Stories From The Front Line

(First Page)    prev    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10    next    (Last Page)

Most Iraqis appreciate U.S. help -- contrary to news
by Bonnie Murphy
BALAD, Iraq (Army News Service, July 2, 2004) -- I'm appalled at the
"news" as it's reported from Iraq.

Just as disturbing is the lack of knowledge a lot of people have about
what's really going on, why we're there, and what it's really like. I'd
like to set the record straight.

My job as an environmentalist is primarily the protection of the
environment and the disposal of Department of Defense-generated
hazardous wastes. I volunteered to go to Iraq, and last December I was selected to set up the first disposal operations in the forward
deployed area.

I have been stationed at Balad Air Base, LSA Anaconda, since Dec. 28.
On several occasions, my work has taken me to Baghdad. I extended my initial tour from 120 days to 155 days, and June 7 I went back to
Baghdad for six more months.

Ninety-five percent of the Iraqi people want us there, and it's only a
handful of insurgents with weapons who are attacking our bases, convoys and troops. The older generations say that although they may never see the freedoms we're trying to bring to their country, they know their children will enjoy the rights that we take for granted in this country.

I've had the opportunity to meet and speak with day laborers coming on Anaconda. They are grateful for the work and pay they receive. Men have taken my hand with tear-filled eyes and thanked me because they can now provide for their families -- something they couldn't do when Saddam was in power. I've met engineers, pilots and well-educated men who, for the first time since Saddam took office, are returning from self-imposed exile to their homeland and are able to find work on our many U.S. bases.

Before I left Balad, I was able to coordinate the donation of $3,500 of
hospital disinfectant and dental amalgam to the local hospital from the
DRMS inventory of excess property. Our Balad team of doctors and medics make regular scheduled visits to the surrounding communities to provide medical care and assistance to the people and teach new technologies to Iraqi medical personnel.

People are being taught field sanitation and hand-washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs. About 400,000 children have now received up-to-date immunizations. And 100 percent of the existing hospitals are now open and staffed, compared to 35 percent before the war.

On behalf of my organization, the Defense Logistics Agency, and its
partner, Army Materiel Command, we're sponsoring a local secondary
school. We've received $65,500 of Saddam's money to completely rebuild the school. Our school is only one of 11 schools being sponsored by different units on LSA Anaconda. School attendance is up 80 percent, and for the first time girls are allowed to attend classes.

Our facility engineers and Seabees are rebuilding outdated sewer lines
and constructing a new water treatment plant that will serve the entire
area. This is being done in every major city. More than 4.5 million
people have clean drinking water for the first time.

We're updating and constructing new power plants throughout the
country. Now the entire populace receives twice the electric power it
did before the war. More than 400,000 people have telephone service for the first time.

The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off loaded from
ships faster. Farmers are being educated on better methods, and new
technologies are being introduced. Local contractors working on our
bases are, for the first time, able to receive lubricant oils, and
hydraulic and brake fluids for their equipment.

The newly formed Iraqi Civil Defense Force trains on LSA Anaconda. The teams work and learn side by side with our soldiers, and they are proud to be learning from us and eager to help in the battle against the
handful of insurgents making life miserable in Iraq. Every day our
troops are finding buried weapons and chemicals that must be disposed of. The dangerous chemicals pose a threat to the environment, health and safety of not only the Iraqi people but the world if they were to come into the wrong hands.

I've met some wonderful soldiers serving in Iraq. As a nation, we
should all be proud and supportive of the mission, Operation Iraqi
Freedom.

I believe in my job, my country, and I want my grandchildren to always be able to enjoy their freedoms. That's why I'm going back.

(Editor’s note: Bonnie Murphy is a Defense Reutilization and Marketing
Service employee who volunteered to go to Iraq in December. Prior to
her work at Balad Air Base, LSA Anaconda, Murphy worked for DRMS out of its headquarters in Battle Creek, Mich. DRMS is a field activity of the Defense Logistics Agency. Murphy was awarded the DLA Employee of the Second Quarter for the work she has performed in Iraq. She recently decided to extend her tour in Iraq until January. At the time she wrote this commentary, she was home on leave in Florida attending her daughter’s high school graduation.)
link: http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=6128

Happy Mosque Day to all,
Well things are starting to wind down here; we have a few of the Marines living with us (they are our replacements) and we have begun to refocus our attention to the packing and maintenance that will be required to get our vehicles safely back to Kuwait. The trip is a long one and is expected to take two to three days. I can tell you that I am personally ready for this deployment to end. As I told my aunt on the phone, "my fun meter is pegged" However I believe that I will have at least one maybe two messages left before I leave. It is going to be hard to say good by to the Mosque day updates, because they have allowed me to share with all of you the day to day activities that are never mentioned in the news. In all honesty they have given much more to me than you'll ever know.
The past few months have been perhaps the most rewarding period of this very long journey that began what seems like so long ago. I can tell you that we have made a tremendous difference across the brigade sector and I am very proud of these young artillerymen who have set the standard for the division with their professionalism and their willingness to train in the midst of bad food, hot days, broken showers, and most of all their ability to understand the necessity of this extension.
I was reading the other day about the events of the D-Day invasion and how many of the rigid plans were thrown out the window by some very good junior leaders. It was their ability to make quick decisions that allowed the invasion to succeed. I can tell you that history repeated itself because the Army of today has the same type of quick thinking junior leaders who assessed the situation and quickly adapted to the needs of the mission. I felt much honored to be on the ground watching and learning each day as they learned how to shoot and communicate as true Redlegs should.
I was very fortunate to be part of this adventure called Operation Iraqi Freedom and I will perhaps remember these last few months here at as the best days of my life as a soldier. I have trained so long for this moment; my family has sacrificed so very much, the long days, and the even longer absences; the terrible weather that somehow always manages to follow you to the field; the endless days of training that leave you wishing you were smarter than you actually are; and yet these past few months have made everything I went through worth it.
Yet, I truly understand that I could not have become who I am without the love of some very good people. My wife has been the rock for myself and our family; she has paid the bills, made the kids study, driven all over Germany for games and practices, and she has managed to remain loving and tender with each email or phone call. I am so very lucky to have such a beautiful, strong, and resourceful woman in my life.
My father has always been there for me, yet during these past 14 months he has listened and mentored me more than ever as I have grown as a man and leader of soldiers in combat. He instilled in all of his children the ideals of service, standards, and most of all love for our great country. You know how he did all this? He went to work everyday, sacrificed his needs for the sake of his families, and taught all of us that the grandest gift you can give your sons is to love their mother. The latter will, with the help of the good Lord, be my legacy to my sons.
However I would be remiss if I did not thank you all for your love,
generosity, and for your efforts. All of you have made a tremendous difference in the lives of many, but I want to thank you most for the difference you have made in my life. You have allowed me to remember why I entered the service some 15 years ago and why this job is so important. I thank you all for your interest and for your tenacity in continually finding ways to get small pieces of America into the many packages that I received. Each of you have defined selfless service and I am so appreciative and humbled that I am at a lost for how to adequately thank you.
I have seen so many awful things during this deployment, yet I cannot allow that to be the focal point of my time here. We have served, we have sacrificed, we have endured, and we have done this to bring freedom to a country that was brutalized by a band of men that placed their needs above their countrymen. That is why I'm here and that is why I will always remember the positive aspects of this mission. We stood up and saved a nation.
I am very proud of our accomplishments and I believe that we have served our country faithfully. I hope all of you realize the great things my boys have done here and their efforts should not go unmentioned. They helped to open schools, played soccer with little Iraqi children, walked the streets in 120 degree heat to make the streets safer, escorted hundreds of convoys in and around the brigade and division sector, endured the boredom of endless hours of guard duty, and more importantly they overcame their fears and fired back in the middle of a costly mortar attack that left over 20 soldiers injured.
For me the fight continues and I will remain faithful to my vow to get all of them home safely. And so I leave you with the hope that you have a very good Mosque Day and a safe weekend. Godspeed and I will see you all soon on the high ground. Rob

There is a vast difference between Baghdad and Diwaniyah as far as the civilian populace is concerned. Diwaniyah is a small ci(approximately 330,000 inhabitants) located in south-central Iraq and is a much more traditional culture than that of Baghdad. The civilians here are mostly Shi'a Muslims and dress more traditionally. In Baghdad, you would see many different styles of dress; some modern, some traditional, several other styles of dress driven by religion, social status, economic means, etc. It is what you would expect from a big, conservative city.

The majority of Diwaniyah's citizens wear the more traditional Shiite
Muslim dress, which is also driven by religious, social, and economic status, age, etc. It is at this time of year that the Shi'a observe an important time in their religion. It is a time of mourning and a majority of the women wear all black, usually only showing their faces. I do have an idea of how hot that must be. The men wear a type of, well for the lack of a better term, a dress. Men also kiss each other on the cheek when they greet one another.

One thing that I have found about the Iraqi people is their strong
commitment to hospitality. It seems somewhat stronger in the south than in Baghdad. We are almost always offered tea when we go someplace, and it is considered rude to not accept. An Iraqi man will usually insist that you enter a room or pass through a door before him, and most men will begin and end a meeting with a handshake, even if the meeting does not go his way. They seldom raise their voices and are eager to hear what you have to say. How often does any of this happen to you in the States? We seldom work with women and have little interaction with them otherwise.

To go along with their traditional hospitality, the Iraqis here are very
happy to have American troops in their city, as I learned on my first mission here. The 2/3 ACR (2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment) launched an offensive against Muqtada Militia here on 4 May. It involved AC-130 Gunships, Abrams Tanks, helicopters, and ground troops with various weapons systems. Needless to say, they did some damage to the surrounding area. My team and I were on scene a few hours later to access the battle damage and to begin the
claims process (I will explain this in more detail later).

As we talked to shop keepers and homeowners, I was amazed at how happy they were to talk to us. Some of these people had just sustained significant damage to their property, and they were thanking us for coming back to their town. One guy invited us in for breakfast; others gave us Pepsi or offered us tea. I went into one guy's house to find that a grenade had hit the roof of his home and started a fire. He had sustained a large amount of damage to the structure and some of the occupants were nearly injured. I was very surprised when he invited us to come back for dinner that night.

The more I talked to these people, the more I learned that they were very happy that the Americans were back. Things went well for the people of Diwaniyah when the Marines were here after we took the country. They were then replaced by our "allies" and the quality of life diminished for the civilians. Now this is not documented fact or my opinion, this came from most of the Iraqis that I have talked to.

One of the things that the Spanish and Dominicans were reluctant to do was to engage in patrols throughout the city. This led to the Muqtada Militia creating a stronghold in downtown Diwaniyah. The militia had taken up residence in a burned out theater and took control of the surrounding area. Some of the citizens that I had spoke to that morning told me stories about beatings of the civilians who resisted the militia's presence, the disruption of business, and other things that one might expect of someone who hides behind a religious movement only to be "gunning" for political power.

I do have photographic evidence of one of the crimes that they committed. The militia used the grounds of a girls middle school as a weapons cache. The school is located directly across the street from the theater and offered a "safe" place to hide the weapons. The girls were actually scared away from the school at the height of the militia's activities and were forced to attend other schools. I have pictures of mortar tubes, mortar rounds, RPG rounds, hand grenades, anti-tank grenades, artillery shells (for IED's), and some other things that I didn't recognize.

The school had been closed for two or three weeks and unfortunately had sustained some looting. It also got shot-up in the attack, so we (my team) hired a contractor to come in to repair the damage and put the school back into business. The workers found some additional munitions during the clean up and the Army removed them. The school now looks great and shows no signs of battle damage. So at least the girls will have a safe school to come back to next school year.

Another significant difference between life in Baghdad and here in Diwaniyah as the amount of combat and hostile acts. Yesterday was the first time that I had heard an explosion in about two weeks. I heard automatic gunfire two days prior to that, and everyone took note. Gunfire in Baghdad was so common that it was not worth mentioning. I have also not heard a mortar impact since I left Baghdad.

One thing that has found it's way to Diwaniyah is the infamous IED. However, they are much less sophisticated than the ones employed in Baghdad. The few that I have heard about have been five-gallon oilcans packed with plastic explosives. However, I do believe that Diwaniyah holds the record for the largest IED in the Iraq. Someone had filled a 55-gallon drum with explosives and fertilizer and wired it to be command detonated. It weighed in at over 500 lbs. Fortunately, a wise citizen notified the Iraqi Police of its presence and it was disarmed before it could hurt anyone (or should I say destroy a whole neighborhood).

Most of the fighting here took place before the Americans returned on a permanent basis. Prior to that, it was easy to pick a fight with the Dominicans and Spanish, as they would return fire as they made their way back to base. Picking a fight with the American military usually results in enemy death. Knowing this, the majority of the militia packed up shop and moved 60 miles to Najaf, where the heaviest fighting is currently taking place.

Even though it is rather quiet here, the command is not willing to take any chances. We are required to wear our battle rattle (body armor, helmet, and of course weapon) during certain times of the day. This means to and from the showers, which is quite counter productive considering that our body armor is dirty and we have to wear it over clean clothes and a clean body. Carrying a weapon everywhere is now second nature, but I gained a grenade launcher when I moved down here. It is not real heavy, but it hits me differently when I sling it and the sight hits me in the back. It was like someone was poking me in
the back 200 times a day and took a couple of weeks to get used to it. For those of you not in the military, you would just have to walk around with an M16/M203 slung across your back to understand what I am talking about.

Well I just realized how long this update was becoming, so I will end this before I bore anyone too much. Just because it is somewhat quiet here does not mean that there is nothing going on. I do have more to write about and I hope that you find it interesting. Take care. SGT D.L.

It has been a very good week for us...This was perhaps my most rewarding week since I have been in Iraq. During this week, we actually became very good artillerymen again; the brigade fire support element (FSE) and staff have become an integral part of the counter-fire process, my boys are shooting accurately and in a timely manner, and the rest of the battalion has made some great strides in making our supply route safe again.
However, I have to say that most of this has been lost in the midst of the chaos that has been generated because of a few very bad soldiers. Yes, I can honestly say that the system failed, but what it really breaks down to is the fact that leaders failed to supervise their subordinates. In my experience a soldier will pick the easy route unless a leader is there to continually uphold standards.
In the past year I have made life very miserable for my junior leaders, because as I tell them, leaders are not born they are made. Most of them have accepted the challenge, but I can tell you that they have all paid the price for their soldier's failings. I am convinced that a leader's greatest reward is the legacy he leaves in a unit.
I have a very young staff sergeant who has been with me for almost 5 years, his name is Dave Anderson. He is probably the most gifted leader I have ever served with and this poor guy's life was miserable for the first three months we served together. He has grown into one of the best sergeants in the two battalions we have served in. He is now more like a son than a subordinate and I will tell you why: About three months ago we counseled a soldier together; it was remarkable to hear him talk to this soldier. As usual I was the bad guy
and he was the good guy, but his compassion and his ability to make this soldier understand his failings made me very proud, because he flatly stated first and foremost that he had failed this soldier, because he did not supervise his progress or lack thereof. There are probably hundreds of stories like this played out everyday and yet the media would like you to only hear about a couple of NCOs who let their soldiers go unsupervised. Well I am here to tell you that there are still some very good soldiers who are doing the right thing everyday: pulling guard in 110 degree heat, escorting supply convoys, raiding cache sites, they are not complaining openly about their extension, and generally they are making life better for a country that hasn't seen the light of freedom in at least 30 years.
The fact that these soldiers could not understand that they were making the wrong choices is beyond me, but the fact that their NCOs were part of it makes me embarrassed. And so in the midst of these soldier's failings, I apologize for their behavior, for their shameful acts, and I trust that you will remember that his great Army of ours is not perfect, but there are guys like SSG Anderson who are out taking the heat for their soldier's failings and supervising their soldiers so that this will never happen again.
I am constantly amazed by the many good works that all of you have bestowed on my soldiers and me. I am humbled by your many thoughtful emails and the tribute sites that have been established in my name. You all will never truly understand the difference that all of you have made in the lives of my soldiers and most of all mine. I thank you all for your patriotism, your generosity, and most of all for your love of America's soldiers deployed in harms way. I hope that you all have a very nice Mosque Day and a very safe weekend. God Bless and see you on the high ground. Rob

Edge of town, Baghdad, Iraq
I will miss Baghdad. One day, it will become the nice city that it once was before Saddam let it turn to crap. I had two pleasant experiences the day before I left Al Kadhimiya that I would like to share.
We made a trip to the real estate office and parked around the corner in front of some houses. We had five trucks that particular day and a ton of soldiers and weapons. An older man emerged from his front gate to see what all of the commotion was about. He and I said hello in Arabic as he spoke no English. He went in and brought out his wife who spoke a little, and she proceeded to tell me that they hated Sadr (the guy causing all of the violence lately) and that they were happy that we were here. I got the impression that the couple, as well as most other Iraqis, were waiting for America to oust him like we ousted Saddam. She came back out a few minutes later and brought us a cold
drink.
At a textile factory, I got into a conversation with a man who had graduated from a university in Texas. He proceeded to tell me how happy he and his family were that we freed his country. "Only America could get rid of that bastard," he said. He then raised the concern shared by many here, "If the (American) soldiers pull out, there will be a civil war."

The majority of Iraqis that I have talked with are more supportive of us being here than most of the rest of the world. The one big problem this brings on us however, is that the Iraqi people think that we Americans can fix anything and everything in a very short amount of time. One of our jobs as Civil Affairs is to facilitate the rebuilding of a country after military actions. The Iraqis expect us to do it all, and to perfection. This is not what we are here for and it has caused frustration amongst the population. It also does not help that once we (the US) have fixed something, someone will come along and loot it, or blow it up.

Well anyway, I think I will stop here and get some sleep. I am sun burned and nearly defeated by the mosquitos. I had really hoped to respond to more of the e-mails that I have recieved. With any luck, it won't be as bad as we are expecting. The Army is actually good at getting us Internet access, maybe they will come through this time. Take care.
SGT D.L.

(First Page)    prev    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10    next    (Last Page)