MAY


BACKGROUND



On 1 May 2003, the United States officially declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. President George W. Bush's dramatic announcement to this effect on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk-after landing in an F-14 that he himself had piloted-underscored the transition from Phase III (decisive combat operations) to Phase IV (postcombat operations). Emphasis would shift to stabilizing and reconstructing Iraq, if it had not already.

Phase IV altered the geographic scope of operations. To this point, combat power had been fairly concentrated to deal with a similarly concentrated adversary, and civil-military affairs progressed in the relatively modest areas in the wake of the advancing forces. On 9 May the United States and Great Britain presented the United Nations with a draft plan for postwar Iraq that gave them control of its oil revenues and acknowledged their responsibility as occupying powers. This obligated them to fan out quickly to secure and service the entire country, disarm residual resistance, and initiate a return to local governance.

No one had more ground to cover than the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) as the transition to Phase IV progressed. Original planning had apportioned it postcombat responsibilities for a broad swath of northern Iraq, and this assignment remained even though the division had entered the country from the south. In Captain Brown's narrative we find the itinerant companies and platoons of his brigade operating ever deeper into Iraq and ever farther from each other. We also find them heavily involved in the disarmament and the destruction of munitions caches large and small, the total volume of which was astonishing. Wags say that before the war Iraq was an ammunition dump with a government and after it was an ammunition dump without a government. At least one of the disarmament efforts involving the 4th Infantry Division proved dramatic and externally visible. The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) was an exiled, anticlerical Iranian organization that had operated against Tehran out of Baghdad with the blessing of Saddam Hussein and had also cooperated with him against the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), now an American ally. Disarming this formidable organization required posturing overwhelming force in difficult terrain while reassuring the MEK that they would not be turned over to the Kurds or their own countrymen for massacre. In the end the MEK was neatly handled and complied with requirements without the term surrender being used.


26
Battleground IRAQ

During this month Captain Brown's brigade got some exposure to the profound ethnic tensions bedeviling Iraq, but the soldiers' dealings with the locals seem to have been friendly-or at least manageable. In part this was because of the northern, largely Kurdish, area of operations to which the unit was initially assigned during Phase IV. The men had already had a taste of Sunni hostility in the towns immediately north of Baghdad to which they would soon return. Well to their south, the Shia, long the victims of Saddam Hussein's brutal repression, were evolving their own internal leadership in the newly permissive climate. Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim returned from years of exile in Iran to promote the cause of Shia unity. The revered Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for a meeting of Shia clerics in Najaf for the same purpose. Key players include al-Sistani, al-Hakim, Baghdad-based Dawa Party leader Abu Malik, and Muqtada al-Sadr, the fiery young son of an ayatollah martyred by Saddam Hussein. As Captain Brown's men sorted out issues in northeastern Iraq, the future implications of Sunni unrest and Shia empowerment were not particularly clear to them.

Another major issue only marginally visible to Captain Brown's brigade was the search for weapons of mass destruction and the associated political furor. He and his colleagues had a few scares with respect to chemical munitions but no actual finds. They would have had to have been watching television regularly, which they were not, to appreciate the media interest in this issue. By 30 May both Secretary of State Colin Powell and British Prime Minister Tony Blair felt pressured enough by allegations to deny that they had distorted or exaggerated prewar intelligence concerning WMDs.

The high-level decisions that arguably would most affect the duration of Captain Brown's duty in Iraq are not visible in his narrative but were announced to the Iraqi people during 13-15 May. General Garner, head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, had planned a "gentle de-Ba'athification" of Iraq. Borrowing from precedents of denazification in Germany and recognizing that many Ba'athists with key administrative skills had become party members merely to secure employment without becoming involved in war crimes, Garner proposed to skim off the top layer of the party and put the rest back to work. He also agreed with existing military plans to coopt selected units of the Iraqi Army for security, vetting their leadership over time to deal with war criminals and other undesirables. He envisioned expenditures of up to $1.6 billion in monies seized from Saddam Hussein to employ up to 300,000 soldiers and a not-yet-determined number of civil servants. Twenty of twenty-two ministries (excepting Intelligence and Propaganda) were to reopen with about the same staff as before.


Journal of a Company Commander
27

Several major contingencies that had consumed the lion's share of Garner's planning time were already overcome by events. The oilfields had been secured with minimal destruction or sabotage; fighting had been precise enough to avoid major refugee movements; food was adequately available; there were no casualties from weapons of mass destruction; and prospective epidemics had been avoided. With these worst-case scenarios out of the way, ORHA planners scrambled to deal with the crises actually developing on a lower tier of severity. Garner had the counsel of Iraqi advisers to put an Iraqi face on the reconstruction, had conducted at least one major meeting with countrywide representation, and bore witness to numerous local elections in cities and villages under coalition control.

For reasons beyond the scope of the book, Jay Garner's ORHA was abruptly superseded by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority. The CPA would make no deals with the devil. Rather than the gentle de-Ba'athification ORHA had recommended, Bremer directed the dismissal of all Ba'athists down through the sixth level of the Ba'athist hierarchy. Rather than co-opting the Iraqi Army units that existed, Bremer disbanded the entire Iraqi Army at once, intending to build a new one from scratch. Bremer similarly dismissed Garner's council of Iraqi advisers, preferring to develop one of his own, and served notice that all governments elected locally remained subject to the review of the CPA for validation. It is too early to tell whether this attempt at a radical top-to-bottom reconstruction of the Iraqi social order will achieve its intended purposes. The immediate result was to alienate perhaps a half-dozen key political figures, an estimated 30,000-50,000 Ba'athists, and perhaps 300,000 Iraqi soldiers. Captain Brown and his colleagues would cross paths with too many of these people in due course.


1 May: CSM Johnson told us last night that we could do PT, so I went for my first run in a long time. Running around the compound, I thought I had asthma. I was sucking. Yesterday was pretty boring. Just BSed, took a shower, and read some of Gulliver's Travels. We are set here right now for an indefinite amount of time. If the Iraqis did not have that Saddam rally, we would have moved out of the AO. Our enemy is cunning but not smart. He needs to just lay low until we move on and then resurface-follow the principles of guerrilla warfare. Again, he is cunning but not smart.

There were lots of explosions yesterday. We blew all kinds of caches. They still have the ever-elusive mortar team running around dropping rounds-but totally ineffective. The Apaches [helicopters] went up last night and destroyed something in our AO. The colonel was pissed that no one went


28
Battleground IRAQ

up to look for BDA [battle damage assessment]. They wrote an article about our operation the other night. It was pretty funny. TheNewsweek reporter with 1-8 IN wrote a pretty disparaging article about the men getting to the war late and creating their own action. I guess he wasn't briefed on the small fraction of people that actually see ground combat in any war. Needless to say, he wouldn't go with us on the downtown raid in Samarra. I guess everyone has a personal agenda, but reporters shouldn't bash soldiers' contributions to their country to get a story. I think people will be fighting and dying here for awhile yet to come, whether it is sensational or just plain ugly. It's May Day.

2 May: Well, morale is a sine curve around here. We are still in the same place, so I am below the mean. Found out that my change of command [COC] might not happen until October. This staff stuff is for the birds. I am not using the skills that I want to use, and it's driving me crazy. The TOC was a million degrees today-all those computers running and people zinging around; actually, it is only about four people doing all the work and getting beat up by the XO. I guess Matt wanted to quit today after the XO stopped his doing the BDA from an AH-64 [Apache helicopter] strike. Basically, the XO told them not to send 1-68 AR out to assess the damage but didn't tell the colonel. Well, in the morning the colonel comes in with quite a mood and staples Matt's lips to the desk for not sending those guys to assess the damage, and the XO didn't back him up. Go team!

Much of the rest of the day I spent reading Gulliver and doing a little PT. I had the TAC organize some classes for the morning to try to keep them out of trouble. I guess they were playing cards today. The S-3 told me to figure out something for them to do, but no one had anything for us to do. Now I will have to start being creative. The command thing hurt me today. It is taking so long. Oh well. Time keeps on marching. Supposedly we are getting mail tomorrow. You always hear about how soldiers look forward to mail in wartime-now I know why. It breaks the monotony.

Got another run in this morning-it felt better. We did a little weight training last night before dinner. It makes you feel a little better especially if you can then take a shower. I got to call home this morning. Everything is going good on the home front, and everyone is there. It would have been nice to be there for the graduation [of Kris, his wife, from dental hygiene school in Pueblo, Colorado]. I am sure they are having fun. The satellite phone works pretty good, but you have to limit your calls. Talking to home makes


Journal of a Company Commander
29

the time go by slower, but it's nice to hear how everyone is doing. The groundhog-day effect [a reference to the motion picture Groundhog Day, wherein the protagonist keeps reliving the same day] here really brings you down. Major Wright told me that I would change out command next week. I don't believe that; he's always screwing with us. It is all a conspiracy to keep you hopeful, so that hope does not become forlorn ... sine curve. Had hot chow last night-T-rat rice and beans with corn. Wowsers! Apparently it was such a success that they are going to serve the same thing again tomorrow night. That with our water ration-two liters per day-should really help our cause. Looking out the tent at the EPW cage ... that sucks. Both being in there and having to guard them in the hot sun. I wonder when we will start moving again. The TOC is crushing dudes. HQ63, the S-3's Brad, had my old mountain bike mounted on the front. The Bradley broke down, so they sent it to 64th FSB [Forward Support Battalion] for repairs. Well, Dena saw the bike on the front and stole it. What an Indian giver. One year ago today, I flew home from the Middle East. I was much happier last year at this time.

3 May: Got another shower last night and lived the camp life of eating T-rats on the Humvee while hanging out talking. It has definitely devolved into groundhog day. Saw the tentative command slate and it has me going in June. That would be great. Ran into Lieutenant Colonel Battaglia today and he was all ready for me to come down. Told me to get my stuff and throw it in his Humvee. I told him to go see the colonel and I would leave with him. We had a .50-cal. and a Blue Force Tracker class yesterday to keep the guys busy. The .50-cal. is tough for them to handle. I think we could develop a better weapon system of that caliber, but it works so well once it starts firing. Did a Combat Life Saver [CLS] class this morning-funny, I still hate needles even after seeing them so often. I had Private First Class Titus attempt the IV; but he missed, so we stuck him. Funny-he started squalling like a pig. He had never had one before. We were all cracking up.

I saw a briefing from division that showed us leaving Iraq in October. That made morale increase. Unfortunately, that will probably change about a million times. The TOC guys are still spinning even though nothing is going on. We are going to have massive turnovers here soon. I am curious to see how the change of command inventories go down. Hopefully, we'll just sign for major end items. Supposedly we are jumping to Jalula in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. That's good, but the movement will take forever. Looks like 100 kilometers on the map.


30
Battleground IRAQ

Finished Gulliver's Travels last night. Great book. I loved Swift's satire. The storyline itself proved entertaining enough without the added benefit of the parallel historical satire. So much of war is filling in the gaps between intense excitement. Started Voltaire's Candide this morning. Seems pretty good. Got another run in, but I woke late so it was hot. I sweated a lot and then found out that the shower water was off. Did the trickle shower. Our living conditions here are starting to deteriorate. They built wooden outhouses for us, but they immediately filled with product and flies. We need to move out of here soon or people will start getting sick. The stench from the burn barrels [55-gallon drums in which human waste is mixed with diesel fuel and burned] is asphyxiating. Mix that with the heat, and your body feels like decomposition has set in.

I feel guilty for the battle captains but am not sure how much of their pain is self-inflicted ... or a function of being held responsible for everyone else's job in the TOC. You go in there and Martinez, Hancher, Beattie, and Kestian are running around crazily while all the other cells have privates in them. We also have four E-7s in the S-3 section, but no one lets them listen to the radio or holds them accountable for anything. They make the battle captains do everything. The solution isn't to put more captains in there but to make all the others work. Hopefully, Jalula will be nicer; however, I don't really see that happening ... call me a pessimist.

4 May: Got another run and hose shower this morning. That is four days in a row. Very nice. Finished upCandide and would start another book but it is way too hot to go rooting around in the back of the trailer. The heat and flies are starting to get really bad here. Went to the latrine yesterday and it had overfilled. They need to do a better job burning it. Someone is going to die. Fortunately, we are just eating MREs [meals, ready to eat], so that makes things a little bit more sterile. My smallpox scab fell off. Very happy about that. What a nightmare that thing proved. Had my malaria pill today, so I should have crazy dreams tonight. The anti-malaria pills cause us to have the most realistic psychedelic dreams.

Our AO is huge. We will be in the northeast portion of the country along the Iranian border. The weather should be better there. Still getting the word that I will take Bravo Company, 1-8 IN, in June. That's good. I need a change of pace and to get back to soldiering. I have so much idealism built up about all the things I want to accomplish, but I wonder if any of them will prove feasible. Today is the hottest day we have had in Iraq. The sun


Journal of a Company Commander
31

just beats down. You can actually feel the pressure of the sun on your head. It has physical force. It still gets decently cool at night. That makes life bearable. It's when you sweat while you try to sleep that things get out of control. Everyone just tries to move slow and stay still during the heat of the day. The groundhog-day effect continues. They did have the mission analysis brief this morning but said the earliest move date would be 6 May. The 1-12 IN shot a guy last night. Apparently, he opened up in their general direction with an AK-47, and they shot him in the arm-moron.

The MEK and Badr Corps are the hot topics in our briefings now. Best I can tell, the MEK are Iranians who fled Iran and oppose the Ayatollah somehow, and the Badr Corps are Iraqis supported by the Iranian government against the MEK. They keep on fighting one another, but supposedly the MEK wants to surrender to 2d Brigade. We'll see how that goes. We are also waiting on the repair of the bridge from Tikrit so 1-8 IN can rejoin us on the eastern side of the river. Once they get here, we'll be ready to move out. Heard that a kid from 3d ACR [Armored Cavalry Regiment] died in a vehicle accident the other night-drowned in one of these irrigation ditches. That makes you very cautious around these vehicles. I always rehearse actions like that in my mind.

I got a letter from my parents yesterday. Getting mail is so nice. Got a letter and picture of the PETCO Easter shindig from Kris today, complete with Oscar [his seventeen-year-old dachshund] wearing bunny ears.

5 May: Well, I thought I would have another groundhog day on this same compound. It started out easy enough. Got a little morning run along the north wall but twisted my ankle and totally fell down. I had to sit there for about five minutes before I could start running again. It worked itself out soon enough; running in flak vest is always fun. I knew that today would prove a hot one, so I grabbed a cold shower and shave from the "high shower." It is an actual shower in which the spout is about ten feet in the air. The water hits you with such force that it goes everywhere. Gravity works even in Iraq. I love this shower, but everyone else prefers the heated ones. It was 107 degrees in the TOC today; I don't need a hot shower, thank you.

After the shower, I collected up my dirty clothes and headed over to the cadmium battery building to do some bucket laundry. I had almost finished my second bucket load when Schwartz (the colonel's driver) ran in looking for me all in a panic. "Sir, you got to go on a mission right away" ... great.


32
Battleground IRAQ

I ran over to the track with all my wet laundry in the crazy heat. Dropped it off with Carlson, the porn star, and got my kit together. It proved much easier assembling the necessary equipment after having gone on the previous missions. I went over to the TOC and got the brief from Major Martinez. The BRT had watched a house all night that supposedly belonged to Chemical Ali, and he was there. Needless to say, we got pretty pumped and everyone was scurrying around.

I would lead the ground convoy for the commanders who were going in the A2C2 [Air Assault Command and Control] bird; basically, I was pulling glorified taxi. They wanted me to go in the helicopter, but the XO prevailed with the guidance of having leadership on the ground. Good. I don't really like flying all that much in this country anyways. I got the quick brief and headed down to Samarra. It felt weird leaving the compound for the first time in a week. I tried to link up with the engineers, who were trying to get the informant back. Apparently, they let the informant go after questioning him ... that ain't real smart. Of course, they were not monitoring the net and did not have the informant, so we just blew them off.

I crossed the bridge over the Tigris. It looks like they have a dam here in Samarra. I saw lots of kids playing in the water below the bluffs. It looks like a movie with the giant mosque in the background. We finally got to the linkup point with Charlie Company, 1-12 IN. I rolled up and immediately started sweating. It is crazy hot. We listened to the radio for a little while and then realized we were at a dry hole. They found a bunch of pistols, chemical protective gear, and helicopter equipment in a school but no Chemical Ali. We found no one of significance occupying the target buildings. The A2C2 bird flew back overhead and called us back to the compound. Driving around the countryside is pretty fun; it's the static sweating out in the sun that drives you bonkers.

Hung out with Nick Fuller at the linkup point and he was relaying some stories from the TF 20 guys. Turns out they had a firefight about a week ago where one of the guys got shot square in the chest into his body armor. He said it stopped the bullet cold and they just issued him a new ceramic plate. Of course, they "neutralized" the perpetrators. I guess the confidence boost is a double-edged sword-good that it stopped the bullet ... bad that the bullet ever got there in the first place. The countryside seems so pacified, and we really haven't seen any action lately; but then you hear those stories


Journal of a Company Commander
33

that make you realize it is still a very dangerous place. Fortunately, we have figured out how to deal with them-I think.

I got back to the compound and checked in with Plans. Looks like we are going on the road again-177 kilometers of road. The movement is supposed to take fifty-five hours for the brigade. That should prove fun. We are heading up to Tuz and then southeast toward the Iranian border for the MEK capitulation ... in theory. Trying to keep the MEK and the Badr Corps straight in my mind is hard to do. Which one is Iranian again? I got the gist of the mission and then read some news articles Major Martinez gave me. Nothing shocking there, but read some soldier anecdotes that made me laugh. I am looking forward to getting out of here. I will miss the running water greatly, though. Hopefully, we get better facilities there. I ate an enchilada MRE to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Very festive.

"May Day Parade"en route to the MEK capitulation. I believe this is the city of Tuz.
"May Day Parade"en route to the MEK capitulation. I believe this is the city of Tuz.



7 May: Right now in the midst of the 177-kilometer movement to the Tuz Airfield and then south to the Iranian border. We are in a cluster since 1-10 CAV [Cavalry] got interspersed with us on the east side of the Jabal Hamrin Ridge and 1-12 IN has a bunch of vehicles broken down. I don't really know if we have a vehicle recovery plan. Yesterday was a no good, very bad day. Everyone wanted to do everything except listen. These are the consequences


34
Battleground IRAQ

of staying in one place too long. I was pissed off all day yesterday. Gave a little Op Order to the guys and staged them over in movement order; of course, no one that wanted us to stage bothered staging with us since they still had running water and the building. When asked what we are waiting on ... it's always "them." It hasn't been too hot today since we got cloud cover. I got a run in yesterday and two showers to leave extra clean. I went over midway through the day and soaked myself to get the cooling effect.

We are at Tuz Airfield right now. It looks pretty nice, but I don't want to go south. This is a long movement for the tracked vehicles. We have logged 700 kilometers on the Bradley in 2.5 weeks. Our optempo for the year in the U.S. is 600 miles, and we actually struggle to make that. It should prove interesting if we keep this pace with no service scheduled. Supposedly disarming the MEK and protecting the region from the Badr Corps should take a month and then we jump north again. North is good. I didn't realize that 90 percent of the MEK leadership is women ... weird since this society normally looks down on women as subservient.

Well, I need to go put my CVC [combat vehicle crewman's helmet] back on; it is crushing my head. Our track is just crammed full of water and MREs. Everyone has a load plan for these things, and if they get crammed full then the solution is "fix the load plan, but don't make it look gypsy." I don't know how many times I have heard that. The truth of the matter is they weren't designed to carry seven days of supply and soldiers in the back while not looking like a gypsy wagon. The infantry squads must be miserable. Just stopped at Attack Position Striker A. Pulled a little maintenance and got fuel. Track 37 looked like a pigsty with all the dirt and dust flying everywhere. It was pretty funny how dirty those guys got. The temperature feels a little better on this side of the pass.

I ran into Matt Cunningham. He is doing well. They were glad to get out of Tikrit. He said he is ready for a change of faces down in 1-8 IN. Well, it's coming soon enough. Matt already finished his change of command inventories. The eastern half of the country looks very much like NTC. The mountain range to our east looks like the north wall of the central corridor. Our vehicles are fueled, and we are just waiting for the artillery guys and 1-10 CAV to move out. I guess 1-10 hasn't crossed the river, so we are going to wait awhile. They are supposed to give the MEK the 48-hour ultimatum for capitulation tomorrow. They say they are very disciplined and will comply. I linked up with the guys from 10th Special Forces Group. I don't think they


Journal of a Company Commander
35

With all the guys' gear on board, the Brad could not but help look like a gypsy wagon.
With all the guys' gear on board, the Brad could not but help look like a gypsy wagon.



struggled hard to find us; it is very difficult to sneak a mech brigade around these open areas. They were glad to see us and very excited about leaving the area. I don't think they want to hang out for the big double cross that is going to go down. This surrender could still turn out poorly.

8 May: Well, I was just sitting in the hobbit hole of the 113 [M113 armored personnel carrier] listening to the commander's update brief while eating an MRE when Major Barnett decides that I need to go with him and the interpreter to Jalawa to help out Pacesetter [3-29 Field Artillery]. Turns out they had taken over some of the checkpoints the armed PUK was manning and basically told them to leave. Since they are our allies, we allow them to keep their weapons. Well, Jalawa is an Arab town currently controlled by the PUK. Once we cut the PUK off from controlling the town, the Arabs went into celebration/riot mode. I don't think these guys have ever seen a foreigner out here. So they had about twenty vehicles drive by our location chanting "Go home, America!" and some anti-PUK stuff. They then went into the city and started launching rounds off. The PUK guys locked and loaded and then headed out; we wisely decided to stay put. Then they played the game of coming up to us, each side rotating to tell us their story as the other one left. We basically sat there and listened. I told them to schedule a meeting tomorrow with our Civil Affairs guys and the town mayor.


36
Battleground IRAQ

It was getting dark and there was a lot of traffic on the road. I finally convinced them to break contact and move back to the TOC. As we drove to the TOC, one of the M88s [armored recovery vehicles] took small-arms fire, so everything ended up spinning and I got stuck at the TOC for way too long. Five minutes is way too long in that place. The TOC has shower points and bank hours, apparently. The XO got all in a huff because I had the electric razor look going on. So I pointed out to him that my day started at 0330 with an electric shave-since we are on water rations at the TAC-and it was now 2100. I also informed him that I looked worse since I had just come from a riot downtown. How out of touch can you be? Well, we finally left the TOC and got back to the TAC uneventfully. I linked up with the AH-64 pilots who will fly a screen mission along the border looking for Badr Corps guys. The next few days should prove interesting. The MEK is probably the best force in Iraq-better than the Republican Guard-but they are our terrorist allies in a way. Like the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Hopefully, we go north soon, although the weather today was quite nice.

9 May: Woke up late this morning. It got hot pretty quick after being quite chilly last night. Have not accomplished anything today. The division commander is delivering the ultimatum to the MEK right now; they all flew down there this morning. We have not heard anything from them. Apparently 3d ACR was en route to seize some of the MEK's equipment in the midst of these negotiations. That could have made things go badly. The reporters are here just hanging out with us. There is not much else going on. The planners went up to Kirkuk this morning-so that is a good sign. Division does not anticipate us remaining here much more than a week. That's good since we don't have any running water to bathe with or really anything for that matter-just a big dusty field. We have lots of wild dogs around here. They had a huge dogfight last night over by HQ63B. Everyone enjoyed listening to the dogs howl. We are very much ready for the 1500 hours heat respite to hit ... one hour and twenty minutes away. I would read my book, but we sent the Bradleys over to the UMCP [Unit Maintenance Collection Point] for some maintenance. I had two strawberry MRE milkshakes today. What a big bonus.

10 May: Looks like the MEK didn't like the wording of the "surrender" documents. They have basically gone back to the drawing board on that one. The JAG folks are all spun up dealing with it. I think it went down bush-league style-no interpreted copy for them and no ability to negotiate. We continue to demonstrate our inability to understand these people. Not quite


Journal of a Company Commander
37

sure why we are still listing the MEK as terrorists seeing as how they haven't done anything of that nature during the lifetime of the current organization. They are an army fighting another army, bottom line. We'll see how the discussions go tomorrow. Basically, we proved quite Machiavellian in our dealings with them. I also don't think the State Department has done much in this arena; there just isn't any diplomacy going on here ... just brute force and ignorance. The fallout diplomatically from this war may prove more catastrophic than the actual gains realized and true threats eliminated. Only time will tell.

It's getting hot here, but we are supposed to leave this location by 15 May according to the division timeline. We'll see. I should have another boring day today as the colonel will have to fly south for negotiations. I think they just like talking to Americans. I heard over the TACSAT that a Black Hawk [UH-60 utility helicopter] went down in the vicinity of Samarra, which is a scary place to get shot down. I guess we will hear more in the morning.

I got some more rack and woke up to the dogs and the commo guy pulling security. He freaked out when Carlson popped the hatch on the driver's side. He started yelling "Someone's in there! Someone's in there! How did someone get in there?" Carlson looked at me and just started laughing. We did a little PT this morning-bungee cord lifting and plyometrics. The CSM showed up with mail call. I got two packages and a letter ... bingo. Mike Moon and Aunt Nancy sent me boxes, and I got a letter from Mom. Nancy's box proved a great success: beef jerky, Gold Bond, baby wipes, Gatorade, plus a bunch of additional personal hygiene essentials.

We had an unmanned aerial vehicle [UAV] go down, so that has gotten everyone's excitement going again. It went down right outside a MEK compound. Apparently, the max engine temperature is 75 degrees and they had it at 197 degrees. Not good. The colonel and JAG took off to the negotiation site. We are all taking bets on when they will return. Read the "Early Bird" [daily Department of Defense posting of selected commercial print media features] last night. I guess the Army news is still Iraqi-centric. We still do not have a great idea of what is happening in the world, but at least we know a little. The link we get through the SEN [small extension node] and Smart T communications equipment only has SIPR [Secure Internet Protocol Router] (secret e-mail), so no e-mails-just download. I got some good pictures downloaded from Major Martinez into some PowerPoint slides that I'll send out when I get the chance. I am just sitting here looking at the Buhayrat


38
Battleground IRAQ

Hamrin reservoir. Would love to drive down there and swim. I watched the sun go down. It moves so fast. The sunrises and sunsets in the desert are beautiful-big sky country with lots of stars. There are no cities out here, so lots of stars. Arabian nights. Looking through NODs [night observation devices] enhances the number you can see albeit in a green hue. I spent most of the day hanging out here BSing with the reporters (John Sullivan from the Philadelphia Inquirer). They are good guys. It's funny to hear their perspective on things.

Spc. Jason Boothby and 1st Lt. Jimmy Bevens enjoy a sunset in northern Iraq.
Spc. Jason Boothby and 1st Lt. Jimmy Bevens enjoy a sunset in northern Iraq.



11 May: Well, the dream came true; we made it to the Buharyrat Hamrin reservoir. We rolled down there with a Bradley and three Humvees. We got out onto the causeway, established security, got naked, and did a little swim action. Saw lots of very white, skinny bodies out there in the mad torrent to get clean. It felt awesome. Between the care packages and the swim, this proved a much better day than I thought it would. I got some clothes cleaned as well. We hurried back as the sun set. Reminded me of Band of Brothers when they went swimming. It was very nice out on the lake. We got an information dump from the planners on Kirkuk. They gave us the rundown on the 173d [Airborne (ABN) Brigade] operations-it seems pretty quiet-and their standard of living is much better than ours currently. They ran into a lot of guys I know up there. Good to hear about them. Now I am


Journal of a Company Commander
39

just basking in the afterglow from the swim, beef jerky, and inundation of information on the home front ... even if it is three weeks old. Newsweek ran an article about all the archeological sites. Samarra was featured quite extensively. They showed many pictures of areas right next to where I slept. I am glad we didn't hurt the wall when we ran into it; that would have gone badly if they had featured HQ66 ruining the wall of Samarra.

Today proved long and boring with some spikes of excitement. I had the early morning guard shift, so it started at 0400. Very peaceful morning and a nice sunrise. Things zinged around with the colonel until about 1100. Then I did some personal hygiene and tried to avoid the sun. Recently, I have taken to drinking three-quarters of a water bottle then cutting it in half. I dunk my t-shirt in the water and wear it around. This probably cools me off about 5 degrees. The dogs are still roaming all around our area. They start howling in the middle of the night. I had one that wanted my beef jerky quite badly. The chaplain showed up to do Mother's Day services. It was pretty nice although we had it at high noon out in the sun-not very nice. I got a little nap action since the day moved so slowly and read a little.

Uploading MEK weapons for transport to a holding area.
Uploading MEK weapons for transport to a holding area.



I woke up once the MEK started moving to cantonment areas. Everything went smoothly until 1-10 CAV aviation assets entered our zone. They saw some MEK in civilian clothes uploading ammunition to take to the cantonment areas. Obviously, they didn't possess the information that everyone else in the division did, because they started firing on them. Not real smooth ...like


40
Battleground IRAQ

international incident not smooth. The MEK has proven very cooperative in all our dealings with them and then some Kiowa [helicopter] yahoos decide to fire them up in our zone with zero coordination during the division BUB. That didn't work out real well as one can imagine. The sun is dropping out of the sky again-literally. It moves so fast, like in the tropics. Amazing how fast it cools off as it dips down.

It's pretty scenic here, but I am ready to move north. I read all the city briefs for the northern cities. Much nicer up there. Jalula is still a little crazy. Hopefully, we can break contact and turn it over to the 2d BCT. The convoy movement sounded painful for the battalions in charge of moving the MEK. It went like one of our convoys except in Farsi. The tip of the orange globe just dipped below the horizon, and the sky turned pink. Very pretty. Our embedded media guys are all snapping photos. In twenty minutes we will have all the stars out. We don't complain about this place from 1930 to about 0830. From 0830 to 1930 it's just hot. I thought we might get to go on another water run tonight; however, 1-10 CAV got things way too spun up here. That is all right; we still have water left over from yesterday, and I have 200 baby wipes. The 1-10 CAV came by to conduct damage control. Apparently, their liaison officers gave them the wrong frequencies, and they could not contact us on the ground.

12 May: I couldn't sleep last night for some reason. I don't know why since I pulled a nineteen-hour shift. I just lay there thinking about how tired I was going to be in the morning. I also kept on going over company commander stuff in my head. Just trying to figure out what I wanted to say on day one. I still don't have a definitive date. The rumor mill started up again for redeployment. The latest from V Corps is an accelerated timeline for combat troops ... not really feasible but gave us a morale boost. I really cannot put that much stock in that rumor, though. The MEK forces have moved six march units' worth of equipment into the cantonment areas, so we shouldn't have to remain here much longer-provided we do not shoot at them again. The dogs are out howling once again. Sergeant Yeazal tried the red cayenne pepper trick on them. I think it made them worse.

It never fails. Whenever I have to wake up the colonel, a crisis immediately ensues. This morning we had an armored vehicle launched bridge leave the UMCP at 0230. No one knows why they decided to leave at that hour ... seeing how we don't need them at all. Anyways, they get down a ways and a MEK fueler is blocking their way. They decide to "push" it out of the


Journal of a Company Commander
41

way. That didn't work so well. The fueler flipped onto its side and leaked fuel everywhere. The colonel proved incredibly agitated seeing as how these guys have consistently struggled in the arena of asinine events.

We finally concluded that one at 0700. It gave way to the MEK movements. We had to coordinate some of the camp setups. Apparently, the female battalion of 800 soldiers with 200 male servants had special housing requirements. Makes you scratch your head. Funny-since that is the exact proportion Swift advocated in his modest proposal for a matriarchal society. Of course his satire dealt with controlling the population of Ireland, and he advocated eating the male infants before they could walk to ensure compliance. I wonder if the MEK does the same.

Still dealing with the PUK. They love us, but their obstinance proves trying at times. It reminds one of the trials of supporting dubious organizations. By utilizing them to destabilize the old regime, we provided them legitimacy. This legitimacy binds our hands when we wish to disarm them and enforce our will upon them since they are our allies. Daily we witness the double-edged sword of entangling alliances. Jalula actually has a CKP [Communist Kurdish Party]. There are just too many factions here, and they all vie to fill the power vacuum we created. We had small factions of clouds battling the sun today. We were grateful to them for their efforts, but it still got hot. Not quite as bad as yesterday. All the MEK forces have now left this sector; hopefully so shall we.

The sedentary TAC life has gotten old. Just sit inside the hot tent, read magazines, and answer frantic calls about random unanswerable questions. During this time, we discuss global politics and who stinks the most; both conversations prove equally enlightening. The TAC leadership has migrated to the TOC for future planning. That is doubly good since now we don't have to sit right next to the radio sticking to a folding chair and we will get on the move again. We are heading north, but not as far as anticipated. Hopefully, we can beat the weather. Seems that each time we jump the weather improves, however marginally. We get into the tolerable temperatures for a couple days prior to the heat wave coming up. We drive around the countryside on the fringes of the oven-just barely beating back the flames. Hopefully, we get well north before the nights get hot. I just can't bear sticking to the cot.

13 May: The clouds that fought so valiantly yesterday have since retreated. We have nothing between us and the sun. It has grown quite hot. Heated up


42
Battleground IRAQ

an MRE this morning and broke out sweating. Not much going on today. The units are trying to blow their ammunition caches and preparing to move north. Not quite the exodus we wanted but going in the right direction. It looks like we will have the MEK zone for one more day prior to moving north twenty kilometers. In the process of washing some clothes-I just don't know how clean we actually get them. Seems like a never-ending cycle. The boss went on an aerial recon, so everything is quiet here. I am always amazed how things can start zinging so quickly around here. Hopefully, everyone chills out today, and we have no crisis. Got to read the "Early Bird" yesterday. Funny-getting the news from both ends-we hear it on the TACSAT updates and then read it in the paper. Not too much disparity, but it is funny to hear it in real time prior to reading it.

Just sitting down reading, listening to the radio, and trying to avoid the sun. Heard over the net that DIVARTY [Division Artillery] suffered a mass casualty chemical event. Apparently, they were moving large barrels across the warehouse when one broke open; approximately thirty people displayed nerve gas-type symptoms. They called all the medevac birds down to Taji Airfield to help with the evacuation. Crazy. I went through Taji Airfield when I first got here. The Fox [chemical detection vehicle] went up there and got a negative read on the site, and the 256 detection kits also turned back a negative result. Hopefully, nothing serious happened to all those guys. Chemical casualties are incredibly difficult to evacuate since you have to decontaminate everything they touch. The birds are lifting off right now to evacuate them to the 21st CASH [Corps Area Support Hospital]. I am sure we will hear more about this soon enough. Very scary the number of chemicals this country possesses.

14 May: Right now, it looks like the soldiers were exposed to a chemical not associated with chemical warfare. Hopefully, they will all recover in full. It gave everyone a scare, to say the least. I went for a little perimeter run. I have lost the aerobic edge. So depressing, but I will get it back once things settle down. We are jumping in the morning. I think they want us north even faster. That is even better. The guys have figured out how the DVD works on the computer. They watch Band of Brothers nightly. I think everyone strives to have similar blood-brother bonding experiences. It is part of human nature. The more miserable the experience, the greater the bonds we witness. Fortunately, we have the misery without the associated carnage.


Journal of a Company Commander
43

I think that we get better incrementally each day. Things seem easier out here; I guess it stems from the knowledge and skills gained through repetition and sheer boredom. At NTC, each person had a stovepipe-type knowledge of his job, and we each performed a specific task-the driver drove and maintained the track, the commo guy did the TACSAT and filled the radios with the encryption codes, and the officers battle tracked. The countless days in the desert have enabled us to train on one another's tasks, so you don't have to wake up the commo guy when the fill fails or the TACSAT radar gets knocked over. You don't have to find the driver when you want the vehicle moved or the track tension adjusted. It makes life much easier and more efficient. It also enables us to operate at a higher level and not deal with all the nuisances experienced at NTC. The colonel yells at us about new things that we generally can't help, like another unit not answering the radio. It is a much better scenario, in my opinion. I now even know how the water heater works. Well, it is 0230, time for bed. The dogs are howling outside.

"Panama City," somewhere in northern Iraq
"Panama City," somewhere in northern Iraq



15 May: Woke up and packed up. We head to the TOC today to refit. That place sucks. Rolled through the town of Jalula. It is the typical Arab town of narrow streets, markets, and way too many people hustling about. Of course, the sanitation and housing leave much to be desired. They do have a very viable market with lots of TVs for sale??? I guess you know the color


44
Battleground IRAQ

of said market. The children had all returned to school. We went by the little girls' school, and they were all outside playing. They have the most beautiful children. I have not seen a girl under thirteen years old who was not absolutely beautiful. On the flip side, I have not seen a girl over the age of seventeen who was not absolutely haggard. I guess that is the product of their lifestyle. The women all work in the fields while the men hang out in the town or drive the tractors. We got stuck downtown rolling through the marketplace for a little while. The PUK guys were still at it, armed to the teeth waiting for us to leave so they could harass the local Arab populace. We witness so much ethnic tension the farther north we go. Of course, the terrain and weather improve greatly. We finally reached the TOC after our Gulliver-type journey. Wow-the TOC is a drain on morale. They have hot showers and hot chow here, but they just sit out in the desert doing nothing except collecting dust.

The XO is beside himself at how limited a role they had in the last few missions. He is actively seeking ways to downgrade the TAC in order to increase the TOC's functionality, i.e., realigning communications equipment so that we have to relay reports through them instead of going straight to division and having them monitor. Can you say control freak? Wonder why everyone despises the TOC? I got some great sleep last night, and the TOC jumped in the morning. They started tearing down at 0600 and hit the road at 1215 ... model of efficiency. Just proof that bigger does not equal better. They went off the net at 0915 and came back up about 1700. Amazing. The TAC spent all day in the moon dust trying to hide from the sun and chasing stray goats in our perimeter.

As the TOC rolled, so did the local scavenger population. They just assembled themselves from the oven-baked air. We found it quite comical to watch. They moved like an army across the desert searching for remnants of anything usable. Of course, the TOC left all its concertina wire and the grand prize-the double-seated outhouse. We had tractors and search parties descending like locusts onto our trash piles and burn pits. I had the privates chase them back away from the wire and retrieve the pickets they stole. I called up the TOC to let them know if they did not dispatch someone soon all would be lost. I cannot cover my little perimeter and their grand perimeter with my small group. Especially since we located ourselves in such proximity to the grand-prize outhouse. The tractor brigade policed the whole area and then sat on the perimeter lurking, waiting to see if we would abandon the almighty tin-covered double outhouse. That is the Iraqi equivalent of adding


Journal of a Company Commander
45

a bay window to one's living room. Dave Brummet proved pretty callous in driving them back; however, he caved at the end right when he thought we would jump and motioned for two boys to come forward and claim their "west wing" addition.

An all-out onslaught ensued. We had tractors and shepherds maneuvering into position with all smiles and waving. They chanted and argued among themselves for awhile. I think they were trying to figure a few things out, namely what the two sawed-off 55-gallon drums contained (burnt byproducts of last night's dinner) and how they would lift and transport their bay window. Of course, at this time we got the call to hold fast in our location while they did a recon of the next site for us. Great. We have the moon dust blowing all over us as the great outhouse uprising ensues. By this time, the outhouse was on its side as one lucky farmer loaded up the 55-gallon drums. I don't think they had any idea as to the applicability of this thing.

We finally broke contact with these guys and moved out to the road so we didn't have to deal with trying to pull security in a mob-like environment-albeit a very grateful, friendly mob. We waited down on the hardball road and witnessed the TOC's outhouse stream by in various pieces of corrugated metal roofing and plywood. We had no way to transport the thing and no guard force to secure it from the onslaught of the farmers. I say "Good for them," seeing as how I haven't gone to the bathroom "inside" yet; I think that has become a personal goal of mine during my tenure in Iraq.

We left the moon dust TOC location about 1800. Just prior to leaving, we had two Chinooks [transport helicopters] fly overhead and blast us with the talcum powder-type dust. Just adding insult to injury-although I love watching Chinooks fly. They look so big and powerful with certain alien-like movements. I think seeing them fly is almost Pavlovian for me, as it signifies the end of a mission and return to home base. I always looked forward to getting onto them and flying back to the FOB... years ago.

We rolled north to the TOC, another moon dust location. The moon dust is not a naturally occurring phenomenon. It takes human intervention to create this effect. Basically, you take a field lying fallow for the season with a crunchy layer of hardened dirt and run tracked vehicles all over the place for five to six days. This grinds the top layer into a talcum-like powder. Once you have this powder, you mix constant twenty-thirty mph winds, vehicle/helicopter traffic, and dust devils (small mini-trash tornadoes) to achieve


46
Battleground IRAQ

the proper TOC microclimate effect. Ingenious. Setup is not complete until one locates an infinitely better location 500 meters away. The TOC has that routine down to a T.

I guess we are going to collocate for a few days. The captain moves have commenced. Everyone is quite excited (everyone who is moving, that is). I should move within the month, but the massive exodus begins today. Mostly guys who will backfill battalion staff guys moving into command. It will provide them a little transition time. Looks like the pendulum of good guys will swing back in 1-8 IN's favor. I still hear B/1-8 IN has a change of command in mid-June. I will go down after Lt. Col. [Nathan] Sassaman takes command. I think that will work out better, so he won't hold me accountable for everything the day he shows up. You always need a little grace period. Hopefully, things settle down enough to conduct COC inventories with some degree of correctness.

16 May: I pulled the 0430-0600 shift this morning. It felt very peaceful and quiet. I thought the rest of the day would go the same. Everyone got up and started shaving while I pulled radio watch. I was just getting ready to shave and wash up when we had a frantic call from our commo section at 0750. The soldiers moving to replace our retrans [retransmission] site ran over a landmine. We tried to sort things out FM [by radio] and dispatched 1-68 AR to the site. Unfortunately, they were still moving up on HETs and couldn't get enough combat power and medical support there fast enough to clear the AO and set up a landing zone for the medevac. We couldn't land the birds in a minefield due to their rotor wash and susceptibility to mines. Major Barnett decided to roll down there with the Bradley and me playing medic. So I grabbed the CLS bag and a bunch of other field-expedient stuff to help us reach the patient and treat her (Specialist Espinoza, a twenty-year-old female soldier). I was praying that the double metal floorboards the Bradley has built into it would serve their role ... if needed. I also prayed that we would miss the landmines and not need them.

We rolled up onto the site. It was very much a real-life minefield. The front right end of the Humvee was gone-disappeared. Fortunately, they had sandbags on the floorboards. That probably saved her life. It looked like a piece of shrapnel went through the floorboard and her leg. She was lying on the ground when I got there. Someone sent a doctor over, but he didn't have any medical equipment and was looking at me for guidance. I started rifling through my bag and retrieved some curlex gauze, and we began splinting


Journal of a Company Commander
47

the leg. I had Sergeant First Class Baker prep an IV, but no one wanted to fish around in her veins for the flash, least of all me. She is super skinny and was thrashing about ... and I hate the whole IV thing anyways. I told the doctor he was on that duty, and he did the fishing around while I stabilized the leg and got a sleeping bag to treat for shock. We pulled a Humvee up, and I jumped on the top with the IV bag as they loaded her onto the hood. We then moved down the farm trail ever so slowly due to her excruciating pain. It was very hard to watch the road and see her reaction as we hit each bump-knowing the bumps were coming. The doctor was trying to cut a hole in her boot to check the pulse in her toe-on a moving Humvee; it was not working real well. Espinoza was screaming for him to stop because every time he sawed it moved her leg. I told him the bandage wasn't too tight and to wait until we got some morphine into her. We couldn't do anything for her there anyways-the leg was shredded between the knee and top of the boot. I guess he agreed, since he gave me my leatherman back.

We finally got to the road and linked up with CSM Johnson and Sergeant First Class Barreto, who had the HLZ [helicopter landing zone] marked and birds inbound. They landed, and Staff Sergeant Belcher (the in-flight medic from 571st that I had coordinated with way back at Samarra East) came rolling off to do a face-to-face with us. He just told us to load and go. We ran her over and uploaded the helicopter. We shook hands, and I told him to give me my sleeping bag back; it still gets cold at night. All of this took place under the chaos of the whirling rotors. They took her to the 21st CASH.

We went back to the edge of the minefield; we still had another vehicle with a soldier who had passed through unscathed but was stuck in the minefield. By this time we had quite a crowd of local kids around us. They were guiding us through the field and pointing out all the mines. Major Barnett made the call for no one to move-Corporal Fread to us or us to him. Very wise call. We had an engineer element en route. I trust the local kids, but I think it would prove best if we had the experts in demolitions and the local pathfinders helping us together. There were mines everywhere.

Things calmed down enough once the bird took off that I decided to roll back with the CSM instead of on the back of the Bradley. We had a plethora of senior leadership already on the ground. We just don't have the expertise at the brigade level for the senior guys not to take charge in situations like this. Normally, I would tell a squad leader to move to the site, secure the


48
Battleground IRAQ

casualty, and have the medic treat her, then set up the HLZ near the road and talk to the birds on this frequency. Much easier than having all the officers running around, but I guess that is what we sometimes have to do.

I witnessed the work of some pretty brave people from the first vehicle who moved back through the entire minefield to secure the casualty and help her initially. It didn't seem like it at the time, but it does now. Luckily, the treacherous mines had been identified by the time I showed up and Sergeant Barreto was able to point them out. It definitely gives you the uneasy "what-if," "what would I do," "is that thing real" feeling walking through a minefield. There wasn't much left for me to do. The engineers were going to clear a path to Fread using the locals as point men (they really want to help). I made it back to the TOC and went to see the XO to give him an update. He started berating me about one of my pant legs' not being bloused. He didn't ask me any questions about the whole ordeal-he just wanted to yell about something stupid. I guess you always have someone you can't get along with. About this time, the medevac birds landed near the TOC. I walked over there and got the sleeping bag back and refilled our CLS bag. I still haven't shaved yet today. I must be a terrible soldier.

17 May: I could go for more days like today. Woke up at 0500, read a little, and did circuit PT around the tracks with Major Barnett and Yeazal. We have a pull-up bar now, so it provides some mixing for the old PT program. I am so out of shape. Not much really happened today. I read a lot and listened to the command net on the radio. Whenever we collocate with the TOC our job becomes quite easy ... just monitor the radios. That coupled with the plethora of excess officers in the S-3 shop makes the main enemy boredom and hygiene-namely keeping people from going to the bathroom right around the tracks. Thus far the training environment had proved much more strenuous than here. It is definitely more scary and interesting here, but the hours aren't quite as long. I am waiting for the Bradley to return, as it has all my gear on it. They took it to the 1-12 IN UMCP to get worked on. Hopefully, it will get up above twenty mph now. I think the transmission is shot. We will move north again tomorrow. We had much better weather here the past two days than we did down south with the MEK. I got a haircut today-very nice. Dave just got back from Kirkuk. He said it looked pretty nice. The 173d shot some guys today during a riot in that area. I guess they had a demonstration and told some guys toting AK-47s to put them down and they wouldn't-graduated response. No friendly injuries, so that is good. The nice thing about having tracked vehicles is that everyone listens.


Journal of a Company Commander
49

Just drive over there, and suddenly they become fluent in pointy-talky ... and very cooperative. Not much else going on over here.

19 May: Had another boring day yesterday. We woke up at 0600 and did some decent PT. We now have a lot more people working on getting in shape: the small group has increased to five. After PT, I went and got a shower from First Sergeant Hodson's ingenious mobile shower facility. It is nice having an engineer as your first sergeant. He builds everything. Unfortunately, it is all for the TOC. After the shower, I went to "mass" at the MKT [mobile kitchen trailer]. We have just a Eucharistic minister; I think there is a shortage of Catholic chaplains over here. After mass, I ate some biscuits at the MKT and then went back to the TAC. We are jumping in the morning. Just hung out and read. We got ready for the move and then went to sleep. Got up this morning and headed north. Drove by the MEK/Badr Corps, Iran/Iraq, and Kurdistan/Iraq battlegrounds. It is difficult to determine how the defenses lay since they have three wars interposing one another. Every bridge/dry riverbed in the region had battle at it recently. Lots of supplementary and alternate fighting positions interspersed from both north to south and east to west. We drove through the city of Tuz. Very interesting. They had a huge line for gas and about seventy-five black-market gas sellers with five-gallon cans of gas ... black-market economy big time. I also saw the CKP headquarters building. I don't think they follow the same dogma as the Soviet Union, although they did have the hammer-and-sickle symbol out front. I think they exist in name only in order to oppose the KDP [Kurdish Democratic Party]. There is so much infighting in this country. I don't know how they will get everyone to coexist peacefully under one government; this is the Yugoslavia of the Middle East. We finally made it up to the "traffic circle." I did not have a grid to the new TAC location, so I just drove around the circle calling Warrior TOC for our new grid. They finally came up on the net, and I left the traffic circle. It proved quite funny. Our Bradley runs at twenty mph. Makes the long movements even longer. The mechanics can't figure out the problem. We keep on having them work on it but to no avail. Oh well. I don't have anywhere to go fast; if you're important, people will wait on you.

We had another weather break-a big one this time, at least 15 degrees cooler-and we have an abandoned building to work out of. We experienced a huge improvement in lifestyle. Right now, 1-12 IN is the only battalion up here. We linked up with 173d and are conducting operations just outside their perimeter. A lot of Arabization went on here, so bad blood exists throughout the area. Now that we moved in, all the Kurds want to de-Arabize the area-


50
Battleground IRAQ

therein lays the crux of our dilemma. The diplomatic entanglement occurred long ago; by supporting the KDP/PUK, we chose sides. Our best option for the region remains to maintain neutrality between the tribal factions; however, we can't do this now. We have to back the Kurds (our allies) and at the same time appease the Arabs. Someone needs to figure this out diplomatically ... good luck. Took my malaria pill today-crazy dreams tonight.

20 May: Had a sleeping bag night last night (cold one). Yippee. Pulled the 0400 radio shift this morning. Very peaceful. I finished my book and read an article on Noam Chomsky. He seems like an idiot savant. Such a waste of brainpower. Went outside and watched the earth smoke cigarettes. All the oil derricks burn off their methane gas at night. It looks like huge cigarettes sticking out of the earth.

Nothing big happened last night, so I let everyone sleep in. We have a thirty-by-fifty-foot room we work out of, and it stays cool during the day. We also have a running hose 100 meters from us. It runs continuously, so we send guys down to fill up buckets, do laundry, and bathe. Morale jumps with running water. We did PT along the road right behind our building. Since we collocated with 1-12 IN, our perimeter has expanded significantly. Now we have a 300-meter stretch to run along. I ran about five miles along the stretch and did some dumbbell routines. Just trying to maintain.

After that I had a bucket shower and changed clothes. I also got to wash another set of DCUs [desert combat uniform] and my sleeping bag, the black monster. When it fills with water, it weighs about seventy-five pounds and proves quite ungainly. I wrestled with it for a good thirty minutes and came out soaked. The laundry process involves a 45-minute soak followed by three rinses-when you have running water. Therefore, I had to wrestle 300 pounds of water from the black monster. I got about seventeen pounds of water back into the bucket, so by my calculations I covered myself in a cumulative 283 pounds of water in order to liberate my sleeping bag of fifty days of dirt and grime. But liberate I did. Upon completion of the black monster liberation, I assumed battle-tracking responsibilities for 1-12 IN movement on Objectives Wilton and Aaustin to the southwest. It proved pretty uneventful. No one messes with the tanks and Brads. The 1-12 IN apprehended twenty-seven looters down at Objective Aaustin. I think they still loot here since this place went largely untouched by American forces and we just now liberated it. Now we have to detain the looters for twenty days. That could prove a monumental task-feeding and housing.


Journal of a Company Commander
51

21 May: Woke up this morning right at sunrise. We've spent two nights in a row in a pretty decent place. That is a first. Pulled a little radio watch and then did PT. Just ran back and forth on the same road and did a little shoulder routine. Had another bucket bath post workout. Staff Sergeant Fogle found an extra bilge pump and has spent the day designing a "shower" with a little pressure. He tested it this afternoon, and it works pretty well. I think we'll have a trial run once it gets dark. I rearranged all my gear. I needed to do that as I have way too much unnecessary equipment due to our failed Turkey route. Found two more mosquito nets, so we are hiding from the bugs a little better. Everyone who has not slept with a net has bites all over; fortunately, I have utilized my net to advantage.

The CSM brought us hot chow this morning-pretty nasty, but they did bring salsa, which I ate on my MRE crackers. Tastes just like "Dos Hombres." I started a new book today: Moby Dick. We had just patrols moving through sector today, so not much militarily going on. We are just clearing all our original objectives albeit from the wrong direction-southeast to northwest. It feels like a staff ride/OPD [officer professional development] since we have planned so extensively on these objectives prior to our deployment and the Turkey denial. We have detained some individuals and looters but nothing crazy. I did a good job hiding from the sun today and just chilling out-reading, writing, and sleeping. I could get used to this sedentary lifestyle so long as we can do PT.

The division is trying to set up elections throughout the area. The screening and election-teaching processes prove quite comical at times. One of the towns wanted to have an election for the local grocery store. I guess democracy takes time to learn. Other than that, it has been a slow day... that's good.

22 May: We've struck water! Big time! Sergeant Fogle has rigged some old irrigation pipes to redirect water right next to my Bradley and into our pump shower. The water comes out with a little pressure to it, too. Bonus. Spent the day bathing and washing clothes. Our water supply and convenience are such that I now shower for enjoyment versus necessity. Did a little PT this morning, and I feel so sore all over. It takes a little while to rebuild the routine, I guess. We had high winds and low visibility today. I don't know if it was sand in the air or humidity; both are a common occurrence here. Regardless, the day passed quite nicely with no midday heat wave. The only element we battled today was the flies. I guess the high winds cause them to retreat indoors. I read a bunch of Moby Dick today-phenomenal book thus


52
Battleground IRAQ

far. Best American author I have read. We had T-rat lasagna tonight-that is by far my favorite-and this was my first time having it here. Normally, you get lasagna every third night when you go on the T-rat cycle; this is my fifth T-rat-what's up?

Spent the afternoon walking the perimeter and going through some of the other buildings. We are trying to develop the argument to bring the TOC here instead of us moving to them. They chose a blacktop hardstand with no shade, lots of dust, farthest to the rear (behind the BSA!), and right next to the highway. Not smart. I guess the XO has visions of bringing AC trailers and such to the location; however, the mechanics still have to work at night due to the heat radiating off the ground. They say the tracks sink into the asphalt during the day. It does not get that hot where we are, and we have buildings. Since we are on a military compound, we have lots of space and it is also off the beaten path. It just makes sense. We have placed bets on when we will move. Of course, we have also developed a litany of excuses not to move. Hopefully, we can drag this out for another week. I know they will break. Got a letter and box from Aunt Nancy today. We always enjoy mail call around here. The Ross group out of Texas sent us sundry packs. We cross-leveled them all and now have a full supply. Unfortunately, the laundry detergent has yet again proven elusive to our search.

23 May: "Hey sir, wake up," Sergeant First Class Samples whispers.

"What time is it?" I groggily reply.

"0500."

"Anything going on?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"Good," I say as I stretch out and look at the waning moon from behind the mosquito net jerry-rigged to my Bradley with 550 cord and bungees. I lie there momentarily.

"Are you getting up?" he demands.

"Yeah, just a second." I stretch my body to its full length like a cat awakening from a long siesta. It's actually a little chilly this morning-good for PT. The


Journal of a Company Commander
53

dogs start howling at each other again. They fight constantly with everything. They are worse than our administration in that regard.

I throw my DCU pants on over my PT shorts, remove the belt with leatherman, Swiss Army knife, and Magellan GPS. I retrieve my weapon and Kevlar then walk to the clothesline and retrieve my white socks and running shoes. I view the battle update board through the dilapidated prison window and listen to the radio as I dress. Yep, there really is nothing going on.

"All right, I got the con," I announce while reaching for a Jolly Rancher from the free-for-all table. Sergeant Samples nods and walks back to his cot. I grab a lukewarm water and contemplate making some MRE mocha ... on second thought, it's too daunting a task this early in the morning.

The sun slowly breaks through the humidity on the horizon as another day begins. The deep azure predawn skies promise another scorcher of a day. I count myself among the fortunate ones to have a building to retreat into during the sun's midday onslaught.

I pull up a chair and read the log from last night while drinking lukewarm water. Nothing. I crawl through the hobbit-hole window into the M577 command track and sift through our BFT satellite messages ... nothing. I read through the daily Frago, thereby completing my early morning quest for knowledge to no avail. It's another boring day in Iraq.

The sky turns pink, and the darkness slowly retreats. We can spot the baying dogs well enough to launch rocks to chase them off. They keep their distance. The giant squirrel rat that lives in a hole by my cot finishes his final nocturnal meal and retreats into the cool darkness of his underground lair. I stretch and yawn. My back is a bit tight, so I hang from our "pull up bar." It is a marvel of engineering-six loops of 550 cord suspended from the ceiling with a camo pole net passed between. I have three fears of this trapeze-like contraption: 1) the 550 chord snaps and I crash to the floor on my knees; 2) the ceiling caves in and crashes on top of my head; or 3) the bar itself breaks in half, smacking me in the face and delivering two giant black eyes. Fortunately, I am not the heaviest guy to use this mechanism.

It's 0600 now. I must wake the PT criminals up. Their eagerness to face the day equals mine. They all roll back to sleep. The sun has broken the horizontal plane that separates the tolerable level of heat from the intolerable. If we are


54
Battleground IRAQ

to run, we must leave now. The window in which you can see the gravel-strewn earth and not get scorched by the sun remains finite. It opens and shuts rapidly and assertively early in the morning and late in the evening. I walk outside and breath deep. The familiar scent of burning trash and sight of the broken obstacle course forces a juxtaposition of memories to the forefront of my mind. The burnt fields and campfire-like scents take me to Camp Freedom, a Boy Scout camp I knew so long ago. A very different experience with a dissimilar set of conditions, but the scent remains the same. In some regards, we remain the same, still chasing merit badges and adventures-albeit under much more hazardous circumstances. Burning cardboard and merit badges ... I guess some things continue in a stream of time the world over.

We walk slowly down the road of our perimeter track; no one talks and no one runs. Our bodies are sore from the lack of true physical training lately. We stare at each other like members of the Polar Bear Club, cold-morning swimmers from summer camp that braved the cool morning air for a little fitness. However, like them, no one wants to break the ice. No one wants to jump in. No one wants to take the first step. We look around and shake our heads. I wonder if someone's legs will shatter with the first step we take attempting to run with such weak bodies.

I start out ... slow. I feel old, but my body knows the motion. Rhythmically, I plod through the first mile. No one talks, but we start to feel better. Legs unfurl and blood migrates to the stiff joints. Things loosen up, and strides increase. The burnt-trash smell pervades the nostrils. Throats dry out as we round the burnt buildings and fields. Our breathing increases and sweat drips down. It's a cleansing sweat, one that liberates the body and purges the pores. The heart rate increases and the endorphins take over. The torrential sweat of hard work, I embrace it. The sweat I can get rid of, not the inescapable continuous damp sweat of the midday sun with flak vest and Kevlar helmet on. Our group stretches out as the pace increases. Soon we run alone but not in isolation. Alone with nothing but our private thoughts offset by our comrades sharing the same path. The sun begins its relentless climb. We finish running and wait for the string of comrades to once again coalesce. The sweat and steam rise off our bodies as our group rejoins. We are no longer alone. I guess we never truly are.

24 May: Finally starting to have a PT routine. I rotate a long run/easy run/tempo run/easy run. Unfortunately, my tempo runs aren't very fast and my long runs aren't very long; I will improve. Had a thirty-minute run and


Journal of a Company Commander
55

a little lift this morning. We ate some chow and then headed into Kirkuk to police up our PUK/KDP liaisons. Linked up with Colin Brooks at the division Assault CP [command post]. They set up in the middle of downtown Kirkuk. Funny seeing the woodland camouflage Bradleys of the 1st ID. They had good clean buildings, but I do not envy them at all. They have no room to move, and the locals are continuously on top of them ... "Mister! Mister!" they all chant. The Division G-3 [operations and plans officer] kept calling me Hackler (since I was wearing "Hackler's Molle Gear" with his name sewn on my shoulder and the G-3 had no idea who I was). Of course, we didn't make the correction and kept egging him on. It proved quite funny. He kept saying, "So Hackler, what do you think about this? Hackler, where are you from? Hackler, what did you do for your country today?" etc. We were dying. Half the group couldn't figure out who Hackler was.

Our liaisons didn't show, so we moved back to the TAC. Hung out there for awhile until things started zinging about one of the blacklist bad guys' occupying our area of operations. Of course, we did not vet the tip that led us down this road. We issued a two-battalion Frago and initiated movement to the town. We sent Beattie with the G-3, and I stayed at the TAC since they were not rolling the Brads ... and since the information was twenty-seven days old. I really did not feel like partaking in another all-night goose chase. Well, it seems to have unfolded precisely in that manner. We have UAVs flying around identifying dogs that we launch attack helicopters on. Everyone knows that we have unactionable information, but we face the fait accompli and the ever-present question: what if he is still there? It has become quite maddening. At least I was spared the associated pain of this madness. The engineers blew huge caches of weapons right next to our compound. We had dirt and dust falling all around us. It scared the locals out of their minds: 500 pounds of C4 and a cache of mortar rounds made for quite the shockwave.

25 May: Yesterday proved our last day of paradise freedom for awhile. We had our standard day away from the TOC with good PT, camp showers, and avoiding the heat of the day inside our building. We had to jump back to the TOC at 1700. The Bradley rolled pretty good today, and we made it back in no time. We had a briefing on the rules of the TOC ... namely, dealing with bodily waste. They set up on an asphalt pad-scorching hot with a perimeter in which we can't dig a slit trench. Of course, they don't have enough latrines for everyone ... two for 300 people, so they go in plastic bags and bottles and then throw it over the side of the wall into a giant fire ... that is probably the worst plan I have ever heard. Morale only improves since five


56
Battleground IRAQ

miles away we have three unoccupied warehouse facilities that would prove twice as good, from both the quality-of-life and the tactical defensibility perspectives. I struggled all night to figure out why we came here until I went into the only building in our area. It is very nice. It has satellite TV and clean floors. It also has a sign on the front that says "Keep Out." It also has Internet connectivity. The soldiers are all out here baking on the asphalt, dodging these giant dust storms, while the XO observes from his nice cool building. The soldiers call it the plantation house. We had a giant dust/lightning/rain storm today. It blew all the equipment and tents everywhere. It was funny because everyone blamed it on the XO. I don't know why, but my natural reaction when it started was damn the XO. I can't stay next to the TOC-it drives me insane. The only good thing we did here was witness the UAV launch. Not real entertainment, but the little things amuse us now.

26 May: I broke away from the TOC at 1030 hours (the asphalt was cooking) and headed up to Kirkuk Airfield with Brummet. He had to attend a targeting meeting with the 173d ABN, and I had to not stay at the TOC. I ran into a bunch of guys I knew, including Danny Durbin, Fitzgerald, Major Petit, and Major Sanchez. Danny was hanging out at the front gate. Not sure what he was up to, but he looked good. They have contracted air-conditioning and live indoors. I can't begin to list all the amenities they have that we lack. We just aren't smart about things, especially in regard to our contracting. We don't contract for things the soldiers need. The 173d contracted barracks space and AC for their soldiers. We did the same for about five guys in the brigade. They had a dump truck out in front of their brigade headquarters. It had a single strand of concertina wire and some guards on it. Turns out, it had 999 20-kilogram gold bullion bars. The market value: $350 million. We will jump in a few days. I am not sure why we came back to the TOC. Clearly a case of misery loves company, but the TOC inflicts the misery upon themselves. Classic. We do still get to PT here, so we have a silver lining to our sand cloud. A soldier in 1-12 IN died today. Heard that he had a heart attack. He was twenty-five years old. That's crazy. I think we will jump here in a few days ... until then.

27 May: Got a good 65-minute run in today. I am currently at twenty of forty-eight days in run days verse total days. We hung out doing PT and showering until about 0930. I really cannot account for the rest of the day. Went to the TOC for awhile and collected some awards information. I read a little bit, and then we had to jump the TAC twenty meters ... we had some medevac helicopters stationing themselves here. Of course, we don't have


Journal of a Company Commander
57

any room here now, and we keep adding to the number of people in this area. Got to hold $10,000 in cash today. They confiscated it from some guy running cigarettes back and forth. His story turned out legitimate, so they gave the money back. I bet he sweated that one out. Turns out that the soldier in the 4th Engineers died from drowning. They went to an irrigation ditch to do laundry, and he jumped in. Tragedy. He was the first soldier we had killed. It's always tragic when it happens like that. The engineers are building an "Axis and Allies" board game from scratch. Quite comical. They have drawn the globe on one of the tables and are building all the little pieces on the computer. Hilarious. I think we will play soon.

28 May: The past two nights I have had catastrophic REM sleep disruption. The first night, we had a giant thunderstorm. The raindrops were as big as your fist. It physically hurt to get hit by them. Of course, I had no poncho hooch up, so I got dumped on. We rolled our poncho up onto the Bradley and were trying to pull it down in the middle of the storm. Brummet and I were totally confused, as it occurred at 0200. We finally got our hooch set up, and it stopped raining. Quite a spectacular storm, I must say; all my gear got soaked. It took a little while to get to sleep again ... oh well. Had the bike setup for the morning PT session. Worked pretty well. I had to ride early to avoid the crazy looks associated with riding a bike trainer in the middle of Iraq ... I guess it begs some questions. Rode for forty minutes and then woke everyone up to run. We then did our standard affair of shaving, showers, chow, etc.

After that we had school time for MOUT. I gave a class to one of the NCOs who taught all the guys the TTP [tactics, techniques, and procedures]. We did single team, single room. It went pretty well. It proved kind of nice to do something tactical again. I spent the rest of the day avoiding the sun and BSing with people. I guess it went by pretty quick. Last night Major Barnett woke me up from a dead sleep in the middle of the night. We were going to go on another goose chase off of some bad information passed up to us from one of the battalions. I was so confused by it all. Fortunately, we stood back down and went back to bed. I woke up at 0530 and just lay around until 0600. Very peaceful. We then got up for PT ... I am at twenty-two of fifty. Had a good run this morning-did 4 x 1,000 meter repeats. Felt pretty good. Now I am just hiding from the sun waiting for the 1500 respite and reading a little Moby Dick. It's getting harder to keep on writing, since we have the groundhog-day effect going on. It should improve once I get into command, but this month was pretty boring.