Saddam Hussein’s former showpiece palace in Tikrit is now the headquarters of the U.S. Army’s Task Force Danger. The 1st Infantry Division has begun building a new $6.7 million headquarters at nearby Forward Operating Base Speicher so the palace complex can be turned over to the Iraqi government. (Dina Wandler / Courtesy of U.S. Army)
TIKRIT, Iraq — The 1st Infantry Division has broken ground on a new headquarters building that soon should allow the Army to abandon Saddam Hussein’s magnificent and grotesque palace complex in Tikrit.
The $6.7 million, 60,000-square-foot building is being built south of Tikrit at Forward Operating Base Speicher, a sprawling former Iraqi air force base. It is expected to open in April, said Lt. Col. Keith Sledd, the division’s logistics officer, shortly after the division turns over control of its sector of Iraq to the 42nd Infantry Division.
The building will be home to the task force commander — currently, Maj. Gen. John Batiste — and his staff. Batiste’s 22,000-soldier Task Force Danger patrols an area the size of West Virginia that is north and east of Baghdad, from 27 forward operating bases.
Lt. Col. John M. Larson, design engineer of the Wisconsin National Guard’s 264th Engineer Battalion, which is supervising the project, said those bases will be returned to Iraqi control over time. The soldiers at those bases would move to Speicher, which is being planned as a longer-term home for troops in the region.
Currently about 6,000 officers and soldiers live at Speicher, Larson said. About 2,000 live at the division headquarters.
To accommodate future troops, Larson said, the division has requested another $80 million from the Multi-National Coalition-Iraq military command in Baghdad. That money would build headquarters buildings, soldier barracks, communications and maintenance buildings for each of the task force’s battalions. It’s not clear yet if that money will be granted.
“Getting out of a place is not cheap,” Larson said.
The current headquarters, which 1st ID calls Forward Operating Base Danger, is in Saddam’s hometown complex of some 40 extravagant palaces overlooking the Tigris River.
The complex includes about 1.3 million square feet of floor space in impressive pink-marble palaces — far more than the task force needs. Saddam built the palaces in the 1990s.
The buildings look impressive but aren’t terribly useful. Much of the space is wasted on giant atriums and hallways. Viewed up close, the woodwork is cheap and the workmanship poor. The plumbing system is so bad that the gold-fixtured toilets can’t be used.
“[Saddam] built things just to build them,” said Larson, 53, of Superior, Wis., whose civilian job is with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “They weren’t functional at all, and they were poorly constructed. But what a facade! From a distance, they look pretty nice.”
Current and former members of Batiste’s staff say the general never wanted to move into the palace complex, in part because of the discomfort over the U.S. occupying forces living in the lavish homes of the former dictator.
But higher headquarters blocked any move until now, the staffers said. Despite the symbolism, the palaces worked well as a military headquarters because the walled compound is quite secure and the marble buildings well-fortified against the rockets and mortars that sometimes are aimed at it.
Sledd, 43, of Hickory, Okla., said the Tikrit palaces eventually will be turned over to the government of Salah Ad Din province, which is headquartered in Tikrit. Government officials toured the palaces for the first time in August.
