Thursday, 27 November 2008
Happy Thanksgiving! I have a lot of things to be thankful. One thing I’m thankful for is you. Thanks for supporting me and my comrades.
I must apologize, I sort of fell off the face of the earth. I’ve been in communication silence too long.
For the record things in Baghdad are going well. We keep the enemy off-balance. We constantly keep the pressure on him. Nearly every day we capture a few bad guys and / or find and seize some of their toys. Every time we seize a weapons or munitions cache, we are making the place safer for the Iraqi citizens. The last two months, we averaged five attacks per day across the entire city of Baghdad.
When we arrived here in March, there were 164 attacks that month in the Rashid District of southern Baghdad. (An attack includes roadside bomb attack, indirect fire attack (mortar or rocket), or direct fire (sniper, drive-by, etc.). The attack figures do include murders, which is an attack against the civilian population.) Divide 164 by 31 days, that’s about five attacks per day. In June, there were 53 attacks, which is almost two attacks per day. In August, there were 24 attacks, which is less than one attack per day. So far in November, there were 21 attacks, which is also less than one per day. The reason I’m explaining all this is to show you with actual numbers, that we are operating at an all time low in violence since this war began.
I could almost make the leap and say it is now safer in Baghdad than in Chicago, the murder capital in the U.S.
Compare this data to 2007 and the numbers are drastically different. May 2007 was at the height of sectarian issues with 928 attacks in the Rashid District, which is the southern quarter of Baghdad. The daily average was almost 31 attacks per day. In August 2007, the surge of U.S. troops started and the attacks dropped to 501 with a daily average of 16 attacks per day.
We did have a slight uptick in violence during Ramadan, which was September this year. We had 38 attacks during this Ramadan month; whereas, there were 414 attacks in October 2007 during last year’s Islamic holiday. During this time, we had a 6-week period where Al Qaeda was attacking Shia markets with car bombs. We had five during that surge. The good news is with the T-walls surrounding the neighborhoods with the marketplace and checkpoints at the entry points, the Sunni extremist cell could not get their vehicles laden with munitions into their priority target like they wanted. They ended up hitting a secondary target by getting as close to the market as possible, parking the vehicle and detonating their rolling bomb. Yes, there were casualty figures, but they were a fraction of what they would have been inside the marketplace.
We have defeated Al Qaeda in the Rashid District. These Al Qaeda attacks were coming from cells outside our area. We still have some bad guys to kill, capture or drive away. There are other Sunni rejectionist cells plus a wide variety of Shia extremist cells in our area keeping us busy. For example, we have captured about 430 criminals or terrorists so far. We have over a 95% conviction rate, so these criminals go to Iraqi jail for a long time. In May & June, we were so hot on the Shia extremist groups that their senior leadership fled to Syria or Iran. Their leaders have not returned yet. That leaves the mid- to lower-ranking bad guy who is not motivated to attack us, so many have quit and reconciled. The attacks they do try are ineffective, because they do not have the skill-level without their leadership. We have also found and seized about 400 caches. Some of these caches consisted of brand new rockets and mortar rounds manufactured in Iran. Some of these mortar rounds were made in February or March 2008, which is newer than the ammunition we are using.
That’s enough of the security update. Now for some good news…
Yesterday, I went on an 8-hour patrol with my boss. We visited Doura Technical College for the first day of the week long Doura Arts Festival. I took a bunch of pictures, which are illustrating a story we submitted earlier today. (I get out about once per week.) With the security situation under control, the Rashid District has blossomed as Iraqi life returns to normal. The Doura Market did have about 200 shops, now it is well over 800, so the economy is booming. Other businesses have taken off. Last month, I visited a soda factory which opened its doors about five months ago. They sell canned beverages all over the city of Baghdad.
This morning, I ran another five kilometer race. Today’s was called the Turkey Trot. I am getting old. I finished with a time of 21:19. To place in the top three, I would have needed to run 90-seconds faster.
At 11 a.m., I played the keyboard for the Thanksgiving Day service. One of my guys was escorting a CBS News crew. They also filmed the 5K race and of course, the Thanksgiving Day feast.
I am still working 20-hours a day. I can’t seem to break the cycle. However, we continue to lead Multi-National Division – Baghdad in nearly every recorded public affairs category except hometown news interviews.
Just for numbers sake (and I’m a bean counter) here’s last month’s statistics:
113 senior leader media engagements (a senior leader means Lt. Col. or above)
54 media visits
8 media embeds (an embed means the reporter stayed at least two days and one night with us)
8 hometown news engagements
23 print stories
6 video stories
6 radio beepers
76 other press releases
I included the raw numbers to give you an idea what kind of volume we crank out of my four-man section. For the record, it takes a minimum of three hours of coordination to plan a media embed. Sometimes, I have to change their itinerary three or four times during a short three-day embed.
When I’m not working, I am compiling an advanced civil schooling packet. It is due to Human Resources Command in a few days. So, I’ve been applying for a master’s degree in broadcasting from several schools. Lois is helping me with a bunch of the hoops to make this happen. My school of choice is the University of Missouri – Columbia. The University of Oklahoma – Norman is my second choice. The University of Nebraska – Lincoln is my third choice. The University of Texas – Austin is my fourth choice. I haven’t had much sleep the last several weeks.
I’m in my 6th week of the “Body-for-LIFE Program” by Bill Phillips, which is a 12-week workout schedule with guidelines for eating healthy. I lift three times per week plus run three or four times per week. At the four week mark, I lost one pound and 2% body fat. (I’m not trying to lose weight. I’m actually trying to gain strength and size.)
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. Some of them are getting complacent and really missing their Families especially during the holidays. Also, keep our Families in your prayers. Our Families have it harder than we do. I wish you well. Psalm 91
Keep looking up!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Weeks 6 - 7, OIF6
Sunday, 27 April 2008
The rat race here in Iraq continues…and yes, the rats are winning. (By the way, the bad guys are not winning here.) It seems that I’m constantly on the go, except when I must stop to attend the dreaded meetings. The saying around here is, “get back on your oar.” Such is the life of a staff officer.
Monday (14 April) morning, during my 4-mile run the artillery was busy firing at the bad guys. Hearing “outgoing” is much more comforting than “incoming.” Most of my day was consumed with editing stories and submitting input to the daily fragmentary order. Whenever we need to put information out about an event or a tasking, the brigade includes the data in a daily FRAGO that comes out every night. There were some changes in the way we were doing business that I needed to get out to our seven subordinate battalions.
I have cranked out enough stories and releases about our brigade now that our units are public knowledge, so I’ll introduce the line-up. Normally, a heavy brigade combat team (such as the Raider Brigade that I’m assigned) has two combined arms battalions. In our case, we have 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment and 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment. Each CAB has seven companies and they have about 1,000 Soldiers when they are augmented with the civil affairs teams, psychological operations teams and other augmentees. For the CABs, the A and B companies are infantrymen with 14 M2A2 or M2A3 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles each. The C and D companies are tankers with 14 M1A2 SEP Abrams Main Battle Tanks. Company E is the engineer company that also has M2A2 Bradleys plus some other special equipment such as Armored Combat Earth movers for digging vehicle fighting positions or as we say ACEs. The headquarters company has a scout platoon, a mortar platoon, a medical platoon, and a communications platoon to support their battalion in addition to their command group and staff sections. They have some other neat toys, but I won’t belabor the details. The only difference between the armor and infantry battalions is the armor battalion has one more tank in the command group than the infantry and vice versa.
Each heavy BCT has an armored cavalry squadron, in our case we have 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment. They have three line troops (A, B & C) with scouts and M3A3 Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicles. The primary difference with the M3 from the M2 is the M3 has a larger payload for ammunition, which means less room for troopers. They are equipped to fire more Tubular-launched Optically-tracked Wire-guided (TOW) missiles. They have about 500 troopers with attachments.
Each HBCT has an artillery battalion, in our case we have 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery Regiment. They have two firing batteries (A & B) of artillerymen with eight M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzers and eight M992 Field Artillery Ammunition Support Vehicles or ammunition carriers per battery. The Paladins are our biggest guns that fire a 155mm round and they can reach out and touch people a long ways away. This battalion has less than 500 personnel.
Next each BCT has a support battalion to provide the logistics for the brigade. We have the 4th Support Battalion, which has less than 500 personnel. Company A is the supply unit that also has a transportation platoon to haul supplies, fuel and ammunition from our higher headquarters. (The battalions have their support platoons that pick-up the supplies, fuel and ammo. from Co. A.) Company B is the maintenance unit that provides direct support for all our vehicles, weapons and communications equipment. Company C is the medical company that provides the Level 2 medical care. This company has the medical professionals who support us. If the Soldier requires additional medical care or treatment, they are evacuated by helicopter to a combat support hospital in the center of Baghdad.
Last but not least, each BCT has a special troops battalion. We have 1st Special Troops Battalion, which has less than 500 personnel. Company A is the military intelligence company that handles the lion’s share of the human and signals intelligence collection plus analysis for the brigade. Company B is the signal company that handles the communication and automations network for the brigade. The headquarters company has a military police platoon, a chemical decontamination and reconnaissance platoon and some other enablers. The civil affair company, the psychological operations detachment and other enablers such as MP working dogs, Explosive Ordnance Disposal detachments are attached to the STB.
However, here in Iraq we are further task organized for the complex fight. Since there are light BCTs also operating in the Baghdad area, they don’t have as much fire power. So we received orders to cross-level one of our CABs to 4th BCT of the 10th Mountain Division and they gave us a light infantry battalion. So, we lost 1-66 AR and received 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment. Additionally, we gave up our artillery battalion to 2nd BCT, 101st Air Assault Div. However, we were augmented with two other units. We gained 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment from the 4th BCT, 3rd Inf. Div. (They are organized exactly like our 1-66 AR.) We also received 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment. The Stryker and armored cavalry regiments are totally different animals. Not to be puny, but their mascot is the Cougar. I’m still learning about their organization. They are essentially an infantry battalion that rides around in the Stryker vehicles. Strykers have eight wheels with a 25mm chain gun in the turret and are a later version of the USMC’s LAV-25 Piranas. (During my first campaign of OIF2 in August 2004, I was attached to 1st Bn., 23rd Inf. Regt., which was a Stryker unit in 3rd BCT, 2nd Inf. Div. During that campaign I rode in Strykers for nine battles in Wasit Province, so I learned a little about the Stryker vehicle. The vehicles are quiet. They are fast easily reaching a cruising speed of 80 mph. We were able to quickly close on a target and conduct the raid often catching the bad guys in their beds without them knowing we were coming.) So, the bottom line is we gave up two battalions and gained three. Nearly all of our units have up-armored humvees and the new Mine Resistant and Ambush Protected vehicles, so we don’t use tanks and Bradleys all the time.
Tuesday (15 April) morning, 4-64 AR found a large cache with Iranian-made 107mm rockets. We cranked out a press release and I rode with an EOD element and took images of the rockets. It was fascinating, because the rockets were brand new and many were still in the packaging with the lot numbers clearly visible on the sides. The dates of manufacture were also clearly visible. I sent the release up and it hit the streets showing up in all sorts of media outlets.
The rest of the day, we continued to crank out stories and press releases on current activity. We conducted a live DVIDS interview with COL Ted Martin talking to one of his hometown TV stations in Jacksonville, FL. (It was a Fox News local station.) The boss was thrilled.
The DVIDS (Digital Video Imagery Distribution System) is a satellite system with a dish and receiver./ transmitter. We can send audio and digital imagery and receive only audio. Therefore, we can conduct live or taped TV or radio interviews with any Western broadcast news agency. We aim our dish at a satellite somewhere in space over the Atlantic Ocean. So the signal goes from Iraq and up to the satellite which bounces it back to earth to the hub in Atlanta, GA. The hub connects us to anywhere in the Western world. During the past several years I have done dozens of interviews with ABC News, BBC, CBS News, CNN, Cox News, Fox News and a bunch of others. I call it my “crew-served weapon” because it takes two people to operate and we get lots of effects out of it.
The commanding general of 3rd Inf. Div. in Multi-National Division – Center found out about the huge Iranian rocket cache. Since our CG, MG Jeffery Hammond, wasn’t doing a press conference on the event, he decided to do one. We share a boundary to the south with MND-C, so he wanted to further highlight the find to the media. His division public affairs officer and their 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div. PAO called me asking for my photos. I had no problem sharing them. (I already submitted the release with those same photos to MND-Baghdad PAO for distribution.) Later, I found out that in the 3rd Inf. Div. press conference, MG Rick Lynch, claimed that his unit had found the huge cache. (I wasn’t sure what to think about that. The find was clearly in our sector not far from where I’m currently sitting. True, 4-64 AR is a 3rd Inf. Div. unit in name, but they are our unit for this deployment. Besides, he was using the imagery that I had taken.)
Wednesday (16 April), we (4-64 AR) found another huge Iranian munitions cache. This time it was a bunch of mortar rounds, 60 x 60mm and 46 x 81mm. They were also brand new. I sent one of my men out to take images of the find with an EOD unit. However, my press release was snagged by the Multi-National Force – Iraq spokesman, a two-star general. He embargoed it (which means hold for a later date), because he wanted to use it at press conference next week to show the Iranian influence. (As it turned out, he didn’t use it after all, so we did not get any bounce in the media on that one.) I was busy cranking out the script for the boss to brief the commander’s update to the CG, because today was the spotlight on public affairs. Plus I produced some slides to go with the script. (My boss is a fierce competitor, so he wanted me to include all the statistics of what we do each week. I’m a good bean counter, so that part was easy.)
For some reason, I had the urge to call home. (I hadn’t called home since the day I flew to Kuwait with Zack & Jim from Waco 100. During a refueling stop in Canada I called using Jim’s international phone since mine had no reception, but I have not called home since. One of his sponsors provided him with the free phone with a big international calling plan…plus international calling cards for use during his 18-day Iraq tour for “The Morning Show with Zack & Jim” live from Baghdad.) What I found out when I called home shocked me. Jasmine had just been released from the hospital. She had been a patient for two nights and one day. Evidently, she went on a hike in a wooded area with some of her buddies and had found some poison ivy. She had it all over her face. It took the doctors a while to figure out what it was. Her face was very puffy with one eye swollen shut. Lois sent a picture later. (You’ll recall that I’ve been having some serious issues with internet connectivity and we were in a blackout due to two of our guys getting killed, so I had no previous communication with Lois for some time.)
Thursday (17 April), I did a bunch of planning for future western and Iraqi media events and submitted requests for support not to mention cranking out more stories and releases due to the bad guys we were catching and other weapons and munitions cache we were finding.
Friday (18 April) morning, I facilitated a media visit with Andrea Stone from USA Today. She came to do some interviews with my civil affairs buddies and we showed her the power plant being built on our forward operating base. Everything went well. She was happy, because she had more data than any reporter would want on electrical projects. MG Rick Lynch, the 3rd Inf. Div. CG, came to visit. We covered the event because he was seeing our unit…4-64 AR. Then I spent part of the night fielding Andrea’s requests for more information. I spent part of the night trying to get one of my embeds (Slovenia TV) out of here, but they were weathered in by another sand storm.
Saturday (19 April), was a busy day for stories as my NCO returned from covering an operation with 2-2 SCR, so we also cranked out some releases on that event. I also had one of my guys out with one of the units collecting a story on the 7th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi National Police Div., who held a graduation for some Sons of Iraq, who completed some training. In the evening, I had my staff sergeant cover for me at several meetings, so I could play the keyboard and sing for special music at the Protestant Liturgical Service. Slovenia TV successfully departed during the late evening
Sunday (20 April) morning, my Baghdad alarm clock was working like a champ! At 4:56 a.m., I woke up to the sound of incoming rockets. I hit the floor, then quickly scrambled to a nearby bunker. At 7 a.m. the comforting sound of out-going artillery blessed my aching ears. After chapel, I focused most of my time on planning The Army Times visit. They were embedding with 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regt.
Monday (21 April), I hosted The Army Times crew, facilitated a VIP brief and inserted them with 7-10 Cav. Then I worked on another Andrea Stone USA Today visit. This time she wanted to cover a neighborhood council meeting in Doura. I also requested Iraqi media for upcoming events.
Tuesday (22 April), after some dreaded meetings, we conducted some foreign disclosure training with the military intelligence bubbas from MND-B. (I am no longer mentioning the story and press release production. That’s daily routine business.) I also requested more Iraqi media for more events.
Wednesday (23 April), is a big writing day. I tabulate all the statistics to include in my script for the boss plus the accompanying slide show. I also set Rana (my interpreter) up with an Army Knowledge Online account. (That’s the first time I sponsored someone on the AKO system, so it took me a bit to figure it all out. I’m not very tech savvy. I joined the Army as a private in 1982 when we were still using manual typewriters, white out and carbon paper. Nearly all of my NCOs were Vietnam vets. I still have a set of khakis with private first class stripes in my closet at home.) Now she can do her media monitoring from the office instead of visiting the internet café. Then I submitted some air mission requests to fly some reporters around the battlefield. (This was my first AMR for this tour. I’ve done a bunch on other tours, but the procedures keep morphing with new quirks.)
Thursday (24 April), I listened to the beautiful sound of out-going artillery fire during my morning 4-mile run. After some long meetings, I rolled with EOD to get some more images of another huge cache. This time the unit was Company E, 2-2 SCR. When I returned, we started to record Mother’s Day greetings for our loved ones in the States. I did three: one per mom and my better half. I also edited our monthly magazine, The Raider Brigade Rally Point, so we could send it to our vendor for printing. It is a sharp looking, 24 glossy page, 4-color magazine. (I hope it looks as good on print as it does in the digital version.)
Friday (25 April), I skipped PT to attend 2nd Bn., 4th Inf. Regt’s prayer breakfast. Then, I rolled on a patrol to one of our combat outposts with my boss, Col. Ted Martin. After visiting one of the gas stations to crack down on some black market operations, we also stopped at one of the National Police headquarters to further our partnership relationship with our Iraqi Security Forces partners. (Don’t worry, I did plenty of PT during our dismounted patrolling.)
Saturday (26 April), I rolled on another mission with my boss, Col. Martin. This time we attended a grand opening for another building in the District Council complex. After the ribbon cutting ceremony, we had the traditional “goat grab.” Our Iraqi brothers are great hosts. They had a large spread of Iraqi food laid out in one of the meeting rooms. Everyone crowds around the tables and eats with their hands stuffing lamb, beef kabobs, rice and freshly diced vegetables into their mouths with flat bread that also functions as a napkin. Then we checked out some bridges that cross the Tigris River. The ISF have check points on the bridges that our CG wanted us to inspect. We did more dismounted patrolling. After the mission, I played the keyboard for the evening chapel service. After my walk to the office from chapel, the enemy provided a light show as rockets flew overhead. After chapel, I started to get some work done.
Sunday (27 April), I played keyboard and sang with the Praise Team at the morning chapel service. The rest of the day was a battery of meetings, one after the next. So, I could finally get some work done after the dust settled at 9 p.m. I worked on documents for upcoming operations until around 2 a.m.
I better get this out to you. I’m whooped.
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. We had more Soldiers killed. Pray for the Families of these Soldiers. Also, keep our better halves in your prayers, who are playing “mom & dad” for our young ones, which is exhausting work. I firmly believe that military Families have the toughest job. We Soldiers are focusing on the mission that we forget about the yard work, the cars breaking down and so on. I wish you well. Psalm 91
Keep looking up!
The rat race here in Iraq continues…and yes, the rats are winning. (By the way, the bad guys are not winning here.) It seems that I’m constantly on the go, except when I must stop to attend the dreaded meetings. The saying around here is, “get back on your oar.” Such is the life of a staff officer.
Monday (14 April) morning, during my 4-mile run the artillery was busy firing at the bad guys. Hearing “outgoing” is much more comforting than “incoming.” Most of my day was consumed with editing stories and submitting input to the daily fragmentary order. Whenever we need to put information out about an event or a tasking, the brigade includes the data in a daily FRAGO that comes out every night. There were some changes in the way we were doing business that I needed to get out to our seven subordinate battalions.
I have cranked out enough stories and releases about our brigade now that our units are public knowledge, so I’ll introduce the line-up. Normally, a heavy brigade combat team (such as the Raider Brigade that I’m assigned) has two combined arms battalions. In our case, we have 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment and 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment. Each CAB has seven companies and they have about 1,000 Soldiers when they are augmented with the civil affairs teams, psychological operations teams and other augmentees. For the CABs, the A and B companies are infantrymen with 14 M2A2 or M2A3 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles each. The C and D companies are tankers with 14 M1A2 SEP Abrams Main Battle Tanks. Company E is the engineer company that also has M2A2 Bradleys plus some other special equipment such as Armored Combat Earth movers for digging vehicle fighting positions or as we say ACEs. The headquarters company has a scout platoon, a mortar platoon, a medical platoon, and a communications platoon to support their battalion in addition to their command group and staff sections. They have some other neat toys, but I won’t belabor the details. The only difference between the armor and infantry battalions is the armor battalion has one more tank in the command group than the infantry and vice versa.
Each heavy BCT has an armored cavalry squadron, in our case we have 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment. They have three line troops (A, B & C) with scouts and M3A3 Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicles. The primary difference with the M3 from the M2 is the M3 has a larger payload for ammunition, which means less room for troopers. They are equipped to fire more Tubular-launched Optically-tracked Wire-guided (TOW) missiles. They have about 500 troopers with attachments.
Each HBCT has an artillery battalion, in our case we have 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery Regiment. They have two firing batteries (A & B) of artillerymen with eight M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzers and eight M992 Field Artillery Ammunition Support Vehicles or ammunition carriers per battery. The Paladins are our biggest guns that fire a 155mm round and they can reach out and touch people a long ways away. This battalion has less than 500 personnel.
Next each BCT has a support battalion to provide the logistics for the brigade. We have the 4th Support Battalion, which has less than 500 personnel. Company A is the supply unit that also has a transportation platoon to haul supplies, fuel and ammunition from our higher headquarters. (The battalions have their support platoons that pick-up the supplies, fuel and ammo. from Co. A.) Company B is the maintenance unit that provides direct support for all our vehicles, weapons and communications equipment. Company C is the medical company that provides the Level 2 medical care. This company has the medical professionals who support us. If the Soldier requires additional medical care or treatment, they are evacuated by helicopter to a combat support hospital in the center of Baghdad.
Last but not least, each BCT has a special troops battalion. We have 1st Special Troops Battalion, which has less than 500 personnel. Company A is the military intelligence company that handles the lion’s share of the human and signals intelligence collection plus analysis for the brigade. Company B is the signal company that handles the communication and automations network for the brigade. The headquarters company has a military police platoon, a chemical decontamination and reconnaissance platoon and some other enablers. The civil affair company, the psychological operations detachment and other enablers such as MP working dogs, Explosive Ordnance Disposal detachments are attached to the STB.
However, here in Iraq we are further task organized for the complex fight. Since there are light BCTs also operating in the Baghdad area, they don’t have as much fire power. So we received orders to cross-level one of our CABs to 4th BCT of the 10th Mountain Division and they gave us a light infantry battalion. So, we lost 1-66 AR and received 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment. Additionally, we gave up our artillery battalion to 2nd BCT, 101st Air Assault Div. However, we were augmented with two other units. We gained 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment from the 4th BCT, 3rd Inf. Div. (They are organized exactly like our 1-66 AR.) We also received 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment. The Stryker and armored cavalry regiments are totally different animals. Not to be puny, but their mascot is the Cougar. I’m still learning about their organization. They are essentially an infantry battalion that rides around in the Stryker vehicles. Strykers have eight wheels with a 25mm chain gun in the turret and are a later version of the USMC’s LAV-25 Piranas. (During my first campaign of OIF2 in August 2004, I was attached to 1st Bn., 23rd Inf. Regt., which was a Stryker unit in 3rd BCT, 2nd Inf. Div. During that campaign I rode in Strykers for nine battles in Wasit Province, so I learned a little about the Stryker vehicle. The vehicles are quiet. They are fast easily reaching a cruising speed of 80 mph. We were able to quickly close on a target and conduct the raid often catching the bad guys in their beds without them knowing we were coming.) So, the bottom line is we gave up two battalions and gained three. Nearly all of our units have up-armored humvees and the new Mine Resistant and Ambush Protected vehicles, so we don’t use tanks and Bradleys all the time.
Tuesday (15 April) morning, 4-64 AR found a large cache with Iranian-made 107mm rockets. We cranked out a press release and I rode with an EOD element and took images of the rockets. It was fascinating, because the rockets were brand new and many were still in the packaging with the lot numbers clearly visible on the sides. The dates of manufacture were also clearly visible. I sent the release up and it hit the streets showing up in all sorts of media outlets.
The rest of the day, we continued to crank out stories and press releases on current activity. We conducted a live DVIDS interview with COL Ted Martin talking to one of his hometown TV stations in Jacksonville, FL. (It was a Fox News local station.) The boss was thrilled.
The DVIDS (Digital Video Imagery Distribution System) is a satellite system with a dish and receiver./ transmitter. We can send audio and digital imagery and receive only audio. Therefore, we can conduct live or taped TV or radio interviews with any Western broadcast news agency. We aim our dish at a satellite somewhere in space over the Atlantic Ocean. So the signal goes from Iraq and up to the satellite which bounces it back to earth to the hub in Atlanta, GA. The hub connects us to anywhere in the Western world. During the past several years I have done dozens of interviews with ABC News, BBC, CBS News, CNN, Cox News, Fox News and a bunch of others. I call it my “crew-served weapon” because it takes two people to operate and we get lots of effects out of it.
The commanding general of 3rd Inf. Div. in Multi-National Division – Center found out about the huge Iranian rocket cache. Since our CG, MG Jeffery Hammond, wasn’t doing a press conference on the event, he decided to do one. We share a boundary to the south with MND-C, so he wanted to further highlight the find to the media. His division public affairs officer and their 2nd BCT, 3rd Inf. Div. PAO called me asking for my photos. I had no problem sharing them. (I already submitted the release with those same photos to MND-Baghdad PAO for distribution.) Later, I found out that in the 3rd Inf. Div. press conference, MG Rick Lynch, claimed that his unit had found the huge cache. (I wasn’t sure what to think about that. The find was clearly in our sector not far from where I’m currently sitting. True, 4-64 AR is a 3rd Inf. Div. unit in name, but they are our unit for this deployment. Besides, he was using the imagery that I had taken.)
Wednesday (16 April), we (4-64 AR) found another huge Iranian munitions cache. This time it was a bunch of mortar rounds, 60 x 60mm and 46 x 81mm. They were also brand new. I sent one of my men out to take images of the find with an EOD unit. However, my press release was snagged by the Multi-National Force – Iraq spokesman, a two-star general. He embargoed it (which means hold for a later date), because he wanted to use it at press conference next week to show the Iranian influence. (As it turned out, he didn’t use it after all, so we did not get any bounce in the media on that one.) I was busy cranking out the script for the boss to brief the commander’s update to the CG, because today was the spotlight on public affairs. Plus I produced some slides to go with the script. (My boss is a fierce competitor, so he wanted me to include all the statistics of what we do each week. I’m a good bean counter, so that part was easy.)
For some reason, I had the urge to call home. (I hadn’t called home since the day I flew to Kuwait with Zack & Jim from Waco 100. During a refueling stop in Canada I called using Jim’s international phone since mine had no reception, but I have not called home since. One of his sponsors provided him with the free phone with a big international calling plan…plus international calling cards for use during his 18-day Iraq tour for “The Morning Show with Zack & Jim” live from Baghdad.) What I found out when I called home shocked me. Jasmine had just been released from the hospital. She had been a patient for two nights and one day. Evidently, she went on a hike in a wooded area with some of her buddies and had found some poison ivy. She had it all over her face. It took the doctors a while to figure out what it was. Her face was very puffy with one eye swollen shut. Lois sent a picture later. (You’ll recall that I’ve been having some serious issues with internet connectivity and we were in a blackout due to two of our guys getting killed, so I had no previous communication with Lois for some time.)
Thursday (17 April), I did a bunch of planning for future western and Iraqi media events and submitted requests for support not to mention cranking out more stories and releases due to the bad guys we were catching and other weapons and munitions cache we were finding.
Friday (18 April) morning, I facilitated a media visit with Andrea Stone from USA Today. She came to do some interviews with my civil affairs buddies and we showed her the power plant being built on our forward operating base. Everything went well. She was happy, because she had more data than any reporter would want on electrical projects. MG Rick Lynch, the 3rd Inf. Div. CG, came to visit. We covered the event because he was seeing our unit…4-64 AR. Then I spent part of the night fielding Andrea’s requests for more information. I spent part of the night trying to get one of my embeds (Slovenia TV) out of here, but they were weathered in by another sand storm.
Saturday (19 April), was a busy day for stories as my NCO returned from covering an operation with 2-2 SCR, so we also cranked out some releases on that event. I also had one of my guys out with one of the units collecting a story on the 7th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi National Police Div., who held a graduation for some Sons of Iraq, who completed some training. In the evening, I had my staff sergeant cover for me at several meetings, so I could play the keyboard and sing for special music at the Protestant Liturgical Service. Slovenia TV successfully departed during the late evening
Sunday (20 April) morning, my Baghdad alarm clock was working like a champ! At 4:56 a.m., I woke up to the sound of incoming rockets. I hit the floor, then quickly scrambled to a nearby bunker. At 7 a.m. the comforting sound of out-going artillery blessed my aching ears. After chapel, I focused most of my time on planning The Army Times visit. They were embedding with 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regt.
Monday (21 April), I hosted The Army Times crew, facilitated a VIP brief and inserted them with 7-10 Cav. Then I worked on another Andrea Stone USA Today visit. This time she wanted to cover a neighborhood council meeting in Doura. I also requested Iraqi media for upcoming events.
Tuesday (22 April), after some dreaded meetings, we conducted some foreign disclosure training with the military intelligence bubbas from MND-B. (I am no longer mentioning the story and press release production. That’s daily routine business.) I also requested more Iraqi media for more events.
Wednesday (23 April), is a big writing day. I tabulate all the statistics to include in my script for the boss plus the accompanying slide show. I also set Rana (my interpreter) up with an Army Knowledge Online account. (That’s the first time I sponsored someone on the AKO system, so it took me a bit to figure it all out. I’m not very tech savvy. I joined the Army as a private in 1982 when we were still using manual typewriters, white out and carbon paper. Nearly all of my NCOs were Vietnam vets. I still have a set of khakis with private first class stripes in my closet at home.) Now she can do her media monitoring from the office instead of visiting the internet café. Then I submitted some air mission requests to fly some reporters around the battlefield. (This was my first AMR for this tour. I’ve done a bunch on other tours, but the procedures keep morphing with new quirks.)
Thursday (24 April), I listened to the beautiful sound of out-going artillery fire during my morning 4-mile run. After some long meetings, I rolled with EOD to get some more images of another huge cache. This time the unit was Company E, 2-2 SCR. When I returned, we started to record Mother’s Day greetings for our loved ones in the States. I did three: one per mom and my better half. I also edited our monthly magazine, The Raider Brigade Rally Point, so we could send it to our vendor for printing. It is a sharp looking, 24 glossy page, 4-color magazine. (I hope it looks as good on print as it does in the digital version.)
Friday (25 April), I skipped PT to attend 2nd Bn., 4th Inf. Regt’s prayer breakfast. Then, I rolled on a patrol to one of our combat outposts with my boss, Col. Ted Martin. After visiting one of the gas stations to crack down on some black market operations, we also stopped at one of the National Police headquarters to further our partnership relationship with our Iraqi Security Forces partners. (Don’t worry, I did plenty of PT during our dismounted patrolling.)
Saturday (26 April), I rolled on another mission with my boss, Col. Martin. This time we attended a grand opening for another building in the District Council complex. After the ribbon cutting ceremony, we had the traditional “goat grab.” Our Iraqi brothers are great hosts. They had a large spread of Iraqi food laid out in one of the meeting rooms. Everyone crowds around the tables and eats with their hands stuffing lamb, beef kabobs, rice and freshly diced vegetables into their mouths with flat bread that also functions as a napkin. Then we checked out some bridges that cross the Tigris River. The ISF have check points on the bridges that our CG wanted us to inspect. We did more dismounted patrolling. After the mission, I played the keyboard for the evening chapel service. After my walk to the office from chapel, the enemy provided a light show as rockets flew overhead. After chapel, I started to get some work done.
Sunday (27 April), I played keyboard and sang with the Praise Team at the morning chapel service. The rest of the day was a battery of meetings, one after the next. So, I could finally get some work done after the dust settled at 9 p.m. I worked on documents for upcoming operations until around 2 a.m.
I better get this out to you. I’m whooped.
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. We had more Soldiers killed. Pray for the Families of these Soldiers. Also, keep our better halves in your prayers, who are playing “mom & dad” for our young ones, which is exhausting work. I firmly believe that military Families have the toughest job. We Soldiers are focusing on the mission that we forget about the yard work, the cars breaking down and so on. I wish you well. Psalm 91
Keep looking up!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Week 5, OIF6
Sunday, 13 April 2008
This week has been crazy. I am just now compiling this week’s edition. I made it out of the wire twice this week. Unfortunately, I’m getting back into my old bad habit of working late and getting up early. However, so far I’m getting out of the office around midnight instead of 2 a.m. during 2006.
Saturday (5 April) morning, I rolled out on a patrol with my boss, COL Ted Martin, and COL Ricky Gibbs, the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team commander, which is part of the 1st Infantry Division. We attended a special meeting of the Rashid District Council at what we call DAC Hall. (The district council used to be called a district advisory council, hence the nickname DAC. DAC Hall is like a county courthouse back in the States.) We entered the DAC Hall compound, which is surrounded by a three-story cement wall to protect it from sniper fire and other direct fire weapons. The building is newly remodeled so it looked nice. When we dismounted from the vehicles, we were ushered into the DAC Chairman’s office, sat down and exchanged pleasantries. A steward came to each of the guests and poured us a communal cup of Turkish coffee. It was hot and burned my tongue plus it tasted horribly bitter. Next he passed out some Iraqi pastries, which were sweet in contrast to the coffee. COL Gibbs knew the senior DAC members by name, so he exchanged the Arab hug with each one. The Iraqi leadership did not know COL Martin and me, so we simply shook hands and exchanged Arabic greetings. On this mission, my task was to take pictures and write a story on the event. So, I took a bunch of images.
During the meeting, we moved into a grand hall with a dozen tables placed in an inverted U- configuration. A member sat in a chair behind each of about 30 microphones that lit up when a member spoke into it. I took copious notes as the interpreters translated Arabic to English. So, I had plenty of good quotes for a story. The meeting was primarily about saying thank you and farewell to COL Gibbs, the out-going American senior commander in the area, and meeting the incoming commander, COL Martin, and the new U.S. State Department guy, Tom Lynch, who will be working with us. (His title is the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team leader and his rank is equivalent to a two-star general. He has several civilians on his team who specialize in various areas, such as business development, economics, government and other skills.) A bunch of Iraqi DAC members made flowery speeches thanking COL Gibbs for the progress in security and helping them transform Rashid as one of the most dangerous districts in Baghdad into one of the safest. COL Gibbs pitched a nice speech as well. Then my boss said a few words of introduction to the council membership. COL Gibbs presented three gifts to the Three Musketeers, as he called the three senior DAC leaders. (Gibbs is quite the flamboyant diplomat.) Then the DAC Chairman presented COL Gibbs, Tom Lynch and COL Martin with gifts. I took more pictures.
After the meeting, the DAC Chairman invited us to a dinner in our honor. So, we retired to another large room with an 80-foot long table covered in various native Iraqi dishes. The men all stood around the table and used their hands to dip goat or lamb meat, bread, rice, vegetables and other delicacies from the communal plates to their faces. (They did have a few plates with plastic ware for the sensitive American who didn’t want to use their hands.) Initially, I used my hands for the “goat grab” as we Americans call it. Later, I used a plate for the second and third round of feasting. After the meal, everyone gathered for some group shots at the front door. Then, we boarded our vehicles and returned home. We spot checked some Iraqi National Police and Iraqi Police checkpoints on the way home.
That evening, I played the keyboard for the Liturgical Protestant Service for Chaplain David Fell from 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment. (I played the piano for his worship services during our brigade field training exercise in April – May 2007.) After church, I saved a bunch of files from one of the laptops that I was turning into my signal officer to wipe for use as a secret machine.
Sunday (6 April) morning, I played the keyboard for the Contemporary Protestant Service. After the service, I ate chow with my counterpart at the dining facility. (In March 2007, some mortar rounds hit the DFAC wounding a number of people. I can still see the patched holes in the tile floor where the shrapnel damage occurred.)
In the afternoon, I wrote my story from Saturday and edited some other stories my men had written.
In the evening, I attended the Traditional Protestant Service. After the service, I edited the magazine contract again and prepared it for approval. We are hiring a vendor to print 2,500 copies of a 4-color, 24-page, glossy coated magazine for $4,100 each month. The vendor also delivers the magazine to us and we will distribute it to our various combat outposts and joint security stations.
Monday (7 April), we moved to the left seat meaning we now run the office and our counterparts observe us and coach us on how they did business. (Previously, we were in the right seat, meaning we were observing them in action. This is all part of the relief in place. Typically, the transition is a two-week process where both units overlap. It can be stressful, having two units on top of each other for two weeks, which places a strain on the services with long lines, such as the DFAC, laundry facilities, gym, lodging, water usage, sewage, etc.) Therefore, I was writing the Situation Reports, Drumbeats and the paperwork, which really hasn’t changed much since 2006 during my second tour here during Operation Iraqi Freedom 4. The hard part was getting adjusted to our Raider Brigade battle rhythm. I had grown accustomed to the Dragon Brigade way of doing things the past couple weeks.
General George Casey, then the Multi-National Force – Iraq commander, started the Drumbeat Report. (He’s now the Army Chief of Staff.) I heard him ask for such a report in August 2004, when he wanted a document to show all the good news story events happening in the field. This way he could see that the events were being covered by the media or public affairs. I was the guy who started crafting them for Multi-National Corps – Iraq during OIF2, so I am intimately aware of how to compile them. A few times I even briefed him on the events, before I was dispatched to various infantry battalions to participate in three different ground campaigns. (What is sad is that we are covering all the good news story events about the Iraqi Security Forces or the lower levels of the Government of Iraq, yet many of the stories do not get picked up by the main stream media in the western world.)
Tuesday (8 April), I sent one of my men out to cover a story with one of our units. He covered an International Orphan Day celebration hosted by the Iraqi National Police. We invited Iraqi media to participate and cover the story as well. The event went well and we submitted the story. I edited some other stories and releases as well. In the evening after I submitted the reports, I practiced with the praise team for Sunday.
Wednesday (9 April), I wrote the script for my portion of the brief to the commanding general and built the slides. I sent my guys out to cover various unit events; however, our events were postponed in anticipation of Sadr’s demonstration. One of our battalions conducted a transfer of authority ceremony and officially assumed their mission. Again, I edited stories and releases. My boss actually briefed the CG using my script in the evening. (During these updates to the CG, each day is a different theme. Wednesday night is the information operations highlights, so public affairs is one arm of the IO fight.) The new battle rhythm is still smoking me. It seems I’m in meetings about 5 – 6 hours per day.
Thursday (10 April), I sent my guys out with various units again. Another one of our battalions conducted a transfer of authority ceremony and officially assumed their mission. My broadcaster was to cover the Iraqi National Police conducting a medical operation (meaning their medics screened and treated several hundred Iraqi citizens and issued medicine at no cost to the patient), but his patrol was diverted to hunt for a mortar cache instead. We were still able to do a release on the medical operation even though we were not there. We used the images from the American unit’s physician’s assistant that was observing plus we had Iraqi media covering the event. (Actually, my plan is to send my guys out as much as possible to get the good stories, so it only makes sense that I’ll be editing their products everyday.) I spent most of the day writing the public affairs annex and embed plan for another operations order for a future offensive operation.
Friday (11 April) morning, I flew with my boss to Camp Liberty. My counterpart and his boss also flew on the same mission. The brigade commanders attended a Multi-National Division – Baghdad commander’s conference. My primary task was to be a mule by helping my counterpart carry the large gifts (four poster-sized framed prints and four knit blankets) that COL Gibbs was giving to the MND-B generals (MG Hammond, BG Milano and BG Grimsley) and the division’s senior enlisted man, CSM Giola. My secondary task was to interface with MND-B public affairs and other division staff officers. So, I visited with LTC Steve Stover (PAO) and the rest of the public affairs staff, the G1, the G2, the G3 Air, the media operations center personnel from 130th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, the MWR staff and a few more folks including our brigade liaison officer. I also spoke with BG Grimsley, BG Milano and CSM Giola for a bit.
For the most part MND-B headquarters has not changed that much. I visited it in OIF2 when 1st Cavalry Division owned it. I visited it several times in OIF4 when 4th Infantry Div. owned it. And now I visited it in OIF6 when 4th Inf. Div. owned it again. There were a few differences. The 4th Inf. Div. is adding on to the building complete with a second floor. I’ll probably see the addition completed when I come back to visit later in the tour. The MOC was a little different as well. In OIF2 & OIF4 the TV studio was set-up on the north side using a green felt backdrop. This time the studio was set-up on the south side and the backdrop included camouflage netting. This time there were two Digital Video Imaging Distribution System satellite dishes on the roof of the MOC. Before, there was only one DVIDS satellite dish in operation. While I was visiting the MND-B headquarters, a thunderstorm hit with lightning and rain. (The rain was not even a nuisance since the temperature was in the upper 80s…it was actually refreshing.)
When I flew home in the afternoon my load was lighter, but I still had all my work to do since I was out playing all day. I had to really crunch to get all the reports in on time. The good thing is that my super staff sergeant had started the reports. I merely had to refine them and make corrections. I have a much stronger team this time than I did during OIF4, so this tour will be more productive.
Saturday (12 April), the ground was still muddy in places from yesterday’s rain, so it stuck to my shoes during my run. My guys had several events to cover. A general came to see one of our battalions do their transfer of authority ceremony as they officially assumed their mission. I reviewed a bunch of broadcast products, both radio and TV. I also reviewed combat camera footage for release.
So, for this week we submitted 21 stories (print, radio and TV) and operational releases. What I mean by operational releases is short press releases about killing or capturing bad guys, finding weapons or munitions caches, finding roadside bombs before they explode and hurt people, etc. Operational releases are shorter than print stories, because we aren’t required to have at least two quotes from different sources and three to five images with captions to accompany the story. We like to include a quote and an image if we have one, but if we don’t…no one cares. Speed is the issue, because we are trying to beat the bad guys to the punch by getting our piece in the news first. If we can out maneuver the bad guys by getting our story out first, we win by virtue of position. Otherwise, we are reacting to the misinformation the bad guy is saying and he is not bound by the truth like I am. The enemy is a master at getting their misinformation out quickly, so it is quite an ugly game. For example, if we kill six terrorists after they ambush our patrol, the enemy quickly hits the street with a story that the occupation forces killed 12 innocent people including women and children. The Iraqis use what we call “Iraqi math” when they count casualties. They often double the number of real casualties to make their story sound more sensational. Then, we are playing catch up by responding to their garbage. It sometimes takes awhile for us to get all the data to present an accurate statement of what happened. However, if I can get out the truth first, the enemy does not have any room to maneuver. Sometimes, we have imagery from aircraft to back up our releases.
In the evening, I had my staff sergeant cover for me at several meetings, so I could play the keyboard and sing for special music at the Protestant Liturgical Service. Everything went well, except my boss asked my staff sergeant a question he could not answer.
Today, I woke up at 6 a.m. like normal for an early meeting with my boss. After several meetings, we conducted the brigade transfer of authority ceremony. We had a number of distinguished guests including my boss’ younger but taller brother, who is also a colonel, but he works at MNF-I. I broke contact after the TOA ceremony to play the keyboard for the Protestant Contemporary Service, but I had to leave half way through the service for another meeting. (I am angry about the new battle rhythm, because on Sunday there are meetings scheduled on top of both services that I want to attend.) I broke contact from work in the evening to attend the Protestant Traditional Service, but again I had to leave half way through for another pow wow. (When I walked into the chapel, my friend Chaplain Ron Boyd asked if I could play the keyboard for the service. I was surprised, but of course agreed. I was under the impression someone else was handling the music at the evening service.) Next week, instead of moving the battle rhythm around the brigade chaplain is told to rearrange the chapel services, because I’m not the only one with this complaint.
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. We had two Soldiers killed this week in one of our battalions that is detached to another brigade. The memorial is coming up in a few days. Pray for the Families of these Soldiers, who are in the grieving process. Also, keep our Families in your prayers. Our other halves are playing “mom & dad” as a single parent, which is exhausting. I wish you well. Psalm 91
Keep looking up!
This week has been crazy. I am just now compiling this week’s edition. I made it out of the wire twice this week. Unfortunately, I’m getting back into my old bad habit of working late and getting up early. However, so far I’m getting out of the office around midnight instead of 2 a.m. during 2006.
Saturday (5 April) morning, I rolled out on a patrol with my boss, COL Ted Martin, and COL Ricky Gibbs, the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team commander, which is part of the 1st Infantry Division. We attended a special meeting of the Rashid District Council at what we call DAC Hall. (The district council used to be called a district advisory council, hence the nickname DAC. DAC Hall is like a county courthouse back in the States.) We entered the DAC Hall compound, which is surrounded by a three-story cement wall to protect it from sniper fire and other direct fire weapons. The building is newly remodeled so it looked nice. When we dismounted from the vehicles, we were ushered into the DAC Chairman’s office, sat down and exchanged pleasantries. A steward came to each of the guests and poured us a communal cup of Turkish coffee. It was hot and burned my tongue plus it tasted horribly bitter. Next he passed out some Iraqi pastries, which were sweet in contrast to the coffee. COL Gibbs knew the senior DAC members by name, so he exchanged the Arab hug with each one. The Iraqi leadership did not know COL Martin and me, so we simply shook hands and exchanged Arabic greetings. On this mission, my task was to take pictures and write a story on the event. So, I took a bunch of images.
During the meeting, we moved into a grand hall with a dozen tables placed in an inverted U- configuration. A member sat in a chair behind each of about 30 microphones that lit up when a member spoke into it. I took copious notes as the interpreters translated Arabic to English. So, I had plenty of good quotes for a story. The meeting was primarily about saying thank you and farewell to COL Gibbs, the out-going American senior commander in the area, and meeting the incoming commander, COL Martin, and the new U.S. State Department guy, Tom Lynch, who will be working with us. (His title is the embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team leader and his rank is equivalent to a two-star general. He has several civilians on his team who specialize in various areas, such as business development, economics, government and other skills.) A bunch of Iraqi DAC members made flowery speeches thanking COL Gibbs for the progress in security and helping them transform Rashid as one of the most dangerous districts in Baghdad into one of the safest. COL Gibbs pitched a nice speech as well. Then my boss said a few words of introduction to the council membership. COL Gibbs presented three gifts to the Three Musketeers, as he called the three senior DAC leaders. (Gibbs is quite the flamboyant diplomat.) Then the DAC Chairman presented COL Gibbs, Tom Lynch and COL Martin with gifts. I took more pictures.
After the meeting, the DAC Chairman invited us to a dinner in our honor. So, we retired to another large room with an 80-foot long table covered in various native Iraqi dishes. The men all stood around the table and used their hands to dip goat or lamb meat, bread, rice, vegetables and other delicacies from the communal plates to their faces. (They did have a few plates with plastic ware for the sensitive American who didn’t want to use their hands.) Initially, I used my hands for the “goat grab” as we Americans call it. Later, I used a plate for the second and third round of feasting. After the meal, everyone gathered for some group shots at the front door. Then, we boarded our vehicles and returned home. We spot checked some Iraqi National Police and Iraqi Police checkpoints on the way home.
That evening, I played the keyboard for the Liturgical Protestant Service for Chaplain David Fell from 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment. (I played the piano for his worship services during our brigade field training exercise in April – May 2007.) After church, I saved a bunch of files from one of the laptops that I was turning into my signal officer to wipe for use as a secret machine.
Sunday (6 April) morning, I played the keyboard for the Contemporary Protestant Service. After the service, I ate chow with my counterpart at the dining facility. (In March 2007, some mortar rounds hit the DFAC wounding a number of people. I can still see the patched holes in the tile floor where the shrapnel damage occurred.)
In the afternoon, I wrote my story from Saturday and edited some other stories my men had written.
In the evening, I attended the Traditional Protestant Service. After the service, I edited the magazine contract again and prepared it for approval. We are hiring a vendor to print 2,500 copies of a 4-color, 24-page, glossy coated magazine for $4,100 each month. The vendor also delivers the magazine to us and we will distribute it to our various combat outposts and joint security stations.
Monday (7 April), we moved to the left seat meaning we now run the office and our counterparts observe us and coach us on how they did business. (Previously, we were in the right seat, meaning we were observing them in action. This is all part of the relief in place. Typically, the transition is a two-week process where both units overlap. It can be stressful, having two units on top of each other for two weeks, which places a strain on the services with long lines, such as the DFAC, laundry facilities, gym, lodging, water usage, sewage, etc.) Therefore, I was writing the Situation Reports, Drumbeats and the paperwork, which really hasn’t changed much since 2006 during my second tour here during Operation Iraqi Freedom 4. The hard part was getting adjusted to our Raider Brigade battle rhythm. I had grown accustomed to the Dragon Brigade way of doing things the past couple weeks.
General George Casey, then the Multi-National Force – Iraq commander, started the Drumbeat Report. (He’s now the Army Chief of Staff.) I heard him ask for such a report in August 2004, when he wanted a document to show all the good news story events happening in the field. This way he could see that the events were being covered by the media or public affairs. I was the guy who started crafting them for Multi-National Corps – Iraq during OIF2, so I am intimately aware of how to compile them. A few times I even briefed him on the events, before I was dispatched to various infantry battalions to participate in three different ground campaigns. (What is sad is that we are covering all the good news story events about the Iraqi Security Forces or the lower levels of the Government of Iraq, yet many of the stories do not get picked up by the main stream media in the western world.)
Tuesday (8 April), I sent one of my men out to cover a story with one of our units. He covered an International Orphan Day celebration hosted by the Iraqi National Police. We invited Iraqi media to participate and cover the story as well. The event went well and we submitted the story. I edited some other stories and releases as well. In the evening after I submitted the reports, I practiced with the praise team for Sunday.
Wednesday (9 April), I wrote the script for my portion of the brief to the commanding general and built the slides. I sent my guys out to cover various unit events; however, our events were postponed in anticipation of Sadr’s demonstration. One of our battalions conducted a transfer of authority ceremony and officially assumed their mission. Again, I edited stories and releases. My boss actually briefed the CG using my script in the evening. (During these updates to the CG, each day is a different theme. Wednesday night is the information operations highlights, so public affairs is one arm of the IO fight.) The new battle rhythm is still smoking me. It seems I’m in meetings about 5 – 6 hours per day.
Thursday (10 April), I sent my guys out with various units again. Another one of our battalions conducted a transfer of authority ceremony and officially assumed their mission. My broadcaster was to cover the Iraqi National Police conducting a medical operation (meaning their medics screened and treated several hundred Iraqi citizens and issued medicine at no cost to the patient), but his patrol was diverted to hunt for a mortar cache instead. We were still able to do a release on the medical operation even though we were not there. We used the images from the American unit’s physician’s assistant that was observing plus we had Iraqi media covering the event. (Actually, my plan is to send my guys out as much as possible to get the good stories, so it only makes sense that I’ll be editing their products everyday.) I spent most of the day writing the public affairs annex and embed plan for another operations order for a future offensive operation.
Friday (11 April) morning, I flew with my boss to Camp Liberty. My counterpart and his boss also flew on the same mission. The brigade commanders attended a Multi-National Division – Baghdad commander’s conference. My primary task was to be a mule by helping my counterpart carry the large gifts (four poster-sized framed prints and four knit blankets) that COL Gibbs was giving to the MND-B generals (MG Hammond, BG Milano and BG Grimsley) and the division’s senior enlisted man, CSM Giola. My secondary task was to interface with MND-B public affairs and other division staff officers. So, I visited with LTC Steve Stover (PAO) and the rest of the public affairs staff, the G1, the G2, the G3 Air, the media operations center personnel from 130th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, the MWR staff and a few more folks including our brigade liaison officer. I also spoke with BG Grimsley, BG Milano and CSM Giola for a bit.
For the most part MND-B headquarters has not changed that much. I visited it in OIF2 when 1st Cavalry Division owned it. I visited it several times in OIF4 when 4th Infantry Div. owned it. And now I visited it in OIF6 when 4th Inf. Div. owned it again. There were a few differences. The 4th Inf. Div. is adding on to the building complete with a second floor. I’ll probably see the addition completed when I come back to visit later in the tour. The MOC was a little different as well. In OIF2 & OIF4 the TV studio was set-up on the north side using a green felt backdrop. This time the studio was set-up on the south side and the backdrop included camouflage netting. This time there were two Digital Video Imaging Distribution System satellite dishes on the roof of the MOC. Before, there was only one DVIDS satellite dish in operation. While I was visiting the MND-B headquarters, a thunderstorm hit with lightning and rain. (The rain was not even a nuisance since the temperature was in the upper 80s…it was actually refreshing.)
When I flew home in the afternoon my load was lighter, but I still had all my work to do since I was out playing all day. I had to really crunch to get all the reports in on time. The good thing is that my super staff sergeant had started the reports. I merely had to refine them and make corrections. I have a much stronger team this time than I did during OIF4, so this tour will be more productive.
Saturday (12 April), the ground was still muddy in places from yesterday’s rain, so it stuck to my shoes during my run. My guys had several events to cover. A general came to see one of our battalions do their transfer of authority ceremony as they officially assumed their mission. I reviewed a bunch of broadcast products, both radio and TV. I also reviewed combat camera footage for release.
So, for this week we submitted 21 stories (print, radio and TV) and operational releases. What I mean by operational releases is short press releases about killing or capturing bad guys, finding weapons or munitions caches, finding roadside bombs before they explode and hurt people, etc. Operational releases are shorter than print stories, because we aren’t required to have at least two quotes from different sources and three to five images with captions to accompany the story. We like to include a quote and an image if we have one, but if we don’t…no one cares. Speed is the issue, because we are trying to beat the bad guys to the punch by getting our piece in the news first. If we can out maneuver the bad guys by getting our story out first, we win by virtue of position. Otherwise, we are reacting to the misinformation the bad guy is saying and he is not bound by the truth like I am. The enemy is a master at getting their misinformation out quickly, so it is quite an ugly game. For example, if we kill six terrorists after they ambush our patrol, the enemy quickly hits the street with a story that the occupation forces killed 12 innocent people including women and children. The Iraqis use what we call “Iraqi math” when they count casualties. They often double the number of real casualties to make their story sound more sensational. Then, we are playing catch up by responding to their garbage. It sometimes takes awhile for us to get all the data to present an accurate statement of what happened. However, if I can get out the truth first, the enemy does not have any room to maneuver. Sometimes, we have imagery from aircraft to back up our releases.
In the evening, I had my staff sergeant cover for me at several meetings, so I could play the keyboard and sing for special music at the Protestant Liturgical Service. Everything went well, except my boss asked my staff sergeant a question he could not answer.
Today, I woke up at 6 a.m. like normal for an early meeting with my boss. After several meetings, we conducted the brigade transfer of authority ceremony. We had a number of distinguished guests including my boss’ younger but taller brother, who is also a colonel, but he works at MNF-I. I broke contact after the TOA ceremony to play the keyboard for the Protestant Contemporary Service, but I had to leave half way through the service for another meeting. (I am angry about the new battle rhythm, because on Sunday there are meetings scheduled on top of both services that I want to attend.) I broke contact from work in the evening to attend the Protestant Traditional Service, but again I had to leave half way through for another pow wow. (When I walked into the chapel, my friend Chaplain Ron Boyd asked if I could play the keyboard for the service. I was surprised, but of course agreed. I was under the impression someone else was handling the music at the evening service.) Next week, instead of moving the battle rhythm around the brigade chaplain is told to rearrange the chapel services, because I’m not the only one with this complaint.
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. We had two Soldiers killed this week in one of our battalions that is detached to another brigade. The memorial is coming up in a few days. Pray for the Families of these Soldiers, who are in the grieving process. Also, keep our Families in your prayers. Our other halves are playing “mom & dad” as a single parent, which is exhausting. I wish you well. Psalm 91
Keep looking up!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Week 4, OIF6
Friday, 4 April 2008
This week was anticlimactic compared to Week 3. I did not leave the camp once. I thought I was one day, but plans changed. Everyday I attend a bunch of meetings. The meetings come in many flavors, sizes and shapes, but I’ll spare the details.
Saturday (29 March), I set a new land speed record during my daily run around the camp. It felt good to ratchet the pace up a notch. I handled some routine tasks: turned in laundry and sat in the barber chair for a haircut. (I didn’t have much work to do in getting a haircut… simply sit still and endure the trauma. The hardest part was waiting in line for 70 minutes. Lines are common now that there are two brigades worth of people on this tiny camp. I really didn’t mind the wait; I brought the good book along and did some reading.) I continued to shadow my counter part, Major Kirk Luedeke, the best brigade-level public affairs officer in the Iraq Theater as LTC Steve Stover, the Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO says. (Kirk has done an amazing job. His section out produces most of MND-B with all the stories they produce and media embeds they host.) More Shia rockets flew over the camp, but they missed. (Forward Operating Base Falcon is about two square kilometers, so sometimes the bad guys miss as the rockets explode outside the base.)
On the way to drop off laundry at the Laundry Facility, I was showing my new room mate around FOB Falcon. It only takes about 10-minutes to walk from one end to the other. Brian flew in the night before. He is our assistant operations officer, but he will serve as the Iraqi Security Forces coordinator. We were room mates once before, when we deployed to Korea in August 2005. (We really lived in a large canvas tent, known to Soldiers as a GP Medium. GP means general purpose and it holds about 16 – 18 cots with space for a stove in the winter and an air conditioner in the summer when used as a sleeping tent. I was technically still the 4th Public Affairs Detachment commander on that trip, but I also served as the deputy III Corps PAO. Two of my guys had departed a week earlier to help set-up for the mission and to take pictures and write stories. On that mission, Brian served as a Liaison Officer to the Korean Eighth Army. We deployed as part of III Corps for Operation Ulchi Focus Lens. That seems like a lifetime ago.)
Sunday (30 March) morning, I attended the Contemporary Protestant Service. The praise team did a pretty good job, but it was their last performance. Most of them will be gone by next Sunday. After the service, I huddled with Chaplain Ron Boyd and some other guys as we talked about forming our own praise team for next Sunday. I volunteered to play the keyboard.
In the afternoon, our equipment arrived by ground convoy from Kuwait. So my other duffle bags and tough box arrived as did the rest of our section equipment. My guys hauled the mountain of gear into the office. I moved my personal gear to my hooch, which is really one small room in the 3-room trailer. (Hooch is just Army slang for our sleeping place. Usually it applies to some sort of make-shift shelter that we built under a tree in the woods, but there are only about a dozen trees on this camp. Most of this camp is gravel or medium to large stones that look like little dinosaur or sea turtle eggs. The gravel or stones were brought in over the course of the last 2 – 3 years to combat the mud during the rainy season. This place has poor drainage, so when the winter rains come, the ground turns into a massive mud hole and the moon dust turns into peanut butter sticking to everything. Therefore, walking across the camp is quite a workout as more and more mud sticks to one’s boots making them 10-pounds each.) There is not much mud right now, except by the gun line where our howitzers are positioned to fire counter battery missions…in simple English this means return fire when the bad guys launch indirect fire at us.
In the evening, I attended the Traditional Protestant Service. Later that night, our gun line did fire about a dozen rounds at the enemy. The wind was coming from the direction of the gun line, so the smoke and noise of the guns were all over my hooch area. The roar of the outgoing 155mm artillery fire was very loud.
Monday (31 March) between meetings, I spent most of the day organizing my files on two laptops that I brought. One I’ll use for secret business and one I’ll use for unclassified business. In my occupation, most of my work (95%) is unclassified, because I release stories, press releases, and media advisories to the public. I keep all the stories, images and releases in my electronic files. I have files dating back to 13 Sept. 2005, when I joined this fine brigade. Therefore, I had to save the data to a hard drive as to not lose the information. After the data was saved, I turned in the laptops for the automations people to work their magic. I also picked up my clean clothes from the Laundry Facility. (Normally, it’s a 24 – 48 hour turn around for laundry; however, with the surge of people on the camp the turn around can be up to 72 hours. I’m not complaining, the laundry service is free and I receive the clean clothes folded. What a deal!)
Tuesday (1 April), I thought I was going on a mission outside the wire, but April fools… the plans changed. So, the joke was on me. I still have plenty of work to do, so I stayed busy. I read one of Kirk’s articles about one of his Soldier’s relatives earning the Silver Star in WWII that was published in Alumni News, Winter 2008. (Kirk is an alumnus of The Citadel, Class of 1994.) It was a fascinating story. His Soldier’s mother sent her cousin’s letters, which was Kirk’s primary source for the article. Kirk is a good writer.
Wednesday (2 April), I worked the contract paperwork for our Raider Brigade monthly publication. We plan to use a local Iraqi contractor who has been doing the Dragon Fire magazine for the unit we are relieving. I also practiced music for Sunday in my hooch. I plan to sing “Word of God Speak” by Mercy Me.
Thursday (3 April), I spent some time working with various battalion public affairs representatives. My frustration is that I get a guy trained and a few months later the units switch people. The units move guys to different jobs for various reasons. When we arrived here nearly every unit switched people again, so the strong guys I had developed with experience from the National Training Center are doing different jobs. So in addition to transitioning to business in Iraq, I’m training new folks. (This fall, winter and spring, I’ve enjoyed a strong team as we lead the 4th Inf. Div. in producing quality news products. I had a bunch of help. Part of that success was our UPAR program of battalion stringers also writing for us.) I also traveled to the chapel to practice the keyboard, but I could not. The chapel was reconfigured for another memorial service. One of the units not in our brigade or 4th BCT, 1st Inf. Div. was killed in action. Since the keyboard was out of action, I could not practice.
Today, instead of running around the camp for physical training, I lifted weights at the gym. My new plan is to run five days a week and lift weights three days a week. I’ll see how that goes. I was waiting until some of the 1st Inf. Div. guys left before venturing into the gym, because it gets quite busy. I also ventured to the chapel to practice the keyboard and was successful. This time the keyboard was set-up and ready to go.
Another frustration I’ve dealt with is automation. We experienced internet outages about half the time this week. As I stated 95% of our work is on the unclassified network and no internet means no email. That’s how we communicate with most of the media bubbas that want to visit or embed with us plus send many of our reports and stories to higher headquarters. At least higher HQ has exercised patience with us and took most of our data (not stories) via the telephone.
Here’s a quote I found posted on the conference room wall. I thought it was pretty apropos.
Burn the midnight oil
“A dead soldier who has given his life because of the failure of his leaders is a dreadful sight and a crime before God. Like all dead soldiers, he was tired before he died, hungry undoubtedly, dirty, wet, and possibly frightened to his soul. And there he lies…dead needlessly, on top of all that…never again to see his homeland. Don’t be the leader who failed to lead him well! Burn the midnight oil so that you may not in later years look at your hands and find his blood still red upon them!” Major James W. Bellah said this in 1941. He later wrote, “She wore a yellow ribbon” and it became a John Wayne movie.
Speaking of midnight oil, I need to get to bed. I do not want to fall into the same cycle I did last tour of only getting four hours of sleep a night for an entire year. That aged me. I need to do a better job of taking care of myself.
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. They are doing incredible work in an austere environment, since many of them operate from combat outposts. Many get to rotate back here once a week for 24-hours to refit. Also, keep our Families in your prayers. Our other halves are playing “mom & dad” as a single parent, which is exhausting. I wish you well. Psalm 91
Keep looking up!
This week was anticlimactic compared to Week 3. I did not leave the camp once. I thought I was one day, but plans changed. Everyday I attend a bunch of meetings. The meetings come in many flavors, sizes and shapes, but I’ll spare the details.
Saturday (29 March), I set a new land speed record during my daily run around the camp. It felt good to ratchet the pace up a notch. I handled some routine tasks: turned in laundry and sat in the barber chair for a haircut. (I didn’t have much work to do in getting a haircut… simply sit still and endure the trauma. The hardest part was waiting in line for 70 minutes. Lines are common now that there are two brigades worth of people on this tiny camp. I really didn’t mind the wait; I brought the good book along and did some reading.) I continued to shadow my counter part, Major Kirk Luedeke, the best brigade-level public affairs officer in the Iraq Theater as LTC Steve Stover, the Multi-National Division – Baghdad PAO says. (Kirk has done an amazing job. His section out produces most of MND-B with all the stories they produce and media embeds they host.) More Shia rockets flew over the camp, but they missed. (Forward Operating Base Falcon is about two square kilometers, so sometimes the bad guys miss as the rockets explode outside the base.)
On the way to drop off laundry at the Laundry Facility, I was showing my new room mate around FOB Falcon. It only takes about 10-minutes to walk from one end to the other. Brian flew in the night before. He is our assistant operations officer, but he will serve as the Iraqi Security Forces coordinator. We were room mates once before, when we deployed to Korea in August 2005. (We really lived in a large canvas tent, known to Soldiers as a GP Medium. GP means general purpose and it holds about 16 – 18 cots with space for a stove in the winter and an air conditioner in the summer when used as a sleeping tent. I was technically still the 4th Public Affairs Detachment commander on that trip, but I also served as the deputy III Corps PAO. Two of my guys had departed a week earlier to help set-up for the mission and to take pictures and write stories. On that mission, Brian served as a Liaison Officer to the Korean Eighth Army. We deployed as part of III Corps for Operation Ulchi Focus Lens. That seems like a lifetime ago.)
Sunday (30 March) morning, I attended the Contemporary Protestant Service. The praise team did a pretty good job, but it was their last performance. Most of them will be gone by next Sunday. After the service, I huddled with Chaplain Ron Boyd and some other guys as we talked about forming our own praise team for next Sunday. I volunteered to play the keyboard.
In the afternoon, our equipment arrived by ground convoy from Kuwait. So my other duffle bags and tough box arrived as did the rest of our section equipment. My guys hauled the mountain of gear into the office. I moved my personal gear to my hooch, which is really one small room in the 3-room trailer. (Hooch is just Army slang for our sleeping place. Usually it applies to some sort of make-shift shelter that we built under a tree in the woods, but there are only about a dozen trees on this camp. Most of this camp is gravel or medium to large stones that look like little dinosaur or sea turtle eggs. The gravel or stones were brought in over the course of the last 2 – 3 years to combat the mud during the rainy season. This place has poor drainage, so when the winter rains come, the ground turns into a massive mud hole and the moon dust turns into peanut butter sticking to everything. Therefore, walking across the camp is quite a workout as more and more mud sticks to one’s boots making them 10-pounds each.) There is not much mud right now, except by the gun line where our howitzers are positioned to fire counter battery missions…in simple English this means return fire when the bad guys launch indirect fire at us.
In the evening, I attended the Traditional Protestant Service. Later that night, our gun line did fire about a dozen rounds at the enemy. The wind was coming from the direction of the gun line, so the smoke and noise of the guns were all over my hooch area. The roar of the outgoing 155mm artillery fire was very loud.
Monday (31 March) between meetings, I spent most of the day organizing my files on two laptops that I brought. One I’ll use for secret business and one I’ll use for unclassified business. In my occupation, most of my work (95%) is unclassified, because I release stories, press releases, and media advisories to the public. I keep all the stories, images and releases in my electronic files. I have files dating back to 13 Sept. 2005, when I joined this fine brigade. Therefore, I had to save the data to a hard drive as to not lose the information. After the data was saved, I turned in the laptops for the automations people to work their magic. I also picked up my clean clothes from the Laundry Facility. (Normally, it’s a 24 – 48 hour turn around for laundry; however, with the surge of people on the camp the turn around can be up to 72 hours. I’m not complaining, the laundry service is free and I receive the clean clothes folded. What a deal!)
Tuesday (1 April), I thought I was going on a mission outside the wire, but April fools… the plans changed. So, the joke was on me. I still have plenty of work to do, so I stayed busy. I read one of Kirk’s articles about one of his Soldier’s relatives earning the Silver Star in WWII that was published in Alumni News, Winter 2008. (Kirk is an alumnus of The Citadel, Class of 1994.) It was a fascinating story. His Soldier’s mother sent her cousin’s letters, which was Kirk’s primary source for the article. Kirk is a good writer.
Wednesday (2 April), I worked the contract paperwork for our Raider Brigade monthly publication. We plan to use a local Iraqi contractor who has been doing the Dragon Fire magazine for the unit we are relieving. I also practiced music for Sunday in my hooch. I plan to sing “Word of God Speak” by Mercy Me.
Thursday (3 April), I spent some time working with various battalion public affairs representatives. My frustration is that I get a guy trained and a few months later the units switch people. The units move guys to different jobs for various reasons. When we arrived here nearly every unit switched people again, so the strong guys I had developed with experience from the National Training Center are doing different jobs. So in addition to transitioning to business in Iraq, I’m training new folks. (This fall, winter and spring, I’ve enjoyed a strong team as we lead the 4th Inf. Div. in producing quality news products. I had a bunch of help. Part of that success was our UPAR program of battalion stringers also writing for us.) I also traveled to the chapel to practice the keyboard, but I could not. The chapel was reconfigured for another memorial service. One of the units not in our brigade or 4th BCT, 1st Inf. Div. was killed in action. Since the keyboard was out of action, I could not practice.
Today, instead of running around the camp for physical training, I lifted weights at the gym. My new plan is to run five days a week and lift weights three days a week. I’ll see how that goes. I was waiting until some of the 1st Inf. Div. guys left before venturing into the gym, because it gets quite busy. I also ventured to the chapel to practice the keyboard and was successful. This time the keyboard was set-up and ready to go.
Another frustration I’ve dealt with is automation. We experienced internet outages about half the time this week. As I stated 95% of our work is on the unclassified network and no internet means no email. That’s how we communicate with most of the media bubbas that want to visit or embed with us plus send many of our reports and stories to higher headquarters. At least higher HQ has exercised patience with us and took most of our data (not stories) via the telephone.
Here’s a quote I found posted on the conference room wall. I thought it was pretty apropos.
Burn the midnight oil
“A dead soldier who has given his life because of the failure of his leaders is a dreadful sight and a crime before God. Like all dead soldiers, he was tired before he died, hungry undoubtedly, dirty, wet, and possibly frightened to his soul. And there he lies…dead needlessly, on top of all that…never again to see his homeland. Don’t be the leader who failed to lead him well! Burn the midnight oil so that you may not in later years look at your hands and find his blood still red upon them!” Major James W. Bellah said this in 1941. He later wrote, “She wore a yellow ribbon” and it became a John Wayne movie.
Speaking of midnight oil, I need to get to bed. I do not want to fall into the same cycle I did last tour of only getting four hours of sleep a night for an entire year. That aged me. I need to do a better job of taking care of myself.
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. They are doing incredible work in an austere environment, since many of them operate from combat outposts. Many get to rotate back here once a week for 24-hours to refit. Also, keep our Families in your prayers. Our other halves are playing “mom & dad” as a single parent, which is exhausting. I wish you well. Psalm 91
Keep looking up!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Week 3, OIF6
Friday, 28 March 2008
Saturday (22 March), I participated in my first patrol of Tour #3. My mission was to assist my counterpart, Kirk, in escorting Jane Arraf. She works for a liberal think tank, called International Crisis Group. (When she visited me in 2006 at Camp Taji, she worked for CNN.) Her organization’s premise is that there is no progress in Iraq. General David Petraeus (King David, as we call him, is the senior man here as the Multi-National Forces – Iraq commander.) told her to come see us. So, we took her to Doura, a neighborhood in East Rashid. (East Rashid is a district in southern Baghdad. Our area is the southern portion of Baghdad, which is about one fourths of the capital city.)
For your information, Doura was the worst area in Baghdad during May – July 2007, but now it is the best. So, that’s where we took her and boy was she surprised. The last time she saw this neighborhood it was piled high with trash and had raw sewage running in the streets. Gun battles in clashes between Sunni and Shia groups were common. No U.S. patrol could venture into this area without exchanging gun fire. Dr. Mooyad Homad, a cardiologist, contractor, businessman, and entrepreneur is a big factor in the difference. He bought 12 trash trucks and hired a bunch of local military-aged males to pick-up the trash and sweep the streets. They did it the old-fashioned way…brooms, shovels and wheelbarrows and dumped the wheelbarrow loads into the trash trucks. (It is critical to hire military-aged males and keep them employed, or they may be tempted to work for the “dark side” by planting road-side bombs or engaging in other terrorist activities for hire.) They have cleaned up this area of town, so there is no rubble, trash or sewage on the streets and sidewalks. This area is beautiful, neat and clean. It has electricity with street lights and ornaments hanging from the power lines along the main street. He also owns a construction company that repairs the infrastructure. Now there are also T-walls that separate the neighborhoods from the main highways and each other. The T-walls were part of the Baghdad Security Plan which restricted the freedom of movement for the bad guys. Before, the bad guys could do mischief in one neighborhood and quickly scramble to another so we couldn’t find them. That ability no longer exists with the “gated community” concept in place. The T-walls in some areas were painted. One set of T-walls was painted with a Wisconsin farm scene; other sets had U.S. aircraft along Airport Road; still other sets had a beach scene. The artists are definitely making this sliver of Iraq look much better.
On this patrol we visited a flower shop, an automotive shop, a gym (a small version similar to Gold’s Gym) and an artist’s home. Boy, I never knew Iraq could smell so nice. The flower shop was like a small slice of Eden with all the lush greenery and blooming flowers.
An older gentleman is the artist, who has an art studio adjacent to his home. He creates beautiful clay statues and other works of art. He invited us into his home and treated us with roasted date palms and Turkish coffee. We chatted with his family and Jane interviewed them. Dr. Mooyad guided us during the patrol showing Jane many of the improvements where he played a central role. (ABC News’ Nightline with Terry McCarthy aired a segment 19 March featuring Dr. Mooyad as part of their “Fifth Year in Iraq” story. To me, he is a true Iraqi hero. I was privileged to meet him for the first time when he came to speak to us at the Counter Insurgency Academy at Camp Taji 16 March. We need more Iraqis like him to step forward.)
The bottom line is that Jane has plenty of real evidence to refute her agency’s premise. The patrol returned to our forward operating base without incident.
Saturday night I attended the Eucharistic Protestant Easter Service. It was nice, but anti-climatic as the Chaplain read the script. There was no instrumental music in the service, which did not help. However, we did sing three songs A cappella.
Sunday morning, I attended the non-denominational sunrise Easter service. Then I attended the Contemporary Protestant Service later in the morning. It is neat to hear all the different messages and perspectives from multiple services. There was a small praise team to lead the music in the first service and it was larger at the second service. After the second service, I picked up my laundry, which I dropped off two days earlier. (I don’t know why we call it laundry when we pick it up, because now it’s clean. It’s another oxymoron.)
Late Sunday night, one of our subordinate units hit a road-side bomb destroying the Bradley fighting vehicle, which made international news because the death toll for Operation Iraqi Freedom reached the 4,000 milestone. Four Soldiers were killed-in-action instantly and one flew to Baghdad’s combat support hospital with burns on 100% of his body.
Monday (24 March), was a sad day. In the morning, I attended the Hero Flight Ceremony. The ceremony was very solemn as Soldiers lined each side of the sidewalk facing each other leading to the landing zone. The brigade colors and four battalion standards with several company guidons were posted at the end of the sidewalk at the edge of the LZ. We saluted as the five litters carrying the remains of each Soldier in a black body bag passed between us to be loaded on the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. As the aircraft flew away, we faced the aircraft and saluted again. (I am uncertain to why there were five litters. Perhaps, the fifth was the remains of the Soldier who was killed by mortar fire on Good Friday.) Their memorial service is scheduled for Monday night.
The rest of the day I edited some stories, shadowed Kirk and typed up the Parish Council monthly meeting notes from Feb. (I served on the Parish Council since March 2007 at the 1st Cavalry Division Memorial Chapel, also known as 73rd Street Chapel at Fort Hood.) I sent the stories to Multi-National Division – Baghdad, our higher headquarters, which is also the 4th Infantry Division Headquarters and the Parish Council notes to the Installation Chaplain’s Office at Fort Hood.
Tuesday (25 March), I flew to the International Zone with Kirk. Our mission was to do some networking with the Coalition Press Information Center and facilitate the link-up of media for one of our units. Our flight was delayed due to weather and then mechanical issues with the aircraft, so we saw “Lethal Weapon 2, 3 & 4” in the flight operations office until our flight finally departed. When we finally arrived, things did not go smoothly. We endured five indirect fire attacks, which caused many things to come to a grinding halt in the IZ. The media link-up happened without us. However, Kirk showed me where he often links up with local Iraqi media and those kinds of things as we transition. He also showed me the CPIC, the AFN studio and the Media Operations Center at Camp Prosperity. (I was at the CPIC a few times during 2004, but it had moved since I’ve been there last.) These sites are important, because I need to know the lay of the land for when I conduct press conferences periodically or as the need arises. When our mission was complete, we could not fly back to Forward Operating Base Falcon due to a dust storm. So, we were stranded overnight and we learned that we could not get flights the next day either. We spent the night at the MOC at Prosperity. It’s a good thing we planned ahead and brought our toiletry kits and extra clothes in our assault packs.
Wednesday (26 March), Kirk and I returned to the IZ. We visited the Presidential Palace to do more networking and I bumped into the guy that I replaced as the 4th Public Affairs Detachment commander four years ago. He runs the day shift for the MNF-I Public Affairs section. So, we swapped some stories as things screeched to a halt again due to an IDF attack. This time in the IZ, we endured four IDF attacks. Kirk frequently used his cell phone to get us home and his non-commissioned officer scored by arranging for a patrol to pick us up in the IZ. However, the continued IDF attacks kept our ride home at bay for awhile because they could not get into the IZ since the gates were closed. After we finally linked up, we returned to FOB Falcon without incident. However, as soon as we cleared our weapons, we received another mortar attack. So, I was greeted with another bang. (These bad guys sure know how to make me feel welcome.)
I was chatting with the patrol leader, who is a Cajun from Louisiana. He told me that he is the only remaining initial leader in his platoon. All the others were killed or wounded during the tour. His platoon has had a 70% casualty rate. He also explained that if I knew all those facts about his platoon, I would not want to travel with him again. To his surprise I replied, “No, I’d be happy to go on future missions with you.” The reason is that his guys are combat tested and I feel safe with them. (The Dragon Brigade from 1st Inf. Div. is a good unit and has suffered over 90 KIAs and 800 wounded, most of them were returned to duty.)
Later in the afternoon, Annie Garrels of National Public Radio arrived at brigade headquarters. She had been with one of our battalions the previous day. (She was one of the 13 media reporters embedded with me when I was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines during October – November 2004 for the Battle of Fallujah. Annie was so glad to see me she practically gave me a big hug. We had to catch up with each other on what happened since we went our separate ways. She’s now 57 and her husband is 60. She was in Baghdad before OIF kicked off. She wrote the book, Naked in Baghdad, which explained her perspective during the initial invasion as she was behind enemy lines.) Kirk facilitated her interview with his boss, COL Ricky Gibbs, as I sat in on the event. Afterwards, I facilitated an interview with my boss, COL Ted Martin.
One of the things Annie wanted to know was why the spike in indirect fire, especially 25 – 26 March. She wanted to know what’s going on in Sadr City. She also wanted to know if there is a difference between good Jaysh al Mahdi and bad. (JAM is a militia group of thugs that follow the Shia cleric known as al-Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr. They are also sometimes called Mahdi Militia.) She also asked if the security situation is unraveling here. It is easy to explain why there’s an IDF spike in our area. Kirk’s unit has been doing an awesome job of capturing big fish and taking them off the streets. The bad guys were retaliating against us in one of the ways that they know…IDF. Regarding Sadr City, a different unit is responsible for that area, so it is not our lane. That’s a question for the unit working that area. Regarding good vs. bad JAM, COL Gibbs gave her a great answer. “We aren’t going after the “good JAM” that is reconcilable to the Government of Iraq and are abiding by al-Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr’s cease fire. The “bad JAM” (AKA Special Groups Criminal or Rouge JAM) is on notice and we are going after them.” (They are the ones shooting IDF at us and planting many of the road-side bombs made in Iran.) Regarding the security situation unraveling here, COL Gibbs was very eloquent by saying, “It’s just a burp compared to spring 2007.” Annie asked about U.S. troops killing innocent Iraqis. COL Gibbs smoothly pulled out some photographs that he uses to show the Shia sheiks, when they make the same accusations. The images show Iraqi males on rooftops holding AK-47 assault rifles, PRK machine guns and RPG rocket-propelled grenade launchers shooting at U.S. troops. The next set of images show them dead holding the same weapons. He politely asks the sheiks, “My men don’t carry these weapons. These weapons are illegal. Are you bad, too?” This shuts them up. (Kirk and I listened to Annie’s broadcast the next day that aired in the U.S. on her NPR news segment and she explained that she saw the photos and the men we killed were bad.)
Thursday, I spent most of my time writing Annex R (Public Affairs) for the tactical operations order that we are writing for our battalions when we officially assume this battlespace from Kirk’s unit, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. I borrowed some data from Kirk and what he is doing plus I called the MND-B PAO for some additional input. I also added some things that are unique to our units and submitted the document. It was due later in the day. I don’t usually wait until the last moment; however, I was outside of the wire three of the last five days.
Today, I attended meetings as I do everyday when I’m on the FOB and wrote this. The meetings are quite fascinating about what is going on here, but I’m not at liberty to explain since it contains future operations. We definitely have the bad guys on the run that’s as much as I’ll say.
I have been reading in Joshua lately as I’m on my eighth iteration of following my “Read through the Bible in a Year” program. (In the New Testament, I finished Luke on Easter.) I’m reminded of how many times God had to tell Joshua, do not be afraid for I am with you. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Josh. 1:9, NIV) God kept telling Joshua that until Joshua started telling his men the same thing. Then, look at what Joshua was able to do. He defeated many armies larger than his own during the Israelite conquest of Canaan. In a similar way, I’ve been though many indirect fire attacks. [16 rocket, 62 mortar in 2004; 19 rocket, 15 mortar in 2006] I don’t have to worry about my destiny…I’m at peace knowing my eternal destination. However, I am often reassuring my fellow Soldiers who are on their first tour or even on their second, who have been at places where they did not receive IDF.
Being on the receiving end of indirect fire can be demoralizing. IDF can be a used as a psychological weapon. (I saw it used by the Sunni against the Shia in Saab al Bour in August 2006. The Sunni lobbed 24 different mortar attacks in a single day against the Shia neighborhoods of that town of about 30K people. The Iraqi Security Forces who had taken the lead from us in May 2006 broke and ran away. Incidentally, the Shia finally said, “enough” and fled town. The population dropped to about 6K people and we had trouble convincing the Shia that it was safe to return after we restored order a few days later. Ironically, a Sunni majority replaced a Shia majority as they reoccupied the vacant homes.)
Let’s face it; this is an election year in Iraq and the U.S. The bad guys know this. If the bad guys can “show” the media that Iraq is unstable with U.S. casualty figures rising, they think the weak-minded American public will tire of this conflict and vote for “change.” In other words, elect a liberal president to bring the troops home as some candidates claim they will do. I don’t believe this will happen, even if a liberal candidate wins the presidential race. As soon as the new commander in chief realizes how big the void would be if we pulled out, which would destabilize the region causing more bloodshed, and how committed the U.S. government is in the Middle East, they’ll change their tune and balk at keeping their campaign promise.
Therefore, if you see headlines like “Baghdad is on fire!” Don’t believe it! There may be one building on fire in the IZ, the one housing the Iraqi vice presidents. One of the VP offices was hit killing two staffers (bodyguards) and injuring others. However, the rest of the city is not on fire.
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. They are doing a tremendous job. Also, keep our Families in your prayers. They are the ones carrying the load in this conflict. God is definitely in control…and I’m glad He is. I wish you well. Psalm 91
Keep looking up!
Saturday (22 March), I participated in my first patrol of Tour #3. My mission was to assist my counterpart, Kirk, in escorting Jane Arraf. She works for a liberal think tank, called International Crisis Group. (When she visited me in 2006 at Camp Taji, she worked for CNN.) Her organization’s premise is that there is no progress in Iraq. General David Petraeus (King David, as we call him, is the senior man here as the Multi-National Forces – Iraq commander.) told her to come see us. So, we took her to Doura, a neighborhood in East Rashid. (East Rashid is a district in southern Baghdad. Our area is the southern portion of Baghdad, which is about one fourths of the capital city.)
For your information, Doura was the worst area in Baghdad during May – July 2007, but now it is the best. So, that’s where we took her and boy was she surprised. The last time she saw this neighborhood it was piled high with trash and had raw sewage running in the streets. Gun battles in clashes between Sunni and Shia groups were common. No U.S. patrol could venture into this area without exchanging gun fire. Dr. Mooyad Homad, a cardiologist, contractor, businessman, and entrepreneur is a big factor in the difference. He bought 12 trash trucks and hired a bunch of local military-aged males to pick-up the trash and sweep the streets. They did it the old-fashioned way…brooms, shovels and wheelbarrows and dumped the wheelbarrow loads into the trash trucks. (It is critical to hire military-aged males and keep them employed, or they may be tempted to work for the “dark side” by planting road-side bombs or engaging in other terrorist activities for hire.) They have cleaned up this area of town, so there is no rubble, trash or sewage on the streets and sidewalks. This area is beautiful, neat and clean. It has electricity with street lights and ornaments hanging from the power lines along the main street. He also owns a construction company that repairs the infrastructure. Now there are also T-walls that separate the neighborhoods from the main highways and each other. The T-walls were part of the Baghdad Security Plan which restricted the freedom of movement for the bad guys. Before, the bad guys could do mischief in one neighborhood and quickly scramble to another so we couldn’t find them. That ability no longer exists with the “gated community” concept in place. The T-walls in some areas were painted. One set of T-walls was painted with a Wisconsin farm scene; other sets had U.S. aircraft along Airport Road; still other sets had a beach scene. The artists are definitely making this sliver of Iraq look much better.
On this patrol we visited a flower shop, an automotive shop, a gym (a small version similar to Gold’s Gym) and an artist’s home. Boy, I never knew Iraq could smell so nice. The flower shop was like a small slice of Eden with all the lush greenery and blooming flowers.
An older gentleman is the artist, who has an art studio adjacent to his home. He creates beautiful clay statues and other works of art. He invited us into his home and treated us with roasted date palms and Turkish coffee. We chatted with his family and Jane interviewed them. Dr. Mooyad guided us during the patrol showing Jane many of the improvements where he played a central role. (ABC News’ Nightline with Terry McCarthy aired a segment 19 March featuring Dr. Mooyad as part of their “Fifth Year in Iraq” story. To me, he is a true Iraqi hero. I was privileged to meet him for the first time when he came to speak to us at the Counter Insurgency Academy at Camp Taji 16 March. We need more Iraqis like him to step forward.)
The bottom line is that Jane has plenty of real evidence to refute her agency’s premise. The patrol returned to our forward operating base without incident.
Saturday night I attended the Eucharistic Protestant Easter Service. It was nice, but anti-climatic as the Chaplain read the script. There was no instrumental music in the service, which did not help. However, we did sing three songs A cappella.
Sunday morning, I attended the non-denominational sunrise Easter service. Then I attended the Contemporary Protestant Service later in the morning. It is neat to hear all the different messages and perspectives from multiple services. There was a small praise team to lead the music in the first service and it was larger at the second service. After the second service, I picked up my laundry, which I dropped off two days earlier. (I don’t know why we call it laundry when we pick it up, because now it’s clean. It’s another oxymoron.)
Late Sunday night, one of our subordinate units hit a road-side bomb destroying the Bradley fighting vehicle, which made international news because the death toll for Operation Iraqi Freedom reached the 4,000 milestone. Four Soldiers were killed-in-action instantly and one flew to Baghdad’s combat support hospital with burns on 100% of his body.
Monday (24 March), was a sad day. In the morning, I attended the Hero Flight Ceremony. The ceremony was very solemn as Soldiers lined each side of the sidewalk facing each other leading to the landing zone. The brigade colors and four battalion standards with several company guidons were posted at the end of the sidewalk at the edge of the LZ. We saluted as the five litters carrying the remains of each Soldier in a black body bag passed between us to be loaded on the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. As the aircraft flew away, we faced the aircraft and saluted again. (I am uncertain to why there were five litters. Perhaps, the fifth was the remains of the Soldier who was killed by mortar fire on Good Friday.) Their memorial service is scheduled for Monday night.
The rest of the day I edited some stories, shadowed Kirk and typed up the Parish Council monthly meeting notes from Feb. (I served on the Parish Council since March 2007 at the 1st Cavalry Division Memorial Chapel, also known as 73rd Street Chapel at Fort Hood.) I sent the stories to Multi-National Division – Baghdad, our higher headquarters, which is also the 4th Infantry Division Headquarters and the Parish Council notes to the Installation Chaplain’s Office at Fort Hood.
Tuesday (25 March), I flew to the International Zone with Kirk. Our mission was to do some networking with the Coalition Press Information Center and facilitate the link-up of media for one of our units. Our flight was delayed due to weather and then mechanical issues with the aircraft, so we saw “Lethal Weapon 2, 3 & 4” in the flight operations office until our flight finally departed. When we finally arrived, things did not go smoothly. We endured five indirect fire attacks, which caused many things to come to a grinding halt in the IZ. The media link-up happened without us. However, Kirk showed me where he often links up with local Iraqi media and those kinds of things as we transition. He also showed me the CPIC, the AFN studio and the Media Operations Center at Camp Prosperity. (I was at the CPIC a few times during 2004, but it had moved since I’ve been there last.) These sites are important, because I need to know the lay of the land for when I conduct press conferences periodically or as the need arises. When our mission was complete, we could not fly back to Forward Operating Base Falcon due to a dust storm. So, we were stranded overnight and we learned that we could not get flights the next day either. We spent the night at the MOC at Prosperity. It’s a good thing we planned ahead and brought our toiletry kits and extra clothes in our assault packs.
Wednesday (26 March), Kirk and I returned to the IZ. We visited the Presidential Palace to do more networking and I bumped into the guy that I replaced as the 4th Public Affairs Detachment commander four years ago. He runs the day shift for the MNF-I Public Affairs section. So, we swapped some stories as things screeched to a halt again due to an IDF attack. This time in the IZ, we endured four IDF attacks. Kirk frequently used his cell phone to get us home and his non-commissioned officer scored by arranging for a patrol to pick us up in the IZ. However, the continued IDF attacks kept our ride home at bay for awhile because they could not get into the IZ since the gates were closed. After we finally linked up, we returned to FOB Falcon without incident. However, as soon as we cleared our weapons, we received another mortar attack. So, I was greeted with another bang. (These bad guys sure know how to make me feel welcome.)
I was chatting with the patrol leader, who is a Cajun from Louisiana. He told me that he is the only remaining initial leader in his platoon. All the others were killed or wounded during the tour. His platoon has had a 70% casualty rate. He also explained that if I knew all those facts about his platoon, I would not want to travel with him again. To his surprise I replied, “No, I’d be happy to go on future missions with you.” The reason is that his guys are combat tested and I feel safe with them. (The Dragon Brigade from 1st Inf. Div. is a good unit and has suffered over 90 KIAs and 800 wounded, most of them were returned to duty.)
Later in the afternoon, Annie Garrels of National Public Radio arrived at brigade headquarters. She had been with one of our battalions the previous day. (She was one of the 13 media reporters embedded with me when I was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines during October – November 2004 for the Battle of Fallujah. Annie was so glad to see me she practically gave me a big hug. We had to catch up with each other on what happened since we went our separate ways. She’s now 57 and her husband is 60. She was in Baghdad before OIF kicked off. She wrote the book, Naked in Baghdad, which explained her perspective during the initial invasion as she was behind enemy lines.) Kirk facilitated her interview with his boss, COL Ricky Gibbs, as I sat in on the event. Afterwards, I facilitated an interview with my boss, COL Ted Martin.
One of the things Annie wanted to know was why the spike in indirect fire, especially 25 – 26 March. She wanted to know what’s going on in Sadr City. She also wanted to know if there is a difference between good Jaysh al Mahdi and bad. (JAM is a militia group of thugs that follow the Shia cleric known as al-Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr. They are also sometimes called Mahdi Militia.) She also asked if the security situation is unraveling here. It is easy to explain why there’s an IDF spike in our area. Kirk’s unit has been doing an awesome job of capturing big fish and taking them off the streets. The bad guys were retaliating against us in one of the ways that they know…IDF. Regarding Sadr City, a different unit is responsible for that area, so it is not our lane. That’s a question for the unit working that area. Regarding good vs. bad JAM, COL Gibbs gave her a great answer. “We aren’t going after the “good JAM” that is reconcilable to the Government of Iraq and are abiding by al-Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr’s cease fire. The “bad JAM” (AKA Special Groups Criminal or Rouge JAM) is on notice and we are going after them.” (They are the ones shooting IDF at us and planting many of the road-side bombs made in Iran.) Regarding the security situation unraveling here, COL Gibbs was very eloquent by saying, “It’s just a burp compared to spring 2007.” Annie asked about U.S. troops killing innocent Iraqis. COL Gibbs smoothly pulled out some photographs that he uses to show the Shia sheiks, when they make the same accusations. The images show Iraqi males on rooftops holding AK-47 assault rifles, PRK machine guns and RPG rocket-propelled grenade launchers shooting at U.S. troops. The next set of images show them dead holding the same weapons. He politely asks the sheiks, “My men don’t carry these weapons. These weapons are illegal. Are you bad, too?” This shuts them up. (Kirk and I listened to Annie’s broadcast the next day that aired in the U.S. on her NPR news segment and she explained that she saw the photos and the men we killed were bad.)
Thursday, I spent most of my time writing Annex R (Public Affairs) for the tactical operations order that we are writing for our battalions when we officially assume this battlespace from Kirk’s unit, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. I borrowed some data from Kirk and what he is doing plus I called the MND-B PAO for some additional input. I also added some things that are unique to our units and submitted the document. It was due later in the day. I don’t usually wait until the last moment; however, I was outside of the wire three of the last five days.
Today, I attended meetings as I do everyday when I’m on the FOB and wrote this. The meetings are quite fascinating about what is going on here, but I’m not at liberty to explain since it contains future operations. We definitely have the bad guys on the run that’s as much as I’ll say.
I have been reading in Joshua lately as I’m on my eighth iteration of following my “Read through the Bible in a Year” program. (In the New Testament, I finished Luke on Easter.) I’m reminded of how many times God had to tell Joshua, do not be afraid for I am with you. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Josh. 1:9, NIV) God kept telling Joshua that until Joshua started telling his men the same thing. Then, look at what Joshua was able to do. He defeated many armies larger than his own during the Israelite conquest of Canaan. In a similar way, I’ve been though many indirect fire attacks. [16 rocket, 62 mortar in 2004; 19 rocket, 15 mortar in 2006] I don’t have to worry about my destiny…I’m at peace knowing my eternal destination. However, I am often reassuring my fellow Soldiers who are on their first tour or even on their second, who have been at places where they did not receive IDF.
Being on the receiving end of indirect fire can be demoralizing. IDF can be a used as a psychological weapon. (I saw it used by the Sunni against the Shia in Saab al Bour in August 2006. The Sunni lobbed 24 different mortar attacks in a single day against the Shia neighborhoods of that town of about 30K people. The Iraqi Security Forces who had taken the lead from us in May 2006 broke and ran away. Incidentally, the Shia finally said, “enough” and fled town. The population dropped to about 6K people and we had trouble convincing the Shia that it was safe to return after we restored order a few days later. Ironically, a Sunni majority replaced a Shia majority as they reoccupied the vacant homes.)
Let’s face it; this is an election year in Iraq and the U.S. The bad guys know this. If the bad guys can “show” the media that Iraq is unstable with U.S. casualty figures rising, they think the weak-minded American public will tire of this conflict and vote for “change.” In other words, elect a liberal president to bring the troops home as some candidates claim they will do. I don’t believe this will happen, even if a liberal candidate wins the presidential race. As soon as the new commander in chief realizes how big the void would be if we pulled out, which would destabilize the region causing more bloodshed, and how committed the U.S. government is in the Middle East, they’ll change their tune and balk at keeping their campaign promise.
Therefore, if you see headlines like “Baghdad is on fire!” Don’t believe it! There may be one building on fire in the IZ, the one housing the Iraqi vice presidents. One of the VP offices was hit killing two staffers (bodyguards) and injuring others. However, the rest of the city is not on fire.
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. They are doing a tremendous job. Also, keep our Families in your prayers. They are the ones carrying the load in this conflict. God is definitely in control…and I’m glad He is. I wish you well. Psalm 91
Keep looking up!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Weeks 1 - 2, OIF6
Fri. 21 March 2008 “Good Friday”
I have been in the Middle East for two weeks. I departed Fort Hood, Texas on a DC-10 March 7. We made two fuel stops enroute to Kuwait. The first one was Gander, Newfoundland, Canada and the second was Leipzig, Germany (former East Germany). Gander had about a foot of snow on the ground and it had just rained in Germany.
For your information, we had about 16 flights spaced over two weeks to get our troops from Texas to Kuwait. Each flight took different routes, so they make different fuel stops partly because many of the flights have different carriers. Some might be United Airlines, Delta Airlines, World Airlines or a myriad of companies, whomever the USAF contracted for our travel. Plane loads varied in size depending on the nomenclatures of the aircraft. My flight this time happened to be ATA and carried about 300 personnel. There are many variables that go into flight planning. We had a lot of weight due to additional cargo, which means we burned more fuel on take-off and the aircrew was very mindful of the fuel consumption.
During fuel stops, everyone must get off the plane for safety reasons. In Newfoundland, we visited the shops and I bought post cards for $1 each. The Canadians were friendly. (I was escorting Zack & Jim, two radio personalities from Waco 100. They do the “Morning Show with Zack & Jim” from 6 – 10 a.m. every weekday. They play two kinds of music as disc jockeys between their jokes…country and western. Their show is rated number one in two radio markets: Waco and Temple/Killeen. They were bound for Camp Liberty to do live radio broadcasts from Baghdad. That’s another story.) One of Zack & Jim’s sponsors was a telephone company, so the radio guys were issued a Blackberry cellular phone with international calling capability. Plus the company gave them a bunch of international calling cards to issue to Soldiers. Needless to say, Jim let me use their phone to call Lois, because mine did not have a signal.
In Germany, it felt like we were being pushed off into a back corner of the airport and isolated/contained to be out of sight, out of mind. It seemed that part of Germany is still in the Cold War, because the East Germans were suspicious of us. There were two airport shops and the shop keepers were friendly, but the merchandise was expensive. Post cards were $6-7 each, so I didn’t buy any. We did play many games of fusbol during the layover. (On a flight behind me, a crewmember died on the airplane. Therefore, our troops spent about 36 hours in that same airport waiting for the investigation to be completed. A source told me they had massive fusbol tournaments, because they had nothing else to do. The airline carrier fed them during the adventure.)
After getting off the plane, we boarded buses and rode to Camp Buehring. I was the senior man on the flight, so I was invited to ride in the lead vehicle (a SUV) and issued ammunition to be a gunner. Each vehicle had a gunner, SUV or bus. My charges, Zack & Jim, were invited to ride in the trail vehicle (also a SUV). We arrived at camp just after midnight Sunday morning (local time); however, my biological clock was still set for Central Time, which was eight hours later. We inprocessed Kuwait that night by getting our identification cards swiped. Our ID cards have a microchip with lots of personal data on it, so inprocessing didn’t take long. We also had a welcome briefing telling us where the dining facility, post exchange and other services were located with their operating hours (plus a video with the CFLCC commander), finance briefing detailing all of our financial entitlements plus the various savings plans in a combat zone, and an administrative briefing. We were issued Rules of Engagement cards for Kuwait and Iraq.
My first day (Sunday) in Kuwait was spent sitting in a large building in the receive mode listening to one speaker after another give briefings. The briefings consisted of many topics: improvised explosive devices, electronic countermeasures, fratricide taught by the British and so on. Other than the British guy with his corning jokes my biggest battle was the Z-monster. (Jet lag is a funny thing especially going against the time zones.) I also walked around camp trying to get body armor and flights north for my media friends. By now, I knew them very well. Both of them can snore real loud...they slept next to me. (In a circus tent sleeping on cots with 100 other guys with various schedules and snoring… I did not sleep well in Kuwait. It didn’t help that I was right beside the door and heard it open every time someone entered or departed.)
On Day 2 (Monday), I secured transportation (another SUV) and drove to an airbase and secured body armor and flights for my radio personalities. (On the Kuwaiti highway, we saw the old “Basra Road of Death” from Desert Storm plus many herds of camels and flocks of sheep & goats. I also took two staff buddies with me who had brothers in the USAF at this airbase. (I also issued ammunition to my buddies and me.) So, after putting Zack & Jim on an aircraft bound for Baghdad, I socialized with two sets of brothers for the rest of the day until it was time to head back to my Kuwait home. We also played a few games of billiards. One of my new USAF brothers was a pilot on a C-130. The other is a shop foreman at a wheeled maintenance facility. In the evening, I attended a MySpace live concert shown around the world sponsored by Morale Welfare Recreation. Jessica Simpson was the last performer. She wasn’t feeling well but sang three songs anyway. She had trouble hitting the high notes, but to me she was the highlight of the event. The other bands and “talent” were vulgar and offensive.
On Day 3 (Tuesday) we headed to the range for most of the day and I fired both of my weapons: M4 Colt 5.56mm carbine and M9 Beretta 9mm pistol. We saw camels up close and personal again. The rest of the day, I raided the post exchange for an alarm clock, sun screen, towels and more postcards. Then I wrote on the postcards and mailed them.
On Day 4 (Wednesday), I reconfigured my A, B & D duffle bags, because I could only fly north with one. I gave my B & D bags to my men to load in our container that they would retrieve from the port in a few days. (My C bag departed months ago on the container, which sailed around the world on one of the Army’s contracted cargo ships.) Then, I boarded a bus and rode to the same airbase that I visited on Day 2. We boarded a USAF C-17 cargo plane and flew north to Baghdad. In Baghdad, I switched to a U.S. Army CH-47D cargo helicopter and flew to Camp Taji under cover of darkness. I checked into the Counter Insurgency Academy and the logistics sergeant issued me the key to my own “bedroom.” It was really half of a shipping container with my own sink, toilet and shower, which leaked all over the floor (but I’m not complaining) stacked inside of a warehouse. It was furnished with a bed, mattress, wall locker (wardrobe), desk, refrigerator and TV with five AFN stations. I was able to watch some March Madness. That was nice, since I haven’t watched college basketball all season. (The last few months I’ve been working from 6 a.m. to 8 – 10 p.m. every workday, so this was a nice break.) When I arrived at Camp Taji, it seemed like “wow, I’m back from a long R&R trip.” It was like I had never left 15-months ago. (I was also happy to get out of Kuwait. Each time on my past two tours, I’d get the Kuwaiti Crud. Last time I was so weak from sickness, I was out of action for a whole day. So I was glad to get out of Kuwait unscathed for once. People in my unit were getting the Crud before I left, so it was a concern.)
From March 13 – 18, I attended the COIN Academy. (The COIN Academy was started by GEN George Casey, then the Multi-National Force – Iraq commander, now the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, in August 2005. My brigade attended the first class in Dec. 2005, but I was not invited that time. Casey wanted to train the leaders of each U.S. Army Brigade Combat Team or USMC Regimental Combat Team coming to Iraq how to defeat the insurgency.) Every morning I would run the roads of Camp Taji for 4 – 6 miles with a few of my buddies working out before class. I also hit the gym a few times to lift weights. The first morning it rained on us, so we looked like pigs that had found our favorite mud hole. The moon dust turns to peanut butter when it gets wet, so from the knees down we were muddy. Our classes ran from 8 a.m. to 8 – 9 p.m. One evening after class, we rode to the PX on a MWR trip. After picking up some electrical adapters, I visited my old office. The maps I hung on my walls in 2006 were still there. Other than the furniture being rearranged, it looked like I’d never left. I made a call to Kirk, the guy I would be replacing and had a nice chat. (I also wrote a story about my brigade attending the COIN Academy again, which hit the media outlets a few days ago.)
On March 18, we boarded another Army CH-47D and flew south to Forward Operating Base Falcon under cover of darkness. (CH-47Ds only fly at night for force protection reasons. They are huge aircraft and very valuable. It takes a general’s signature to authorize a day flight with this type of helicopter.) I visited FOB Falcon once in 2006 to attend a memorial service for one of our killed in action Soldiers. (One of our battalions, was stationed here for the first half of 2006.) Kirk met me at the Landing Zone and I moved my bags to temporary billets. I live in a trailer with three rooms. I have my own room, but the trailer has no water fixtures. I have to hike about 80 meters to the latrine/shower trailers, but I’m not complaining. My room is furnished with two beds with new mattresses, two wall lockers and two smaller dressers. (I am not unpacking because I’m told I’ll be moving again in a few weeks.) Then I linked up with Kirk at the office that I take over in a few weeks. Soon after I arrived, a 107mm rocket exploded just outside the building. I was covered in dirt that flew through the boarded up window. My friend LTC Mike McNally, whose office is on the second floor about 20 meters away, was sitting at his desk. Shrapnel came through his boarded up window and impacted his interior walls in several places. So, FOB Falcon welcomed me with a bang. (Mike and I were stationed together in an infantry battalion at Fort Chaffee, Ark. and we were running partners.)
March 19 – 21, I have been shadowing Kirk but giving him enough space to do his job. I’m impressed with what his unit, 4th Infantry BCT, 1st Infantry Division from Fort Riley, Kan. has done. The 4th Inf. Div. (and Multi-National Division – Baghdad) public affairs officer, LTC Steve Stover, who is an old friend of mine, told me that Kirk’s public affairs section is the best one in the entire Iraqi theatre. So, I am observing what he does and I will continue to do what works well and will modify where I think I can do the job better. However, he is an awesome PAO. Just for an example, in 12-months at Taji in 2006 I had 30 embed reporters and 35 VIPs with me. Kirk has had over 70 media embeds during his 14-months here. Of course, the Rashid District of Baghdad is much more popular to the International and Iraqi media than the Taji area plus Kirk doesn’t handle VIPs. Someone else does. His staff also cranks out more print stories than any other public affairs section in Iraq. (My staff cranks out more print and broadcast products than any other PA section in the 4th Inf. Div., so I think I can continue Kirk’s trend.)
On March 19 when my boss, COL Ted Martin, arrived here for the first time, he rushed up and asked me, “are you OK?” For a second I thought he was going to hug me. I was startled and surprised. I did not know what he was talking about.
I replied, “of course.” I was still bewildered. Later, I found out that my friend, Dave, our night battle major who is shadowing his counterpart from 4/1ID passed on to him that I was nearly hit in Tuesday’s rocket attack. I don’t remember telling Dave, so I’m not sure how he found out.
We have received an indirect fire attack everyday since I’ve been here. Today, while I was in the dining facility, 10 81mm mortar rounds hit the camp. One round landed just outside the building but did not explode. So now my boss asks, “were you near that attack?” So far my answers have been “yes.” So he jokingly calls me a mortar magnet.
It’s not alarming that the indirect fire has increased lately. The enemy is responding in one of the only ways they know how. The unit here is doing an awesome job of catching bad guys. In recent days they have captured some big fish and the enemy does not like it.
Camp Taji was pretty big. If I remember correctly, it was about 45 square kilometers. FOB Falcon is small, maybe two square kilometers. It takes me less than 40-minutes to run around the entire perimeter and that’s when I run into a few dead ends and backtrack several times. So when the bad guys shoot at us it is like shooting fish in a barrel.
FOB Falcon does not have very many trees. If I’m not mistaken, I’ve seen three buildings with a handful of trees around each building. So, this camp is not attractive, but it has everything a Soldier needs. The PX is not very well stocked, but I don’t make many stops there anyway.
I must get back to work. I have an operations order annex to complete.
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. Being on the receiving end of indirect fire can be demoralizing. Keep Jazz in your prayers. God is definitely in control…and I’m glad He is. I wish you well.
Happy Easter!
I have been in the Middle East for two weeks. I departed Fort Hood, Texas on a DC-10 March 7. We made two fuel stops enroute to Kuwait. The first one was Gander, Newfoundland, Canada and the second was Leipzig, Germany (former East Germany). Gander had about a foot of snow on the ground and it had just rained in Germany.
For your information, we had about 16 flights spaced over two weeks to get our troops from Texas to Kuwait. Each flight took different routes, so they make different fuel stops partly because many of the flights have different carriers. Some might be United Airlines, Delta Airlines, World Airlines or a myriad of companies, whomever the USAF contracted for our travel. Plane loads varied in size depending on the nomenclatures of the aircraft. My flight this time happened to be ATA and carried about 300 personnel. There are many variables that go into flight planning. We had a lot of weight due to additional cargo, which means we burned more fuel on take-off and the aircrew was very mindful of the fuel consumption.
During fuel stops, everyone must get off the plane for safety reasons. In Newfoundland, we visited the shops and I bought post cards for $1 each. The Canadians were friendly. (I was escorting Zack & Jim, two radio personalities from Waco 100. They do the “Morning Show with Zack & Jim” from 6 – 10 a.m. every weekday. They play two kinds of music as disc jockeys between their jokes…country and western. Their show is rated number one in two radio markets: Waco and Temple/Killeen. They were bound for Camp Liberty to do live radio broadcasts from Baghdad. That’s another story.) One of Zack & Jim’s sponsors was a telephone company, so the radio guys were issued a Blackberry cellular phone with international calling capability. Plus the company gave them a bunch of international calling cards to issue to Soldiers. Needless to say, Jim let me use their phone to call Lois, because mine did not have a signal.
In Germany, it felt like we were being pushed off into a back corner of the airport and isolated/contained to be out of sight, out of mind. It seemed that part of Germany is still in the Cold War, because the East Germans were suspicious of us. There were two airport shops and the shop keepers were friendly, but the merchandise was expensive. Post cards were $6-7 each, so I didn’t buy any. We did play many games of fusbol during the layover. (On a flight behind me, a crewmember died on the airplane. Therefore, our troops spent about 36 hours in that same airport waiting for the investigation to be completed. A source told me they had massive fusbol tournaments, because they had nothing else to do. The airline carrier fed them during the adventure.)
After getting off the plane, we boarded buses and rode to Camp Buehring. I was the senior man on the flight, so I was invited to ride in the lead vehicle (a SUV) and issued ammunition to be a gunner. Each vehicle had a gunner, SUV or bus. My charges, Zack & Jim, were invited to ride in the trail vehicle (also a SUV). We arrived at camp just after midnight Sunday morning (local time); however, my biological clock was still set for Central Time, which was eight hours later. We inprocessed Kuwait that night by getting our identification cards swiped. Our ID cards have a microchip with lots of personal data on it, so inprocessing didn’t take long. We also had a welcome briefing telling us where the dining facility, post exchange and other services were located with their operating hours (plus a video with the CFLCC commander), finance briefing detailing all of our financial entitlements plus the various savings plans in a combat zone, and an administrative briefing. We were issued Rules of Engagement cards for Kuwait and Iraq.
My first day (Sunday) in Kuwait was spent sitting in a large building in the receive mode listening to one speaker after another give briefings. The briefings consisted of many topics: improvised explosive devices, electronic countermeasures, fratricide taught by the British and so on. Other than the British guy with his corning jokes my biggest battle was the Z-monster. (Jet lag is a funny thing especially going against the time zones.) I also walked around camp trying to get body armor and flights north for my media friends. By now, I knew them very well. Both of them can snore real loud...they slept next to me. (In a circus tent sleeping on cots with 100 other guys with various schedules and snoring… I did not sleep well in Kuwait. It didn’t help that I was right beside the door and heard it open every time someone entered or departed.)
On Day 2 (Monday), I secured transportation (another SUV) and drove to an airbase and secured body armor and flights for my radio personalities. (On the Kuwaiti highway, we saw the old “Basra Road of Death” from Desert Storm plus many herds of camels and flocks of sheep & goats. I also took two staff buddies with me who had brothers in the USAF at this airbase. (I also issued ammunition to my buddies and me.) So, after putting Zack & Jim on an aircraft bound for Baghdad, I socialized with two sets of brothers for the rest of the day until it was time to head back to my Kuwait home. We also played a few games of billiards. One of my new USAF brothers was a pilot on a C-130. The other is a shop foreman at a wheeled maintenance facility. In the evening, I attended a MySpace live concert shown around the world sponsored by Morale Welfare Recreation. Jessica Simpson was the last performer. She wasn’t feeling well but sang three songs anyway. She had trouble hitting the high notes, but to me she was the highlight of the event. The other bands and “talent” were vulgar and offensive.
On Day 3 (Tuesday) we headed to the range for most of the day and I fired both of my weapons: M4 Colt 5.56mm carbine and M9 Beretta 9mm pistol. We saw camels up close and personal again. The rest of the day, I raided the post exchange for an alarm clock, sun screen, towels and more postcards. Then I wrote on the postcards and mailed them.
On Day 4 (Wednesday), I reconfigured my A, B & D duffle bags, because I could only fly north with one. I gave my B & D bags to my men to load in our container that they would retrieve from the port in a few days. (My C bag departed months ago on the container, which sailed around the world on one of the Army’s contracted cargo ships.) Then, I boarded a bus and rode to the same airbase that I visited on Day 2. We boarded a USAF C-17 cargo plane and flew north to Baghdad. In Baghdad, I switched to a U.S. Army CH-47D cargo helicopter and flew to Camp Taji under cover of darkness. I checked into the Counter Insurgency Academy and the logistics sergeant issued me the key to my own “bedroom.” It was really half of a shipping container with my own sink, toilet and shower, which leaked all over the floor (but I’m not complaining) stacked inside of a warehouse. It was furnished with a bed, mattress, wall locker (wardrobe), desk, refrigerator and TV with five AFN stations. I was able to watch some March Madness. That was nice, since I haven’t watched college basketball all season. (The last few months I’ve been working from 6 a.m. to 8 – 10 p.m. every workday, so this was a nice break.) When I arrived at Camp Taji, it seemed like “wow, I’m back from a long R&R trip.” It was like I had never left 15-months ago. (I was also happy to get out of Kuwait. Each time on my past two tours, I’d get the Kuwaiti Crud. Last time I was so weak from sickness, I was out of action for a whole day. So I was glad to get out of Kuwait unscathed for once. People in my unit were getting the Crud before I left, so it was a concern.)
From March 13 – 18, I attended the COIN Academy. (The COIN Academy was started by GEN George Casey, then the Multi-National Force – Iraq commander, now the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, in August 2005. My brigade attended the first class in Dec. 2005, but I was not invited that time. Casey wanted to train the leaders of each U.S. Army Brigade Combat Team or USMC Regimental Combat Team coming to Iraq how to defeat the insurgency.) Every morning I would run the roads of Camp Taji for 4 – 6 miles with a few of my buddies working out before class. I also hit the gym a few times to lift weights. The first morning it rained on us, so we looked like pigs that had found our favorite mud hole. The moon dust turns to peanut butter when it gets wet, so from the knees down we were muddy. Our classes ran from 8 a.m. to 8 – 9 p.m. One evening after class, we rode to the PX on a MWR trip. After picking up some electrical adapters, I visited my old office. The maps I hung on my walls in 2006 were still there. Other than the furniture being rearranged, it looked like I’d never left. I made a call to Kirk, the guy I would be replacing and had a nice chat. (I also wrote a story about my brigade attending the COIN Academy again, which hit the media outlets a few days ago.)
On March 18, we boarded another Army CH-47D and flew south to Forward Operating Base Falcon under cover of darkness. (CH-47Ds only fly at night for force protection reasons. They are huge aircraft and very valuable. It takes a general’s signature to authorize a day flight with this type of helicopter.) I visited FOB Falcon once in 2006 to attend a memorial service for one of our killed in action Soldiers. (One of our battalions, was stationed here for the first half of 2006.) Kirk met me at the Landing Zone and I moved my bags to temporary billets. I live in a trailer with three rooms. I have my own room, but the trailer has no water fixtures. I have to hike about 80 meters to the latrine/shower trailers, but I’m not complaining. My room is furnished with two beds with new mattresses, two wall lockers and two smaller dressers. (I am not unpacking because I’m told I’ll be moving again in a few weeks.) Then I linked up with Kirk at the office that I take over in a few weeks. Soon after I arrived, a 107mm rocket exploded just outside the building. I was covered in dirt that flew through the boarded up window. My friend LTC Mike McNally, whose office is on the second floor about 20 meters away, was sitting at his desk. Shrapnel came through his boarded up window and impacted his interior walls in several places. So, FOB Falcon welcomed me with a bang. (Mike and I were stationed together in an infantry battalion at Fort Chaffee, Ark. and we were running partners.)
March 19 – 21, I have been shadowing Kirk but giving him enough space to do his job. I’m impressed with what his unit, 4th Infantry BCT, 1st Infantry Division from Fort Riley, Kan. has done. The 4th Inf. Div. (and Multi-National Division – Baghdad) public affairs officer, LTC Steve Stover, who is an old friend of mine, told me that Kirk’s public affairs section is the best one in the entire Iraqi theatre. So, I am observing what he does and I will continue to do what works well and will modify where I think I can do the job better. However, he is an awesome PAO. Just for an example, in 12-months at Taji in 2006 I had 30 embed reporters and 35 VIPs with me. Kirk has had over 70 media embeds during his 14-months here. Of course, the Rashid District of Baghdad is much more popular to the International and Iraqi media than the Taji area plus Kirk doesn’t handle VIPs. Someone else does. His staff also cranks out more print stories than any other public affairs section in Iraq. (My staff cranks out more print and broadcast products than any other PA section in the 4th Inf. Div., so I think I can continue Kirk’s trend.)
On March 19 when my boss, COL Ted Martin, arrived here for the first time, he rushed up and asked me, “are you OK?” For a second I thought he was going to hug me. I was startled and surprised. I did not know what he was talking about.
I replied, “of course.” I was still bewildered. Later, I found out that my friend, Dave, our night battle major who is shadowing his counterpart from 4/1ID passed on to him that I was nearly hit in Tuesday’s rocket attack. I don’t remember telling Dave, so I’m not sure how he found out.
We have received an indirect fire attack everyday since I’ve been here. Today, while I was in the dining facility, 10 81mm mortar rounds hit the camp. One round landed just outside the building but did not explode. So now my boss asks, “were you near that attack?” So far my answers have been “yes.” So he jokingly calls me a mortar magnet.
It’s not alarming that the indirect fire has increased lately. The enemy is responding in one of the only ways they know how. The unit here is doing an awesome job of catching bad guys. In recent days they have captured some big fish and the enemy does not like it.
Camp Taji was pretty big. If I remember correctly, it was about 45 square kilometers. FOB Falcon is small, maybe two square kilometers. It takes me less than 40-minutes to run around the entire perimeter and that’s when I run into a few dead ends and backtrack several times. So when the bad guys shoot at us it is like shooting fish in a barrel.
FOB Falcon does not have very many trees. If I’m not mistaken, I’ve seen three buildings with a handful of trees around each building. So, this camp is not attractive, but it has everything a Soldier needs. The PX is not very well stocked, but I don’t make many stops there anyway.
I must get back to work. I have an operations order annex to complete.
Thanks for all the prayers. Pray for our troops over here. Being on the receiving end of indirect fire can be demoralizing. Keep Jazz in your prayers. God is definitely in control…and I’m glad He is. I wish you well.
Happy Easter!
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Christmas 2007
Sun. 6 Jan 08
Surprise! I know you are shocked to hear from me. I did make it home safely from Iraq, if you haven’t figured that out. I was not a casualty. It’s actually been 13-months from today since we returned to the States. (I’m enclosing a summary of our tour during Operation Iraqi Freedom 05 – 07 or as I say… “OIF4,” so I will not rehash it.)
I was supposed to be back in Baghdad three-weeks ago for my next tour, but due to the awesome success of the surge and the tremendous efforts of my counterparts, who are diligently serving in the capital city (which is the center of gravity of Iraq), we are delayed for a few more weeks. I was supposed to go back to the same place where we were last year, but again due to the changing and improving tactical situation on the ground, we are going to another location in Baghdad instead.
The good news is that I will not be gone for two Christmas seasons in a row. Instead, I’ll be gone for two spring plantings. (My homestead still looks terrible with thistles and crab grass wrestling with our Bermuda grass, but I did make a little progress with the landscaping on our little piece of Texas.)
Needless to say, it has been a hectic year as we prepared for our third combat tour in Iraq. This time we are scheduled for a 15-month tour instead of 12-months. I’ll try not to bore you with the details, but here is a quick summary. (I often give similar versions to the media in the press kits when they come with me to visit our aggressive training regimen.)
Since we returned from Iraq in December 2006, we took about 30-days of leave. So we didn't do much in January 2007. (I took Lois to Barbados for a week to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We had a great time touring the island and did some SCUBA diving. We flew Grandma Judy here, so Jasmine stayed home with her. They had their own adventures with grandma off-roading in the family van and hiking on West Fort Hood. I also seized the opportunity to take images on the sidelines of the 2007 Cotton Bowl game in Dallas, where Auburn beat Nebraska by a field goal.)
In February, we received our equipment: drew combat vehicles and a bunch of other equipment such as radios, etc. (We left our combat vehicles in Iraq for our replacements, so we needed to get reequipped.) We also qualified with our assortment of small arms weapons by firing tons of ammunition on Fort Hood small arms ranges.
In March, we continued small arms ranges and conducted patrol and platoon lane training. Our units (six battalions) spent three weeks in the field focusing on battle drills and conducting lane training on react to roadside bombs, react to sniper, conduct medical evacuation, conduct route clearance, etc.
In April we finished the platoon/patrol lane training and prepared for Raider Scrimmage by building five simulated Iraqi villages. From 16 April – 7 May, we conducted the brigade field training exercise. We rolled to North Fort Hood and occupied a base camp. Everything we did replicated conditions in Iraq. One battalion was the blue force and conducted operations like we would in Iraq for one week. One battalion role-played the Iraqi citizens, leadership in the villages (mayor, business leaders, farmers, vendors, etc.), Iraqi army and police and terrorist cells. One battalion provided observer controllers. Then the units rotated for three iterations. It was the best home station training event that many of us had ever seen.
From 8 May – 21 June, we conducted gunnery. Our M1A2 SEP Abrams Main Battle Tanks, M2A3 and M3A3 Bradley fighting vehicles, M109A6 Paladins (155mm self-propelled howitzers) and M1114 gun trucks conducted Tables I through Table XII qualifying as many crews as possible.
We continued to conduct collective training ever since gunnery ended as we did various live fire exercises. We also continued to field new equipment as it arrived. We drew our new individual equipment from Rapid Fielding Initiative. Many of our Soldiers attended their necessary Non-Commissioned Officer Education System courses as well.
The first full weekend in July, I spent a few leave days and traveled to a small town in Pennsylvania. I was the guest speaker at a function honoring veterans. There was a parade and concert at the fair grounds. A number of local musicians dazzled the crowd and two Soldiers gave speeches. A local Army National Guardsman was the other speaker. The hosts treated me like a king for the weekend. In the parade, I rode in a classic red convertible like the Grand Marshall at the Rose Bowl Parade. It was a nice event.
We deployed to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., 5 Aug – 10 Sep, to conduct a mission readiness exercise to evaluate the brigade from top to bottom before we return to combat in Iraq. (It was like the final exam before we complete our training regimen for the pending combat deployment.) The brigade and battalion staff officers and commanders (company through brigade) completed the Leader Training Program before the bulk of the troops and equipment arrived.
From 17 – 23 Aug, we conducted Situation Training Exercises by doing various training lanes in the Iraqi villages at NTC. Some of these lanes included medical trauma events and evacuation, check point operations, and patrolling. Included in the lane scenarios were events using the following battle drills: reacting to sniper, roadside bomb, car bomb, small arms fire and indirect fire attacks.
From 24 – 31 Aug, we conducted full spectrum operations in a counter insurgency environment. In addition to the same events in the Situation Training Exercises, our leaders engaged government, military, police and civil leaders in ten Iraqi villages as various terrorist cells also operated in the Ghazi Province, which replicates as many complexities of the Iraqi Theatre as possible. Essentially every element from the brigade headquarters to the smallest specialty squad was tested, stressed and evaluated to give us first class training opportunities before we deploy back to Iraq in a few weeks.
Here’s a quick story. When I was at NTC, I was chatting with an Iraqi woman. (She is a Caladean Christian that is hired to be a role-player. She immigrated to the U.S. in 2003 after Saddam’s regime fell and now lives in San Diego. During our rotation, she was the governor’s press secretary.) She asked me if I had been to Iraq.
I answered jokingly, “Yes, I’ve been there so often the last few years that I ought to buy a house.”
She replied, “You can buy mine.” She wasn’t joking.
Her answer surprised me, so I asked her where the house was located. She told me it was on the Tigris River in northern Baghdad. (I’ve seen many houses along the Tigris River in northern Baghdad. I’ve even been inside some of them. In that area, the houses are quite nice.) However, I declined her offer.
While we were in the sand box at NTC, we learned that our “Raider” Brigade deployment to Iraq was delayed for 90-days. Therefore, we have continued to train. In October – December, we conducted two more iterations of gunneries for our big guns and live fire exercises in urban terrain. We also took two three-week periods of block leave. So, during Thanksgiving and Christmas I took some leave. I stayed home and whittled away at my “honey do” list, but it has grown again.
Even during our training, we were sometimes called out to help the Fort Hood community. Fort Hood has what is called a Crisis Reaction Battalion. Four times during our watch, we were called out to help. In February, there was a big range fire that threatened some housing areas and the Post Exchange. We helped put the fire out. In March, there was a flood that swept away a young toddler from a residential backyard. Our Soldiers found the young boy, but tragically he was dead. We found his body about four miles down stream. In June, a young sergeant managed to get lost on the land navigation course. This event made national news. We were called out and found his body four days later. Also in June was an exercise to test the response of the emergency systems, we were called out to help provide security for that event, which was a simulated terrorist attack. (Ironically, I escorted media for each of these events except the fire.)
Professionally, it’s been an exiting year. I have facilitated interviews or escorted reporters for nearly 90 media events. I often invite media to see our training, because if they come I know they will do a story. I get more mileage out of the media doing their own stories than having my team producing the stories and distributing them to the media outlets. My team does continue to crank out print and video stories…about 3 – 5 per week, but often times the editors at the various media outlets will not run our products for whatever reason. My assessment is that the editors think we are biased, even though most of our product is straight news. My team also published a field newspaper twice a month and every week at NTC.
Personally, it’s been a tough and challenging year. My grandmother, Jessie, died about 12:15 p.m. on 20 Sep, while I was advising a scene for a documentary with a TV crew. My cousin called to let me know between takes. (The documentary is a training film for medics at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.) She was 98 years old. I said a few words at the funeral. (I visited with her at a family reunion in July, so I am thankful that I was able to spend some time with her before she moved to her new Heavenly destination.)
In March, the post chaplain selected me to be the Parish Council president, so when I’m home that takes some of my time. I also sing with the praise team on Sunday mornings at the 73rd Street Chapel, also known as the 1st Cavalry Division Memorial Chapel.
In November, the family Ford Windstar van died. I replaced it with a 2006 Jeep Liberty. Lois loves driving it, so now my “work vehicle” is the Mazda Miata.
I also had some physical challenges. The laser eye surgery on 2 Nov corrected my left eye, but not the right one. I have had complications. I still see double due to cornea scaring. I may need additional surgery, but now I am too close to my deployment for any corrections. In the spring I pulled hamstrings three times, so I did not run any road races this year. However, this fall I did manage to run an 11-minute 2-mile dash during an Army Physical Fitness Test. (It helps to chase a gazelle.)
We kept Jasmine alive! She struggled the last three years with anorexia, bulimia and suicidal ideations. She also has nightmares from an event when she found a dead body on a hike with her cousin, Andy, while I was at NTC. (Andy lived with us from July to Thanksgiving.) The police initially did not believe her. During the search, they found a different body. So, there is no closure yet. Meanwhile, she is slowly moving out of a Gothic phase, which is good. Otherwise, she is doing well. She is a freshman in high school. She is excelling at history, art, drama and reading. She also enjoys music and playing the guitar. I often hear her singing in her room …she has a lovely voice.
Lois had a banner year. This year she is working as the publicity person at Protestant Women of the Chapel, in addition to teaching Jazz and running her photography business. She published monthly newsletters and organized media events for PWOC. When I am home, I am her assistant on her photo shoots. (In the last four years at Fort Hood, I’ve been home maybe 13-months and most of that was this year.) PWOC also functions as a support group for many wives while we are deployed.
Please pray for my cousin, Sheryl. She is an awesome gal, but is suffering from lymph node cancer. She beat it once several years ago when her kids were young, but now it’s back. (She’s the one that called me when grandma died.) She is also a tremendous host. She insists that I visit when I pass through the area, so I stayed at her place for the family reunion and the funeral.
I must get back to work. I have more events to plan including another congressional visit. (I am also tasked to be the protocol officer.)
Thanks for all the prayers. Keep Jazz in your prayers. God is definitely in control…and I’m glad He is. I wish you well.
Keep looking up!
Surprise! I know you are shocked to hear from me. I did make it home safely from Iraq, if you haven’t figured that out. I was not a casualty. It’s actually been 13-months from today since we returned to the States. (I’m enclosing a summary of our tour during Operation Iraqi Freedom 05 – 07 or as I say… “OIF4,” so I will not rehash it.)
I was supposed to be back in Baghdad three-weeks ago for my next tour, but due to the awesome success of the surge and the tremendous efforts of my counterparts, who are diligently serving in the capital city (which is the center of gravity of Iraq), we are delayed for a few more weeks. I was supposed to go back to the same place where we were last year, but again due to the changing and improving tactical situation on the ground, we are going to another location in Baghdad instead.
The good news is that I will not be gone for two Christmas seasons in a row. Instead, I’ll be gone for two spring plantings. (My homestead still looks terrible with thistles and crab grass wrestling with our Bermuda grass, but I did make a little progress with the landscaping on our little piece of Texas.)
Needless to say, it has been a hectic year as we prepared for our third combat tour in Iraq. This time we are scheduled for a 15-month tour instead of 12-months. I’ll try not to bore you with the details, but here is a quick summary. (I often give similar versions to the media in the press kits when they come with me to visit our aggressive training regimen.)
Since we returned from Iraq in December 2006, we took about 30-days of leave. So we didn't do much in January 2007. (I took Lois to Barbados for a week to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. We had a great time touring the island and did some SCUBA diving. We flew Grandma Judy here, so Jasmine stayed home with her. They had their own adventures with grandma off-roading in the family van and hiking on West Fort Hood. I also seized the opportunity to take images on the sidelines of the 2007 Cotton Bowl game in Dallas, where Auburn beat Nebraska by a field goal.)
In February, we received our equipment: drew combat vehicles and a bunch of other equipment such as radios, etc. (We left our combat vehicles in Iraq for our replacements, so we needed to get reequipped.) We also qualified with our assortment of small arms weapons by firing tons of ammunition on Fort Hood small arms ranges.
In March, we continued small arms ranges and conducted patrol and platoon lane training. Our units (six battalions) spent three weeks in the field focusing on battle drills and conducting lane training on react to roadside bombs, react to sniper, conduct medical evacuation, conduct route clearance, etc.
In April we finished the platoon/patrol lane training and prepared for Raider Scrimmage by building five simulated Iraqi villages. From 16 April – 7 May, we conducted the brigade field training exercise. We rolled to North Fort Hood and occupied a base camp. Everything we did replicated conditions in Iraq. One battalion was the blue force and conducted operations like we would in Iraq for one week. One battalion role-played the Iraqi citizens, leadership in the villages (mayor, business leaders, farmers, vendors, etc.), Iraqi army and police and terrorist cells. One battalion provided observer controllers. Then the units rotated for three iterations. It was the best home station training event that many of us had ever seen.
From 8 May – 21 June, we conducted gunnery. Our M1A2 SEP Abrams Main Battle Tanks, M2A3 and M3A3 Bradley fighting vehicles, M109A6 Paladins (155mm self-propelled howitzers) and M1114 gun trucks conducted Tables I through Table XII qualifying as many crews as possible.
We continued to conduct collective training ever since gunnery ended as we did various live fire exercises. We also continued to field new equipment as it arrived. We drew our new individual equipment from Rapid Fielding Initiative. Many of our Soldiers attended their necessary Non-Commissioned Officer Education System courses as well.
The first full weekend in July, I spent a few leave days and traveled to a small town in Pennsylvania. I was the guest speaker at a function honoring veterans. There was a parade and concert at the fair grounds. A number of local musicians dazzled the crowd and two Soldiers gave speeches. A local Army National Guardsman was the other speaker. The hosts treated me like a king for the weekend. In the parade, I rode in a classic red convertible like the Grand Marshall at the Rose Bowl Parade. It was a nice event.
We deployed to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., 5 Aug – 10 Sep, to conduct a mission readiness exercise to evaluate the brigade from top to bottom before we return to combat in Iraq. (It was like the final exam before we complete our training regimen for the pending combat deployment.) The brigade and battalion staff officers and commanders (company through brigade) completed the Leader Training Program before the bulk of the troops and equipment arrived.
From 17 – 23 Aug, we conducted Situation Training Exercises by doing various training lanes in the Iraqi villages at NTC. Some of these lanes included medical trauma events and evacuation, check point operations, and patrolling. Included in the lane scenarios were events using the following battle drills: reacting to sniper, roadside bomb, car bomb, small arms fire and indirect fire attacks.
From 24 – 31 Aug, we conducted full spectrum operations in a counter insurgency environment. In addition to the same events in the Situation Training Exercises, our leaders engaged government, military, police and civil leaders in ten Iraqi villages as various terrorist cells also operated in the Ghazi Province, which replicates as many complexities of the Iraqi Theatre as possible. Essentially every element from the brigade headquarters to the smallest specialty squad was tested, stressed and evaluated to give us first class training opportunities before we deploy back to Iraq in a few weeks.
Here’s a quick story. When I was at NTC, I was chatting with an Iraqi woman. (She is a Caladean Christian that is hired to be a role-player. She immigrated to the U.S. in 2003 after Saddam’s regime fell and now lives in San Diego. During our rotation, she was the governor’s press secretary.) She asked me if I had been to Iraq.
I answered jokingly, “Yes, I’ve been there so often the last few years that I ought to buy a house.”
She replied, “You can buy mine.” She wasn’t joking.
Her answer surprised me, so I asked her where the house was located. She told me it was on the Tigris River in northern Baghdad. (I’ve seen many houses along the Tigris River in northern Baghdad. I’ve even been inside some of them. In that area, the houses are quite nice.) However, I declined her offer.
While we were in the sand box at NTC, we learned that our “Raider” Brigade deployment to Iraq was delayed for 90-days. Therefore, we have continued to train. In October – December, we conducted two more iterations of gunneries for our big guns and live fire exercises in urban terrain. We also took two three-week periods of block leave. So, during Thanksgiving and Christmas I took some leave. I stayed home and whittled away at my “honey do” list, but it has grown again.
Even during our training, we were sometimes called out to help the Fort Hood community. Fort Hood has what is called a Crisis Reaction Battalion. Four times during our watch, we were called out to help. In February, there was a big range fire that threatened some housing areas and the Post Exchange. We helped put the fire out. In March, there was a flood that swept away a young toddler from a residential backyard. Our Soldiers found the young boy, but tragically he was dead. We found his body about four miles down stream. In June, a young sergeant managed to get lost on the land navigation course. This event made national news. We were called out and found his body four days later. Also in June was an exercise to test the response of the emergency systems, we were called out to help provide security for that event, which was a simulated terrorist attack. (Ironically, I escorted media for each of these events except the fire.)
Professionally, it’s been an exiting year. I have facilitated interviews or escorted reporters for nearly 90 media events. I often invite media to see our training, because if they come I know they will do a story. I get more mileage out of the media doing their own stories than having my team producing the stories and distributing them to the media outlets. My team does continue to crank out print and video stories…about 3 – 5 per week, but often times the editors at the various media outlets will not run our products for whatever reason. My assessment is that the editors think we are biased, even though most of our product is straight news. My team also published a field newspaper twice a month and every week at NTC.
Personally, it’s been a tough and challenging year. My grandmother, Jessie, died about 12:15 p.m. on 20 Sep, while I was advising a scene for a documentary with a TV crew. My cousin called to let me know between takes. (The documentary is a training film for medics at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.) She was 98 years old. I said a few words at the funeral. (I visited with her at a family reunion in July, so I am thankful that I was able to spend some time with her before she moved to her new Heavenly destination.)
In March, the post chaplain selected me to be the Parish Council president, so when I’m home that takes some of my time. I also sing with the praise team on Sunday mornings at the 73rd Street Chapel, also known as the 1st Cavalry Division Memorial Chapel.
In November, the family Ford Windstar van died. I replaced it with a 2006 Jeep Liberty. Lois loves driving it, so now my “work vehicle” is the Mazda Miata.
I also had some physical challenges. The laser eye surgery on 2 Nov corrected my left eye, but not the right one. I have had complications. I still see double due to cornea scaring. I may need additional surgery, but now I am too close to my deployment for any corrections. In the spring I pulled hamstrings three times, so I did not run any road races this year. However, this fall I did manage to run an 11-minute 2-mile dash during an Army Physical Fitness Test. (It helps to chase a gazelle.)
We kept Jasmine alive! She struggled the last three years with anorexia, bulimia and suicidal ideations. She also has nightmares from an event when she found a dead body on a hike with her cousin, Andy, while I was at NTC. (Andy lived with us from July to Thanksgiving.) The police initially did not believe her. During the search, they found a different body. So, there is no closure yet. Meanwhile, she is slowly moving out of a Gothic phase, which is good. Otherwise, she is doing well. She is a freshman in high school. She is excelling at history, art, drama and reading. She also enjoys music and playing the guitar. I often hear her singing in her room …she has a lovely voice.
Lois had a banner year. This year she is working as the publicity person at Protestant Women of the Chapel, in addition to teaching Jazz and running her photography business. She published monthly newsletters and organized media events for PWOC. When I am home, I am her assistant on her photo shoots. (In the last four years at Fort Hood, I’ve been home maybe 13-months and most of that was this year.) PWOC also functions as a support group for many wives while we are deployed.
Please pray for my cousin, Sheryl. She is an awesome gal, but is suffering from lymph node cancer. She beat it once several years ago when her kids were young, but now it’s back. (She’s the one that called me when grandma died.) She is also a tremendous host. She insists that I visit when I pass through the area, so I stayed at her place for the family reunion and the funeral.
I must get back to work. I have more events to plan including another congressional visit. (I am also tasked to be the protocol officer.)
Thanks for all the prayers. Keep Jazz in your prayers. God is definitely in control…and I’m glad He is. I wish you well.
Keep looking up!
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