Iraq Update – September 5, 2005
Greetings all and Happy Labor Day. Maybe I should re-phrase it to Thankful Labor Day and ask that we focus our thoughts and prayers to our fellow citizens and residents in the South who have endured so much suffering. We seem to be able to construct some pretty hefty explosives and bombs and such but it pales in comparison with the raw power of nature.
Disasters like the aftermath of Katrina are really tough to deal with no matter how prepared a country can be. After having been exposed to Operation Iraqi Freedom, I’ve really come to understand how challenging the logistics are in moving massive amounts of equipment and personnel. It just doesn’t happen with the flick of a switch and a phone call to “muster the troops.”
I really feel bad for troops and civilian personnel that are stationed here who are incapable of learning if their love ones are well or what has happened to them. That’s got to be so tough. Shortly after Katrina hit, there was an “all hands” soliciting input from military personnel from the LA, MS, & AL areas and asking how Katrina had impacted them. I thought that was rather insensitive considering that these people are at least 8,000 miles away and many have not had contacts with their families and friends. I think the request was retracted rather quickly.
We had a rather unnerving incident in the cafeteria a few days back. The DFAC closes at 08:30 A.M. but one can still finish breakfast while the workers are cleaning up. As we were just finishing up, one of our agents notices a person in civilian clothes walk in through the exit door carrying a large back pack and heading into the main DFAC area. Two of our agents confronted him while the rest covered the area. As it turns out the man was an interpreter who said he came through the back door as the front was locked and the guard told him to use the back entrance. At first he was little defensive but when he saw guns and badges, he backed down rather quickly. You just can’t be too careful around here. A backpack filled with explosives could do some major damage in a hurry.
I know I’ve been trying to get home for the last three weeks. It looks like it will come to fruition but isn’t final yet. Now, the weather report is for another big dust storm to hit. I just hope it blows itself out before I’m scheduled to depart. What a royal pain. Even when things go right, it still takes a full week to get out of here.
Speaking of leaving, I have two friends who are JAGS, one in the Air Force and the other in the Army. The Air Force JAG was scheduled to leave on September 1, 2005. His departure was canceled because his replacement had not arrived and the general ordered him to stay until the replacement is actually in theater. My other friend, the Army JAG, was ready to throw a fit. He is also scheduled to leave. He has his reservations, orders, he’s all checked out but he’s missing one thing. All military officers irrespective of their position are required to carry a weapon. However, their weapons are carried unloaded but they must possess a full magazine. (Silly as that may sound, it does make some sense.) Most of these individuals have very little training or exposure to their weapons and only qualify at most once per year. We, on the other hand, carry weapons in a hot position but we qualify once per month. The training that law enforcement receives far surpasses what the average military person receives greatly. The real point of this is that all military personnel are allowed to transport their weapons in and out of country through Kuwait whereas law enforcement are not allowed that privilege and must turn in their weapons here for shipment back to the States. Well, here my friend sits with all of his orders intact; everything is ready to go except for one piece of correspondence. He was not provided with his letter of authorization to transport his Beretta 9mm through Kuwait back to the States. He does not have the option of leaving it here. Was he a little steamed? Yeah, you might say that but all you can really do is laugh about it.
Speaking of laughing, Father Dennis was hilarious after mass on Saturday night. During the Lord’s Prayer, apparently a few of the choir members were saying the words a little faster than Father and in that we have microphones, the congregation followed suit. Although this was done unwittingly, we received some fairly poignant stares from Father who by voice inflection and facial expression slowed the prayer down considerably. After mass, Father asked who in the choir was saying the Lord’s Prayer at warp speed. We all looked a little sheepish. Father said if it happened again, he would super glue our lips shut and turn us into Protestants. You have to know Father Dennis. He sometimes comes off like he’s tough but he has a heart of gold and is full of love.
We had another rather laughable situation. We had work to do at one of the bases called Taji. We had requested a personal security detail so that we could drive to Taji instead of using the Blackhawk so that we would have vehicles available to us. At the last minute, the PSD’s cancelled the detail claiming that the threat level was too high. Now several of our guys have worked in SWAT and done tours in Viet Nam and we all couldn’t see what raised the threat any more than any other day. So knowing we can’t fight this thing, we re-book on the chopper. Then we get a call from the PSD. They learned that we were going on the chopper and wanted to know if we wanted them to come with us. The agent on the telephone said “What do you plan on doing? Holding our hands during the flight?” We got a pretty good laugh out of that. I mean the Blackhawks have a pilot and a co-pilot plus two machine gunners. We are all armed so what are these extra people going to do for us? Hopefully we didn’t totally destroy our rapport with them because we need to work with them in the future.
Well, that’s about it. Please take care and I’ll keep in touch. Best regards to all. Bob
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