Iraq Update 8/13/05
Greetings all and I hope all are doing well.
I know that some of you reading this are aware of several close friends who have passed on during this past week. Even though the deceased lived good fulfilling lives, it’s still never a good time to lose someone. My prayers are with them.
Well, this week was something else weather wise. We experienced a dust storm that kept our boss grounded in Amman, Jordan for almost the entire week. The airport was literally shut down and the helo’s weren’t flying at all. At 9:30 A.M. the sky was orange colored and the visibility was about 50 feet. It was so bad you couldn’t see across the street and the shuttle busses were even grounded due to poor visibility. Anytime I went out, I had to have a kerchief around my mouth and nose. Everyone was wearing something of that nature. I sent a picture to Rachel and maybe she’ll forward on with the message. I’ll ask her to do it. Quite frankly, I don’t see how these computers continue to operate under these conditions. This palace is definitely not air tight and the dust is just horrendous. Actually the dust storm was almost like a snow storm only dirty and hot. You leave foot prints when you walked and tires tracks where the vehicles drove on the road. The dust is so bad you can actually taste it and it just doesn’t go away.
We lost one of our choir members who returned to the States on Tuesday. He was great as he writes his own songs. Some people are just that talented. He knows chords but can’t read a note of music although he plays both guitar and piano. Some of his church songs are really good so we continue to use them in mass and before mass. We are losing one of our female singers who is transferring to London with the State Department. I told her she’s probably safer here. However, she’s been here for almost two years and I think the confinement is getting to her. It’s amazing how that impacts you. Five square miles sounds like a lot of but it isn’t. We are also losing one of our guitar players and our flutist in October. However both of these soldiers have little ones at home and they’ve done their duty and need to raise their families.
You know last week I spoke of the issue of the bad guys being able to penetrate the security of the Iraqi ministers and that we were wondering how that could happen. Well, this week the Inspector General for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense was accidentally shot by one of her own security personnel. We can only imagine what is going on. It reminds me of a trip to the Red Zone where we passed an Iraqi manned check point and one of the sentry’s has his AK-47 apart cleaning it. Now if anything goes wrong, he’s only got pieces of metal and wood to throw at somebody. Now I know they are really trying hard to train these guys but I was told they had trouble disciplining these guys not to leave their posts just because a street vendor came by with articles they wanted to acquire. I understand a little better what we are dealing with at times.
Oh I forgot to mention one of the other female choir members was in a convoy that took a hit. I had heard that a convoy had been attacked and that one of the escort humvees noticed a suicide bomber aiming for one of the SUV’s. The soldiers intercepted the guy but not before he detonated the explosives. I saw our choir member, Mary, that afternoon. I could tell she looked different. She came up to me and hugged me and then told me what had happened. It really hits home when you come in contact with someone who experiences something like that upfront and not 100 yards + away. I also learned that another acquaintance of mine was in the convoy as well. The machine gunner on the humvee didn’t survive the blast. Then I learned that his brother was riding in one of the other vehicles behind the humvee. It took some time to get him to the point where they could continue because they have to get the convoy out of the kill zone because another bomber could be waiting. Made me think of Ben Stein’s article all over again. Then today after mass I learned from one of my military friends on the choir that the machine gun on the humvee that was bombed was not in a cocked and locked position. I was just sick to hear about that. Such an error can be so egregious at the wrong time. I’m sure the training is to travel cocked and locked and so when things turn upside down one reverts to training, aims in, and fires. It would be at least a few seconds before the gunner could react and charge the weapon. Unfortunately those few seconds may have made the difference between whacking the bomber and taking a hit. I understand the “brass” is considering putting the soldiers in the intercepting humvee in for silver stars. I couldn’t agree more when they place themselves directly in harms way to save others.
The other thing that happened this week that kind of made me mad was when a Personal Security Team entered into the palace grounds driving like maniacs. Now you need to understand that to get onto the palace grounds with a vehicle, you must pass through three check points including one where a bomb sniffing dog goes through your stuff. The last check point has huge metal gates that a tank couldn’t get through. Once they get in, there really isn’t too far to go. Well, this team comes in with their wigwag lights going, blue lights going, and driving up to the palace like a bunch of cowboys being chased by the Indians (Native Americans for the PC people) into a fort. We are walking out at the same time and they get so close to us, they bumped me and another agent with the vehicles rear view mirror. Like I’ve said before, our agents are all retired federal law enforcement and several have served on SWAT teams and we all got pretty vocal about these guys and their conduct. We didn’t hear a lot of back talk. These guys are primarily former military, both US and foreign, who are working for private security firms. They have little accountability and no oversight. It’s just rather obvious that some of them really think they are the true Rambo’s of the world. I just wish they’d take it elsewhere. The real good security personnel do not conduct themselves in this manner.
I had a real comical incident happen this week as well. The new dining facility opened (called a DFAC, you can figure out the acronym). It’s small, hot, and noisy. We all preferred dining in the palace but somebody had other plans for the room. Anyway, I’m seated in one of these new aluminum chairs and this Australian soldier about my age or just a little younger is sitting in back of me. I went to get up about the same time he did. I don’t know if his holster got caught on the chair or what but one second his thigh holster is connected and the next second the whole thing (holster, belt, magazine holders) is falling off. I barely grabbed the belt before everything fell to the floor and tripped him. He didn’t even realize it happened until I said something. It almost looked like it was planned sort of like when a clown pulls on a flower and his trousers drop. His friends (mates) were laughing uncontrollably as it really looked pretty funny.
Well, I’m closing for the evening. It’s almost 9:30 P.M. or 21:30 and I like to unwind a little before falling asleep. I am still on schedule to return state side towards the end of next week. I will try to get another letter out before hand but no promises. It may have to wait until I actually get state side. Getting out of Baghdad is a minimum three day process and it is not fun at all.
Take care and my best to all. Bob
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