Week 38, OIF6

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!