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!