Happy New Year!

After reading my last missive, I think I ended it a little abrupt. I’ll try and make it a complete post before I log out, maybe I can make this one more winded.

Emails - I do have to say I’m usually pretty good about returning emails unless I’m traveling. If I’m traveling, I can’t announce it before I go because of the security issues, but once I’m back, I can talk a little about where I go and what we do. If I’m not returning an email promptly, I’m probably away from my ‘puter. Yesterday I was out of the office in Baghdad and had a fascinating trip.

This country is so cool. I visited Iraqi Generals and their staff in their own building who are responsible for rebuilding the country. They are designing, coordinating, planning, directing and orchestrating a million details on how to stand up the ISF. Now, when you picture this endeavor, you might envision the Pentagon and all its mystery and floors and endless hallways and Generals and support groups and meetings…but that’s not how it’s being done here.

The building I was in has small crowded offices with all kinds of Iraqi’s. Everyone’s smoking; everyone’s getting ready to see someone, and anyone not in an Iraqi uniform is in a suit, trying to get in to see someone important. I was with an Australian officer who was giving me the tour. He had some questions on food services, so we combined the mission into one.

We went in to see this General in charge of getting food to Iraqi troops. He didn’t have his own office. In fact, he shares the office with about 4 other Generals AND all their staff who are each working different issues within the country . There were about 20-25 people in this small room, everyone talking with their hands, smoking, drinking tea and cutting deals, deals, deals. Iraqi handshakes are how they get business done and even though we think we’re above the “deal” in the west, we’re just more sophisticated in our payouts. We bury our kickbacks in the contracts and fees and call it the cost of doing business. At least they’re up front on how they do business. And as a history lesson, they invented world commerce; this area is the birthplace of civilization (Babylon). They have negotiations down to a fine art and you never, ever pay face value. A contract is nothing more than an introduction, we’ll work on the details after we sign it.

Unfortunately, some times it gets in the way of the reconstruction and we have to step in. The issue the Aussie was addressing was the $16/day allocated to feeding one Iraqi soldier. After the contract is cut, and the subcontract is let to the subcontractor and then re-subcontracted down to the Nth level, the soldiers is getting about $3/day in actual food, and he’s hungry. The Aussie I was with was trying to get it back up to at least $7/day and maybe cut out some of the fat. They were talking fast and gesturing and smoking and drinking tea…it felt like I was in the marketplace buying tomatoes. The other bad news is that contracting is regional which meant that these little deals were being cut all over the country for different prices, different fixes…it’s a mess. Actually, it’s en’shalla which is God’s will, and that’s how they work. God willing, en’shalla. Very Middle Eastern.

OK, a little Army story…

One time a long time ago, I was a Specialist in the Army stationed in Italy. We were jumping into Sardinia off the coast of Italy. I was part of the advance party and assigned to this 2LT as his jeep driver, me being enlisted at the time. I think I was there because I’d picked up enough Italian to get my face slapped which was probably enough to get around the smaller towns and villages when we deployed, with language skills being always in demand. Anyways, I’m with this 2LT at the drop zone waiting for the 1st Bn., 509th Airborne Battalion Combat Team, (the 1st/509th for short) to fly over the drop zone and jump out. This is sometime around 1977.

Sardinia is rocky, it’s a great big rocky island suitable for growing olives and grapes and goats. We’re standing at the end of the drop zone on a hill and our field of vision is probably a good mile out or even more. It’s a great drop zone because its so large and the aircraft have time to get all the people out. If you’ve ever seen pictures of a “combat” jump, it’s just awe inspiring. The sky is filled with parachutes that drift lazily down to earth, 100's of them. Only this day, it was breezy and the 2LT’s job was to make sure that it wasn’t too windy to jump, to signal the aircraft to release the jumpers if the ground conditions permitted.

In one hand he held a wind gauge to make sure it didn’t exceed 15 knots (I still remember that number, but not sure if the standard has changed) and in the other hand he had a green smoke canister that he’d blow if all was good. The lead pilot sees the smoke, turns the red light to green at the jump door and out they go. At the 2LT’s feet is red smoke to wave them off if weather conditions aren’t favorable.

The planes were coming in and I remember counting 16 large C-130’s in formation, holding over 1000 soldiers getting ready to jump. They’ve already been flying for hours in a hot cargo plane, strapped to parachutes with all their equipment. Even though it’s scary to jump, if you’re in this kind of flight, you really want to get out of that plane and into the cool of the airstream. It’s freeing. Once you’re all suited up to jump, nobody wants to land and walk off, that’s just not the way to do it. There’s lots of pressure to get them to jump, as long as it’s done safely.

So here they come, the horizon is filled with planes and the 2LT is watching the wind gauge closely but its fluctuating…first its 13, then up to 17, then down to 10, then back up to 17 again, then down to 14 and he pops the Green smoke.

Second’s later, jumper’s start filling the skies and all the aircraft start disgorging their troopers. It’s an amazing site and for a while we just watch them come out. There are a couple of heavy drops mixed in and you can see 105mm artillery cannon opening up under 3 canopies and floating to earth. There’s not many of those because they don’t like to mix jumpers with equipment, but enough to practice on. They all come down really smooth until the first people start to hit the ground and try to land. I can see these guys bouncing hard and then being dragged across the rocks. Both the LT and I start panicking as more and more soldiers are struggling to get released from their harnesses and they’re being dragged across the rocky ground. I saw the 2LT look down at the wind gauge and then he told me it was 18 knots, way to fast to have let them jump but it was too late now.

There were a lot of injuries on that jump, lots of broken bones and I can remember calling home just after we’d gotten back and telling my Mom to watch the TV and newspapers for this horrendous accident we’d just been thru in Sardinia. Guess what? Not a word. Not a peep, not a mention, nothing.

The 2LT disappeared from the unit, nobody saw him in or around the area after that. It was a big enough preventable accident that he went elsewhere. I learned then that the Army usually takes care of its own little problems. Even when the civilian media finds out about the “issue”, if they ever do, its usually already been taken care of by the chain of command. I can tell you about a certain high ranking NCO here that should have stupidity tattooed on his forehead for what he did, but that’s another story for another time. I want to make sure I highlight some of these other "characters" so I'll remember them as well as all the good ones here like General H.

And on top of all that, it’s New Years Eve this weekend. I hope everyone has at least a couple of toasts for all of us over here.

Best wishes from Iraq.