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!