Retired Iowa Fighter Training Firefighters In Iraq

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- A retired Des Moines firefighter is overseeing the training of firefighters and the renovation and construction of fire stations in Iraq.

Richard Phillips, 60, will be in Iraq for the next year as fire chief of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, which will spend $167 million to train Iraqi firefighters and renovate or build more than 200 fire stations.

Phillips retired as a lieutenant with the Des Moines Fire Department in 1999. He plans to use his 31 years of experience to help train about 8,000 Iraqi firefighters.

He said firefighter training and equipment under Saddam Hussein was "archaic.''

'I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I get back, but after this gig, anything else is going to seem like a piece of cake,'' Phillips said from Iraq. "There is a lot to do.

"I like the challenge,'' he said. "But it would be nice if I didn't have to wear a flak jacket.''

He returned to college after he retired and graduated from Iowa State University in 2003 with a degree in liberal arts and a minor in political science. He also retired that year as a sergeant with the Army National Guard.

He applied for the job in Iraq to help the war effort.

Phillips said he will be paid $60,623 for his year of service. He gets a 25 percent bonus for working in a danger zone and another 25 percent for overseas duty. He works 10 to 12 hours a day seven days a week.

He will oversee the construction of a national defense academy.

"What started out as a narrow job description expanded quite a bit,'' he said. "The elections are obviously on the front burner for everyone right now.''

He said he understood the risks of the job when he took it.

"The job is indeed challenging,'' he said. "However, I believe in what we are trying to accomplish in this country.''

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