Army 1st Lt. Michael Kelvington has seen things change dramatically for the better in the town where he has served in Iraq for more than a year.

The 2001 Springfield High School and 2005 West Point graduate, serves with Company A, 1st Battalion, 501st Airborne, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, in Jurf as Sakhr, a town southwest of Baghdad.

Today, Kelvington, 25, who spoke via telephone from Iraq and expects to leave Iraq later this fall, talks about how the town's people have come to the aid of the Americans and have told al-Qaida warriors to stay away.

Q: What was going on in the town before you got there?

A: To make a long story short, and to sum up the last 12 months of the deployment, we had small-arms fire, mortar attacks, IEDs in the roads. Something happened pretty much every day. Along with us and the Iraqi Army guys, the people in the town were getting tired of it.

We got a new sheik. And basically, he came to us with this idea of civilians from the area manning checkpoints and basically arming themselves against al-Qaida in our area.

One of the big problems in our area is unemployment. Al-Qaida would recruit these guys to do things like place bombs in the roads and try to attack our patrol base and shoot at our
towers. A few times we've had hand grenades come over the wall where we operate. They would pay them to make those attacks.

Those people had no alternative. It's a poor agrarian area. They have mouths to feed. A lot of times that is what they would do for money.

Now, with this new program, they are getting paid to protect their own areas and secure their neighborhoods, almost like an armed neighborhood watch program.

Q: Is what's happening in your town happening elsewhere in Iraq?

A: The idea originally started in Anbar province. Our patrol base is in a neighborhood.

When they try to mortar us they would unfortunately hit people in the town.

There was one day back in February where we got mortared and they killed 10 people in our area.

Q: How is morale for your troops?

A: I would say right now it's pretty good. The big thing right now with everything that has been happening to us with the area being so quiet, things tend to get a little bit or somewhat boring. It definitely beats the alternative.

It's good to be able to kind of take a step back and look at the situation and see the success. . . . It's been pretty cool. So right now, with everything being so quiet, we are sort of enjoying how quiet it's been.

Q: And that's a big change from where it was?

A: Right before we got here, a month before we deployed, a dump truck that had three to five hundred pounds of explosives that was driven into our patrol base . . . blew up the Iraqi police station next door and killed three or four Iraqi police and completely destroyed the building.

We've come a long way since last September. In reality, we are establishing a relationship with the people and getting out there and working with them.

People wouldn't even want to talk to you before. Kids would stay away from you. It was sad.

You could see the kids would run away or completely avoid you. . . . Now they don't hesitate to come up and shake your hand. They come talk to you and give you high-fives. . . . The best thing about it is it's really caught on in other areas. It's contagious. Everyone wants to do it.

Q: Have you lost any soldiers during your deployment?

A: Unfortunately, our company has lost three soldiers since we've been here and I know that we have about 20 soldiers that have received Purple Hearts.

Luckily for our platoon, we have not had any causalities. . . . We've been really lucky.

Q: Can you describe what it's like to be in combat in Iraq?

A: This is really not something that you ever get used to. You kind of become numb to it. You always have to remain vigilant.