Iraq - from the horse's mouth
He had a big audience and he was nervous. His wife was standing with him but he would be doing most of the talking. We all clapped hard when he was introduced, his wife grabbed his hat off of his head, he smiled, and began to talk.
He was a young married man with a brand new baby girl. He had joined the Reserves to augment his pay, provide education benefits and because he loved his country and was willing to serve. But it was a shock when, right after the birth of the baby, he got short notice to get ready...to deploy.
They couldn't tell him where he was going, except that it was overseas, it would be hot and somebody might be shooting at him. He had just a couple of weeks to get ready to leave everyone behind. We were all at a couple's retreat together and the rest of us surrounded him and his bride and prayed. A few days later he was gone.
Winter was full on in the Indiana hinterlands, but he was in California training. Before the spring arrived he was in Iraq. It was a shock to his system.
"It was cold when we got there, didn't usually get above 100 degrees. But summer came and it got hotter...120 or maybe even 140. And I was wearing a helmet that weighed about 20 pounds, bulletproof, and then I had my protective jacket with inserts that weighed about 70 pounds. I had to wear a full uniform and carry my weapon at all times when I was outside. That is how we worked..."
So they worked. His unit was working on building up an airfield and the buildings that would be associated with a major airfield. They worked at night, 12 hours at a time, six days a week and six hours on Sundays. It sometimes dipped below 100 degrees in the evenings and "...one week it got down to about 80. It was a cold wave. I told my wife and she said, 'that's not cold' and I said, 'Oh, yes it is!' That was a great week."
He encountered the Camel Spiders, relatively huge creatures so named because they would crawl up under a camel and eat through its belly until it died. They were several inches around including their legs. Camel Spiders loved shadows and so to avoid the heat they would sometimes follow a soldier step-by-step, remaining in his shadow so as to avoid the heat of the day. They could bite and were a possible source of nasty infection but he never heard of anyone being bit and they weren't poisonous. He wondered at the Iraqis who, if they saw one, would scoop it up and carry it away. Did they eat them?
He explained how no one touched another person with their left hands and never ate with the left hand, since that was supposed to be the "hand that you wipe with, so they don't use it." You would never show another person the sole of your foot, that was another insult. There were adjustments to be made, living in "The Sandbox" as the troops call it. Iraq.
He learned so many things in Iraq. From the other troops, he learned that in combat areas there is no rivalry between Marines and Navy and Army and Air Force - they are all American troops, in it together. He learned that the Iraqi soldiers and police respected the Americans but in his area they rarely interacted. He learned to live in a semi-trailer, sleep in crowded bunk areas while explosions resounded in the distance, and to treasure those moments when he could enjoy air conditioning. He learned to find a new level of communion with his wife within the precious phone calls they shared every week (unless the base was under any kind of threat and all commo was shut down). With no tv and with a life of 24/7 spent with the men of his crew, he learned how to really know someone and understand their thinking, be truly close to other human beings. Best of all, he didn't learn what it meant to be wounded or killed. Only twice did his area come under direct attacks and in both cases he and his men weren't even there.
The attacks were usually a mortar or rocket launcher strike. There was little or no organized fighting anywhere nearby, just a few terrorists here and there hoping to get lucky by lobbing in explosives. Being about fifty miles from downtown Baghdad, he didn't see the suicide attacks that happen there, attacks that are timed for news coverage and to spread fear and unrest. On a clear day he could see Baghdad in the distance, just as you can see Chicago from the sand dunes of the Indiana shoreline of Lake Michigan.
He did learn a lot about the people. They were reticent at first, but soon became friendly with him and his buddies. Often they would express their gratitude towards them. He was surprised at how many had a rudimentary ability to communicate in English, way out here in the countryside away from the city.
He and his wife had given their talk to our group of high school students and now it was time for questions. The kids wanted to know, why did the Iraqis thank him and for what?
Now he sank his teeth into that one. He told us how the Iraqis explained things. Under Saddam, the dictator and his cronies had the money and power and luxuries. The vast majority of people were lucky to be given electricity two days out of the week. Schools were few and small and no one was taught beyond the sixth grade unless they had connections. Most of the people grew up scrabbling to make money and with no modern skillsets due to the lack of education. This is why Iraqi nationals sought to escape the country and come to the USA; for the education. There were soldiers and contractors building more schools and building up the infrastructure of the country and working to provide full-time water and electricity to all. There was hope for education and jobs.
What was the biggest adjustment for him? He admitted that he found he sometimes missed the guys he had been with all of the time and he missed the young boy who did their laundry, a kid of junior high school age who longed for more schools to be built so he could go back to learning rather than run around hauling laundry. He would wake up at night afraid because he couldn't locate his weapon, or he would wake up certain that he was still in his bunk and able to see the interior of the trailer as if he were really there.
They asked him why we didn't hear good things about Iraq, only the bad. He said he figured it was politics. He saw a country where two of the three religious sects were thankful for us, plus the Kurds, and that only one sect worked against us because they didn't want a free country, they wanted a theocratic dictatorship. But the people were thankful, good work was being done and the attacks were sporadic and primarily centered in major cities where news media might record them.
All in all, he was proud to have served, grateful to have been deployed for less than a year and very, very glad to be back home with his wife and baby. We gathered around them and prayed for them, thanking God for their return. He gave me a big hug and I sure gave it back. He was truly back home.
~~~~~~~
Greg and Debbie, the couple of whom I wrote, are now back together. My son Rob is back from Afghanistan in one piece. My godson Chuck is back from Iraq. My friend Tom is there right now, and so is my other godson, Cecil. Everywhere lives are being disrupted by our young people having to leave home and deploy overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, facing personal dangers for the sake of those left at home.
Some don't make it back. In an all-volunteer military, that possibility is known from the get-go. The vast majority of our troops are highly professional and dedicated to do the job and do it right. I was impressed with what I saw at both the training bases and home bases of the young men I know in the service today.
Today it snowed for the first time this year. It snowed hard, two or three times, but the ground and air were still too warm to sustain it and the snow melted almost immediately. In a month or two it will snow and it will stay and the whole area will be covered with white. It'll be cold, but it'll be beautiful.
In Iraq and Afghanistan today our troops are serving and are often in danger. Afghans are learning to live in a free society of their own crafting and the Iraqis are just beginning that process. Right now, were we to leave, it would all fall apart and freedom would melt away just as snow in Indiana melts in October. But if we stay the course that investment will pay off. Afghans and Iraqis will be self-governing and able to secure themselves as well and we will begin withdrawing troops. It'll be different from the government we know, but it will be beautiful, too.
Every single serviceman and woman I've encountered from those zones tell me the same thing. The people appreciate us and are glad we came. The conditions are getting better, improvements are being made, and the news media have everything slanted so things appear bleak and nearly hopeless.
I went with my wife and son-in-law and daughter to see a Toby Keith concert, for her birthday. I had posted a bit about that, but I remember something that Toby said. You know he got into a slam session against the Dixie Chicks after they began saying un-american things on stage and Toby defended his country and his President because, well, it is his country and President! But he is a musician and a patriot and not a politician. He said, "Screw politics, and God Bless America!" I understood what he meant. I say this to you, my friends. Screw politics! Let's pull together, all parties, to support our troops overseas and make it easier for them as they work to do the job they were sent to do. It's not a Bush thing or a Clinton thing, it is an American thing. Defeating Islamofascism is key to our very survival. I also say this. Go ahead and go out of your way to thank the troops who make it back home for their sacrifice and dedication. God knows they've seen enough negative junk in the press. It would mean a lot to them and I think they deserve it.
Others are saying the same things! Like Amy, whose husband has been to Iraq and might know a little bit about it.
You should really read this one, too! Pillars of Government Week, Part I :The Military. Cassandra posts an intelligent and worthwhile mini-essay on the military and the US Government and as it relates to the Iraq situation.
(PS - BTW my daughter's name is Michelle, it was her birthday and in a Freudian moment of some kind I gave Greg's wife the wrong name. It's fixed now!!!)
He was a young married man with a brand new baby girl. He had joined the Reserves to augment his pay, provide education benefits and because he loved his country and was willing to serve. But it was a shock when, right after the birth of the baby, he got short notice to get ready...to deploy.
They couldn't tell him where he was going, except that it was overseas, it would be hot and somebody might be shooting at him. He had just a couple of weeks to get ready to leave everyone behind. We were all at a couple's retreat together and the rest of us surrounded him and his bride and prayed. A few days later he was gone.
Winter was full on in the Indiana hinterlands, but he was in California training. Before the spring arrived he was in Iraq. It was a shock to his system.
"It was cold when we got there, didn't usually get above 100 degrees. But summer came and it got hotter...120 or maybe even 140. And I was wearing a helmet that weighed about 20 pounds, bulletproof, and then I had my protective jacket with inserts that weighed about 70 pounds. I had to wear a full uniform and carry my weapon at all times when I was outside. That is how we worked..."
So they worked. His unit was working on building up an airfield and the buildings that would be associated with a major airfield. They worked at night, 12 hours at a time, six days a week and six hours on Sundays. It sometimes dipped below 100 degrees in the evenings and "...one week it got down to about 80. It was a cold wave. I told my wife and she said, 'that's not cold' and I said, 'Oh, yes it is!' That was a great week."
He encountered the Camel Spiders, relatively huge creatures so named because they would crawl up under a camel and eat through its belly until it died. They were several inches around including their legs. Camel Spiders loved shadows and so to avoid the heat they would sometimes follow a soldier step-by-step, remaining in his shadow so as to avoid the heat of the day. They could bite and were a possible source of nasty infection but he never heard of anyone being bit and they weren't poisonous. He wondered at the Iraqis who, if they saw one, would scoop it up and carry it away. Did they eat them?
He explained how no one touched another person with their left hands and never ate with the left hand, since that was supposed to be the "hand that you wipe with, so they don't use it." You would never show another person the sole of your foot, that was another insult. There were adjustments to be made, living in "The Sandbox" as the troops call it. Iraq.
He learned so many things in Iraq. From the other troops, he learned that in combat areas there is no rivalry between Marines and Navy and Army and Air Force - they are all American troops, in it together. He learned that the Iraqi soldiers and police respected the Americans but in his area they rarely interacted. He learned to live in a semi-trailer, sleep in crowded bunk areas while explosions resounded in the distance, and to treasure those moments when he could enjoy air conditioning. He learned to find a new level of communion with his wife within the precious phone calls they shared every week (unless the base was under any kind of threat and all commo was shut down). With no tv and with a life of 24/7 spent with the men of his crew, he learned how to really know someone and understand their thinking, be truly close to other human beings. Best of all, he didn't learn what it meant to be wounded or killed. Only twice did his area come under direct attacks and in both cases he and his men weren't even there.
The attacks were usually a mortar or rocket launcher strike. There was little or no organized fighting anywhere nearby, just a few terrorists here and there hoping to get lucky by lobbing in explosives. Being about fifty miles from downtown Baghdad, he didn't see the suicide attacks that happen there, attacks that are timed for news coverage and to spread fear and unrest. On a clear day he could see Baghdad in the distance, just as you can see Chicago from the sand dunes of the Indiana shoreline of Lake Michigan.
He did learn a lot about the people. They were reticent at first, but soon became friendly with him and his buddies. Often they would express their gratitude towards them. He was surprised at how many had a rudimentary ability to communicate in English, way out here in the countryside away from the city.
He and his wife had given their talk to our group of high school students and now it was time for questions. The kids wanted to know, why did the Iraqis thank him and for what?
Now he sank his teeth into that one. He told us how the Iraqis explained things. Under Saddam, the dictator and his cronies had the money and power and luxuries. The vast majority of people were lucky to be given electricity two days out of the week. Schools were few and small and no one was taught beyond the sixth grade unless they had connections. Most of the people grew up scrabbling to make money and with no modern skillsets due to the lack of education. This is why Iraqi nationals sought to escape the country and come to the USA; for the education. There were soldiers and contractors building more schools and building up the infrastructure of the country and working to provide full-time water and electricity to all. There was hope for education and jobs.
What was the biggest adjustment for him? He admitted that he found he sometimes missed the guys he had been with all of the time and he missed the young boy who did their laundry, a kid of junior high school age who longed for more schools to be built so he could go back to learning rather than run around hauling laundry. He would wake up at night afraid because he couldn't locate his weapon, or he would wake up certain that he was still in his bunk and able to see the interior of the trailer as if he were really there.
They asked him why we didn't hear good things about Iraq, only the bad. He said he figured it was politics. He saw a country where two of the three religious sects were thankful for us, plus the Kurds, and that only one sect worked against us because they didn't want a free country, they wanted a theocratic dictatorship. But the people were thankful, good work was being done and the attacks were sporadic and primarily centered in major cities where news media might record them.
All in all, he was proud to have served, grateful to have been deployed for less than a year and very, very glad to be back home with his wife and baby. We gathered around them and prayed for them, thanking God for their return. He gave me a big hug and I sure gave it back. He was truly back home.
~~~~~~~
Greg and Debbie, the couple of whom I wrote, are now back together. My son Rob is back from Afghanistan in one piece. My godson Chuck is back from Iraq. My friend Tom is there right now, and so is my other godson, Cecil. Everywhere lives are being disrupted by our young people having to leave home and deploy overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, facing personal dangers for the sake of those left at home.
Some don't make it back. In an all-volunteer military, that possibility is known from the get-go. The vast majority of our troops are highly professional and dedicated to do the job and do it right. I was impressed with what I saw at both the training bases and home bases of the young men I know in the service today.
Today it snowed for the first time this year. It snowed hard, two or three times, but the ground and air were still too warm to sustain it and the snow melted almost immediately. In a month or two it will snow and it will stay and the whole area will be covered with white. It'll be cold, but it'll be beautiful.
In Iraq and Afghanistan today our troops are serving and are often in danger. Afghans are learning to live in a free society of their own crafting and the Iraqis are just beginning that process. Right now, were we to leave, it would all fall apart and freedom would melt away just as snow in Indiana melts in October. But if we stay the course that investment will pay off. Afghans and Iraqis will be self-governing and able to secure themselves as well and we will begin withdrawing troops. It'll be different from the government we know, but it will be beautiful, too.
Every single serviceman and woman I've encountered from those zones tell me the same thing. The people appreciate us and are glad we came. The conditions are getting better, improvements are being made, and the news media have everything slanted so things appear bleak and nearly hopeless.
I went with my wife and son-in-law and daughter to see a Toby Keith concert, for her birthday. I had posted a bit about that, but I remember something that Toby said. You know he got into a slam session against the Dixie Chicks after they began saying un-american things on stage and Toby defended his country and his President because, well, it is his country and President! But he is a musician and a patriot and not a politician. He said, "Screw politics, and God Bless America!" I understood what he meant. I say this to you, my friends. Screw politics! Let's pull together, all parties, to support our troops overseas and make it easier for them as they work to do the job they were sent to do. It's not a Bush thing or a Clinton thing, it is an American thing. Defeating Islamofascism is key to our very survival. I also say this. Go ahead and go out of your way to thank the troops who make it back home for their sacrifice and dedication. God knows they've seen enough negative junk in the press. It would mean a lot to them and I think they deserve it.
Others are saying the same things! Like Amy, whose husband has been to Iraq and might know a little bit about it.
You should really read this one, too! Pillars of Government Week, Part I :The Military. Cassandra posts an intelligent and worthwhile mini-essay on the military and the US Government and as it relates to the Iraq situation.
(PS - BTW my daughter's name is Michelle, it was her birthday and in a Freudian moment of some kind I gave Greg's wife the wrong name. It's fixed now!!!)