| Subject: from a tired M.P. |
Author:
Loraine
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Date Posted: 07/ 7/04 21:18
[The following is an email that was sent to my cousin from a friend/mentor who is in Iraq with the Army Reserves. I have permission to post it in order to help get the word out about what is really going on. I edited out the place names for security reasons.]
Hello all,
I hope all is well with you and yours. For the most part I am doing fine; the summer is getting hotter; I am in need of a new hum-vee, and there is now a new government in charge of Iraqi's future. The weeks following my previous letter were as calm as I have seen up until the last half of June and then it seemed as though the storm intelligence was talking about broke almost over night. Old news I know but I want you to know we were ready for it. In the last three weeks my unit has seen more action than at any point you would care to name. During the time members of my unit have been ambushed, motored, hit by road side bombs and vehicle carried bombs, all due to the fact that the insurgents want to prevent the change over in power here. The fact that it took place two days early and without a hitch helped prevent what could have been a blood bath.
The new area we are operating in is near the Tigris river. The land here is amazingly fertile, considering it has been farmed for over 4000 years. Some of the farmers in my unit have said that with the right equipment and proper training the farms here could grow more than enough food to feed the whole country and even export some crops. There are some real pluses in having their river so close, the big one being water is a lot easier to come by for needs that don't need the water to be potable. And there is an amazing amount of vegetation located in a zone of about 10 to 15 miles on each side of the river. The only down side so far is the insect life here is now eating us alive from time to time.
The last two weeks have really come to help me understand the culture here in new ways (the rural culture at least; I am not as able to get a feel for the cities). For the most part 80% of the people I deal with are happy to see us and help us if they can. That is not to say they are always happy with what is going on, but they know we try to keep our interference down to a minimum. It's great, running down the roads and having kids wave at you as you go past (even though many of them are also begging for food or candy, which we have been known to give out when we can get away with it). Most of the people I have
spoken to are not happy with the United Nations playing a bigger role in the rebuilding of Iraq. This surprised me at first, but after talking with many people here, I have found out that this region was hit hard during the U.N. embargo, and that most of the food never made it to these people who were in need of it. They also feel the U.N. let them down after Saddam used vx gas on the Kurds, who are closely related to many of the people I have talked to. For the most part I have been impressed by the people and their hope for a better tommorow. I myself am not at all happy about the U.N. getting more involved here but that mainly stems back to some bad experiences I have had with them in the past. Plus all I have seen so far is lip service from them and other countries like France who want a piece of the pie (rebuilding pie) but don't want to put their butts on the line to earn it.
Life here at camp is slowly getting better all of the time. With each new day we work hard to make this place feel if not like home, at least as close as we can make it. The only real bad part right now is we have a local national generator. Which in truth breaks down almost every other day it seems like. Many of us would give a lot to have a big Cat power plant. At least then if it ever broke down we might be able to fix it our selves rather than waiting on a local contractor to come out and try to fix it. Better yet if it's like the last one I had, a little tlc and it will run forever. This is not to say the local gear is all bad but we have had a hard time finding a reliable one and someone who can fix it on a regular basis.
Well now for a little bit of what my life has been like over the last two weeks. I will not say the day I am about to describe is average or that it was the most exciting, but it is a day where you can get a feel for what it is like over here and how hard it is to do what we have to do. The morning dawned clear and sunny like most here. My team and I were gearing up for a convoy to ---- (---- is the name you will find on a map). Our mission was to provide convoy security and escort 2 protected packages to the Trop Medical Clinic and return same home. Our brief was normal for the time of day and where we were going. That is to say they said the bad guys had been active in the last 48 hours and we were to keep our eyes open and if seen capture or eliminate the threat. Nothing of note happened until about 30 min into our convoy. When we had just made the turn down a secondary road enroute to Anaconda, when about a half mile down the road just ahead of my gun truck a road side bomb went off (IED you may hear them referred to in the news). The first thing is, it happens so fast that you hardly have time to respond and almost everything you do is on auto pilot for the first 5 to 10 min. The bomb flashed, then the shock wave hit almost at the same time, then came the smoke-- it seemed to cover your vehicle in a split second. When you are driving through it, it feels as though a lifetime passes before you see daylight again. After what in reality was only 5 to 10 seconds but at the time it felt like a life time, we drove to the rally point and did a quick inspection of our vehicle. To our surprise there was almost no damage and except for a little temporary hearing loss we and our packages were unhurt. After setting up a secure zone we headed back on foot to look for secondary bombs and to see what was left of the first device. This stretch of road is on a wide open field with 4 or 5 houses, all deserted. We moved into each house in turn and cleared the road without finding another device, thank God. After we cleared the road we move back over to what was left of the bomb, and found out that we were luckier than we had any right to be. The bomb was made up of 2 "155" shells, one of which was an air burst (this is a type of shell that is fired by artillery and explodes 15 to 20 feet above the ground with little bomblets doing most of the damage). In this case the bomblets did not have time to activate before they hit the ground, which cut down on the damage that was done. We got even luckier on the second "155" shell: we found out later that the casing was bad and instead of the gun powder exploding it burned up like flash powder, causing nothing worse than the smoke we drove through. This whole process took about 45 min, then we remounted our convoy and head out. I am happy to say nothing else happened on the way to Anaconda. After arriving at the base we headed to the TMC and dropped off our packages for their medical care and we headed out to the PX and the REC tent to relax until we were called for a return trip. About 1pm we just finished playing a game at the rec tent when the red alert was sounded and we headed for the bunkers. Just after we hit the bunker, 5 mortar shells hit on the other side of the px, about 800 meters from where we were. I will be honest this is not the first mortar attack I have sat through, but it's the first one in a long time where I have gone to bunker when the alarm was sounded. Just last week the camp had been mortared and 4 people were killed, one of whom was just 24 hours from going home. For some reason it hit all of us hard and we promised to try not to let that happen to us. For we have become very complacent about stuff like that and now see the price that can be paid. So, after dusting our selves off we headed out to pick up our package and head back to camp. The ride home was in its own way as eventful as the ride there, but without all the danger. Just after crossing the river we came to a stop: another convoy had a little problem when a semi lost its payload and blocked the road for 2 hours. During this time we had to shut down the road. Well you can imagine the mess that this made. But in a way it was also nice, for we were able to do many good deeds, and meet many more local nationals. We helped treat some people who were sick and gave candy, food and water to the kids. The locals brought us tea and food, and we spent the next hour or so talking and trying to break down some of the barriers. All in all, I would say that the afternoon
talking with them and their kids is one I will remember for the rest of my life.
Well, I hope I have not bored you too much. Till next we meet, I wish you all many safe and happy days.
BILL
AKA the tired M.P.
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