The IZ is connected to BIAP via a 12 kilometer stretch of highway called Route Irish (during the initial invasion, Main Supply Routes – MSRs – were named after college and professional football team mascots). Initially unprotected, Route Irish was notoriously referred to as, “the most dangerous road in Iraq,” and was the site of many Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks on coalition forces. Nowadays, it’s much safer but everything here is relative. Rhinos, a uniquely designed armored bus, regularly convoy, between BIAP and the IZ day and night on changing schedules. For one journalist’s experience on the Rhino, read this article.
We loaded up our gear (recall, three heavy sea bags, suitcases, back packs, weapons, etc.) on a semi truck (also armored) and then boarded our assigned rhino. Everyone who rides the Rhino is required to don full IBA and helmet. Most people looked comfortable boarding a vehicle that looked liked it belonged to the climactic scene of “The Road Warrior.”
We left Camp Stryker in the middle of the night and the convoy made its way along Route Irish. I got a window seat and surreptitiously inserted a loaded magazine into my pistol. Not that having a nearly loaded weapon would make any measurable difference if we were attacked; it just made me feel better. (One would think that, as a member of the military, I would be allowed to carry a loaded weapon in a combat zone but this, paradoxically, is not the case.) There was not much to see during the drive and twists and turns made the route seem ominous that it was.
After about twenty minutes, we began passing through heavily defended check points signaling our arrival at the Green Zone. Eventually we stopped in a lit compound/parking lot and were told to de-board. We formed a human chain and unloaded everything off the armored semi and laid it out along painted lines in the parking lot and were told to stand aside. I looked up for the first time to see the ruins of some impressive building in the near distance, I was told, the former headquarters of the Republican Guard. Was this one of the buildings I had seen blown up live on CNN back during the so-called “Shock and Awe” campaign of 2003? Now here I was.
As I gawked, Dog handlers appeared and their charges sniffed our luggage for contraband. I hoped the dogs weren’t checking for explosives as I knew there was ammunition residue all over my sea bags (and on me). After they were done, we were told to collect our luggage.
There were about three of our group still traveling together. A navy commander met us in the parking lot and told us he would be helping us get settled. It was well past 0230. Thankfully, he had a small 4 x 4 ‘gator’ – a sort of armored golf cart. We piled way too many sea bags and suitcases into its small bed and left the Rhino staging area. We drove, slowly, through the deserted streets. It was only then that I began looking around and saw the palace.
Saddam’s Republican Palace, which functioned as his main seat of power and was untouched during the war because many thought it had important documentation and records housed inside, dominates the central part of the IZ. It was all the more impressive as we drove along side it, lit up by strong sodium lights. Now it is home to the US Embassy and much of the headquarters for Multinational Force-Iraq (MNF-I), the organization I would be augmenting. The building was designed to be impressive; it’s made of sand-colored limestone, and features carved eagle heads and winged gryphons, calling to mind some giant Egyptian or Babylonian temple. The gaudy, Stalinesque, “Saddam the Warrior” bronze head statues, which adorned roof platforms on either end of the palace were removed shortly after the war.
Our guide, took us to the KBR Billeting Trailer, manned 24 x 7, and arranged temporary housing for us. I ended up in a colossal transient tent, more like a small building, adjacent to the south end of the Palace. I dumped my gear, unrolled my sleeping bag on an empty bed and fell asleep. It was 0430.
We loaded up our gear (recall, three heavy sea bags, suitcases, back packs, weapons, etc.) on a semi truck (also armored) and then boarded our assigned rhino. Everyone who rides the Rhino is required to don full IBA and helmet. Most people looked comfortable boarding a vehicle that looked liked it belonged to the climactic scene of “The Road Warrior.”
We left Camp Stryker in the middle of the night and the convoy made its way along Route Irish. I got a window seat and surreptitiously inserted a loaded magazine into my pistol. Not that having a nearly loaded weapon would make any measurable difference if we were attacked; it just made me feel better. (One would think that, as a member of the military, I would be allowed to carry a loaded weapon in a combat zone but this, paradoxically, is not the case.) There was not much to see during the drive and twists and turns made the route seem ominous that it was.
After about twenty minutes, we began passing through heavily defended check points signaling our arrival at the Green Zone. Eventually we stopped in a lit compound/parking lot and were told to de-board. We formed a human chain and unloaded everything off the armored semi and laid it out along painted lines in the parking lot and were told to stand aside. I looked up for the first time to see the ruins of some impressive building in the near distance, I was told, the former headquarters of the Republican Guard. Was this one of the buildings I had seen blown up live on CNN back during the so-called “Shock and Awe” campaign of 2003? Now here I was.
As I gawked, Dog handlers appeared and their charges sniffed our luggage for contraband. I hoped the dogs weren’t checking for explosives as I knew there was ammunition residue all over my sea bags (and on me). After they were done, we were told to collect our luggage.
There were about three of our group still traveling together. A navy commander met us in the parking lot and told us he would be helping us get settled. It was well past 0230. Thankfully, he had a small 4 x 4 ‘gator’ – a sort of armored golf cart. We piled way too many sea bags and suitcases into its small bed and left the Rhino staging area. We drove, slowly, through the deserted streets. It was only then that I began looking around and saw the palace.
Saddam’s Republican Palace, which functioned as his main seat of power and was untouched during the war because many thought it had important documentation and records housed inside, dominates the central part of the IZ. It was all the more impressive as we drove along side it, lit up by strong sodium lights. Now it is home to the US Embassy and much of the headquarters for Multinational Force-Iraq (MNF-I), the organization I would be augmenting. The building was designed to be impressive; it’s made of sand-colored limestone, and features carved eagle heads and winged gryphons, calling to mind some giant Egyptian or Babylonian temple. The gaudy, Stalinesque, “Saddam the Warrior” bronze head statues, which adorned roof platforms on either end of the palace were removed shortly after the war.
Our guide, took us to the KBR Billeting Trailer, manned 24 x 7, and arranged temporary housing for us. I ended up in a colossal transient tent, more like a small building, adjacent to the south end of the Palace. I dumped my gear, unrolled my sleeping bag on an empty bed and fell asleep. It was 0430.
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