 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Anatomy of the administrative claims process for service connected disability
Family Support and Deployment Info
GAO Reports - Dept. of Veterans Affairs
Iraq War Veterans Organization members offer assistance
Operation Iraqi Freedom Related Medals
PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
IWVO Links
Add this site to your Favorites
|
|
|
Military Rings. Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi
Freedom, and Enduring Freedom Rings.
Operation Iraqi Freedom Military Rings
A treasured symbol
of your service!
"Supporting
Our Troops
at Home"
PARTNERS
"The Three Jarheads"
Comedians to the Corps
Vail Valley Armed
Forces Week
A Charity* Event
Benefiting our Troops
and Veterans
January 23 - 27, 2008
Vail, Colorado
Provides career and job
listings for veterans and discharged military personnel returning to civilian
employment.
Military Child Education Coalition
Iraq Trip Report
We left Moody AFB at night on the 22nd after being delayed twice. The war had already been underway for two weeks, and everyone was anxious to get in the mix. We flew in a C-5 to Dover AFB in Delaware. C-5’s are known to break down and that is just what it did. We stayed in Delaware three nights after marching back and forth to the terminal in hopes of catching our flight out. We ended up setting up our "flyaway" kit (laptop, crypto, isdn modem, mini satellite dish) in one of the barrack’s rooms so we could surf information about everything going on. After about four attempts to board our plane we finally made it out, and on our way to Spain. It was raining, but warm there, and it looked a lot like California with the valley and mountains on both sides. We ate at the chow hall and there were Spanish citizens working there. I was trying to find an ATM and my limited Spanish didn’t get me anywhere. After we ate, we ended up waited all night in the terminal watching old movies and taking our last showers in the bathroom. Nobody got any sleep.
That morning we left for Kuwait City International Airport. It was turned into a huge Air Force Base, and there were hundreds of our cargo planes on the flight line. As we got off the plane we were told two scuds had fallen close to the base last night and people were going in and out of their chemical gear. We were put into a transient tent and given new packing lists for all our gear. Our mission was finally clearly given to us- convoy from the border up to an airfield the army was in the process of clearing and set up the beginnings of an Air Force base.
We spent all day packing the trucks and rotating people into the chow hall there. This chow hall was huge and the Kuwaitis were serving decent food. There were pictures of Marilyn Monroe all over, which I thought was odd. Somewhere around nine o’clock local time we set out for the border. It was freezing cold riding in the back of a big truck and everyone was huddling to stay warm. My vehicle had twelve riding in the back, nine males, and three females. After about two hours we got to the border where we met up with a bunch of Army and British personnel. By this time everyone was dieing to be able to go to the bathroom. As soon as we stopped everyone jumped out and ran to somewhere they could go.
We spent all night sitting in the back of the truck freezing. I’ve never been that cold for that length of time, and everyone was praying for the sun to rise. It eventually did and we did our last minute preparations to cross the border. There would be over four hundred vehicles in our convoy and we were fourth from the front. There was a "scout" vehicle in the front that would drive a few miles out from us to see if anything was going on. After that, there were two HUMVEE’s with .249 machine guns and us with our M4’s (mini M16’s.) Right across the border there was an Iraqi town we must have bombed the heck out of. Kids would run out of the broken down houses and wave at us as we passed. They were known to pull out handguns so we had them in our sights at all times. Unfortunately one of the convoys right behind us ran one of them over and killed him. Most of the older people in the town stayed back and watched from a distance. I guess they were used to us pointing our rifles at them. Once we got out of the town the rest of the trip was through open desert. You could see the oil fires in the distance, and every once in a while a US vehicle that had been ambushed and shot up.
There were dead Iraqi’s in their vehicles on the side of the road. Iraqi’s would drive past the convoy, which was very nerve racking. Most, however, were driving the opposite direction on the other side of the freeway with white flags out there window. We were told later most of these were actually solders that were looking for an easy target they could ambush. There were quite a few over passes we would have to drive under that had bunkers built to fire from. I was worried someone would pop out one of those and start firing at us.
We drove for about five hours until we got to our turn off and the base. Near the front gate there was a big bomb sitting off to the side, which was later blown up by our EOD. There was, of course, a big portrait of Saddam at the gate. There were some buildings we spray-painted with 820th so nobody else would take them. These were old Iraqi barracks and chow hall. Our control centers, including my shop, were in the kitchen. About one hundred yards East of us were hundreds of Iraqi POW’s surrounded by built up dirt mounds so they couldn’t see what we were doing. Fifty yards south of us the British set up shop across the road. The four of us (communication guys) set up the radios and flyaway kit. I set up the SCIF with the networks that call back into Moody AFB through our portable satellite dishes. I was told it was the only facility in Iraq. At the same time we were setting up our satellite phone antennas and the rest of the radio antennas. All of this equipment was for the 822 Security Forces Squadron. A day or so later we set up across the base for the Air Force Command Post. They were outfitted with pretty much the same equipment. At this time there were still almost no AF personnel there. I slept on the floor near my shop in the 822 building. There was about a quarter inch of fine dust before they swept the place out.
We were ordered to start taking our Malaria pills because of this. The bathrooms were obviously none existent at this point and an area away from the barracks was set aside to use whenever we needed to. It was not uncommon in the first week to be out there with females going right next to you. Thank God for baby wipes. We ate our MRE’s whenever we got the chance, and tried to drink as much water as possible. We had two, two liter bottles a day for drinking and shaving. This was nowhere near enough and people were stealing bottles whenever they got the chance.
Somewhere around day five of us being there we knew something was about to go down because there was a lot of activity on base. It turned out the mission to save the American POW’s in Nasariah was flying out from our location. All our communication equipment went dead for about an hour and I had a gut feeling compass call (the jamming aircraft I worked on in Tucson) was killing all transmissions in the area. It turned out I was right when we got the word the next day.
Eventually they built wooden toilets and pipes that went into the ground to pee in. One night I was walking out to them and I saw flare after flare going off to the North of the base. I could tell it was the Army because it was about a half mile from where I was located. I just remember thinking to myself, wow; I guess there is someone or something out there they really want to be able to see. I didn’t pay much attention and went to bed. About thirty minutes later my boss came in and woke me up saying we were under attack. I knew it was just small arms fire so I didn’t really do anything about it.
I don’t remember what day it was, but I was outside working on the generator for our RFIC (reduced footprint initial communications- satellite dish that is more robust than the initial things I set up) and an explosion went off right across the street where the British were staying. It was about fifty yards from me, and it turns out a tractor they were using to level the ground ran over a mine. Nobody got hurt but the tractor took some serious damage. That was a wake up call.
The RFIC took two full days to finally get set up. We ended up with the dish on the roof of the SCIF after trying multiple places for it. I spent a lot of time climbing on the roof and jumping back down. I fought every piece of equipment while setting that thing up. It seemed like nothing wanted to work for me. I had to rearrange the configuration of some of the equipment and add a few things to get the internet working. Other networks came up with almost no problems. The phone lines were working great until one day one of the four decided not to work any more. I didn’t have any extra circuit cards so I couldn’t fix that part. Everyone loved us after it was set up and the services were running to the different rooms of the control center. We were first on base with these services and everyone from different areas would come use them.
Back on the other side of the base at the Air Force Command Post the commander loved us for having our networks up before anyone else. He could log onto his email and surf the web. The radios were working well and our security forces were controlling the base. I helped set up one captains secure satellite phone he just happened to bring. Things like that seemed to happen daily.
The wild dog problem was bad on base. They started shooting them about two weeks after we got there. One night I was riding in the trailer of our ATV (typical time spent) and a dog came running and barking like it was going to jump in and bite my leg. Luckily the driver hit the gas because I was about to shoot it. I didn’t want to have to shoot any dogs.
A cool spot on base was the air tower. It was the old Iraqi built four-story building they used to control aircraft. The combat controllers set up shop on the fourth floor and we had our repeaters on the third. We got to climb on the roof to set up our antennas and you could see all around base from there. There was a small pyramid thing North of us they said Abraham was born in. You could see it well, and I took some pictures of it. While I was up there they brought in more POW’s and I watched them through the binoculars as they took turns praying. One was shot in the back four times and he didn’t even act like anything was wrong.
About a week from when we got to the base we set up some showers. They were bags you put water in and a nozzle you wash yourself with. We used the old Iraqi shower stalls and some water they had. Our doctors tested it and said it was ok to wash with but not suitable for drinking. About a week after that the engineers set up a make shift shower tent which actually pumped water into four nozzles. Needless to say, four nozzles for two hundred people don’t go very far.
During my entire stay we only had to put our gas masks on twice. The first week we had to wear our suits all the time. All our gear had to be next to us where ever we went and on us if we left the local working area. We had a gas mask, gloves, suit, and boots for chemical gear, and rifle, one hundred and seventy five rounds, two canteens, compass, knife, medical kit, helmet, and bulletproof vest for other gear.
Every day EOD would blow up munitions they found around the base. Huge explosions would rock our building and break the windows. It’s funny how things like this become normal.
In my final days there, my typical day would be waking up somewhere around nine. I would get up and run to the bathrooms because by the time you walk the quarter mile to where they were at you really had to go. I would shower and shave every other day. Next, I would go back to my tent and grab all my gear to take it into the shop. I would check the status of our equipment, and if everything were working right I would eat breakfast and send an email out. I would then work some of the issues we had from the day before and if there were anything to set up, I would do that. I went across the base to the command post at least every other day to take care of something. We usually went to sleep around midnight or one.
The day that I left I was in the command post fixing an issue with our flyaway kit. Some birds pooped all over the thing and there was enough to make the signal fall below workable levels. Once again, thank God for baby wipes. Our Chief knew about my need to get home and he was working the issue over email with people back at Moody. I had returned to the other side of the base when a radio call came up telling me to get my stuff packed. Our personnel guy helped me throw my bags in the back of his trailer and I was able to say by to a couple of the guys there. It’s just weird because I’ve been through so much with these guys in the past two years and that is probably the last time I’ll see them. Most I didn’t get to say anything to. We drove over to the make shift terminal and I barely caught the C-17 as it was leaving. The personnel guy signed the letter allowing me to leave (it was taking the commander two days to get them signed and we didn’t have that kind of time.) We took off with all lights out and did some crazy maneuvering to avoid radar, etc. That was probably the second scariest thing after the convoy.
In about an hour we landed in Kuwait where I met up with a couple guys we left behind to buy things and ship them to us. We sat around for a while and I got some food at the chow hall. There were reporters there coming back from Iraq and they were all taking pictures of each other. I was just thinking to myself how they were probably the ones that would show up to the gate trying to get on our base. We had to treat them like suicide bombers because some would mark TV on the side of their vans and pull up to the gate to blow us up. I got my flight set up to Germany and back the Charleston AFB, SC. Luckily, and amazingly, I stayed on the same plane for all three flights. I tried to sleep as much as I could because the seats in a C-17 aren’t exactly airliner standard. At least I had my sleeping bag to put on the floor. In Germany two families got on to take a hop to the states. There were kids running all around and it just seemed odd to me. The pilots were asking me all kinds of questions when they found out I came from Iraq.
The only problems on my trip back came when I got to Charleston. I couldn’t get a hold of the travel company to get authorization to rent a car home. Finally, I got a hold of someone back in my office at Moody who told me to just rent a car and we would take care of it when I got back. I had to get two different taxis to take me to the airport where the rental cars were. When I got there I realized I didn’t have my government visa and rental agencies don’t take check cards. I thought I was out of luck when this old lady came up to me and asked if I was trying to get home. (I was in uniform still.) I said yes and she took me up to her friend at Avis car rental. They said even if they could help me they didn’t have any cars to give me right now. At this same moment a guy came out of the back with car keys. The lady then said, well, we have a car but we don’t have anything for a one way. The guy then says, this car is from Florida. It just all came together. I think the lady behind the counter was so amazed she let me call my wife and get the numbers off the credit card to be able to rent it. The older lady asked me if I had enough money for food, etc, and I told her yes. At that point I felt someone was really looking out for me. I couldn’t believe how things worked out. I drove to Savannah and got a hotel so I could finish the drive the next morning.
IWVO is
not responsible for the content of external internet
sites, nor does it endorse content on external sites
"Buy T-Shirts, Hats and other products at IWVO Store"
If you have "Stories from the Front Lines" Click Here