Hello there,
I finally went outside the wire of Camp Fallujah and saw a little of the country. If anyone is interested in reading, I sent this to my wife. I flew down to Najaf to help the public affairs effort when Coalition forces turned over a small base to Iraqi forces. As far as I know this was the first time a Coalition base has been closed in Iraq.
Long wrap up letter for trip September 4-7
I had my body armor, Small Arms protective Inserst (SAPI plates) and a back with maybe 20 pounds worth of stuff when I set out to walk to the Landing Zone. It was fairly cool and Sunday morning was the only morning people sleep in here so I didn’t want to wake anyone up just to drive me. It was a longer, warmer walk than anticipated and I was sweating heavily after about 10 minutes. A guy drove up and offered me a ride when I asked for directions, but it turned out I was almost there. I checked in and found out they didn’t have me for a flight, but that was no surprise. Then they found out it was going where I needed to go and a few minutes later told me it was about 20 minutes out. A few minutes after that they radioed that they had a maintenance issue and had returned to base. So I was stuck for bit.
An hour later an unscheduled flight came in and they were going to Forward Operating Base Duke, so I was able to hop on. We flew with the Army in a Blackhawk—low to the ground and fast. With no glass in the windows it’s like driving a convertible car at 100 mph. I was able to see some of the country as we flew and was very interested that there was such a contrast between areas close to rivers and everywhere else.
All of the main population centers in Iraq are clustered around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the rest of the land is dry-as-bone desert. Not ‘there are a few clumps of grass here and there and some sagebrush” desert. I mean it was just dead, sere landscape as far as you could see.
Flying over the population centers you began to see a very clear pattern. Right out on the edge of the desert there are small “farms” or fields that just pop up out of the nowhere. There would be surrounded by little home-made fences and line with rows of green, though I don’t know what they were growing. You could see a hose that led to some sort of pump that led to a well that looked like it had been dug by a bulldozer. Apparently you don’t have to go down very far to find water. There would be a little shack next to the field, and maybe a few goats or cows roaming about the yard. These places definitely did not have electricity, plumbing or any sort of modern conveniences whatsoever. It’s like they were still living in the Seventeen Century or something. Come to think of it, I wonder if all of them did have pumps. Some did, so closer to town they much have had electricity. I sure the houses were made out of recycled brick they found from old abandoned structures and likely kept together with adobe.
As you came closer to the city/water then you would start to see more fields and greener ones, sometimes being worked by a tractor and usually much larger. The houses looked a little more modern that the others though they all looked run down. The more modern houses nearly all had a flat top with a stone railing on the ceiling which they surely used to get out of the heat once the sun went down. And about every other house had a sattelite dish on top. A few more cars would appear and an occasional donkey-drawn cart would there as well. In the cities there were more paved roads, tightly packed houses and many more structures with multiple stories. All of the green in the cities came from Palm trees, but the building still had the look of something more out of the middle ages than 2005. At some point we would always fly over the main source of water and then the process would start over again in reverse until we were out over open desert again.
FOB Duke was 10 miles out of down in the desert from the city of Najaf with not a green thing to be seen for miles. We touched down and I jumped off with my stuff into a flat, dusty, windy base full of metal boxes and a few brick buildings. An Army guy in PT gear picked me up and we went to get my “room key” before driving to a little “can” as they were called. It looks like half a semi trailer without the wheels. There were hundreds of them lined up in rows.
It had a wall locker and a bed with a horrible mattress, so I didn’t sleep well for three days. There were no paved roads and everywhere you walked was on gravel. That was annoying.
I was there to help the public affairs personnel with the media who would be coming for a ceremony to celebrate US forces turning over one of its forward operating base to Iraqi Security Forces. The security situation in the area is much better in Nafaf Province than where I am normally located in Al Anbar, so we pulled our forces out and left the base for the local Iraqi forces.
We left the next morning in a convoy of Humvees, all armed and armored. As we came closer to the city kids would come out and wave as we passed and I was again impressed that hate and prejudice are things that are taught by parents; children do not come by them inherently. Once on the main road into town you could observe some of the same type of things that were obvious from the air, only there were actually some fairly modern (by their standards) building and houses that were going up on the outskirts. The FOB was located just on the edge of town and as we entered there were Iraqi and US Army troops guarding the entrance.
The ceremony went fairly well for an event where no one can speak to each other, though it took twice as long with the translation back and forth. I guess you have to be able to hear a translator to appreciate both how hard it is, and how much is cut out from one language to another. A translator probably uses about half the words that the speaker says. Of course one or two of the Army and Iraqi officials droned on while we sat in the heat and the Iraqi troops in formation baked in the sun.
Finally, they handed over the ceremonial key and the Iraqi troops marched by in review. The reporters crowded about the Iraqi Provincial Governor and then everyone went into a nearby tent for some food.
A smaller group then went on a tour of three different sites in the city. The first was a teaching hospital that has been renovated and rebuilt. We went inside and after a few minutes the director came out and when the TV cameras started the interview a whole crowd of Iraqi men grew behind the speaker until there were probably 10 or 15 guys there trying to get on the camera. It was funny. There were little kids running about and I noticed again that there are no fat little Iraqi kids. They are all very lean. The little girls were very cute, though I don’t know that there were any girls between the age of 10-20 anywhere.
We headed out into the neighborhoods to see a couple of more sites including a soccer stadium and there were groups of young boys out running about playing, but again no girls that were not attached at the hip to some much older female. At one site a group of boys gathered and were talking with a couple of the soldiers from the convoy. I went over to take a picture and they were very funny. One of them wanted to hold my hand for the picture and another insisted I take a picture just of him.
It was a good experience to see something other than the inside of Camp Fallujah, but it was comforting to be rolling again. The feeling that someone could be out there ready to shoot at you is pretty weird in the beginning. You keep looking around and never stop peering about. Once on the one-lane road to the FOB I took a deep breath. It is really very odd.
There was nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon, so I ran 11 miles on the treadmill, not fun, while the wind whipped the tent back and forth, sometimes surprising me when it hit me in the heel. I had two scoops of ice cream for dinner and went to bed with a prayer that we were all blessed to be born in America.
This morning (Aug 7)I woke up happy to be going back to Camp Fallujah, now that I knew personally that there were much worse places to be. The wind was really blowing over the desert, but the helos came anyway and the ride back was much like the ride there. Except the wind was really blowing hard and combined with the airspeed it was really fierce. I was also facing backwards in the helo this time, so it was harder to see what was coming. We did pass over more of downtown Baghdad, which looked much like the other cites, just packed more tightly. There is also a lot more modern farming around Baghdad.
From there it was only a quick hop over to Fallujah and I was back in the blowing dust of my temporary home. I even made it back in time for lunch chow.
I was certainly glad to get out and do something else for a bit, but I came back with the overwhelming feeling that we have been blessed in America. Thirty years under Saddam has stagnated the country far behind what it could have been with a wise ruler. Add to that now the fact that the Shia’s, Kurds and Sunnis can’t get along and it’s no wonder we are having a hard time.
Be thankful we were born in America with parents who taught us how to be decent, law-abiding citizens, among other things.
FYI.
Chad
I finally went outside the wire of Camp Fallujah and saw a little of the country. If anyone is interested in reading, I sent this to my wife. I flew down to Najaf to help the public affairs effort when Coalition forces turned over a small base to Iraqi forces. As far as I know this was the first time a Coalition base has been closed in Iraq.
Long wrap up letter for trip September 4-7
I had my body armor, Small Arms protective Inserst (SAPI plates) and a back with maybe 20 pounds worth of stuff when I set out to walk to the Landing Zone. It was fairly cool and Sunday morning was the only morning people sleep in here so I didn’t want to wake anyone up just to drive me. It was a longer, warmer walk than anticipated and I was sweating heavily after about 10 minutes. A guy drove up and offered me a ride when I asked for directions, but it turned out I was almost there. I checked in and found out they didn’t have me for a flight, but that was no surprise. Then they found out it was going where I needed to go and a few minutes later told me it was about 20 minutes out. A few minutes after that they radioed that they had a maintenance issue and had returned to base. So I was stuck for bit.
An hour later an unscheduled flight came in and they were going to Forward Operating Base Duke, so I was able to hop on. We flew with the Army in a Blackhawk—low to the ground and fast. With no glass in the windows it’s like driving a convertible car at 100 mph. I was able to see some of the country as we flew and was very interested that there was such a contrast between areas close to rivers and everywhere else.
All of the main population centers in Iraq are clustered around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the rest of the land is dry-as-bone desert. Not ‘there are a few clumps of grass here and there and some sagebrush” desert. I mean it was just dead, sere landscape as far as you could see.
Flying over the population centers you began to see a very clear pattern. Right out on the edge of the desert there are small “farms” or fields that just pop up out of the nowhere. There would be surrounded by little home-made fences and line with rows of green, though I don’t know what they were growing. You could see a hose that led to some sort of pump that led to a well that looked like it had been dug by a bulldozer. Apparently you don’t have to go down very far to find water. There would be a little shack next to the field, and maybe a few goats or cows roaming about the yard. These places definitely did not have electricity, plumbing or any sort of modern conveniences whatsoever. It’s like they were still living in the Seventeen Century or something. Come to think of it, I wonder if all of them did have pumps. Some did, so closer to town they much have had electricity. I sure the houses were made out of recycled brick they found from old abandoned structures and likely kept together with adobe.
As you came closer to the city/water then you would start to see more fields and greener ones, sometimes being worked by a tractor and usually much larger. The houses looked a little more modern that the others though they all looked run down. The more modern houses nearly all had a flat top with a stone railing on the ceiling which they surely used to get out of the heat once the sun went down. And about every other house had a sattelite dish on top. A few more cars would appear and an occasional donkey-drawn cart would there as well. In the cities there were more paved roads, tightly packed houses and many more structures with multiple stories. All of the green in the cities came from Palm trees, but the building still had the look of something more out of the middle ages than 2005. At some point we would always fly over the main source of water and then the process would start over again in reverse until we were out over open desert again.
FOB Duke was 10 miles out of down in the desert from the city of Najaf with not a green thing to be seen for miles. We touched down and I jumped off with my stuff into a flat, dusty, windy base full of metal boxes and a few brick buildings. An Army guy in PT gear picked me up and we went to get my “room key” before driving to a little “can” as they were called. It looks like half a semi trailer without the wheels. There were hundreds of them lined up in rows.
It had a wall locker and a bed with a horrible mattress, so I didn’t sleep well for three days. There were no paved roads and everywhere you walked was on gravel. That was annoying.
I was there to help the public affairs personnel with the media who would be coming for a ceremony to celebrate US forces turning over one of its forward operating base to Iraqi Security Forces. The security situation in the area is much better in Nafaf Province than where I am normally located in Al Anbar, so we pulled our forces out and left the base for the local Iraqi forces.
We left the next morning in a convoy of Humvees, all armed and armored. As we came closer to the city kids would come out and wave as we passed and I was again impressed that hate and prejudice are things that are taught by parents; children do not come by them inherently. Once on the main road into town you could observe some of the same type of things that were obvious from the air, only there were actually some fairly modern (by their standards) building and houses that were going up on the outskirts. The FOB was located just on the edge of town and as we entered there were Iraqi and US Army troops guarding the entrance.
The ceremony went fairly well for an event where no one can speak to each other, though it took twice as long with the translation back and forth. I guess you have to be able to hear a translator to appreciate both how hard it is, and how much is cut out from one language to another. A translator probably uses about half the words that the speaker says. Of course one or two of the Army and Iraqi officials droned on while we sat in the heat and the Iraqi troops in formation baked in the sun.
Finally, they handed over the ceremonial key and the Iraqi troops marched by in review. The reporters crowded about the Iraqi Provincial Governor and then everyone went into a nearby tent for some food.
A smaller group then went on a tour of three different sites in the city. The first was a teaching hospital that has been renovated and rebuilt. We went inside and after a few minutes the director came out and when the TV cameras started the interview a whole crowd of Iraqi men grew behind the speaker until there were probably 10 or 15 guys there trying to get on the camera. It was funny. There were little kids running about and I noticed again that there are no fat little Iraqi kids. They are all very lean. The little girls were very cute, though I don’t know that there were any girls between the age of 10-20 anywhere.
We headed out into the neighborhoods to see a couple of more sites including a soccer stadium and there were groups of young boys out running about playing, but again no girls that were not attached at the hip to some much older female. At one site a group of boys gathered and were talking with a couple of the soldiers from the convoy. I went over to take a picture and they were very funny. One of them wanted to hold my hand for the picture and another insisted I take a picture just of him.
It was a good experience to see something other than the inside of Camp Fallujah, but it was comforting to be rolling again. The feeling that someone could be out there ready to shoot at you is pretty weird in the beginning. You keep looking around and never stop peering about. Once on the one-lane road to the FOB I took a deep breath. It is really very odd.
There was nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon, so I ran 11 miles on the treadmill, not fun, while the wind whipped the tent back and forth, sometimes surprising me when it hit me in the heel. I had two scoops of ice cream for dinner and went to bed with a prayer that we were all blessed to be born in America.
This morning (Aug 7)I woke up happy to be going back to Camp Fallujah, now that I knew personally that there were much worse places to be. The wind was really blowing over the desert, but the helos came anyway and the ride back was much like the ride there. Except the wind was really blowing hard and combined with the airspeed it was really fierce. I was also facing backwards in the helo this time, so it was harder to see what was coming. We did pass over more of downtown Baghdad, which looked much like the other cites, just packed more tightly. There is also a lot more modern farming around Baghdad.
From there it was only a quick hop over to Fallujah and I was back in the blowing dust of my temporary home. I even made it back in time for lunch chow.
I was certainly glad to get out and do something else for a bit, but I came back with the overwhelming feeling that we have been blessed in America. Thirty years under Saddam has stagnated the country far behind what it could have been with a wise ruler. Add to that now the fact that the Shia’s, Kurds and Sunnis can’t get along and it’s no wonder we are having a hard time.
Be thankful we were born in America with parents who taught us how to be decent, law-abiding citizens, among other things.
FYI.
Chad