News From Iraq XIII

Greetings to Everyone:

I hope everyone has had a good week and has utilized the Veterans Day Holiday to remember and give thanks to those men and women who have served this country so much especially those who paid for the price of freedom with the ultimate sacrifice, their lives.  You know I always knew that freedom isn’t free and that members of the armed forces and their families have done and continue to do a lot for this country.  But it never impacted me as greatly as it has with this experience in Iraq.  I have been able to see first hand how much of a sacrifice this is.  Seeing it on a news clip or even observing training on a military base back home does not bring to bear how much of a demand war is on any person.  This week I had to travel to a forward operating base and experience the dusty roads and living conditions, the availability of only chemical latrines, bottled hand cleaner (no water), crowded living conditions, and scarcity of every day goods.  And these conditions are not just for a week or two, they carry on through a soldier’s entire deployment.  Naturally, I was told that this base pales in comparison to the FOB’s on the Syrian and Iranian borders where they don’t even have blast walls or cement barricades, just sand bags and barbed wire, and the soldiers live in tents through the heat of summer to the cold of winter.  I’ve only had to stay in those tents for several nights and, believe me, it is no fun.  I also think of the living conditions for soldiers during Viet Nam, Korea, WWII, and WWI and it really starts to hit me the thanks and gratitude that we really owe these people.  If you haven’t already, please just take a moment or two and say a prayer of thanks to all of those who have served; those who served and lived, and those whose sacrifice cost them the ultimate price.  On their behalf, I thank you.

I had several interesting experiences this week.  First, our Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid us a visit.  She’s a very gracious woman.  Of course when she departed, her plane was escorted by jet fighter planes flying at low level.  We didn’t think of this until after one of the jets flew over the palace and we thought it was a rocket attack.  Needless to say when I heard that roar, I immediately dove on the floor in front on a desk.  It happened so quickly it was over before it started.  I tried to get a few pictures of her but the Palace Rotunda was packed. 

As I said I went to a forward operating base and traveled by helicopter.  After we finished our meeting around 13:00, we went to the PX for about 45 minutes.  The wind was blowing and it was dusty but primarily from the roads.  When we came out, the dust had socked in just like the fog in San Francisco when it comes in at evening time.  Our scheduled helicopter flight back to the IZ was cancelled and we were thinking we were going to be stuck at the FOB without a place to bunk down for the night.  Fortunately, I have a British friend who is fairly high up in the Department of State’s Iraqi Advisory Function who was also stuck.  He arranged an alternate helo ride at about 19:00.  It was the first time I’ve ridden in a Blackhawk at night.  For obvious reasons, the helicopters (and planes) don’t fly with any lights on and IT IS DARK.  In fact, they are so dark that the only reason why you know they are in the air is because of the engine noise.  The lights are turned on only for lift off and landing when they are about 100 yards off the ground.  It was neat to see Baghdad at night but I was just glad to be back “home.”  I was covered with dust.  I was also pretty grimy from my first ride in a military Humvee.  I can guarantee you it’s not like the civilian version.  The machine gun turret is actually pretty interesting.  It swivels with an electrical engine which the machine gunner can operate with his/her hips if necessary.  They have a canvass sling so the gunner can sit and not have to continually stand.  It is a requirement that a Kevlar helmet must be worn any time one is traveling in military equipment.  Naturally, we had our helmet and vest along with everything else.  (You just don’t leave home without those things.)  I can definitely see why a helmet is a necessity.  There are a lot of metal parts with edges all around the interior of the Humvee that could really hurt a head or neck bad even if one was bounced about a little bit the wrong way.  I also got a taste of military protocol in the forward operating base.  Here in the I/Z soldiers are required to salute senior ranking soldiers and I go into offices of officers with the rank of major all the way up to general.  No one gets real excited and basically goes about the business at hand.  However, at the FOB I and another special agent were meeting with a major who was the company commander.  Every office we went into, his sergeant first class would enter first and say “Atten-Hut, Commander in the Room,” and everyone would immediately stand up and salute.  Then they’d see me and the other special agent with our guns and badges and you could just see the looks depicting the thoughts “Uh Oh ---somebody’s in real big trouble now.”  Actually we were there for their assistance with some evidence.  During the day, one sergeant walked in to the office where we were located, saw us, and said “whatever anyone said, I didn’t do it.”  We just laughed.  I had to wonder about him though as the armory tag on his M-16 was still attached to the front sight shroud.  I’m sure they are more fearful of a rocket or mortar attack at the FOB but still, I would not have left that tag on the weapon just in case he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It would be tough sighting on a target with that tag flapping around.   

I don’t believe I mentioned this in my last letter but I had the opportunity to taste Pakistani food.  I had attended a meeting with several other agents and the meeting had logistical problems.  It’s conducted by satellite and it just wasn’t working good.  When the meeting was over, it was well past when the DFAC closes.  We walked in and one of the cooks said he’d make us something.  In that he was eating his dinner, we didn’t want to bother him.  He said all they had was the worker’s food and that it was very spicy.  We said that’d be fine.  So we helped ourselves.  You should have seen the Pakistani workers staring at us when we started to eat.  We sat right next to them.  They couldn’t believe we were eating their food.  I tell you it was very hot and spicy but it was very tasty.  If I had to describe it, I’d say it is a combination of East Indian (curry seasoning) and Mexican (hot pepper).  They use flat bread but one could use a tortilla just as well.  The Pakistanis can be a very warm people.  It’s pretty amazing that some are really dark skinned while others are extremely fair.  I feel so bad for the ones who lost their homes and are facing a devastating winter.    Talk about a test of what one is made of!!!  That would have to be it. 

I must say I need to vent a little and voice my utmost displeasure with the CA citizens of the City of San Francisco.  Honestly, the majority of that city is so far into “La-La” land, they’ll never get out.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing listening to the late Joseph Alioto’s daughter who’s on the city council or something on the news spouting off about a gun ban and that San Francisco is the City of Peace and she can find a better way to protect herself.  It’s rather obvious she comes from a very pampered environment and has no clue of what it’s like to live out in Hunter’s Point Bay View or down on outer Divisadero.  I worked those areas when I was a rookie agent.  There are a lot of decent people that live in those areas and they have a right to be able to defend themselves and not fall prey to the hoodlums prowling about.  I could take it up to the point when she said San Franciscans don’t really consider themselves as part of main stream America and by voting as such wanted to be separate and apart. Then I just got steamed.  I certainly wish she was with me this week especially when I was interviewing an Iraqi telling me about how people he thought were street thugs or insurgents had come to his house and told him they wanted his house and to move out or to pay them money to leave him and his family alone or be killed.  He also told of another person who was told to leave his house because the insurgency needed it.  You’re talking about young people in their early 30’s with small children who are trying to work and make a living and just live in peace.  I saw the outright fear in his eyes and the despair on his face in that he has no reasonable way to defend himself.  He’s looking for me to help when I have no jurisdiction.  (I’ll never forget his eyes.  They are seared in my memory.)  He has trouble concentrating on work because he fears for his family’s well being while he is away.  The police obviously can’t be everywhere and are not sophisticated enough to consider working a sting operation.  (There’s simply not enough of them to go around.) The police like in most places by appearance have a deterrent effect but typically don’t outwardly stop crime in progress.  Most times they are proving the cases or preventing escape of the perpetrators after the crime has been committed.  I haven’t seen these Iraqis for about 4 days now.  I don’t know if they left town with their families or were killed.  I simply don’t know.  I would love to have Ms. Alioto express her views are gun control to these two people.  The point of this is that we, as American people, shouldn’t be so cavalier about our constitutional rights allowing politicians to take away those rights simply because it makes them think they are doing something good when, in fact , they aren’t do anything but eroding liberty.  Think back several hundred years, quite a few people (citizen soldiers) sacrificed their lives for those rights.  We owe them the respect of at least doing our best to hang on to them.  Anyway, opinions are like a mouth and another anatomical part, everyone has one and now you’ve heard mine.      

I just met an Italian Army Colonel tonight.  He sat at our table in the DFAC and had dinner.  He was all alone so I was talking to him in Italian.  He spoke very good English.  Hopefully we’ll meet again.  His uniform consisted of three stars down the front and the other special agents asked me to ask him in Italian if he was a three star general.  (This was before we knew he spoke English.)  He laughed and informed us, he was a colonel and not a general. 

We had a rocket come into the compound today just as we were getting back from the Al Rashid hotel.  It landed but did not detonate.  Thank God for duds.  However, we were stuck at a check point for about 30 minutes.  They had trouble locating it.  They found it and then the DOD guys detonated it.  It sounded rather puny but one never knows.  It’s always nice to be able to tell the story about the one that didn’t go off!!

Well, I think that’s about it.  It’s getting late and I need to call it.  I’ve got some more work to do before I head for the hooch.  In the meantime, my best regards to all of you.  Take care.  Bob

Comments

Another enjoyable post from our own Baghdad Bob.