Adagio for Strings 10-18-05

[kato13]

Webstral 10-19-2005, 05:41 AM Several people have written me to express dismay that I may adopt a Rambo/John Wayne attitude about getting into the thick of the fighting here. No need to worry about my doing foolish things in the name of glory. I'm reflecting on a feeling that I contributed less than others, not on a desire to kill or be killed, per se. I'm not looking forward to any of the patrols in the future that promise to take us into the Red Zone.


On that subject, I will give you the most succinct idea of what I'm doing I can. I'm back in 2nd Platoon. That kind of sucks because I'm back in SFC Hernandez' world. However, he's not really a factor in our lives in the current mission configuration.


So what are we doing? Since 01 OCT B Company has been manning two checkpoints on the perimeter of the Green Zone. 2nd Platoon mans one, and 3rd Platoon mans the other. My platoon is divided into three sections of about twelve men each. The three sections rotate through various duties. 1st Squad works 0600-1800 Monday and Tuesday, 1800-0600 Wednesday and Thursday, and has Friday and Saturday for maintenance and refit. I'm on a refit day now. The other squads rotate through the three slots in their turn. The days of the week are just given as an example. What matters is that we work a six-day cycle.


Checkpoint work is a drag. The days are long and at once boring and tense. Interacting with the local nationals is a very trying exercise. Imagine working with a bunch of 10 year-olds who can drive cars and have guns. I'm serious. The Iraqis have some very real maturity challenges, and the phenomenon is culture-wide. Every one of them is convinced we should bend the rules for him just this once. Except that if he gets away with it this time, he'll try it again tomorrow with the excuse "I do it all the time." Children, the lot.


There are some tense moments. Most of the checkpoint positions are inside the checkpoint or in towers. However, places like the vehicle entrance and the pedestrian entrance are more exposed. We take every precaution to avoid having suicide bombers and car bombs come in, but the price paid is constant vigilance. I mean constant. When I'm at the vehicle entrance, I'm d***head. You wouldn't recognize me. I yell, I curse, and I point my rifle at everyone who doesn't obey my instructions instantly. I haven't shot anybody yet, but there is plenty of time. And my temper is getting shorter every day. Better to have to explain to a court martial why I fired than have an Army chaplain tell Char she's a widow.


We have developed a very aggressive approach based on some feedback from interrogators. Every so often, the Iraqi Police or an Army patrol will capture a would-be car bomber intended for our checkpoint. All have reported that they were unable to attack the checkpoint because we and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense people who run an adjacent checkpoint run off anyone who drives in a manner that displeases us or who stops their car anywhere in front of the checkpoint. When I say "run off" I mean "fire on". These are warning shots, but several local nationals have been hit, and there have been a couple of deaths. Since I got back from leave, one local national was plugged by a contractor team right in front of the checkpoint. The driver just got too close to the contractors, so they capped him. They are supposed to fire a warning shot into the grille of the car first, but this time they didn't.


Last night, I think I made a local national pee himself. He had stopped his car right across the street from our vehicle entrance. I came out of the vehicle entrance, saw this, pointed my free hand, and yelled for him to move in Arabic. You know how my voice carries when I use it properly. Well, add in a healthy dose of adrenaline, and I even startled the Iraqi Army guys who work right outside the vehicle entrance. The local national went deer-in-the-headlights on me. He looked at me and started shaking and fumbling with something inside the car. Two nanoseconds later, when the car still hadn't moved, I shouted again for him to move. This time I added in "You f****** moron!" I gave the driver another grace period of three or four nanoseconds. Tolerance gone and thinking about how SGT Bonifacio of 1st Platoon was killed last week, I put my rifle up to my shoulder, put the front sight post on his face, and thumbed the selector lever to SEMI. The thing with car bombs is that they aren't that hard to detonate. A shot to center mass might not take all the fight out of him, leaving him to pull whatever lever he needs to pull to detonate. I figure you have to kill the guy instantly, and so I was prepping for a head shot. This non-compliant knucklehead came closer to death than he has probably ever been. Right before I pressed the trigger, he screeched out of there in reverse and disappeared down the street.


That's life at the edge of the perimeter. In reality, the overwhelming majority of local nationals present no threat. But we treat them all like potential AIF. Since intel shows that rabid aggression towards the traffic outside the checkpoint deters attack, that's what we do. It's pretty stressful, so no one spends too much time in those spots.


Most of the time, I have a much more boring job. There's a secondary checkpoint inside the Green Zone. This checkpoint separates an Iraqi Army compound from the main Green Zone. The sole function of this checkpoint is to keep the IA out of the Green Zone. In a nutshell, we are protecting the government of Iraq from the Army of Iraq. Nice, huh? Of course, we have to dress it up nicer than that. So we have two lanes of traffic where we check the badges of everyone who just passed through a badge check and car search at the main checkpoint. Totally redundant, but it serves to mask the fact that we are protecting a Third World government from its own military. How does the United States get into these fixes? Anyway, I spend the majority of my time on duty here.


All this will change in a few days. Three companies of 4-64 AR rotate between three duties. Right now, B Company (Team Bayonet) has two checkpoints. Soon we will go to QRF (Quick Reaction Force), and someone else will take over our checkpoints. QRF will mean a lot of patrols, inside and outside the Green Zone. I'm not looking forward to this. The danger factor goes up some, and the discomfort factor goes up big time. CPT Benton thinks we should be rolling twelve hours a day. I don't know when he thinks we will s*** or maintain the vehicles, but I imagine reality will come bursting through his front door soon enough. QRF will last for two weeks, and then we will switch to new checkpoints. That should be the plushest time in this rotation scheme. These other checkpoints have a lower manpower requirement, so we should be able to work every other day for twelve hours instead of two of every three days.


Hopefully, this gives you a somewhat better idea of what we're up to these days. Lots of badge checking and the occasional duty watch where I'm obliged to be the kind of raging d***head SFC Hernandez always wanted me to be. Such is life in Iraq.


On the plus side, there are about seventy-two days left until 01 JAN. Unless I am one of the very unfortunate souls who gets stuck with rear guard (not likely, though possible), I will be on my way home by then. In fact, I should be on the ground at Fort Bliss, TX by 01 JAN. Bliss will be the site of two weeks of demobilization, to include lots of classes on not going home and taking out our post-traumatic stress on our wives and children. I'm not looking forward to this time, either. Or I should say that there's an aspect that I dread, while the rest seems okay. We'll be allowed a lot more freedoms than we were during the mobilization phase, it seems. This means drinking. This means grotesque drunkenness on the part of my brothers-in-arms. I love them and would run out across a bullet-swept field to bring them in, but I don't want to have anything to do with them when alcohol and eighteen months of angst mix. I'll have to find some sheltered locale to ride out this storm. But it all does add up to being home on or about 15 JAN. Perhaps a little later if there is some paperwork and such to be completed at the armory in Dublin, CA.


On a more general note, I need to ask everyone to send any Christmas gifts to Mill Valley. About all I can carry are cards. Even food for Christmas will be a burden to carry, though the boys probably would help with its consumption. However, since everyone will be getting food, it's probably better if my well-wishers (thank you very much, in case I forget to say it) send me nothing more bulky than a card. I'll be snug in Mill Valley fairly soon after Christmas, so I'll just put my Christmas cheer on ice and enjoy it in my warm home with my wife.


Ian

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Targan 10-19-2005, 06:10 AM Holy crap, man. From what I have heard, you guys are doing it far tougher than the Aussie forces down south, looking after the Japanese engineers. What can I say? I don't blame you for being aggressive and on edge. Stay frosty, and I wish you good luck.

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DeaconR 10-19-2005, 10:57 AM Good luck and God bless you and your team. I seriously pray in God's name that you all make it out.


Sometimes governments have no idea what they are getting into, and I think that is the case here. It is rare to have a leader who can truly see that clearly, and they are usually considered Cassandras at the time. (W.T. Sherman and Winston Churchill come to mind) Unfortunately it ends up being people like yourself who have to deal with the mess. So I am looking forward to hearing about you spending a happy Christmas at home.

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Twilight2000V3 10-31-2005, 11:10 AM Ian,


When and IF ya get to Dublin, CA... look me up Im VERY near the area.


Max

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