a frown. "I am trying to forge an enduring path for shipment of donated equipment."

Mike Harris called his local congressman, Rep. George Radanovich, who made some calls to DHL asking for help with the shipping charge, said Kautzman.

The Brotherhood of the Badge only had to pay $6,000 of the $197,000 to ship the equipment to New York, DHL paid the overseas shipping to Balad, she said.

"The donation from DHL made this delivery possible," said Kautzman. "The Brotherhood of the Badge had already purchased the vests, which were worth approximately $2.5 million, and did not want to waste money they could use to purchase more equipment on shipping costs."

Once the vests arrived, Kautzman personally sorted the shipment of vests by size and location. About 200 vests will be sent to Baghdad, she said. And the remainder will be split between Camp Speicher and Forward Operating Base Warhorse.

On Aug. 15, Kautzman traveled to Forward Operating Base Warhorse to witness the presentation of the vests to the Iraqi police officers of Baqubah.

"The police officers in Fresno, Calif. developed a bond with the police force of Baqubah through the training program and they chose the city as one of the recipients of the first private donation of its kind," said Kautzman.

"My husband worked with Mike Harris when he was in Baqubah during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, she said. Brotherhood of the Badge shipped used police equipment to his military police unit."

Some of the Soldiers with the 649th Military Police Company began to talk to now former Diyala Chief of Police, Gen. Walled Khaled Abed Al-Salaam about Harris. The chief wrote a letter to Harris asking for help.

"This donation will help in their fight against terrorists," said Lt. Col. William Benson, company commander of the Police Transition Team of the 3rd Brigade 4th Infantry Division, said.

"Since 2003, the police force has been training on how to secure an area and become proficient with their weapons," Benson said. "Now they are beginning to learn the investigation phase of police work.

The 978th Military Police Company, a PTT, provided an escort to the police station. "We train the Iraqi police in basic skills needed to properly perform their duties," said Sgt. Scotty Roach a gunner with the PTT based on FOB Warhorse.

"We train them in combat lifesaver classes, weapons familiarization and any other skills we feel they need training in," he said while pulling security at the Iraqi police station.

Gen. Ghassan A Al-Bawy, Iraqi Chief of Police for the Diyala Province, said his police force was about to begin more intense training and with the new arrival of vests, he felt his officers will be able to have a better training experience.

"We have over 10,000 officers," Al-Bawy said through his interpreter. "And we will make sure the new vests are inventoried and distributed to the officers that need them the most."

Along with the MP training, the Iraqi police are trained by the Iraqi Police Liaison Officers, a group of privately contracted police officers from all over the United States.

Derek France, the administrative officer for IPLO, joked that the Iraqi police are getting better equipment than they have.

"As fellow police officers, we want to give them the best training and equipment possible," he said.