|
A Month Already?
 Posted
6/29/2009 10:36:00 AM
It's true. I've been in Iraq a month. A lot has happened since I arrived here. I left my unit behind in Kuwait to spent 2 weeks in Taji (Iraq) learning how to work with and train our partners, the Iraqi Army. 2 key words: patience and politeness. You'd think those would be common sense but apparently they are foreign concepts to the US Army and Marine Corps.
When I got to Baghdad to meet up with my unit I found out that we'd taken our first casualty: one of the soldiers in my company committed suicide. He was the guy that everyone else went to when they had problems so it came a huge shock to everyone in our close-knit unit. His memorial service was sad enough by itself but it brought with it memories of other friends I've had die overseas that didn't get memorial services and whose deaths never made the papers except as nameless numbers. It's a shame, really.
After that I got to go on what the Army refers to as a "left-seat, right-seat ride". This is the Army's version of on-the-job training. I fell in with a unit that drove us out to a remote location to check on a job site and do some routine maintenance on a bridge that we're helping the Iraqis rebuild. On the way back I was placed in charge of the convoy and told to get us home. You either sink or swim, though the guys who drove us out there tossed me some water wings to help me, so I swam.
Now I'm back in Baghdad trying to help get my unit up and running. In case you aren't aware, units rotate in and out of Iraq with anywhere from a month to absolutely no time of overlap. My unit is a heavy construction unit, so we have many, many pieces of heavy equipment that we were 'given' by other units in Iraq. I'm sure it's hard for you civilians to imagine, but when other units are ordered to transfer pieces of their equipment to another unit (mine) to get them up and running, they tend to give the receiving unit absolute garbage. Our vehicle storage area ('motor pool' in Army-speak) is full of vehicles. 95% of those vehicles are "NMC" - Non Mission Capable. We refer to our motor pool as a scrapyard or a junk yard because we have literally 4 pieces of equipment that work. All the rest are in various states of disrepair - we got one grader (smooths out dirt/gravel for compaction [turning dirt/gravel into a driving or paving surface]) that didn't have any doors or a steering wheel and the engine was literally sitting outside of the engine compartment.
So....in addition to training up my soldiers on new-fangled, bullet- and bomb-proof equipment -MRAPs- we also have the monumental task of getting our equipment up and running so we can actually start doing missions. "Why would you want to go out into the dangerous country of Iraq?" some of you might ask. Well, as I've been telling my platoon, Iraq is more like Detroit than a total war zone: it's still a dangerous place that you don't necessarily want to live but it's full of people who are just trying to survive. Not everyone here wants to kill us. In fact, most people here are so sick of fighting and war that most of the violence has died down. Also...who wants to spend their entire time in a foreign country literally sitting around? That's a recipe for people getting themselves into trouble - finding alcohol (which is illegal for military personnel), finding drugs (also illegal), committing adultery (illegal), not shaving (illegal)....you get the point. When you're busy the year goes by faster and people don't go looking for trouble to fall into. That's been my experience, anyway.
So for the pictures:
"Lunch" is a picture from my first mission out into Iraq. That's the view from my seat (through 2-inch everythingproof glass) of my convoy stopped at a heavily fortified US truck stop while we have lunch. The huge truck on the right with the rear hatch open is an MRAP - what we ride around in these days. If you think your vision is hazy because of the dust then welcome to life in Iraq.
"0328" is a view of that first job site. You can see an Iraqi soldier in the middle directing traffic while the US guys on the ground discuss exactly what it is we were doing out there. The heavy piece of equipment behind the guy with the beret is a grader. The cars are full of Iraqis who alternately wave at us or stare at us as though they're frightened of large, armored Americans carrying loaded assault rifles who drive gigantic armored vehicles everywhere they go.
"0329" is exactly what it looks like. I remember having a towtruck exactly like that when I was 5. It was made by matchbox and fit in my hip pocket.
"0330" is that matchbox truck being passed by a truck full of donkeys that were braying as though it was hot outside.
"0325" is a picture of the US-built temporary bridge that is being used by the local traffic while the Iraqi-built bridge (in need of repair) is off to the left.
My address here is as follows:
Jeremy W Jones
961st EN CO
APO AE 09322
I'll send more pictures when I start taking more. Enjoy your 4th of July in the States; we're looking at 125 degrees and dusty here.
-Jeremy
|
|
Lt. Jeremy Jones
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|