Year Six

I have wanted to write a post about the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq but faced a conundrum: much smarter (and more passionate) writers and journalists have covered the subject online better than I could. Like many reading this blog, I spent most of those five years in the US, reading and watching news reports about the war. Five years ago, I had just started a new civilian job and wasn’t in a position to volunteer for service like I had following the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks. I remember picking up a newspaper in early April of 2003 showing a picture M1 Abrams tanks crossing into Baghdad and thinking about how little time it took the US Army to advance from Kuwait. Surely, the war is over, I thought -- a repeat of the 64 hour ground war during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. No one was thinking that a sophisticated and lethal insurgency was around the corner.

I couldn’t tell you much about those first five years than you already know, if you’ve been paying attention. However, I will be here for most of year six. So far, it’s been very educational living and working in the Green Zone. In many ways, I’m grateful to finally be off the side lines and in the game contributing in a manner that I hope is useful. As my time here in Qatar comes to close, I’ve seen lots of enlisted kids on R&R four-day passes and can only wonder what their daily routine is like in whatever part of Iraq they come from. My job doesn’t involve carrying an M4 and patrolling on foot; I deeply admire and respect all those whose job that involves.

On Easter Sunday, Shi’a insurgents attacked the Green Zone with rockets and mortars. I read the reports on the web and made phone calls back to Baghdad. Thankfully, no one in the Embassy was hurt. The insurgents were either expressing displeasure with Sadr Ceasefire or commemorating, in their way, the anniversary of Baghdad’s fall five years ago. And in another sad confluence, the five year anniversary coincided with the death toll reaching four thousand.

Nations pay for what they want in blood and treasure. We have spent plenty of both in the last five years. Most of year five saw the troop surge in full effect and now we are seeing the first optimistic results: reduced ethno-sectarian violence, rejection of Al Qaeda by many Sunnis in Iraq, Al Qaeda’s marginalization and near last stand in Mosul. But there is still a lot to be done: the Iraqi Government must continue to stand up and take charge of the country, deeply suspicious Shi’as, Sunni, and Kurds must learn to establish trust and work together. It seems daunting but there are plenty of people, in and out of uniform, working hard to make it happen: Year Six.

Hair Dryer

What do you get when you mix 110 degree F heat with a stiff north wind? It’s what’s called the “hair dryer.” For the last few days, a forceful north wind has been blowing during the day throughout the camp. My half-mile walking commute from billeting to the conference center is one big hair dryer. You can simulate this at home by turning on a hair dryer, setting to max heat, and putting it in front of your face.

VH-1e

OK, I’ll admit it: I’m not working my normal 14-hour day while down here. It’s more like nine or ten. Add the fact that I can get three draft beers a night after work and it feels like a freakin’ vacation. The large number of folks on R&R leave, dressed in civilian clothes almost makes me forget I’m stuck in the middle of the Qatari desert. Going back to Baghdad will suck.

Having marginally more time on my hands means I’m getting to watch a little more television, something I’m normally ambivalent about. But I’ve discovered VH-1 Europe which is pumped into the cable TV in my housing container. VH-1e plays a great set of music videos both old and new, wrapped around Turkish language Vodafone commercials and is blessedly devoid of anything resembling Reality TV programming. I forgot how compelling an all music video channel could be.

Last night, I watched ten Maroon 5 videos, part of VH-1e’s Top Ten series. I barely paid attention to this band on the radio but found they have a great set of songs that have been cleverly put to video. Here I thought the art of making a good music video had been lost. Not true. These guys have a great director who engagingly brings their songs to life. If I had a faster Internet connection, I’d buy some of their songs on iTunes.

Tonight, VH-1e was playing the Music Juke Box segment where people from throughout Europe submit playlists. If VH-1e likes the list, they play the videos and display the person’s name on the screen. A girl from Spain requested, “Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco and “More Than This” by Roxy Music. A US soldier from Afghanistan requested “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead and “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols. Thrown into the mix was “Love Plus One” by Haircut 100 and “Some Day We’ll Know” by New Radicals (never heard of them but I love the song and the video).

Watching all this made me realize I’m painfully non-aware of new music. Helping me out, my sister recently sent me CDs of Katie Melua, Sara Bareilles, Colbie Caillat, and Charlotte Gainsbourg, all of which I really liked.

I know keep a notebook handy when VH-1e’s on to jot down the names of new music. Good stuff, old and new. Now if only VH-1 back in the states would re-adopt this format...

For my wife

The nicest thing my wife said about me was something I overheard in our backyard. We have a shared back yard and pool that is part of our town house association. Just before I deployed, we were out there with our young son and neighbors, Zenia and Pavel, married Russian émigrés who came to this country nearly twenty years ago. My wife asked Zenia how long they had been married and she answered twenty-two years. (They are roughly the same age as my wife and I but have two teenage children.). My wife exclaimed, “Wow, I wish I could have been married to Rico for that long!”

Later on, I asked her what she meant by that. She said simply she wished she could already have that time with me (we both married later in life). I was humbled, to say the least. After all, I have plenty of faults: I have a terrible short term memory and always have problems remembering the Next Thing We Are Supposed To Do, and I often finish her sentences much to her displeasure.

Being a single mom is tough, especially working full time. No matter how tough my current assignments, I only have to look out for myself. The next meal is as easy as walking to the nearest DFAC. My wife comes home to day care pickup, feeding our son, cooking dinner, bathing our son, putting him to sleep, and then enjoying some time of her own before going to sleep.

Last night, I worked late on a presentation I would be giving today. As I made the nearly ten minute walk back to billeting, I had my iPod set on random. The song “Comfortable” by John Mayer came on. I had purchased the song as part of an album but had never really listened to it critically. Although it’s a sad song about a break up and pining for love lost, one set of lines made me smile:

I loved your
Gray sweat pants
No makeup
So perfect

Sweetie, I miss you and those gray sweatpants on Sunday mornings…

Communication

Military organizations, like most bureaucracies, have several common traits: 1) left unchecked, they grow over time, and 2) they fiercely protect their perceived turf. I’m here for a series of meetings that involve two sections of my headquarters. Let’s call them Apples and Oranges. I work for Oranges and I’m here with three other people from Apples. At the worker bee level, we all get along famously and are here to help each other with what we need to get done. Yet, our superiors see it differently.

Case in point: last week, Apples had the lead for the meetings. One guy from Apples, let’s call him Ed, nightly sent an email to both the chiefs of Apples and Oranges updating all on our progress down here. One night, I volunteered to write the email for Ed, sent it to him and told him to change the pronouns to appear he wrote it. Ed liked my summary, added a few notes of his own, and sent it to both the chiefs of Apples and Oranges. The next morning, the head of Apples wrote to a colonel and asked why “that guy from Oranges” wrote the update? He thought Apples was in the lead? The colonel then dutifully emailed one of my Apple co-workers and told him that they needed updates on Project Fruit Juice (which is the project we are all working on).

This week, I’m here by myself; the guys from Apples returned back to Baghdad. Let’s call the organization sponsoring these series of meetings the Fruit Stand and my headquarters the Tree (apples and oranges grow on trees). This week the Fruit Stand announced it wants to follow a certain course of action. I know this course is anathema to the Tree and let members of the Fruit Stand know. Understandably, the Fruit Stand was upset. I called back to the Tree and they said, “no way.” Clearly, the Fruit Stand and the Tree need to get together and decide. In the meantime, “that guy from Oranges” is stuck towing the party line. Can’t we all just talk about it...

Transformers

Quite coincidentally, I watched Michael Bay’s “Transformers” while on the trip to Al Udeid Air Force Base. If you’ve seen the movie, then you know it opens at a “forward operating base” in Qatar and is the scene of a giant robot attack. Al Udeid looks nothing like the FOB in the movie (for one thing, I didn’t see any F-117 Nighthawks parked openly on the runway). Still, I thought watching the opening scene on the C-17 and then landing there was a cool coincidence.

I was surprised I liked the movie; this despite the fact that 1) most of Michael Bay’s oeuvres are so cheesy and over the top that I can hardly sit through them, and 2) that the movie pays overt homage to the Air Force. Transformers was still an exception; it brought a surprisingly human, and at times, funny, story to life with a cast dominated by CGI robots. With respect to being funny, at one point a kid with a video camera running towards the smoldering impact site of one of the Autobots cries, “This is a hundred times cooler than Armageddon!” The smokingly hot Meagan Fox, who plays the girl with a troubled past who is a master car mechanic, doesn’t hurt the movie (at all).

But yes, there are cheesy, slow-motion shots of Air Force pilots slowly getting into A-10 Warthogs (or, Thunderbolt IIs, if you’re a purist) and F-22 Raptors. There is even some kind of Air Force special forces team that heroically escapes the the forward operating base after the attack by the evil Decepticons and manages to perform mechanical forensics on a piece of one of the robots while flying in a C-17. At one point, one of those Air Force special commandos says, “We can’t make a stand without the Air Force!” Clearly, Michael Bay’s production company cut some deal for Air Force participation that effectively turns the movie into a recruiting commercial.

Still, I enjoyed the movie mostly because I found myself actually caring for the plight of the Autobots. I can see why some critics called it “ one of the best movie you haven’t seen of 2007.”

Fox

Central Command (CENTCOM) is one of several combatant commands (COCOMs), headed by a four star general or admiral. As of last week, CENTCOM’s commander was Admiral William “Fox” Fallon. His appointment less than a year ago was somewhat controversial as CENTCOM traditionally was headed by Army generals. Previously, Fallon commanded Pacific Command (PACOM) whose chief areas of focus are China and North Korea. Not long after arriving we received word that Admiral Fallon announced his resignation. CENTCOM Forward Headquarters immediately was abuzz with speculation as to who would replace Fallon. A particularly funny Air Force officer co-worker of mine jokingly said to me and several other Navy officers, “Guess who just lost a COCOM, bitches?”

Joking aside, the relationship between the commanders of CENTCOM and Multi-National Force Iraq (MFN-I) largely is considered to be strained. CENTCOM technically is MNF-I’s higher headquarters. That is, General David Petraeus technically worked for Admiral Fallon. Yet, Petraeus, as head of MNF-I, enjoyed unparalleled access to both the president and secretary of defense, in effect, largely marginalizing Fallon. It was also highly rumored that the two did not get along. Shortly after Fallon’s resignation, many articles ruminated that he was, in fact, fired by the secretary of defense, for his very public dissension to the idea of war with Iran. General officers, especially those who command COCOMs, are expected not to make public statements which disagree with statements by the president or secretary of defense. They are expected to provide private, candid advice to civilian leadership, emphasis on private. Journalists who lean towards the left were quick to speculate that Fallon was fired because he fundamentally and very publicly opposed the idea of going to war with Iran. Those on the right opined that Fallon resigned in protest of being marginalized by Petraeus. In my opinion, the truth lies somewhere between those two extremes.

Secretary of Defense Gates announced that Fallon’s replacement won’t be named until mid-spring. In the meantime, three-star army Lieutenant General Dempsey, CENTCOM’s deputy commander, will take the helm. Most military observers agree that Petraeus is a leading contender for Fallon’s replacement. While this makes logical sense, many people want to keep Petraeus exactly where he is as commanding general of MNF-I. He is largely credited with changing the focus of the war in Iraq to counterinsurgency and is architect of last year’s “surge” of five additional brigade combat teams (BCTs). After all, why would anyone want to fix something that’s not broken?

Camp As Sayliyah - Week One

Camp As Sayliyah is located in the proverbial middle of nowhere of the Qatari desert about an hour’s drive southwest of Doha. In my eyes, its chief advantage is that it’s not Baghdad.

Qatar is a small oil and gas-rich country, consisting of a peninsula shaped like a thumb jutting north from the larger peninsular land mass consisting chiefly of Saudi Arabia. Doha, its capital, is also its only chief city. Most Americans pronounce Qatar as “Kah-TAR” although the correct, Arabic pronunciation sounds more like “GHA-tar” with a guttural “gh” and soft “t”. The Brits, who also have a military presence here, pronounce it more like “KHAH-tar.”

Camp As Sayliyah, according to open sources, is a large logistical base for CENTCOM. There are many large vehicle maintenance yards servicing HUMVEEs, tracked vehicles and large trucks. The denizens of the base consist of a few permanent party in uniform attached to CENTCOM and ARCENT, many third country nationals (TCNs), mostly East Indian, who work in the maintenance yards, and a fair amount of service members walking around in civilian clothes who are here on four-day passes from either Iraq or the Horn of Africa.

The Rest and Relaxation Program makes being stuck here for two and half weeks most worthwhile. There are two big Morale, Welfare, Recreation (MWR) facilities here. The first is The Top Off, which is built inside a large, air-conditioned hangar. The front end consists of a three bars. The middle section is a large stage for musical acts and the rear section has phone banks and Internet computers along with a small Green Beans stand, and a movie lounge. Anyone posted here is entitled to three beers a night in one of the three bars.

On the evening of 9 March we went to the Top Off and I enjoyed my first beer since 31 October when we had our farewell dinner in Columbia, SC. While the Japanese have their Tea Ceremony, I relish the act of sitting in a comfy chair with one or more friends and sipping a beer. I felt refreshed, ready to start my series of meetings here.

Travel

The good news: I was selected to attend a three-week series of meetings at Central Command’s Forward Headquarters (CFH) in Qatar. This means getting out of Baghdad and Iraq for new sites and experiences. The bad news: getting to and from Qatar means using in-theater travel “at no cost to the government.” Imagine the worst day at any major US airport (delays, changing schedules, cancelled flights, disinterested personnel at check-in desks) and magnify it tenfold. Getting to theater with my group of other Navy augmentees last November went smoothly enough due largely to the fact that large groups of human cargo have some actual priority. Small groups or individuals who wish get from point A to point B have very little. After all, this is a war of logistics and military airlift is the primary means of getting Important Gear to where it belongs. When possible, Humans are stuffed in between cargo on uncomfortable seats on military transport aircraft.

Because flights and priorities change so much, reserving space on a flight can’t be done until one or two days before leaving. I was traveling with a group of three other officers who I work with on a specific project but who are not co-workers. I made a reservation, or in military parlance, a space-block, on a flight leaving in two days out of Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). Next, I had to make arrangements to get our party from the International Zone to BIAP. There were two ways to get there; one is via the Rhino Runner, the armored bus convoy that makes several trips per day and the other Catfish Air, a space available helicopter service. Fortunately, a flight was available that met our schedule. This saved us the trouble of having to take a bus to BIAP after being dropped off by the Rhino.

On 8 March, the four of us made the short walk to LZ Washington from the Embassy and caught the Space A helicopter to BIAP. It was short flight, only about ten minutes. From BIAP, we walked two hangars over to the Air Mobility Command (AMC) building and found out there was space available on earlier flight than the one we were originally manifested on. Even better, the earlier flight would be on a jet-powered C-17 instead of a prop-driven C-130 which meant a shorter flight.

Even though the flight left earlier, we still had a six hour lay over. We stashed our body armor and bags in a Navy trailer and walked over to the DFAC near the air terminal. Every DFAC has its own particular rules and procedures however they all are a variation of washing (or sanitizing) your hands, showing some kind of ID, and getting food. Back in Baghdad, our DFAC is guarded by contracted security from Triple Canopy and are all Peruvians. At BIAP, it was a different security contractor and they all appeared to be African, maybe Ugandan. We had lunch and then walked over to the PX area which consisted of several trailers, one for the actual PX and several more serving fast food. A set of tables and benches sheltered by tent overhang gave us a place to lounge as we waited for our flight.

Towards evening, we walked back to the terminal, re-manifested, and boarded a C-17. This is a relatively modern medium sized air lift plane flown by the Air Force. The central cargo area was dominated by two very large, wheeled electrical generators. The four of us, along with five other Air Force officers, sat along the aircraft fuselage wall in fold down seats. The flight was pleasant; the temperature in the cabin was blessedly normal (not always the case on flights like these) but was quite noisy (everyone travels with ear protection).

We landed in Al Udeid Air Force Base, in Qatar, two hours later, cleared a perfunctory customs area maned by a sleepy Qatari official and boarded a SUV for transport to Camp As Sayliyah. The trip out here wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be. Of course, there's always getting back...

As Sayliyah, Qatar

I am currently at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar. I'm here for a temporary assignment. I've been away from the computer but promise to have a new post up soon. Thanks for your patience.

Taji

Four days ago I was selected to accompany our Deputy Deputy Chief of Staff (DDCS), a British Brigadier General, and several other officers, to the nearby city of Taji in order to visit a Counterinsurgency (COIN) Academy for both coalition forces (CF) and the Iraqi Army. Taji is not really a city, per se, but a long standing Iraqi Army military base and airfield. In the Saddam era, Taji and its sizable airfield were used to base and train Iraqi Air Force Russian manufactured Mi-17 Hip transport helicopters.

In the early afternoon, our group gathered at the Embassy entrance wearing our body armor and walked to nearby Washington Landing Zone (LZ), the main helicopter LZ servicing the embassy. We boarded two Blackhawk UH-60 helicopters for the short (ten minute) flight to Taji. This was my first helicopter trip since arriving here and I looked forward to it. To others, flying in a helicopter was old hat and routine. As we took off and quickly cleared the International Zone, I got my first bird’s eye view of the Red Zone, that is, the rest of Iraq. Baghdad is a very old city and not as big as one would expect; urban structures end relatively close to the meandering curves of the Tigris river and farmland quickly grew to dominate the landscape below. Parts of the structures below reminded me of visits to rural Mexico with my family when I was a child.

I didn’t have much time to muse as we began slowing for our descent to Taji. We landed, de-barked and walked to a waiting mini-van. Waiting for us was an imposing Marine Corps lieutenant colonel whose warm smile belied his imposing bulk. After we were driven to nearby building and conference room, we learned his name was Frank and that he had previously retired from the Marine Corps and volunteered to come back on active duty. In the “it’s a medium-sized world” department, we learned he was in the same platoon leader’s school at Quantico in the 1970s as the Marine Corps major general who runs our planning shop.

Frank had a easy-going demeanor with a lilting Louisiana southern accent that sounded very familiar to me. Only after hearing him speak during our introductory briefing did I realize where I’d heard it before: he sounded a lot like Huell Howser, who is a former marine himself and the host of public television’s documentary show, “California’s Gold.” In fact, I found it a little uncanny since they sort of resembled each other.

Frank told us that Taji was a big base and that nearly half of it had been given back to the Iraqi Army to manage. We had landed on the American side where senior officers of each incoming Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) attend a capstone COIN course of instruction. Frank took us on a walking tour where we saw US Marines practicing searching a civilian in a courtyard while US Army instructors looked on.

Also located on the US side, is the Iraqi version of the COIN Academy. We had the unique opportunity to visit with its commanding officer, an Iraqi colonel accompanied by his translator. He welcomed our group into his office, gave us each some candy and served us sweet tea. Our British brigadier and the Iraqi colonel traded questions through the translator as the rest of us sipped our tea. The colonel was very laconic and didn’t seem to show much emotion. It’s a trait I had seen before with Arab men. He complained about not getting enough money to run the academy from the Ministry of Defense which was something that we could not necessarily help him with.

Afterwards, Frank drove us in a small mini-van to the Iraqi side of the base. Frank knew many of the Iraqi contract guards on the US side of the base and even some of the Iraqi soldiers. His Arabic was pretty good. Along the way, we passed a vast field filled with ruined Iraqi armored vehicles. We saw Russian-manufactured T-72, T-60 and T-55 tanks, BMP personnel carries and numerous types of self-propelled artillery all in various states of disrepair. Most showed signs of combat damage.

We returned to the American side, and ate a brief dinner at their DFAC. Over dinner, Frank described the improved security situation. The base made use of both regular Iraqi Army and contract security. Many Iraqis worked as security contractors. On our way out of the base during the driving tour, Frank pointed one contract Iraqi security guard as a former Iraqi Air Force MiG pilot. When I asked why he doesn’t rejoin the Air Force, Frank answered that he could make more money as a security guard.

Our flight back that evening was uneventful. Shortly after take off, our helicopter automatically fired several flares which lit up the cabin in a fierce yellow glow. I had been told about that happening on most helicopter flights and was looking for it.

Boxing Nun

This entry has nothing whatsoever to do with Iraq and everything to do with my nutty, extended Mexican Catholic family. It’s also long over due. After the Christmas holidays I received a special holiday gift box from my extended family. Inside was a boxing nun doll. It has great sentimental value as it dates back more than a few years as the premier white elephant gift in our extended family’s Christmas celebration. My sister and I originally bought the nun and brought it to San Diego where my relatives gather on Christmas Day for a giant meal and gift exchange. We introduced the concept of a white elephant gift exchange add to the merriment. Maybe it’s because more than a few generations of my family went to Catholic school that the boxing nun doll was such a great hit. Every Christmas, without fail, she would turn up in the white elephant gift exchange. Every year, everyone hoped to take her home for the coming year.

This year, with me in Iraq, my relatives got the idea to find the nun and send her to Iraq to visit and otherwise keep me company. After a long email exchange, my cousin Tito, who lives with his own family in Guadalajara, Mexico, found the nun (he was the last person to end up with her after last year’s gift exchange) and said he would arrange for her to get to San Diego where my aunt (or, Tia, in Spanish) Marta would send her to me.

My cousin, Tito, took some amusing photos of the nun with her Mexican passport and shot card and sent them via email to my family members as a way of announcing her pending trip. When she arrived in San Diego, my Tia Marta boxed her up and sent her to me. I couldn’t have been more pleased to see her after all these years! Now, she keeps me company at my desk. My co-workers, who at first were a little freaked out, are warming to her charm. I only hope she doesn’t offend any of the Iraqis here who work in the Embassy!