Carlisle native leads development in Iraq
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The little girl in the pink dress may as well have been a princess — not in rank or title but in attitude.
One look and Linda Specht knew the 4-year-old was the center of attention in the well-to-do Iraqi family.
“She was adorable ... and she knew it,” recalled Specht, a Carlisle native serving overseas with the U.S. State Department.
Nine children swarmed around the American visitor, showing Specht the fig and lemon trees growing in their back yard.
Excited, they translated for Specht as the Dickinson College alumna toured the family compound and met with a tribal leader’s two wives, who were busy preparing lunch.
Specht was there to talk to their father, an influential voice in a centuries-old power structure derived from strong links to tradition.
Looking at the family, Specht came to the conclusion that people are the same all over the world. Like Americans, Iraqis only want a chance at a future and the means to achieve success.
“There are a lot of similarities in the pattern of life,” said Specht, 48, in a phone interview from Iraq. “The father asked the kids how to work the computer. The teenage sons did all his computer work.”
The younger children, full of energy, sat and watched American cartoons.
Only miles away was hope for a contrast — children from desperately poor families. Once they were targets, ideal recruits for insurgents. Now they are being paid to wear orange safety vests and sweep local streets.
“They are pretty enthusiastic,” the Carlisle High School graduate said. “We hire them as crews to clean up their town. They have the ability to make money and take some home.”
Specht serves as leader of an embedded provincial reconstruction team of experts in government, Iraqi culture, education, health, economic development and agriculture.
Her main job is to plan and implement strategies and programs to help Iraqi government and civic leaders develop their own capacity to meet the needs of their population.
“We are not here to throw money at them,” Specht said. “We are here to help them help themselves. Doing this enables the population to resist the insurgency and carry on when we leave.”
Specht works closely with a U.S. Army brigade commander to make sure her team coordinates its resources with brigade units stationed at outposts throughout four Iraqi counties north of Baghdad.
“My people are out almost every day,” she said.
The reconstruction teams have developed, for example, a three-year agricultural plan that includes extension specialists, demonstration farms, improved seed and farming techniques, feedlots, packing sheds, cold storage and transportation to area markets.
A career diplomat, Specht also works to forge links between the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, programs in the field and the various layers of government to help Iraqis reconcile old hurts and hold their leaders accountable.
“They are doing far more for themselves than they are getting credit for in the press,” Specht said. “They still need our support. It can take years to build a government.”
Her second tour of duty in Iraq began about four weeks ago. Prior to that, Specht worked on economic issues during the transition from the Coalition Provincial Authority to the U.S. Embassy, March to August 2004.
“When I left here, violence was picking up,” Specht recalled. “Iraq was teetering on the brink. Their society was still breaking down. In 2005 and 2006, it felt out of control.”
With the violence came fear. People did not want to come out of their homes. There was very little economic activity. Playing catch-up, the U.S.-led coalition adapted to the situation and attacks from all quarters, Specht said.
While security has improved dramatically, Iraq is still a war zone deserving of respect.
“You have to remember this is a dangerous place, but if you dwell on the danger all the time, you’re not going to do well,” Specht said. “There is no way to take the risk out of it. You put yourself in the hands of God, go forth and do your job.”
Specht added the odds of being attacked are very low and she feels very safe.
“We have very good equipment that is saving lives,” she said.
Her job can be stressful, with 16-hour days, seven days a week. She copes with the stress by running and lifting weights every morning.
“I am far stronger person than I thought,” Specht said. “God is a source of that strength, the strength I’ve found in who I am.”
The circumstances have led to friendships with team members.
“You get close to people very quickly,” Specht said. “It keeps coming back to being part of a group and part of something greater.”
Her parents live in Gainesville, Fla. and were active as Carlisle residents from 1957 to 1964 and again from 1967 to 1991. Mary Stuart and Frederick H. Specht met as Dickinson College students.
“We’re very proud of Linda,” Specht’s mother said. “She is happy. What she’s doing gives her a sense of satisfaction, but it is a bit of a change. Linda is on the edge of her comfort zone.”
Mary Stuart Specht said her daughter has been in a lot of tough situations and difficult posts but always stands up to the challenge.
“She is very tight with her family and her community,” she said.
Like any parent, she worries about her child but supports Linda, knowing how excited her daughter is in working with a good team.
Linda Specht first caught the “travel bug” as a teenager growing up in the Carlisle Area School District. She was intrigued by the children of International Fellows, senior military officers from friendly countries who study at the U.S. Army War College.
She got involved in the Model UN program and spent the summer of 1976 as an exchange student in Sussex, England. Linda Specht went on to study at Dickinson College for two years before traveling to Ireland as a junior in an exchange program.
She stayed in Ireland, earning a degree at Trinity College in Dublin and later obtained a master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University.
Linda Specht joined the foreign service in 1989 and has served tours in Suriname, Vietnam, Cameroon and Papua-New Guinea. In 2006-07, she worked for a year as a U.S. political representative to the Dutch-led PRT in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan.
