Committee Holds Hearing on Deficient Electrical Systems at U.S. Facilities in Iraq

I am currently stationed in Iraq at a location that is not even considered a patrol base. More like an outpost. The reason that this is important is that we do not get support from KBR, because their contract does not require it. I was currently attending a technical school to receive an education to become an electrician when ny national guard unit was deployed. About a month ago, when all of this became a big issue. A team of electricians came to our camp to survey the electrical situation here. Their findings are the same as the other problems previously mentioned. Grounding and bonding. Our problems are not as bad as some or the other bases in the are due in part to efforts by myself and another soldier making constant repairs. W receive power from two 20 kva generators. Both installed by a KBR contractor approximately 2 years before we arrived. To start these generators are installed incorrectly. The main switch gear has the grounds tied in with the neutrals. This has been causing a feed back in the ground that no one will fix,. This in turn has required me to disconnect the grounds going to the service panels as people were getting shocked from touching them and other appliances like washers and driers. These panels installed at the same time as the generators had no ground rods. They were grounded at the grounds for the generators which as I stated before were shared with neutrals. This is just a small portion of the electrical problems here. The recommendations by the Army engineers was to fix these problems. No kidding! However, with no support, and no way of getting the supplies any time soon. How is this accomplished. Also in response to the previous posting, the electrical here is 220v, but it is on one leg. the same way as 120v is wired in the US. One hot, one neutral, and one ground. If you tie a ground to a neutral you will get voltage when that circuit is completed. Not the same as 2-120v lines as the neutral carries only the unused portion of the voltage, which in this case is zero voltage. Red tape is the cause of these problems.