War in Iraq, a Soldier's View

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17-Apr-03 2:51 PM

A lot’s happened in the last two days; we woke up in the morning and found out that there are 2 DS companies within an hour’s drive of here so we’re not really needed. So we there was a General that was going to come through and decide if we needed to stay here or move back to Doha. We waited till 1:00pm for a decision then we found out that they wanted all of the soldiers within the concertina wire up by the gas station so we packed up the few things that we had taken out over the night and moved over there. By time we had moved we had gotten word that there was no decisions on what we had to but that we were probably going to be staying for at least a few days.

We spent the afternoon putting up GP Medium Tents like the ones we had in Camp Arifjan. We all started putting up one then Patterson decided that we should split into two groups to put both tents up at the same time. It didn’t really matter how things got done, we would have to still work together to do things but this way his little Command Sergeant Major attitude was placated and the rest of us were far enough ahead that we could take the lessons learned to set up the other.

It didn’t take more than 4 hours to get the tents up so we had everything done before the sun went down. The unit that was setting up next to us started about an hour after us and they had more people but they only had one up by time we were done. We helped them as much as we could but they were just lazy and we weren’t going to do the work for them.

Once the tent was up we moved all our gear in and hooked up power to the TV, it’s not quite like Arifjan but it’s pretty close. We also have access to the DSN phone and internet that the signal company has set up next door. Plus there’s a kitchen unit that has things like soup for lunch but dinner is a big meal the only trade-off is that we need to donate two people every other day for KP.

Today has been a lot more relaxed, we don’t have much to do because nobody has anything to fix around here. Horsy said that the other maintenance unit here hasn’t had to do anything because they don’t have any parts and it takes at least 4 days to get parts out here (and they’re a full size unit), but by then the people have gone forward again.

This morning a couple of well dressed Iraqis came down the road from their homes toward the military area. Two of the guys were in suits and the other was in one of the robes everybody around here wears. The MPs turned them around and sent them back but it got me thinking about how the people around here live. They seem to be pretty well off here, I wonder if this is considered upper or middle class living. And I thought of how we were disrupting the way of life around here. Were the two guys just coming over to talk, that‘s why they got dressed up in “western style” clothing, they thought they’d have a better chance at not being turned away? Or were they just trying to cross the highway and they had to go the long way around now because we’re camped out in their way?

Patterson was set on getting the internet routed right into our tent to the point he even had us all empty the 5-ton trailer out so we could get the CAT-5 cable out. So we got everything out but we couldn’t get the computers configured. But I’m not to worried about getting internet up, it would be nice but it’s been so sporadic that I don’t rely on internet anymore, as long as I can call home once a week. Besides we have access to internet and DSN 50ft away; is it that important to have it running to the tent?

Other than that everybody’s been trying to stay out of the heat for the day, none of the Iraqis are around, and all of the soldiers are in their tents. I wonder how long we’ll have to sit around like this, SGT Slocum said that the 3-4 day time table was out the door and we “will be here awhile.” But I’m not sure how much information he knows compared to what he’s assuming. Patterson spent some time in the signal tent reading the news and Tommy Franks has already flown into Baghdad to asses the situation, I guess the organized resistance is over and all that remains is hunting down the few armed civilians that are still causing trouble.