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Happy Anniversary
04DEC08
Today marks officially one year deployed and one year away from home. There are days in Iraq that make a year spent in Iraq feel like a blink of an eye and there are days in Iraq that make a year feel more like a life time. One thing is for sure, a year in Iraq has provided a life time of unforgettable memories from clearing the battle field of bad guys, to non lethal engagements such as road paving projects, school projects, medical clinics and the final days of transferring official authority back to the Iraqi government.
The amount of energy, knowledge and willpower it has taken our approximate one hundred man company to accomplish such a mountain of a task is truly unbelievable and amazing. The will power, drive, and willingness to sacrifice everything that these men have given over the last year is to be commended.
In our small area of operation we have refurbished, resupplied, and rebuilt over a dozen schools alone. Children K-8 who either would not attend school or had no school supplies a year ago, today have desks, pens, pencils, and professors available to teach. The children in our communities now have newly refurbished facilities that for the first time have electricity, running water, air conditioners and heaters.
We have even begun the process of attempting to build a high school for children after they graduate 8th grade. This project will not be finished while we are here but something we will be able to hand off to our replacing unit to complete.
We have contracted millions of dollars to road paving projects and key avenues of approach such as roadways to water treatment facilities, schools, mosque and villages. By paving these roadways we have opened locations and facilities year round that before were completely closed during the winter months due to the heavy rains and mud.
Children in our area of operations now going to school will no longer have to walk in mud with their new school shoes and clothes. The elderly in the new wheel chairs we handed out can now role all the way to the market to buy fruits and vegetables, something thought impossible a year ago. Working parents walking or driving to work can now maneuver so much more freely year round.
Coalition forces can worry a little less about the roadway they role down every day. Now a year later the roadway has a thick layer of black asphalt which is much more difficult to burry an explosive under compared to the dirt and mud roadways we have had to travel over day in and out.
The greatest gift we have given for our one year anniversary has been that of transformation and security back to the Iraqi government. This gift of authority has such huge implications for both the Iraqi and US personal here. One year ago a little program was created designed to stimulate economic growth and create jobs as well as security in Iraq. This program was in the infant stages of creation and today has been the largest factor in the transition of authority.
For the first time Coalition Forces were paying local nationals to secure their own key infrastructure and road ways. Putting the Iraqi “in front” has created a safer Iraq with less violent acts and allowed for greater freedom and flexibility in Coalition movement allowing us to access and create positive traction in infrastructure such as the schools, roadways and government facilities.
Today that little program has over a hundred thousand employees and the country of Iraq is less violent than it has been in eight years. The program over the last sixty days has transferred from Coalition lead and funded to an Iraqi lead and Iraqi funded organization.
No longer are US dollars being used to pay these individual Iraqi security guards. Now these once mafia type groups have been through training and recruitment programs and are now proud members of the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army agencies.
The Back Nine
04DEC08
Overnight the country of Iraq has transformed from a hot unbearable desert to a cold unforgiving landscape. For this first time in almost ten months I see large gray and black rain clouds from approaching storms. The sky is dark with grey and black rain clouds filled with rain and moisture. Yesterday and for the last ten months on the rare occasion we saw a cloud they would be orange and brown made from blowing dust and debris.
The sun is blocked by the thunder storm and at three in the afternoon fir the first time this year we cannot see the afternoon sun. Rain falls on Taji and Hor al Bosh.
The rain falls so hard that the cracked earth and dusty roads are instantly transformed into flowing rivers of mud. There ground is to dry to absorb the mass amounts of falling water. The rain falls all day and with so much water from the sky that everyone and everything becomes saturated. Our heavily traveled roads become rivers of flowing mud that only heavy four wheel drive vehicles can manage.
Taji and Hor al Bosh sees so much rain in one day that canals quickly overflow and the entire area is transformed from dry desert barren land to wet marsh land with lakes and rivers.
Our small forward operating base Hor al Bosh becomes so drenched in water the our generators become flooded and we lose power. Internet and communication capability is knocked out and all men weapons and equipment are soaked to the core. The site has not experienced flood like conditions since arriving a year ago.
Our Iraqi counter parts are even less prepared and less fortunate than us even though ironically they have been here since the beginning of time. The roof and ceiling on our Iraqi counterparts building is made of mud and thatch. With so much water falling the Iraqi building almost completely collapses. The ceiling and roof take the brunt of the weight and massive leaks cause entire sections of ceiling to collapse bringing hundreds of pounds of roofing crashing in.
A day later a recon of their conditions finds not single dry solder left in the unit. Everyone is soaked to the core and the Iraqi men are attempting to get dry sleep and cover from inside their small Iraqi tanks. Moral is rock bottom low and our once happy Iraqi men now carry long sad wet faces.
I honestly do not know what these people would do if someone was not there to tell them to fix the roof, if someone was not there to hold their hand. Where would they be if someone did not give them materials and direct orders to winterize their building for the months ahead?
Out of kindness we give the Iraqi Army materials such as wooden support beams, plastic, sand bags and materials to repair their badly damaged roof. After a week of hard manual labor the Iraqi Army has made the necessary repairs and their very poorly furbished command post will likely stand another winter.
Still after weeks of good warm weather the ground here is still not dry. The desert dust holds moisture as if its life depended on it and the ground remains moist hard clay. Low ground still holds water and there are large ponds of water covering the country side. Dirt roads that we have used for a year are now and did not manage to pave have become off limits and will be closed until next spring.
Violence of Action
04DEC08
We are only a few months away before our unit packs our containers and fly across the globe return home from more than a year of combat operations in Iraq. We are beginning the process of transformation away from new impact projects and have shifted to completing outstanding projects and finding resolution and closure with the surrounding community. We are closing up shop a little more everyday and anxiously await the arrival of the next batch of fresh faces here to relive us.
A year has gone so fast with everyday filled with both stories of success and happiness as well as stories of tragedy and sorrow. The birth of new children back home to the tragic loss of life from suicide attacks. Some families manage to grow closer from this experience but sadly many have grown to far apart.
The faces of the boys I see today and not the same young faces I arrived with a year ago. Many of the men look older and many will go home with traces of grey hair and a receding hair line. Lieutenants have become captains, the young enlisted men are now junior NCO’s, and our senior NCO’s are a little more senior.
As a unit we have done everything together stuck in extremely close quarters from eating, sleeping, to struggling with personal issues. We have done all this together as a fighting force and in many ways a family for 365 days. There have been no breaks and there have been no days off. At no time could you get away from what is Iraq. At no time was your personal issues personal. Instead your personal issues are felt by the group and resolved openly by the group. This is family. This is the bond established within a combat arms unit that is discussed but only truly understood by those who experience.
Mid December
13DEC08
After you reach twelve months in theater the ARMY graciously pads your pocketbook with a little extra incentive money to keep motivation and moral high. I would tell you that at this point no amount of money motivates a soldier to stay here a day longer. We are two weeks away from spending our second Christmas in Iraq.
I can’t remember what a Christmas is anymore, we won’t have a Christmas tree and there will not be snow. There will be combat patrols and a Coalition presence in our area of responsibility. We will be out watching both day and night.
There is so much to be thankful for though starting with the fact that we are still alive, and there are still family and friends back home that support us and await our return. We will never forget those who have made the ultimate sacrifice before us.
I might say that moral is down but moral would better be described as flat lined. Holidays and significant events simply pass by each typical day in Iraq with only a blip on anyone’s radar. There are attempts to make food better and celebrate the important holidays but it’s still the same ARMY chow and same people you see every single day just with a little extra salt and vinegar.
Today the end is this deployment seems so close yet still seems like an unachievable dream.
In the last month our small site has experienced multiple lethal attacks with the intent to harm. These acts of violence seem more like probes on our defensive perimeter but are scary and real all the same. For reasons we may never know individuals found it necessary to fire rockets on one particular night and the night of thanksgiving decided it a good idea to try and throw a hand grenade into our site.
Both attempts failed to do any serious damage or bodily harm thankfully but I would tell you events of this nature do have a physiological effects. Explosions and gun shots are a way of life in Iraq. After a year living with this background noise you are no longer shaken up when something goes boom, but when the explosions and booms are directed at you and intended to harm suddenly your body become very aware of the environment. The smallest vibration in the air raises now raises the hair from the back of your neck. Late at night when something in our area of operation explodes and our little farm building shakes you don’t feel quite as safe or pass it off as friendly fire as easily.
Accountability
13DEC08
I can still remember the first combat patrol in Iraq December 2007 as if it were yesterday. There was more mud last year the country side was not as green but it was just as cold as it is on this day a year later.
Every Iraqi man I saw then looked like a terrorist and my enemy. The small children looked dirty and innocent and everyone and everything was suspicious. The first Sheik I was introduced to was a man over six four and easily weighing 280 pounds. His hands the size of basketballs. He is a giant of a man by any Iraq or American standard.
A year later that same man I almost see weekly. I have sat in long discussions talking about our families and the dream of us one day together touring thje country side of my home in North East Oregon.
Our discussions talk about his years in the Army and him finding love three times and taking three wives and how after thirty children he might reconsider taking all those wives again if he had to do it again.
We discuss life in the states and what I might do in with my future. We discuss me brining another group of Soldiers to Iraq again in the future this time as a Commander. We discuss the ideas of me living on a small farm in Iraq and taking a wife next door to him. We have played so many scenarios over and over in innocent conversation.
This individual is a working member of the Iraqi population and has played a critical role in the security of both his people and mine alike. I have met I think all of his wives and have interacted with a majority of his probably twenty children at his home or on patrols to the school. We have given them toys, visited them at schools and treated them as our own.
Tragically earlier this month one of his young boys was playing with an Ak-47 that had been misplaced in one of his homes. The young man accidently squeezed the trigger and shot his younger sister. She died shortly after. December has been no different than any other month in Iraq. There are days that positive and there are days that just don’t end soon enough.
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