PRT News
Utica native helps rebuild Iraq
By CATHERINE KURTELAWICZ
Observer-Dispatch
March 10, 2008
Utica, New York - Every time Mary Ann Penree of Deerfield reads an article about the war in Iraq, she thinks of her cousin Phyllis Powers.
Powers, a Utica native, has been in Baghdad for more than a year serving as the director of the Office of Provincial Affairs.
“She has a very prestigious job and we are very proud of her,” Penree said. “But it does make me nervous.”
Provincial Reconstruction Teams are groups of civilian and military units that work with Iraqis to try and help achieve economic and political stabilization.
Powers, 54, coordinates these 31 teams throughout Iraq making sure they have the necessary supplies and support they need.
She said the job has been one of the most challenging she’s had. Powers is a career foreign service officer and has served in several countries, including Jordan, Russia, Poland, Columbia and Peru.
Her job requires her to travel across Iraq. Though she has security and doesn’t travel in conflict areas, she said that there is an element of danger.
“That makes it very difficult when you have to put on 30 or 40 pounds of protective gear to go out and visit someplace,” she said.
Powers signed on for a two-year stint in Iraq. After that, she said she is unsure of where her next assignment would be, although she does expect it to be “somewhere else in the world doing a normal service.”
Powers has been serving in various countries for so long that she can’t remember the last time she was able to attend a family holiday. But Powers said it is a sacrifice she is willing to make.
“You miss your family and friends back in the states,” she admitted. “For me, it’s an opportunity to serve my country doing something worthwhile.”