War in Iraq, a Soldier's View

We start interacting with the other elements on base, the officers at the TMC hoard their food to themselves and the rest of just eat MREs. Horstmanshoff goes on a trip led by a soldier in another company and ends up in a bad situation in a nearby town. The mission trade some cigarettes for a 12V car battery so we can get a run down toyota running. Luckily even though the translators were saying they were in imminent danger nothing happened. Our leaders have the bright idea to use the vehicles sent in for repairs for our own purposes. Sure it makes things easier on us but when you take your SUV to the dealer to be fixed would you want the mechanic using on his camping trip over the weekend?

30-Mar-03 10:00 PM

I haven’t written in the last few days but there’s been some things going on here. Nothing too exciting but enough to keep me busy.

Yesterday we built the shower, it’s pretty low tech but it’ll do quite well, it’s just some pieces of plywood and a shower curtain for cover and a water jug on top with a valve and a shower head and the floor is just a pallet.

SSG Andersen told all of third squad that we’d start work at 9:00am, right after breakfast, but when 9:00 rolled around all of the guys in the MWR room decided to re-arrange their stuff so it would be more comfortable. So of course Patterson and Svedin decided to do that instead of work on the shower with the rest of us. I was a little peeved because I planned on cleaning out the C&E shelter (my room) that day and put it off for the shower, now they were doing the same thing but it got them out of work. I didn’t say anything though because I knew this is exactly what would happen.

So me, Sgt. Griffin and SGT Andersen figured out the way we were going to make the shower and started working. The two NCOs spent their time making the spigot for the shower and I put the floor in and got the plywood into place.

As I was working Patterson comes over and sees that the shower is coming out different than what we originally had in mind (the three of us had come up with some changes that we thought would make it easier to put up). So Patterson says, “Are YOU going to do it like THAT?” Making it sound like all the changes were my decision and that they were a bad Idea because it’s not the way HE envisioned it. I just said,”Yeah” and kept working. If he had a problem he could deal with it, I wasn’t going to waste an more of my time then I had to.

A bit later when the MWR room was done Patterson came back to help us tie the plywood into place.

By now it was noon and I was surprised how short it took us (me) to put up the shower so I decided to do the C&E trailer that day too.

I spent the rest of the evening emptying out the trailer, cleaning everything and putting it all back. Plus I re-arranged some things to make a bit more living room for me.

I was feeling better so I forgot about sick call but I ended up going to the TMC at 6:00pm anyway because a Colonel had told us that we could come over for a hot meal since we did a job for him. We bumped into him around 4:00pm and asked him if it would be alright to come over that night. He started backpedaling saying things like, “I can’t be expected to feed the whole camp.”

Just like an Officer.

But we told him that he did promise us, so he said we could come over at 6:00 to pickup the leftovers. Then when Horsy and Harline went to get the leftovers, then they told us that our whole group had to come if we wanted anything. So a few of us decided to go get some warm food. It was really good, not like you’d get at home but way better than an MRE. While we were there I overheard some of the cooks say that they were about done but they were waiting on 17 more, I knew they meant us so I told them that not all of us had decided to come but all of us who had were already through. So they started asking me if we wanted to take any back or if they were sure they weren’t coming because they didn’t want to throw all the food that was left away. If they had so much extra food why was the Colonel being so stingy?

That night me and Durham had guard duty from 8:00pm to 5:00am… 9 hours. I thought it started at 10:00pm so I was a little late getting ready, Durham was the same. But there were still people milling about at 9:00 so I don’t see how it was such a big deal.

That was an incredibly long night; I fell asleep a few times but never for more than a half an hour because it was so cold. SGT Slocum was the last to bed and the first to wake, and always smoking a cigarette, he must be so addicted to those that he can’t get a full nights sleep. That would explain a lot.

All the smokers are going to be hating life when their smokes run out. There’s no PX out here so what they brought is all they got. One of the TMC guys some how has a supply chain worked out. He sells cartons of Cigarettes for $25 a piece but ups the price to 40 or 50 when Supplies are thin and smokers pay with out a second thought.

He was the guy who went with Horsy and Harline out side the gate for parts to the Suburban that got brought in. From what Horsy said it sounded like a trip to hell.

They went to a small Iraqi Village outside of the base to trade with the locals for the parts they needed, they got 5 WW1 rifles for 5 packs of cigarettes a piece and a car battery for 10. Harline stayed at the gate and the TMC guy, two translators, and Horsy went to the town. When they pulled up there were only a few people but after a few seconds people started coming out of the woodwork. They were quickly surrounded by about 200 Iraqi civilians but some were on top of buildings and some were hiding around corners. Horsy and the translators guarded the Humvee while the TMC guy got the part, but even the translators were saying, “Let’s Go, Lets Go! Not Safe Here!” Horsy couldn’t see the TMC guys so he didn’t want to leave the Humvee. Finally the Guy came back and they headed out of town.

On the way out they passed an Iraqi Military Commercial vehicle. The Army wants a few of these so they can transport Iraqis civilians back to their homes without worrying about being such a target. But when we bumped into the guy that night at the TMC he said that when they went back with a tow vehicle they vehicle was gone and all that was left was the smell of paint thinner.

After my guard shift was over I was so tired I went straight to bed and didn’t wake up till 1PM because of all the commotion that was going on outside of my “room”. They were moving the fire trucks out of our perimeter because Slocum and Anderson want to build a bunch of foxholes in case we get attacked (even though we’re in the center of the base right next to the Command Post, and our positions will be firing at the back of the 82nd airborne’s heads since they are the ones guarding the perimeter). The whole process of moving the fire trucks was very un-managed, un-safe, and un-ethical considering the Bulldozer we were using was given to us with the hope we’d fix it and instead we fixed it then kept it for a while to use to our own ends.

Typical 872nd policy under Dumb and Dumber.

So I got up and decided to use the phone since we were told it was up. There was only one phone and the MSG letting us use it was doing so under Higher Head Quarters nose so we’re not to abuse the right. The plan was that on the day after your guard duty you could go over and use the phone for a few minutes. I asked to double check on the particulars and found out that Harline and Warner were already going. Apparently a lot of people had been going while I was asleep. Patterson had been down with Durham and Garcia had been down before them. Since only two could go at a time, we had to decide who out of me, Warner, and Harline were going. Since 2pm-3pm was the only time I call my family I argued that I had to go now and the others could wait. Gibson added that since it was my day anyway is should be my decision anyway.

Warner got called away to do some work with Griffin on a Generator while we were talking so the problem solved itself. But when we got over there we had a hard time getting the operator at Hill Air force base. First Harline tried for 15 minutes then he left me to try. I got an operator on my third try but nobody picked up at my house (assuming that the operator dialed the right number). So I decided to leave and call back in about three days.
Tonight I found out from Gibson that Keller had already been down once for 30 minutes and went back again and had been gone 20minutes already.

If he ruins the benefit for us there will be a murder here on base.

The day flew by pretty quick, I fiddled around for awhile, having the C&E shop clean and powered up was great, so I spent most of the day inside listening to music and reading TM’s for the van.
I went to go ask Patterson for his computer and the door to the day Room was locked. I knocked and heard somebody yell something inside but the generator drowned it out. So I kept pounding and finally an exasperated Hansen showed up at the door to ask why I hadn’t heard him tell me the bathroom key was outside. I told him that I was here for Patterson's computer. Patterson gave me the computer and I spent the rest of the day copying songs off of his computer onto disk then uploading them to mine. I guess tomorrow I’ll spend the day cataloging all of it filling out the identifying tags on it so I can have Windows Media put it in order.

At the end of the night Gibson got the NVG’s from me and I went to give Patterson his computer back. The shower was fully operational and somebody had finally gotten water so we could take showers. I checked to see if a red lensed flashlight would give enough light to take a shower and decide I was dirty enough that I’d go for it. Gibson said the water would be cold if I did it in the dark but I didn’t want to spend another night dirty.

The shower was freezing but I feel great now. The shower head only trickled and you had to work fast to try to stay warm but that was one of the best showers I’ve had. Now my hair feels soft and clean again, and I can’t smell myself.

Now I’m just typing waiting to fall asleep. The “wolf pack” of stray dogs is making a lot of noise and it seems like helicopters take off every 10 minutes at night, but I feel tonight is going to be a good nights sleep anyway.