Priorities, Poles, and Wackiness

So we got told to put up a flag pole outside our compound. The flagpole is supposed to be used to fly an Iraqi flag, signifying the Iraqis are now in the lead as a part of the new bilateral security agreement that goes into effect on 1 January. Somebody with a bunch of rank decided it would be a nifty and splendid idea to put up a flag so everybody would know Iraqis were in charge. So as is the Army Way, we overengineered the hell out of the project and micromanaged it to the highest levels possible. Apparently it was absolutely critical that this flagpole be up and operational by 1 January. Magically, almost overnight, a flagpole and ten bags of cement appeared up at FOB Mahmudiya.

We had to put the pole up with an Iraqi flag to symbolize the shift of power to the Iraqis. The silly thing is, I live on an Iraqi Army compound, and I'm surrounded by Iraqis who already know this.

The interest in the status of my pole began to garner a lot of attention. I got somewhere in the neighborhood of four phone calls a day inquiring about its status. "What's the status of the Iraqi Security Agreement Symbol??!?!?!" they would ask. Colonels, Lieutenant Colonels, and Majors all called to see what was up with the pole. "We have to provide a daily status of it every day by 0900" they would say.

Wow. Is that all that's going on? Heck, we may as well pack it up and head home if a pole is all we have to worry about.

Nobody inquired this much about the power cable we needed to give power to our CHUs; it took us over a month to get that thing. Power cables are something I would think were pretty easy to come by in Iraq, what with all of the infrastructure repair we are doing and what not. The cable also "didn't make it on to the LOGPAC" on more than one occasion. Guess cable isn't important, or it didn't have the oversight of a bunch of people who didn't have a whole lot to do.

But flagpoles... That's sort of an uncommon item. Somehow they got that 30 foot pole here in about three days.

Even the Iraqi Army guys asked us why we were putting up a pole outside our compound. Even they know that flying an American flag is forbidden (as it shows we are occupiers). We told them it was for an Iraqi flag, and they gave us the confused dog look. But we put it up, to show that there were Iraqis here on the Iraqi Army compound.

Somehow this is supposed to get me home faster.

In an effort to capture the silliness of the moment, I took a picture of the fellas 'raising the flag' to satiate inquisitive minds. I had to provide a real-time visual status of progress. So we had some fun with it. I don't think the Marines had to contest with this level of goofiness of their event on Iwo Jima, and my hat is off to all of them for what they did there.

Hope you are well. Check out the New Years post below, too. Have a good one, and thanks for reading.

Ron

A confusing New Years wish/Rant

So long 2008. Personally, I have mixed emotions about it. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself today over the new year, for the following reasons: One, I have a cold, so I don’t feel too good about 2008 right now. Two, this year brought me orders to Iraq, more family separation, I sold my boat, and I lost a bunch of cash in the market.

The year also had me questioning some beliefs. Specifically religion and my political beliefs, to name a couple. S’cuse me while I rant…

Let’s go with organized religion first. The whole reason we are here (other than global resource issues) is because people are fighting over what they believe, and they are using religion to pervert people into doing horrible things all “in the name of God.” I’ve never much believed that God (in this case the Christian God) has or chooses to intervene in life situations. I believe God gives us talents, abilities and opportunities, and it’s up to us to make the best of them and take advantage as we see fit. If we don’t then the world passes us by. Guess that makes me a “free choice” guy. Chalk it up to part faith (God won’t give me more than I can handle) and destiny (this is what’s supposed to happen, so I should have faith that I will make it through). Religion for me is personal; I don’t go beating people over the head with it, and I should probably spend more attention and effort to my relationship with God.

Given this perspective, when I see extremist religions-- Islamic, Jewish, Christian- whatever-- I get turned off. Particularly here I have seen the damage of what extremist religion is capable of, and in seeing that, I question my own faith sometimes. I doubt “God” says we should lop off heads of non-believers, or send suicide bombers into crowded markets as a test of faith and promise of Martyrdom… How does God let it happen? And even further, how do I know I have the right God? Are the Islamic guys right? Or maybe the Jewish faith has it right. What about the American Indians? So many different religions, all with different ideas about how things should be. Who’s right?

Second, politically, I am a right-leaning guy. I always have been. No big government, freedom to succeed or fail, individual responsibility, and Government shouldn’t be a charity. Personal responsibility. If a guy works hard, he should get what he or she earned. Benefits for those who participate. No free chicken. All that’s well and good, but Americans take too much for granted and take advantage of systems. Americans are sheep who believe everything they see on 24-hour news networks and read on the internet. Sometimes I think there’s more corruption in the American political system than there is in Iraq. This line of thinking has led to a deeply divided political system run by a self-created elite with few original ideas, whose agenda is power base protection. That’s not what I signed up for.

Hi, my name is Ron, and I’m an angry cynic.

At this point I’m for anyone and anything that will shake us up. Maybe it is time for change. We have to do something, and hopefully the thing to do is return to the things that made our country great: Hard work, new ideas, personal responsibility, education. Just don't touch my guns or mess with the 2d Amendment. And don't make my Army a social experiment again.

The positive: The Skeptical Optimist viewpoint. I am in good shape, I get to do a job where I can see effects of my efforts in seeing an Army and a country grow, I am surrounded by good people who are positive and also want to make a difference, last year I got a masters degree, I got some pretty good training, I get to see the world and gain appreciation for my own country and family, I am living fairly good over (we don’t have it the worst), and nobody really shoots at us. Yet.

Iraq is a country in between two generations. Generation One is the old school Saddam way of thinking; the consolidation of power at the individual level and the desire for “Machismo” that brings credibility, and then more power. Generation Two is the new Government, personal responsibility, warrant-based arrests and fair trials by unbiased judges, a representative form of government, and a country struggling to pull itself up from twenty-plus years of war, sanctions, and hardship. But it has potential.

Somebody briefed in a Counterinsurgency seminar I attended an indicator of “how we know we are winning in Iraq.” The answer was when Muqtada al Sadr, Shiite extremist goofball who is hiding in Iran, starts complaining about Israel and the Palestinian problem and not ranting about Iraq… This is true now: On 27 December he released a statement in the Al-Amara News Network where he rants against Israeli actions in Gaza. Sure he blamed the US, but he’s not solely complaining about Iraq. In addition, the fact that all three ‘big’ news networks no longer maintain correspondents in Iraq says something too. No media coverage = We won. It took a while, and we made a lot of mistakes, but maybe we did win. Arrogant, I know. We just have to finish cleaning up the mess. We’ll see/Inshallah, depending upon your religious affiliation…

So 2009 starts tonight. Lots of new things on the horizon: A new bilateral security agreement placing Iraqis in the lead (news flash: we’ve been doing this since we got here), a new US president, an eventual trip home for me in the 3d Quarter, a new job with an incredible organization, Hailey starts 6th Grade, maybe a new boat or a new house, some new friends, some new challenges, a whole bunch of new perspective, and a whole lot of work to do.

This has been a confusing rant, and even after reading what I wrote I’m not exactly sure what my point was or if I got it across. Maybe it boils down to this: You can’t have the good without the bad, and 2008 was the bad time.

Inshallah/We’ll see…

All the best to you and your family, hoist something with alcohol in it for us, and have a Happy New Year.

Thanks for reading.
Ron

Christmas

Twenty years ago today I spent my first Christmas away from home. I was 18, and was serving as an Infantryman with C Company, 3d Battalion, 502d Infantry, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, KY. Our block leave was suspended because we had Post Guard. We would get leave for New Years, but not Christmas. During the day’s Guard Mount I was chosen as the “Super Numerary” or something like that. It meant you didn’t have to pull a traditional 24-hour guard shift, and instead you went to the museum for about four hours and stood around in your dress greens and looked spiffy. Your job was to look like a 101st Soldier and help visitors, none of which ever needed any help. It was meant to be an award for at least looking squared away. What it really was is a way to get out of doing work.

I went to the museum on the 24th and pulled my shift. Not many came to the museum on Christmas Eve. We closed the place up and I went back to the barracks. I had only been at Campbell for three months, and most of that time had been spent in the field. I was a bit bummed about not being able to go home and see my friends who had just finished their first semester of college, and I wanted to get caught up with them. I also was a bit sad that I was going to miss our own family traditions that year. The Battalion was going to have a Christmas day service, so I figured I’d go. It was sparsely attended; maybe a total of 15 were there, and I hadn’t met anyone before, except for the Chaplain. The service was simple, nothing spectacular. Regular scripture followed by regular Christmas hymns. After the service as I was getting ready to leave, I was introduced to a Major and his family, and they asked me what I was going to do for the rest of the evening. I told them I was off to the barracks to do what soldiers do- watch TV, play video games, and buff floors.

The Army is family, and the Major proved it to me that day. They invited me over for dinner and opened their house to me. The Chaplain brought me over to their house in the nice section of post (they don’t put nice houses near Infantry barracks) and fed me like there was no tomorrow. They welcomed me like I was one of their own. I enjoyed it a lot, and it made me feel a little less far from home. I don’t recall his name, but I always remember that Major and his family at Christmas for what he did for an 18-year old kid who had never been away from home.

I am lucky in that the 20 years I have been associated with the Army, I have only spent one previous Christmas away from home. (Birthdays, Anniversaries, and other significant holidays—that’s a different story). This one will be spent with a different kind of family. I got pretty lucky with the team I was assigned to; we all get along, we all believe in what we are doing, and we all are here for the right reasons. Today (Christmas Eve) we had to go to a meeting at FOB Mahmudiya down the road, and tonight a couple of our interpreters, Adam, Moe, and Sam, cooked us dinner: Lamb Kabobs, fresh vegetables, Hummus, and flatbread. It was very good, and it’s the first fresh veggies we have been able to get for a while. It was a very nice gesture on behalf of the guys who enable us to interact with the IA. They aren’t Christian, but even they understand the meaning and importance of Christmas and holidays with family and friends.

Later, the fellas will be playing Rock Band on PS2 for the better part of the evening. Some will hit the gym, some will sleep, some will be observing the Iraqi interrogation of a recently nabbed bad guy. This is the local family this year, spending another night in Iraq. It’s not my traditional family, but if I was going to spend it away from them, I’d want to spend it with Soldiers.

It is somewhat ironic to discuss peace in a war zone, but that’s why I’m here, to bring peace to a country and ultimately prevent bad people from doing bad things to my home. To you and your family, I wish you peace and Merry Christmas. Not far from here about 2000 years ago, Christ was born. Sometimes it’s hard to keep that in perspective, but the message of Peace is what Christmas is about.

Hope you are well—Merry Christmas.
Ron

Matt's Question

Matt,

We have a good relationship with the coalition unit. Without saying too much, we work with the IA Brigade Commander and staff, and the coalition unit works in various capacities with their subordinate units. You have to have a good relationship with them. I put as much work into my relationship with the coalition unit as I do with the IA. One, they are your supply line and link to civilization. Two, your plans and the US unit plans must be synched, else you are just spinning your wheels.

Anything above Battalion, though, and it becomes "those !@#$% Brigade/Division guys, they just don't get it!" Because they don't. This is a Company Commander's fight. In my opinion, the Brigade Combat Team (BCT) doesn't do much in a Counterinsurgency (COIN) fight except get in the way. The staff is too big, it is inefficient, and too far removed from reality. It is another layer of chiefs who don't have land or tribes.

Don't get me started on Division.

Anybody else?

Answers!

Rick-
Good question. I asked my Iraqi counterpart what he thought of "the shoe guy." He was embarrassed for Maliki, he was embarrassed for his country, and he was sorry it happened. From what he said, it was a shameful thing to throw shoes (or throw anything) at an invited guest, and it was shameful that he did it in the presence of the guy who invited him to the country.

Most Iraqis I have dealt with, from dirt-farming poor folks with no car, no electricity, and no shoes all the way up to business owners and Iraqi Army officers say the US presence is a good thing. Of late it has kept people honest. Usually the extremists will be the ones ranting for the US to withdraw. But they won't do it to your face.

Iraq is an interesting place in terms of relationships and things said. You can say the wrong things to your neighbor-- really bad things, and the next day reconcile an dit is like nothing happened. But if you don't reconcile in the right way, you will never be forgiven.

A lot of the media you get is Baghdad focused. And Baghdad is like New York, LA and Chiicago all combined; you get the best of the best and the worst of the worst.

Hope that answers it. Thanks for reading.
Ron

What do you want to know?

Been a busy couple of days, and I was feeling like we are making some head way. My Iraqi Brigade Commander bit on a few of the suggestions I had thrown out there for him, and the staff was plugging along to make them happen.

Then he decided to go on leave. He doesn't tell me when he is going to be back, mostly due to his concern for his own personal protection. In fact, he really doesn't tell anyone when he'll be back. But things never run as smooth as when he's here. Typical of any organization, I suppose. Oh well; we continue to plug along.

Hard to believe there are only 7 or so more days until Christmas. It doesn't feel much like Christmas here. In fact, every day feels like a Tuesday... It's not Monday, as we are here and have been doing this for a while. It's not Wednesday, as we are just getting into this. It won't be Friday until, well, a long time from now. Just plain, old, mashed potato-sandwich-bland type of boring.


This quasi-stagnation and interruption of Iraqi momentum has left me with not a lot to write about... So what questions do you have? What do you want to know about? Send me a note or hit the comments button and I'll answer it.

Thanks for reading. Enjoy your holiday shopping, and take care.

Ron

An Army from Nothing

If you look at the Continental Army of 1776-1783, you see some similarities between them and the Iraqi Army (IA) today. I say this with some caveats: The Iraqis are fighting the counterinsurgency; back then the Americans were the counterinsurgency. The Iraqis are a fledgling Army, struggling to fill big shoes, fight a very different war, and stay centered despite being pulled in many directions from many different agencies and people.

But both Armies started from scratch, particularly since Paul Bremer dissolved the Iraqi Army and Ba'ath Party affiliation (the only bureaucrats and guys who knew how to run stuff in the country). George Washington's Army had no equipment, no logistics, no training, no barracks, no training area. They scrounged, begged and borrowed everything they had. They endured harsh weather, and they built the Army out of nothing.

Such is the same with the IA. Today after a clearing operation/hide and go seek mission for insurgents, we visited one of the Battalions that was in on the search. They have a building in the middle of town with some barriers around it. No aid station, no dining facility, no plumbing, electricity sometimes, no heat (not to mention AC), and the "barracks" they do have are tiny, cramped rooms with waaaay too many people living in them. Most of the buildings leak. The architectural style/theme of everything they are building seems to be rubble. They make the best out of what they have, and on the whole, it isn't too bad. They don't complain about it-- they just do it. And they have been doing a very good job of it-- our town has enjoyed relative peace for a substantial amount of time.

We get asked for vehicle parts, wood, boots, and barrier material almost every day. While the goal is to exercise the infant Iraqi Logistics System, sometimes it's better to throw them a bone and let them taste success. The IA soldiers and leaders I talk to are genuinely appreciative for everything America has done over here. Most are excited about their new future. Some are impatient, but nowhere near the quantity you would think.

On another note, here is a story about the coalition unit that we work with.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gaNB-PUaA-f81WAERLWIUhKCnBGAD951ATP80

Iraqi soldiers are sometimes funny. A lot of what they do is image-oriented. Like having four different guns sticking out of the top of a truck, but two are broken, and only one has ammo. One guy had an American Army Wet Bulb thermometer designed to measure true air temperature on a tripod strapped to the back of the truck turret, as if it were some magical device that would keep him from getting hit by direct fire or an IED. He didn't know it was a thermometer, but a credit to his reasoning is that no one else knew it was a wet bulb thermometer. Funny, in a strange Iraqi sort of way.

12 more shopping days...

Hope you are well-- take care.
Ron

Who is the REAL enemy?

Here's a pic of us on a joint patrol with the Iraqi Army. Note we drive around in these super armored MRAP trucks designed to prevent blow-up stuff from hurting us, and they have F-350s...

Spent the past couple of days out and about. We visited a couple of companies in the Brigade on some battlefield circulation patrols, and today we observed a “clearance” of an area called the “SAC” or Sa’id Abdulla Corridor, which is an area west of Mahmudiya full of former bad guys. The Mahmudiya-Yusifiya-Lutifiya area used to be known as a “triangle of death” but due to the persistent efforts of US and Iraqi forces, things are quiet there now, although there are some bad guys who stop off there in and around Baghdad. We caught a couple of guys today, which is a good thing.

Bad things still happen, though, and there’s lots of people who have been affected by bad things. Today we visited a house pretty much in the middle of nowhere, in this very agricultural SA corridor. In it was a woman and what’s left of her family. She had lost two of her sons and her husband to the Army of Islam, an extremist Islamic group that operates around here. In her hysteria, she brought us into her house and took us to a room that was empty, except for their three pictures in cheap frames carefully hung on the center of a wall with some cheap plastic flowers around it. It was the best shrine she could provide, especially since two of the bodies were never recovered. I don’t understand extremism.

At times, though, the job is also intensely frustrating. Particularly when it involves getting COL Moshen to commit to a hard time, like what time will we leave in the morning. He keeps strange hours, and frequently stays up until 4AM. Not sure what he does, but it usually involves meeting with sources. Yesterday I confirmed an 8AM start; we waited until 8:45 until he rolled out of his quarters, his personal security detachment (PSD) scrambling about, and off we went. An 11:00 roll out time turned into 11:40 the other day. He hasn’t made a SP time yet.

I theorize that part of it is due to the requirement to maintain what a CGSC (Command and General Staff College—the past year I spent at Fort Leavenworth) friend would call “Machismo.” COL Moshen is a mix between a Godfather/Mafioso, a police chief who cleaned up a town, a warlord, and a wise middle-aged man. He smokes incessantly, frequently holds court amongst those who require favors of him, likes American history, and watches Tom and Jerry cartoons (think I’ve mentioned that before). He is seldom short for words, and there is drama in his presentation. He fought in the Iran-Iraq war (towards the end), he was in the Gulf War, and he was in the Army in 2003 when the US invaded. He may be 0-3, but this time I think he really believes in what he’s doing.

Other frustrating moments about this job include trying to get information from him to report to higher. The American Army, particularly our higher Headquarters division, is an information monster. You wouldn’t believe the type and quantity of raw data that we have to report. Not sure what decisions, if any, are being made with the numbers, but it is incessant. Consequently, most of the Iraqis of course don’t track all the crap that we ask for. I’m fairly certain the guy who’s asking for all of this crap has no idea of the man-hours that go into compiling the data and attempting to validate its accuracy.

On many days, I am frustrated more by my own higher command than I am of my Iraqi counterpart.

We have a slow day tomorrow. The fellas went on a Logistics run to Disneyworld (big American base by the airport where peole live good and never leave the installation), and I stayed back to compile more useless data for higher. Tomorrow I’m going to sleep in (maybe until 7:30) then go to the gym, then do some reading. Speaking of the fellas, here we are in our "we made it to Iraq" picture:

Again, hope you are well, and thanks for following along.
Ron

Pictures of Patol Base Deason

Finally, some pictures of Patrol Base Deason. This one is of the CHUs (mine is on the far end). We stole the sun tarp from someplace in order to have some shade come summertime. We also stole the picnic table.

The above picture is of our new dining facility. The smurfs in blue to the right are the Indian Patrol Base Construction Team, guys who are contracted to build things around the camp. They are working on the kitchen, to the right of the new mobile home-type building. These two buildings replace the ones burned up by the fire on 30 October.

The last picture is of a boy we met when we visited one of the subordinate battalions. This boy is now an orphan, and he lives there on the Iraqi compound. His father was kidnapped by al Qaida in Iraq, and they attempted to ransom him in order to get the boy’s uncle to work with AQ. The uncle refused, and they killed the father, and then they broke into the boy's house and killed the boy’s mother in front of him. Al Qaida then killed the uncle and told the boy to never come to the area again, and sent him to Mahmudiya (where we are) to live on the street. He has two sisters with another cousin, but he can't go live with them because al Qaida will come for him there. Since then, the Iraqi Army battalion has adopted him, given him a place to live and food to eat, and they are making sure he gets to school.

Security has improved, but there are still extremist groups who are trying to make a comeback, and they do it through extortion, kidnapping, and coercion. People now trust the Army, and they have been turning in extremists and passing leads on to Iraqi soldiers on the street.

This really hit home with me. He is the same age as my daughter, and I can’t imagine the trauma the poor kid has seen in his short life. But the soldiers in the unit proudly displayed him before the Brigade Commander, COL (Colonel) Moshen (the guy without a hat). They want to do good things and see raising this boy as an opportunity to try to mend some of the trauma the country has seen. The boy said he wants to train to be a soldier so he can bring peace to his country. It made me think of how much I take for granted.

Off to work. Take care and thanks for reading.

Ron

Life on Patrol Base Deason

Sorry for the long delay; meant to get to this sooner, but I have been keeping busy, which is a good thing.

It’s a little cold here this morning—foggy and 47 degrees. Deason is named after a Staff Sergeant from the 101st Airborne Division who was killed in combat operations in 2005. It’s about the size of a football field. There are anywhere between 80 and 100 people who live and work here, most of which never leave the walls.

We live in CHUs (containerized housing units). Each CHU has three rooms, and there are two guys to a room. In the CHU you get a bed, a locker, and a nightstand. Mine currently still does not have power. We are waiting for a cable. Not sure what's so special about this cable, but we have been waiting for it for a while. Perhaps it holds the workings of world peace, and once connected we can all go home.

We have a new chow hall (as you may or may not recall, the old one burned down on 30 October), and it has a TV in it with Armed Forces Network (AFN). Unfortunately, this too has been down for the past couple of days. Sportscenter in the morning was nice to watch; hope they get it fixed. We get a hot dinner, and sometimes we get a hot breakfast. Lunch is either an MRE or scrounging on whatever is in there—breakfast cereal, peanut butter and jelly, chips, or whatever people send. There is also an internet café-type place that has a couple of phones and some computers that are specifically for recreational use (this is where I work on the blog—you can’t do blogs on Army systems due to bandwidth requirements).

We have toilets and showers, but we have found it difficult to sustain the infrastructure to maintain a complex system built by a bunch of hard working Indian guys. None of us are very good plumbers. First off, the materials they have available aren’t exactly great; and the craftsmanship is very creative, so you have to understand the mind of the guy who put it together before you can fix it. Power surges happen frequently, so surge protectors are a must, especially since everything is wired for 220 (and in some cases, 240…) We have a hot water heater, but it doesn’t work very well (80 dudes and one hot water heater = no hot water) so if you get a shower, it is not exactly warm. The gray water goes into the canal behind the compound and eventually runs into the Euphrades about 30 kilometers south of here. The black water (toilet waste) goes into a septic tank and we pay a guy to come and suck it out (and he probably goes and dumps it into the same canal our grey water goes into…). It’s sort of like one big RV.

Our office (we call it a team house) has a logistics office, and operations and intelligence office, and a big room we use for anything that doesn’t fit into those categories. IF we ever get our AFN antenna up, our TV will go in there, and we have a couple of refrigerators for munchies. There is also an Army computer we can check email on. I share an office with Doc; it has one of the two secure internet links we have for the team (only work stuff on these computers). I also currently have the only phone, but we are hoping the commo situation will improve soon.

Overall, it isn’t bad. I have lived in worse, others are living worse (but not many), and frankly I’d rather live here than on Disneyworld, which is our nickname for the huge bases that others live on. Too much traffic, and too many flagpoles and people who want to tell you how to do your job.

The other day I went to a big meeting with my Iraqi counterpart, Colonel Moshen. At the meeting were about 250 Sheiks and local leaders in the community. They discussed security (which isn’t bad in Mahmudiya, compared to other places) and the Sons of Iraq program, which the Iraqi government now owns. It was interesting to see how Iraqis get business done. The great part is that they were working through issues without trying to kill each other or blow each other up- at least not overtly, anyway.

Today’s travels take the team and some of the Iraqi staff to FOB Mahmudiya for a joint meeting, then I will attend another meeting with COL Moshen. I could write a book on him; More on that later.

Thanks for reading; I promise to get some pictures of Deason up soon. Take care.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!! Today I figured I'd tell you what T-Day in Iraq is like...

We got up and rolled out to Camp Liberty (AKA: Disneyworld), the huge base up by the airport at about 1000. We decided on a later start due to a minor crisis last late night involving a very large find of a cache by the (IA) Iraqi Army. It seems the bad guys will try to use just about anything to make explosives, and this time they took a page out of Timothy McVey's book (the guy who blew up the federal building in Oklahoma). The cache was so big it is pretty much a HAZMAT site, so they had to wait until this morning to clear it, as the crew needed protective suits. Good got the IA-- they are finding stuff all the time.

The team all went and ate lunch together at the chow hall. The neat thing about the Army is they did it up huge, like they always do on holidays. The Army knows it moves on its stomach, so they set up quite the spread: Turkey, prime rib, ham, truot, and steamship round; shrimp cocktail, two kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, collard greens, corn, carrots, and cornbread. On top of that was a huge salad bar, lots of desserts, and some fake beer and sparkling (fake) wine (damn you, General Order #1...). The DFAC (chow hall, or dining facility) was decorated with lots of T-day stuff, some soldiers were dressed in the period garb, and part of the 4th Infantry Division Band was there to play some tunes. (the music selection was a bit odd, though-- Stairway to Heaven, Muppets music, and Disney tunes, go figure...). On the tables were some cards from people from the States. Our table had cards from a Catholic school in Conway Arkansas with messages from the students thanking us for what we are doing. It meant a lot. We ate until we were stuffed. It was very good, and a nice change of pace of what we have had. We couldn't be with our families this year, but if I was going to spend it with anyone else, I'd want to spend Thanksgiving with soldiers.

The rest of the day (it's about 1:00pm here) will be spent trying to get some administrative business done, we'll make a PX run, make some phone calls, and then we'll probably crash early so we can get up early (4:00am) to watch the Texas/Texas A&M game. We'll head back to Mahmudiya in the afternoon after we run some more errands, and then it's back to work.

This year I am thankful for those who served before me. Being away from family and seeing what the Iraqi people are going through in the creation of their nation makes me appreciate what our pilgrims and founding fathers went through in the creation of our Nation.

I am also thankful for my family, who is in Austin, and also in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and Morgantown, West Virginia. My thoughts go to them today, and I remember all of the good Thanksgivings I've had in the past.

All the best to you and your family this Thanksgiving-- Take care.

Ron

Drinking from a firehose

RIP/TOA (relief in place/transfer of authority) continues at a very fast pace. There is a lot to learn very quickly. Not only do you have to learn who’s who on the American Division Advisor team, but you also have to learn who’s who on the coalition partner unit, what is expected of you in the short term, and to make it even more complicated, you have to quickly learn the Iraqis, the units, their battlespace, their personalities, and their missions. And you have to be able to hear what the Iraqi is saying, and then hear what the interpreter thinks the Iraqi is saying, and then you have to guess what it is the Iraqi’s point is. Then you formulate an answer. This job is 99% mental, which is more than I bargained or planned for. Most days I am mentally spent. At least I’m not doing it under fire. A five minute meeting will take one to two hours. The Iraqis will incessantly ask you for stuff… Today a battalion commander asked me to get the Americans at Rustamaya to give him some vehicles he turned in to them back in 2005. That is pretty much a pipe dream, but this guy expects me to be able to do it. In fact, he's stoned if he thinks I'm going to get success on that one-- The unit that is there has been replaced at least three times by now. Every conversation you have to quickly process what it is the guy wants or is asking for, (and they are always asking for something) and be able to respond in a manner that does not promise anything, yet is a helpful enough answer to where he sees and solves his own problem. I call it mental gymnastics. We're not here to give them stuff, we are here to make their systems run more effectively so we can go home. But I guess they don't get that.

The Iraqis are making a lot of progress. On our drive today, commerce was happening everywhere. People waived, traffic moved, and things were happening. There was a lot of new construction in Mahmudiya. The Iraqi units regularly find caches of explosives and ammunition, but there is some debate as to how long the caches have been around. The quality and quantity of IEDs found has dropped dramatically. Maybe they are finally running out of ammo, and maybe we’ve captured or killed all of the smart guys who were providing guidance and leadership. The enemies of a democratic Iraq are on the ropes, but they still exist, and if the Iraqis are not vigilant, they will return.

So far I enjoy the challenge of the job. Our team is good, and we are finally getting settled in. My Iraqi unit is good, and I think we can make it better. I have a lot to learn-- And I better become a quick study… Quickly.

Our patrol base continues to improve. The Division team guys upped the water request, so we shouldn’t run out of water anymore (that’s what they say…). They will deliver the new dining facility this weekend (to replace the one that burned down), and our team house continues to improve. All we need now is electricity in our CHUs (containerized housing units-- where we sleep) and that is supposed to be coming in about a week. Hope it stays warm...

On another note, today we had to come up to Camp Liberty, which is probably the biggest base in Iraq. It is stupid huge, and the people here aren't fighting the same kind of war we are. They are using their pistols for paperweights. Some spend an entire year here and never step outside the wire. We had to get some stuff at the PX today, and it was amazing to see some of the things they sell here, most of which are of no use to me where I am. Say, for example, a frozen decorated cake, used for birthdays and celebrations and such. The chow halls here are huge and overflowing; we could abolish hunger in Africa with the amount of chow over here. It's a wonder the war costs $12 billion a month. One thing's for sure: When we do decide to get out, it's going to take a long, long time to get all this crap home.

That's about it. In proofreading this post, I sound negative, but I am fairly upbeat. A bit overwhelmed at the amount and speed that I have to learn, but overall upbeat. Sorry for the lack of pictures; our network doesn't exactly zip at lightning speeds. I'll try to get some up of the camp.

Hope you are well-- take care.
Ron

FINALLY!!!!!!

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while—We have been busy at school and trying to get out of Taji. There are two entries for today, this one and one from some stuff I did on the 15th-- keep on reading after this one to get it all.

After a trip to Iraq in July, three months of training at Fort Riley, twelve days of training in Kuwait, and eight days of training at Taji, plus about a week and a half of in between travel and waiting, we finally made it. We were supposed to fly to Mahmudiya, but our request was unsupported due to the amount of people moving around, and the amount of luggage we had (each guy was toting on average 5 large bags, plus body armor and weapons). So the team we are replacing came and got us this morning, and we did a combat patrol from Taji, though Baghdad, down to our final destination. It was an eventless patrol, and here we are.

We are now living inside an Iraqi Army compound outside of the city of Mahmudiya. The place is a work in progress. It is all built by either soldiers on the fly, or by a TCN Contract team of Indians. Some of the workmanship is interesting to say the least, but hey, we have a house. No power yet, but we have a house. We are hoping for some electricity by tomorrow. We have a team house with four large rooms. There is also another larger team here, and to support us both there is a large homemade plywood building with a gym room and a bunch of weights, an internet cafe with a couple of computers and some Skype-type software (gotta check that out), and some latrine and shower trailers. We get water daily, and there are a couple of soldiers who cook two meals a day out of a tent. (Lunch is an MRE or leftovers.) We had a dining facility, but it burned down a couple of weeks ago. The story even made Stars and Stripes.

The next ten days will be spent getting settled, setting things up, getting to know our area, getting the old team out of here, and building relationships both with the Iraqis and also with the American units around.

There has been a lot of progress in Iraq, even from the small piece I saw when I was here in July. More to follow on this on a later blog entry.

Lots of folks have asked about some suggestions of things to send to me (thank you very much, that is very generous of you), so here’s a list. These are just suggestions-- in reality we will pretty much take anything.

Flyswatter and flypaper
Starkist tuna lunch kits
Nuts (almonds, mixed, kettle cooked)
Wheat thins/Flipz
Hand sanitizer
Canned air
Baby wipes (unscented)
Beef jerkey
Stride gum
Candles (Yankee ones to kill the stench)
Big ziplocks (2.5 gallon and 1- gallon size)
Moisturizer/lotion
Magazines (Newsweek, Money, Maxim, The Economist, sports, anything that connects us to the world)
Your favorite book, particularly ones about leadership, personal development, or business


Thanks to all who offered. Hope this finds you well-- Take care.
Ron

HOOK EM!!!

Hook em!!! On November 15th I went to the US side of Taji, and I visited the 4th Battalion, 4th Armed Reconnaissance Brigade from 4ID. My old boss from UT, LTC Kevin Vizzarri is the Battalion Commander there, and he generously hosted me for a couple of hours in between my classes at the Phoenix Academy. I also got to see some Unmanned Aerial Vehicle operations, and I got to eat in a big huge chow hall. It was a nice break from Death by Powerpoint. Attached is a picture.

Speaking of pictures, on a previous day we visited the Iraqi National Supply Depot on Taji. They have lots of stuff there. In fact, I would argue that all the money spent for the huge amount of stuff there could have been spent to buy us out of our current financial crisis. One of the warehouses was for all of the weapons that get captured in Iraq. We had some fun in there—they have some neat stuff there like this:

It was a good trip to get some perspective on how Iraqi logistics is and isn’t working. There has certainly been a lot of progress made; I hope it pays off.

I meant to get this on the blog earlier, but time and electrical power didn't permit it (sorry for the delay, LTC V, and thanks again).

Hope you are well—take care.
Ron

EVEN MORE UPDATED MAILING ADDRESS!!!!!

Sorry!!! Seems we missed a couple of lines in the address, so if you are sending something, please use the new and improved one below!!!

MAJ Ronald MacKay
1-63 CAB 2BDE 1AD
IAG MiTT
FOB Mahmudiya
APO AE 09322

A Good day of training. Most of it was lecture, but at least it was by some really smart guys. We learned about one guy's 13 characteristics of insurgency and counterinsurgency by a guy who has studied it for 28 years. We also discussed centers of gravity for the insurgency and the counterinsurgent. Some of it was a review, but it was good to get it again.

We also had a former big CIA chief come and talk to us about COIN too, but more so on the role of interagencies. Again, it was pretty good, but not as good as the first guy.

More COIN stuff tomorrow.

Hope you are well. Take care.
Ron

I thought the following quote summed up what our expectations for Iraq should be:
"If you break a clay pottery vase, you must buy it. You can piece it together, but itwon'tbethe same. It will have cracks and holes, and its consistency won'tbe pure. And no matter how hard you work to piece it together, it will never be the crystal vase because it never was one in the first place. The best you can hope for is a very good pottery vase."

MAILING ADDRESS!!!!

Lots of folks have asked, and we finally got a mailing address! This is the closest coalition unit to where we will be; our mail will get shipped there, and then we will have to come and pick it up.

We aren't there yet, but will be soon, so if you send it now it should get there by the time we get there.

MAJ Ronald MacKay
1-63 Armor
IAG MTT
APO AE 09322

Cheers,
Ron

You can neverget too much learnin'

I'm now at Taji, attending the Phoenix Academy. (Sorry for the typos, as this is an old beatup computer. Pretty much everything on this side of Taji is old and/or beat up.) The Phoenix Academy is about counterinsurgency (COIN) and learning more about how to be an advisor. Here they train Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, as well as Iraqis, on COIN. A lot of the training is redundant, but it some of it is good to see again, as it takes a bit to sink in.

We are getting more on Iraqi culture. More and moreI realize how little I know about the world, and how ignorant I am of other ways of living life. Iraqi culture is very tribal and family oriented. Without a group, youwill not survive here. As a by-product or consequence, lack of individuality reduces the need or requirement for a lack of responsibility-- a cornerstone of western-style democracies. We ugly Americans think this is wrong, but it's just the way it is here, and it's been that way for thousands of years. It will take a generation (or two or three) to overcome this mindset if a truly democratic style of government is to take place.

We live in some old Iraqi Army barracks-- not too bad, compared to the tents of the past three weeks. Yesterday I had the pleasure of using an 'eastern style' toilet. I can mark that off my bucket list... We are comfortable, but we are also ready to get out of here and get to work on our own patrol base. We are also getting out of the "receive" mode and now are having to start thinking about how to advise these guys so they can be more efficient. It will be an interesting problem to tackle.

Weather is pleasant. Highs in the mid-70s and low80s, lows in the 60s. The mornings are very pleasant. Too bad it can't be like this all the time.

I had somenotes on Veterans Day, but the USB on this computer is inoperable, so they will remain stuck on my thumb drive and on mylaptop. Oh well. My thanks to those who went before me, for those who made this easier, and for those who gave us the privilege of our freedoms.

Hope this finds you well. Take care.
Ron

Hurry up and wait

Sitting here at an airbase in Kuwait… After getting up at 3 am on Friday morning and spending all of it on a range running amok, we got back and turned in vehicles and cleaned weapons. At 1900 we got our travel orders. My team flies tonight. Other teams have been going out throughout the day, even though we are all going to the same place in Iraq for some more training. My team manifests around 6PM, then we fly significantly later in the evening. The deputy IAG commander, a Navy LTCDR (Lieutenant Commander, which is the same rank as a Major in the Army) stands up and tries to tell us how he hoped our time here was beneficial, but it came off more like he was complaining about how hard they have been working “in the war zone of Kuwait” in the past couple of weeks during the surge of MTTs. Apparently our class and the class before us were too much for them. It sounded more like they were ready to get rid of us.


Everyone went back and started packing; we ended up turning off the lights at 2330. IAG then decided to make it easier for themself by moving all 240+ of us to the airfield in one move “so they could control the movement.” So we all got up (regardless of flight times) at 2AM on Saturday morning to finish packing. Wee loaded the baggage truck at 3:30AM, and left Camp Buering at 4AM. We got to the airfield at 0530, unloaded the baggage truck, and commenced to do what the Army does best: Wait. I unloaded on the IAG staff about how we were all moved at the convenience of them, not the individual teams of senior NCOs and officers that are going to live in austere places. As I predicted, it got me nowhere. Not impressed with IAG.


But I’m still getting paid. At least I hope... I got an email from Finance that said I hadn't been 'arrived' into country yet by IAG and that I was still in an in-transit status (no kidding...) and if I didn't go see my local finance office, my pay could potentially stop.



Great.....



I went to see Finance; they told me they 'fixed' it. Not sure what 'fixed' means. Guess I'll find out on the 15th.


The bigger irony is that we started off in a 40-man barracks at Fort Riley. Then we got to Camp Buering and moved into a big tent with 70+ guys. Then we got here to the airfield, and we had NO tent… Going in the wrong direction here… What’s next, a hole in the ground?
It gets better… We will arrive at in Iraq and then “someone from IAG” will come and pick us up and drive us to a FOB (Forward Operating Base) a couple of miles away from the airfield. We will spend Saturday night there, all of Sunday, Sunday night there, and then hopefully hitch a ride up to our next destination sometime on Monday. I feel like a homeless Bedouin.


More interesting news: There was a fire on our future home which burned down the dining tent and some CHUs (containerized housing units, basically 20 foot shipping containers that house 2-3 soldiers, with some furniture, electricity and AC). Luckily no one was injured, and there was not a great deal of damage. Apparently it could have been worse. It seems now there is a bit of a temporary housing shortage on Patrol Base Deason. Fire extinguishers just moved up on our priority list of things to rapidly procure.


The good news: They think they will have the housing crisis on Deason fixed by the time we get there and we should be able to move right in. Not sure how I’ll deal with not having 39 roommates.


On a good note, the weather is nice. Cool in the mornings, highs around 75 during the day. A good time to travel to the Middle East.



We are very much looking forward to getting to work. One more series of schooling to go.



Hope you are well. Take care.

Ron

Election Day Musings

Today is the election. I voted while I was home, prior to deploying. My decision of who to vote for was like trying to decide which branch I wanted to put first back in 1993 when I was filling out my paperwork to become a Lieutenant.

Prior to my enrollment in college and the ROTC program at the University of Arkansas, I had previously served in the Army as an enlisted soldier as an Infantryman at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. My conundrum was whether I wanted to be infantry again, or to try something different like Armor or Cavalry, which appealed to me as well. The neat thing about Armor is that you don’t have to walk anywhere, and you get to blow stuff up at a much higher rate than the light infantry guys. Should I stay with the status quo of being an infantry guy, which is what I know, what is comfortable, and what is easy? Or do I take a risk and try something new, learn to think in different ways, and expose myself to some new ideas? What about the unforeseen pitfalls of going Armor? Nobody told me that I would walk more as a Cavalry guy than I ever did as an Infantry guy, and the maintenance time and upkeep of complex systems would be time consuming, frustrating, and at times, all encompassing. Armor also requires a lot of logistical effort in terms of fuel, parts, ammunition, and other resources needed to make the beasts run. There are so many unknowns with such a seemingly superficial decision.

The vocational decision took a long time. In the end I picked Armor, and I have been happy with my decision. Even though I’m not really doing Armor and Cavalry stuff right now, it has been a great ride so far in my career. But for me this year, the election brought about the same type of indecision.

My prediction: Obama will be my new Commander in Chief, and the sugar pill of change will be enough of a jolt to America to quit talking about how bad things are and get them to start talking about opportunity and potential.

Regardless of how it turns out, I know where I’ll be for the next year.

So go vote. Enjoy the opportunity to voice your opinion—not everyone in the world has it. Take care.

Ron

Why I will still have a job despite the global economic downturn

I thought this was a pretty good editorial from Newsweek outlining why we need a strong military, despite what either Presidential candidate says or promises.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/166688?from=rss

Global security seems to be a growth industry. Like it or not, I guess we are the world's police.

Happy Halloween

Today was good; not as fun as yesterday, but a bit more relaxed than yesterday. I turned in my laundry so the contractors could take it out, lose all my socks, and beat the rest of it on a rock. I allegedly get it back on Sunday; we;ll see how that goes. We did some culture and language stuff, and then we had some more first aid stuff. All of it was a review. The nice part is that this was the first day of training that didn't start at 4AM. Not that it would have mattered, for we are still a bit jet lagged, and some bonehead still had his alarm set for 3:15AM from the previous day for his 4:00 non-training event. I have also discovered a chronic condition of snoring amongst MTTs. Apparently one of the elite selection criteria (other than a pulse and no deployment time) is the ability to snore at length at unhealthy decibel levels.

On a more serious note, today would have been Mimi's 84th (I think) birthday. I'm not certain of her exact age; she claimed she was 29, and her personality and cultural awareness showed it. She was my wife's Grandmother. Her real name was Frances, but she hated it and changed it to Jane, but everyone knew her as Mimi. Literally, I think everyone knew her, particularly department store salespeople, as she was always fasionably attired. She was the only grandmother I really knew, and she was a total class act. She claimed she was a witch, and she came alive on holidays, particularly Halloween. She taught me a lot about how to treat people, and about how to truly live life. She defied the odds in her life; at the age of 18 she was one of the first people to have open heart surgery. The doctors said she wouldn't live for five years. Despite health concerns and the increasing care requirements for her ailing husband who she was married to for over 50 years, she always had a positive attitude about life. The woman never ran out of energy, and she was an excellent role model, mother, grandmother and great grandmother.

Mimi died suddenly in June. We miss her a lot.

Life in the Desert: Getting on With Getting On

Me and CPT Steven Hancock, my Operations guy.

We had a pretty good day of training. We got up early and headed to the range. Not sure why we need to drive an hour to a place that has a bunch of sand berms and targets; seems like Kuwait is so wide open we could just drive out the back gate and start blasting. But we loaded the buses and hit the road.

Today we conducted advanced close quarters marksmanship and it was taught by an ex-Special Forces guy who had a big watch and a bigger ego. I bet he drives a Corvette. It was some good stuff, and anytime ammo is free, I like it. I could have done it all day. The fellas got a lot out of it, mostly because we were able to shoot in manners (and in some cases, directions) that you can't do on normal Army posts due to oppressive Death Star Imperial Range Control. About the only bad thing we could have done today was shoot each other or shoot a camel. While it wasn't anywhere close to training at DARC (http://www.darc1.com/) it was still good to get some range time in.

The team leaders and NCOICs had dinner last night with Brigadier General (BG) Walker, who is the Iraqi Assistance Group (IAG) Commander. Steak and seafood; not bad (it was steak night on Buering, so all the troops had it, not just us, which is fantastic). He gave us a good rundown on where all of the advisory teams are in Iraq and where the focus is shifting. It sort of painted the bigger pitcure and put our upcoming mission into perspective.

This week we also got new body armor. The new stuff rides much better and is more comfortable than the older model. The neck and collar are also better, as you can turn your head without strangling yourself like with the old stuff. Unfortunatel the weight is still about the same, at 40-50 pounds. Here's a picture of the new stuff.

We actually had a thunderstorm last night, too! It poured for about 10 minutes or so, and it was complete with thunder and lightning. Pretty cool to see. Deserts are amazing. Not necessarily nice or pleasant, just amazing.

Tomorrow we have some language and some more medical stuff, and then some of us get three days of MRAP training. The MRAP is the Army's new truck. It's basically a big 5-ton truck with a buttload of armor on it. These trucks have been very successful in mitigating damage done by IEDs. Since they are still under contract and warranty, we just can't hop in and cut loose... We have to be trained... By the contractor, of course... No telling what that costs. What a boondoggle.

Hope you have a good Halloween. I'm going to go as a consultant...

Take care,

Ron

LAND HO

We made it to Kuwait. The flight wasn’t too bad, but the bus ride north made up for it.


I am at Camp Buering, which is in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert. Buering is one of the staging camps for units moving north. While it’s a camp and therefore supposedly fairly primitive, we live pretty good. It is a lot better than when I was here in the summer of 1997. We have some shower trailers, a huge gym with lots of stuff to throw around, three big chow halls, bottled water like there’s no tomorrow, internet cafes, and lots of other amenities one wouldn’t think would be in the middle of the desert. It is in fact a small city, out in the middle of nowhere. In fact, I am typing this from my cot in my tent, on a wireless internet connection available from a local vendor. It ain’t exactly fast, but it’s working. Everything is available, for a price. Good to see Capitalism still has a corruptive viewpoint and competitive impact on the Arab world…


I live in a tent with 70 or so guys. It does have AC, though, which is nice, but it still is a bit ‘gamey’ and odoriferous. I think they try to make it uncomfortable in order to make us want to go north. Truth be told, it’s not too bad. It could be a lot worse.


Weather isn’t bad; Highs in the 90s, lows in the 60s and 70s. It is actually somewhat pleasant. If you are planning on a vacation to the Middle East, apparently now would be a splendid time.
We will be here for a short period of time, long enough for us to complete some more training and get acclimated, and get issued some new equipment.


Tomorrow we start our training bright and early. I’d write more, but the jet lag is kicking in. Check back later in the week and I’ll have some comments and maybe some pics of the training.


Hope all is well with you and your families. Take care.


Ron

Back to work.....

Sorry I’ve been off the blog lately. I was on leave prior to our deployment. I left Austin Wednesday morning, where it was sunny and 80 or so. I finally got to Fort Riley about 6:00pm where it was 45 degrees, raining, and windy. The team is trickling in, and we will be on our way soon.

I miss home already.


I had a great leave. It was super to spend time with the family and I very much enjoyed getting back into the routine of figuring out what to wear and what to eat. I got to eat lunch with Hailey at school, I got to go to a parent-teacher conference (a good one), and I got to sleep in my own bed. I was even home for our 12th wedding anniversary. Shannon and I went to see Neil Diamond in San Antonio—it was a hoot. I finished my chores list, we carved a pumpkin, and we even got a bunch of Halloween decorations up in the yard.


I also got to go vote. Good luck to whoever pulls it off. I hope they can get past the bickering and the partisanship and decide to get some work done. I don’t think I would want the job. While I was standing in line to vote (It took us about an hour and a half) I overheard some people complaining about the wait time “in the hot sun.” One guy complained how he doesn’t do the early voting anymore, “because all they do is throw away the ballots.” I put all of that into perspective when I recall reading stories about the January 2005 elections in Iraq: The first truly free elections since the pre-Saddam era. During the 2005 elections, all vehicle movement was banned, a precautionary measure against the vehicle-borne IED attack. Folks there walked to the polls, where they were then searched. They negotiated their way through barricades and T-walls, all emplaced to minimize the effects of gunfire or explosions. Voting took the entire day. Security was everywhere, all in an effort to make sure people were afforded the opportunity. And they came out in droves, excited about the opportunity to have their voice heard.


But Wednesday hung on the family like a heavy burden. I mentioned before about what I imagine it would be like to be on death row. Now, I’ve never obviously been on death row, and I have no desire to replicate the experience, but I would imagine it is a lot like the last days prior to leaving for a deployment: You figure out what you want for your last meal, as well as your other ‘lasts’ of clothes and visited places, and activities, and you stay up as late as possible, playing games and enjoying every last waking minute with the family. I thought leaving wasn’t going to be as hard on me as it was for Shannon and Hailey. I thought it would be easier because I had the euphoria of deploying, which is what the Army is supposed to do: Here is my chance to finally get off the bench and get in the game. But it turns out it was just as hard. It is not a pleasurable experience, but it is one that helps you appreciate certain things in life more.


I purposely had Shannon and Hailey drop me off at the curb at the airport because I knew I wouldn’t be able to stomach it. We said our goodbyes, we shed a lot of tears, and then it was done. I turned and waved, and walked inside the airport and ducked into a corner and cried for about 2-3 minutes. It was a little embarrassing, as grown men aren’t supposed to do that. But I did it. It was an important part of the experience. After a bit, I composed myself and checked in, and took the first step of a long journey towards Iraq.

Something nice did happen in Kansas City as we landed, though. There were four guys from my class on the same plane, and one of them mentioned to the flight attendant through casual conversation during the flight that he was headed to Iraq. When we landed, the flight attendant announced our presence on the plane and our “ultimate travel destination” and asked everyone to remain seated as we were allowed off the plane first. I am sure it irritated some on the relatively full flight, but it was a humbling gesture to see appreciation like that. It made leaving a bit easier, knowing at least that our sacrifice of separation was acknowledged.

In all, it was one of the harder days of my life. Any day you make an 11-year old girl cry is never a good day. But I accept that this is another event of my life, brought about by the choices that I have made. And there is the line of thinking that says the sooner we get there, the sooner we get to come home. Life is full of ups and downs, and this is a down. Downs make you appreciate the ups and all of the good things you have.


Hope you and your family are well. Take some time to enjoy them and take care.

Ron

Around a Fake Iraq in Eight Hours

Our "final exam" went well, except for one pretty big mistake, which we'll get to later.

The day started off early; we linked up with our "Iraqi Army Commander" named Colonel (COL) Halim and our interpreter, Hend at 6:30 in the morning, on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Army Strong (FOB AS is where we have been living and working out of for all of our training at Fort Riley). There we discussed the day's events, which started with paying a visit to the Coalition Forces Commander on FOB Jawad.

The commander wanted us to visit three towns: Sarhad, Muqasem, and al Hawej, all of which were on either a physical or cultural border, and all were full for various forms of unrest. How convenient. We had been in Hawej before, and things were kind of warm there last time. Overall, there was an uneasy peace in all three towns.

After our visit with the commander, I had to pay a visit to a local sheik who lost a member of his village at the hands of a Special Forces A Team raid gone bad. Typically, US forces make such payments in an effort to make amends. The amount is insignificant, but it shows an effort to make reconciliation. Never done anything like that before, but apparently I was told I was too cold. Oops. It seems my natural disposition is bland and monotone. I'd call this a tie.

I was also interviewed by an Arab reporter for a newspaper. That went much better, as I was able to get my message out without offending him or falling prey to his biased journalism. He seemed genuinely interested in getting the story right (at least from my vantage point). That's one for the good guys.

After I made the payment, we went into planning. I purposely stepped back and let the team plan this one. The team's Operations Officer, Captain (CPT) Steven Hancock, is growing into his role and he handled it well. After some brief rehearsals, we left FOB Jawad and headed for Sarhad.

Our Iraqis led, which was important, as it is another small gesture that shows the Iraqis taking responsibility for their own security. The move was uneventful, and once at Sarhad, we headed into town and my Iraqi counterpart and I met with the mayor and the police chief. We discussed security issues, which were plentiful. Imagine that. In the midst of understanding the problems, the town received some mortar fire. Three local civilians were injured, and we assisted in treating them, and I was able to convince the Iraqi commander that it was to his benefit to transport the injured to a local hospital. It set a dangerous precedent, but it showcased the Iraqis as a compassionate and engaged force. We agreed to meet with the mayor and town officials again next week.

Off we went to Muqasem, where we were to meet with the local leadership and again discuss security issues. Muqasem was apparently not a nice place. The meeting with my IA Commander, the assistant mayor, the police chief, and the local militia ad hoc security force went well. We were also able to recommend some improvements to their checkpoint, and in the course of advising them, we observed a truck that we were told to be on the lookout for. Inside the truck was a woman who told us about a bad guy who did bad things in town. Col Halim quickly assembled a team to go and search the house where he was allegedly hiding, and his force discovered weapons and information. In the attack on the house, though, two of his soldiers were lightly injured, so we treated them as the rest of COL Halim's men arrested the bad guy, which the town was growing increasingly angry at. I recommended to COL Halim we take the weapons and get out of there before the town lynched his prisoner.

Another one for the good guys. It seemed everything was going well.

As we were loading up, one of the guys on my team radioed me to let me know there was a guy running away towards a walled in series of buildings, and that he looked to be a threat. I gave the order to shoot.

At the time it made sense; a guy running away from a house that had just been raided were weapons and an insurgent were found. Turns out he was scared, and he was running to the local mosque (the walled in series of buildings) to pray. This apparently was the wrong decision, and we would feel the repercussions of it very soon.

We loaded up and headed to al Hawej as the town grew more and more restless towards COL Halim's prisoner.

At Hawej we were again to meet with local leaders, this time with the mayor, sheik, and police chief of Hawej, and also included were the sheik, police chief, and mayor of Surdash. My favorite angry Arab agenda driven journalism reporter guy was there too, and he was as obnoxious as ever. The folks of Hawej were downright hostile, and and they were disrupting the meeting. It took me a while to figure out why-- They had got word of the shooting in Muqasem, and were reacting accordingly.

Oops. One for the bad guys.

Nothing got done in the meeting, and due to the deteriorating security, we had to leave, and we had to do it in a hurry. The people were understandably irate. We scheduled another meeting for next week after things died down, and off we went, back to FOB Jawad.

It was a nice day; sunny and pleasant, and not overly hot. The drive back was almost pleasant.

Then the road blew up. We ran into a complex IED and small arms ambush. My truck was rendered immobile, and amazingly, despite being in an armored truck and wearing body armor with plates in it, I sustained a sucking chest wound.

I realized at that point I was wounded to see how the fellas would do without a leader. Not missing a beat, Doc went to work treating me, the lead truck backed up and hooked up our tow straps, and the rear truck suppressed the remaining enemy like clockwork, as we had rehearsed. Reports went up, and off we went. The whole engagement took less than three minutes, and off we raced again to FOB Jawad.

I'd call this one for us. The precombat checks, rehearsals, battle drills and prep work all paid off.

Overall it was a good training event. I know you can't be ready for everything, but I think we are to a level of training to where we can function and to where we can provide value. We will continue to get better, and we have some more training in Kuwait and also in Iraq before we get to our unit.

On Tuesday we 'graduate.' It's much more impressive than it sounds, as nobody really fails; you are still going to Iraq. But from there it is up to the team to get the rest up to speed. Fortunately we don't have that issue. I will leave 'FOB Army Strong' confident in our abilities as a team.

Hope all is well with you. And don't shoot the guy running to the mosque....

Take care.

Ron

Virtual Reality Warfare, Hillbilly Redneck Style

Above: The Warrior Skills Trainer

Another couple of pretty good days of training... Yesterday we visited the Warrior Skills Trainer, which is basically a big video game some guys in the Army came up with. It is made up of seven different computer systems and languages, and it is designed to train soldiers on mounted combat patrols. They threw the whole thing together on the cheap, but it works pretty good. Inside a big warehouse there are four plywood and computer screen mock-ups of Humvees, and they are outfitted with weapons that shoot laser beams at screens that take up each wall. Inside each mock up instead of there being a window, there is a computer monitor with a view of the virtual world from that perspective: If you drive straight, you will see the virtual reality truck in front of you. If you look in the rear view mirror, you will see a virtual reality representation of the dudes who are in the truck right behind you. the world passes by as you look out the window, and there are virtual reality arab-looking people all over the place. You navigate using a representation of the Army's Blue Force Tracker system which in reality uses GPS and satellite technology to enhance situational awareness (figure out where everyone is on the battlefield). It's a pretty good system and they can pretty much simulate everything there is on a mounted combat patrol. We used it as a chance to exercise our SOPs and work out some bugs.

In a nutshell, we got paid today to play a huge interlinked video game. Thanks for paying your taxes.

The Hillbilly Redneck Virtual Reality Warfare machine was a precursor to today's training of a mounted combat patrol live fire. It involved shooting, maneuvering and communicating with three gun trucks and 11 soldiers on a range with a bunch of targets to shoot at and a bunch of weapons systems and ammunition to shoot targets with. It went well, and the fellas were able to apply a lot of the lessons learned from previous training. We were able to work out a lot of kinks. I enjoyed it a lot for two reasons:

1. We got to shoot stuff. Advising intrigues me, but it's not the reason why I came in the Army.

2. It reminded me of being a tank platoon leader and our semi-annual (or semi whenever we got the resources to do it) Tank Table XII Platoon Qualification. I used to have a blast doing those, and this event brought me back to the days when life as an Army Leader was about grass roots muddy boots leadership, as opposed to office cubes, email, doing slides and nugging your way through staff work.

Friday is our Capstone Exercise, where we are supposed to apply all of the lessons we have learned here in our seven weeks of pre-deployment training. I'm looking forward to it, mostly because we are close to being able to get to go home for two weeks prior to our big airplane trip.

Tune in on Sunday to see how it went.

Hope all is well with you. Take care.

Ron

Humble Pie

For the past three days, we have been working on some urban warfare stuff. The first day was some short range marksmanship which entailed some shooting and the second day we learned about the specifics of room and house clearing (see "Better Every Day" post below).


Yesterday we had the collective training event that tied a lot of what we have been learning for the past six weeks together.


Our link up with the Iraqi Army (IA) went well (some American soldiers posing as Iraqis, augmented by some locals who were playing the part, and the commander was an Arab-speaking giant of a man named Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed). "LTC Ahmed" (not his real name) briefed us on his plan through an interpreter to go to the town of Bashur and meet the local sheik and mayor. The sheik had asked LTC Ahmed to pay his town a visit, as there has been a rash of violence and an influx of people who were not locals. He suspected that al Qaeda was using his town as a staging base. He requested our presence at great risk to his personal safety.


LTC Ahmed's plan was to set some outer security and then go in and see if we could narrow down the search area by observing the locals and meeting with the sheik and the mayor. We split our force of 11 into a mounted element that pulled security from the outskirts of the town, and a dismounted element, which I went with. The American soldiers shadowed the Iraqi Army as they went about their searching and tactical questioning, and I stayed with LTC Ahmed and we did more of the same.


After about 20 minutes of searching, we found weapons, captured a bad guy, and gathered enough information to learn that the newly inserted al Qaeda leader, Mullah Abdul Mohammed, was in a town called al Hawej nearby. We loaded up and headed out to go and capture him.


A good day-- so far.


Al Hawej was not a good place for IA or coalition forces, so we were more aggressive going in. The plan was to go straight to the house where the bad guy was, apprehend him, and get out. All was going well until a sniper popped out of the weeds across the street from the town and shot one of our outer cordon security guys. Our team reacted well, and they quickly actioned on the sniper, and subsequently began treating our casualty. Simultaneously, another shot rang out from some random place and another one of our team was hit, this time the casualty was from the dismounted element. As Doc went to work, another shot rang out, and Doc was suddenly wounded.


We then noticed that the Iraqis had loaded up their highly valued target and they hauled ass, leaving us on the objective to fend for ourselves.


I'm told they'll do that from time to time.


Then, to add to the chaos, as I was trying to assess what was happening, one of the Observer-Controllers walked up and handed me a casualty card and said, "Sir, stop talking. You've been shot."


"From where?" I replied, astonished, as I was surrounded on three sides by high walls and I was kneeling behind a junked car. I thought I was in a pretty good spot. The card showed that I was shot in the right thigh, I could talk but could not move, and that I could NOT assist my unit in any way.


Ouch.


I pulled out my aid kit and began to self administer a tourniquet from my apparently profusely bleeding leg. That dude must have been a hell of a shot.


At that point I realized I had been shot to prove a point.


From there it pretty much went downhill... Unplanned contingencies I should have thought of planning for surfaced, and they were ugly. We struggled to get off the objective, and it was apparent we had failed to consider a lot of things in planning for our operation. We somewhat arrogantly thought we would just roll up and do the thing, LEEroy Jenkins-style.


Up to this point, I thought our team had been doing pretty well, but based on this exercise of Camp Funston-isms and extremes, we have a lot of stuff to still figure out. I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to finally do some collective training, and I'm pleased these things are coming to light here and not in Iraq. I suppose as long as you are learning, you are doing OK.


We have a couple of days left to fix some stuff, which is good. This Friday we have our capstone, which will wrap up everything we have been working on. Hopefully it will go better than this drill.


Hope you had a good weekend. Take care.


Ron

Chinese Delivery Guy Wars

So here in the barracks, you can eat at one of two places: Chow Hall 1 or Chow Hall 2. They are approximately 300 meters apart, and they probably collectively serve around 1500-2000 people per meal, per day. They do their best, but you can only cook baked chicken so many ways before it gets old. We start week seven tomorrow, and quite frankly, I'm a bit burned out on the food. It's not bad; it does the job.

Others hit burnout at about week 1.5. So they resort to delivered pizza, and some local delivery places. In observing the Chinese delivery guys in particular, I have observed quite a rivalry in the chinese food delivery business, almost to the levels of requiring UN Intervention and the creation of a Zone of Separation (ZOS) to allow both chinese delivery companies to peacefully coexist.

When a guy comes to deliver food, he will place extra menus and flyers touting the authenticity and deliciousness of his chinese grub. He will place them everywhere, on just about every horizontal surface he can find.

This tactic of leaflet bombing seems to upset his counterpart, and chinese guy #2 will instigate a scorched Earth policy of sterilization, and he will replace all of chinese guy #1's propaganda with his own, which highlights how much more delicious his chinese chow is from chinese food guy #1's chinese food.

It all came to a head yesterday, as chinese guy #1 met chinese guy #2 in the parking lot.

Chinese guy #1 was inbound with a fresh load of MSG for a trooper who slept in and missed breakfast. Chinese guy #2 was conducting a zone reconnaissance, replacing chinese guy #1's flyers with his latest own, and soliciting chow requests in person. Heated words were had in the parking lot. I don't know what they were saying-- If they were going at it in Arabic, I might get some of it, but my Mandarin is a bit non-existent. But it was evident that this was an epic battle of deliverymen.

And then it happened. Chinese guy #2 knocked the carryout order that chinese guy #1 was carrying out of his hands.

I anxiously awaited as the two chinese guys squared off and shouted some more. I thought I would be treated to a flurry of ninja-ness, excited to see a kung fu movie plot unfold before my eyes.

But instead, chinese guy #2 ran to his delivery vehicle and sped away and chinese guy #1 let loose with a flurry of obscenities.

This rivalry does not exist with the pizza guys. They apparently have an accord or something.

This competition for business runs counter to my theory of chinese food restaurants. I believe the Chinese Government secretly owns the rights to all chinese food buffets and restaurants in the US, and the only way to open one is to agree to franchise it from Mother China. All of the food tastes the same, the decor is all the same, and the accounting when the bill comes is always mildly sketchy. But this delivery guy competition somewhat disproves my theory.

Perplexing.

Better Every Day

Things keep on getting better...

I found a guy who wants to buy my truck, and negotiations are complete. Now it's up to the banks. I'm a bit sad to see it go; while it was (and still is) a good truck, it is another sign that my time here in America is drawing to a close and blast off is eminent. The flip side to that is the sooner we get to Iraq, the sooner we get to come home.

Also as a bonus, my NCOIC (Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge) Sergeant First Class Pate (AKA: Big Mama) found out he was selected for promotion today. Super news. It's good to see the Army reward good NCOs and entrust them with more responsibility.

Today was a good day of training. We did what the Army calls 'Short Range Marksmanship.' It was the first day of a three-day block where we learn to conduct operations in an urban environment. It wasn't quite like a week at the Direct Action Resource Center (http://www.darc1.com/) but it is the best Riley can do for a half a day and limited ammo. It involves shooting and moving, transition to pistol, and shooting around barricades. Basically I got paid to do my favorite hobby today, which was nice.

Tomorrow we are going to learn about clearing rooms and buildings. The end state of training is some force on force stuff with an expensive version of paintball. Should be a good time, as well as a chance to do some team building and some urban problem solving. These types of training events are good for the team in that we get to exercise our decision making abilities, and we also get to see second and third order effects of decisions, and we also learn more and more about each other.

These two days will take us up to a scenario on Saturday where we have to do another combat patrol, link up with a platoon of Iraqis, and accompany them on a cordon and search mission and a raid in two towns where bad guys are. Our job is to coach and advise the Iraqi Army (IA) in the conduct of their operations. In these scenarios, there is no right answer, only different methods and consequences to each method. The optimal goal is to find a solution where the Iraqis solve the problem themselves and we bring everyone home. Stay tuned for Sunday's exciting blog entry on how this turns out!!!

Not looking forward to watching the Arkansas vs UT game this weekend. Hope the Iraqis at least fare better than the Hogs.

Hope all is well- Take care.

Ron

Getting Anxious

Things are going well. Our team has jelled, and we are getting it done. This past Saturday we had a series of hands on tasks to complete, and the fellas did good. One particular area we seem to be doing well with is our Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO), or Sergeants for the old school.

Sergeants make the Army do what its supposed to do. They 'make shit happen.' They are the trainers of both soldiers and officers, and they are the backbone of any unit. I have fond memories of my NCOs growing up in the Army, from my first squad leader (Staff Sergeant Darren Bohn, AKA: Jesus) as an Infantryman, through my first Platoon Sergeant (SFC Harris) when I was a Tank Platoon Leader, to my gunner (SGT Pettibone) and First Sergeants (Carlin, Grott, Hess, and Sturgell) as a Troop Commander. This trend continues here on the team... The NCOs are no-nonsense and they want to get it done, and they don't want to fail. It makes it easy to build a good unit when you have good building materials.

On another note, I'm feeling a bit anxious this week. We really have only three major training events left. One is urban operations, which we will do Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, another is a mounted live fire combat patrol and all of the prep work that goes before it, and the last event is a Capstone, where we will put it all together. It would of course be ideal to jsut ping from one event to the next, but due to the amount of people here vs. available resources, we have to phase the training so everyone gets a chance to do it, and therefore drag it out over two weeks. So we pace ourselves and use the time to improve as best we can.

Back to feeling anxious... It's not an anxious feeling like I am running out of time, like when I am on leave and I know the good time will come to a close and it will be time to get on with it. It is a feeling of anticipation; not quite dread like going to the dentist, but not quite like an excited kid waiting for Christmas morning, either. Maybe more like a date where you have no idea what the outcome will be... You hope for the best, but at the same time, try to not be unrealistic about your expectations.

We all also realize the faster we get there, the faster we can come home.

Maybe it's anxious like the Razorbacks playing Texas this weekend: They know it's going to hurt a lot, but they want to get it over with. That one is gonna be ugly...
Woo Pig Sooie....

Ron

See the post below about the machine gun range and then watch the video, and you'll better understand....





Hope all's well-


Ron

Machine Gun Nostalgia and Bad Loans

Tonight is a “two-parter:”

Part One: A trip down Memory Lane. The past couple of days have been pretty good. Although we are advisors, and the bulk of what we do will be, um, advising, we have to be trained to take care of ourselves out there in “Indian Country.” So for the past couple of days we have been doing some machine gun training, which for me is quite nostalgic.

The first job I had in the Army as an 18-year old Private First Class Infantryman in the 101st Airborne Division was an M60 machine gunner. It was the only thing I wanted to do in the Army—Everything that I did in the Army after that was icing on top of icing. I had a blast doing it, and I relished the simple life: Walk a lot, set up, wait, shoot, walk a bunch more, wait some more, then walk home. Clean gun, get off work.

It was a very simple life. Sure, we walked a lot, and we got rained on a lot, but it was simple. All of life’s complications reduced to Maslow’s Heirarchy of needs: Ammo, water, food, a dry place to sleep, all in that order.

20 years later it was just as fun: An M240 and a .50 Caliber machine gun, two days and two nights of beautiful weather, and a buttload of free ammo. Add to that a nice sunset, a couple of hours of sleep under a full moon on a cloudless night on a Humvee hood, and a beautiful sunrise.

The fellas on my team all shot well-- We were the only team to all qualify on the M240, and half of our guys shot a perfect score at night with the .50 M2. I’m proud of them. Get sum.

_______________________________

Part Two: The rant on corporate accountability. AIG and investment banks like them make poor leadership decisions, lose billions of dollars on poor investment decisions and inaccurate books, but no accountability for the leadership. They get fired, but walk with multi-million dollar severance packages that were negotiated in advance. In my opinion they should be tried on criminal charges. As a commander, if I lost or misused property, I was held liable and accountable for my actions. These guys screw up and walk away unscathed and untouched.

This is not why I am spending years away from family, living with 39 other men in one building, and not why my family is going without a husband and a dad. I’m not doing this for free chicken so some irresponsible corporate CEO with a lack of morals can get rich off of other people and not be held accountable for his decisions.

Sure, Capitalism and Globalism both have their roots in individual greed, but I think we may have gone too far.

I don't have an answer, just an angry viewpoint.