Eela KMTB

Breakfast was a treat. It was chai tea, bread, fruit and this green gruel. I think it was some grain concoction meant to stick to your ribs to get you to lunch. I hadn’t eaten breakfast in the IA DFAC yet, I was limiting my visits to just lunch. I was told lunch was their biggest meal and the one they took the most care preparing, so I had steered clear of breakfast and dinner. It was bad; I’ll be sticking to lunch from now on.

Two of their most senior officers had cornered me the morning of our mission and wanted to talk, so we sat together for breakfast. Col Maud was still gone on leave and I cursed him, this was a big trip.

It was probably the most dangerous and difficult mission they’ve been sent on. The distance was 300+ kilometers and down south into very dangerous territory. The two officers told me they wanted coalition forces to go with them on the trip, as guntruck escorts. This would be their second independent mission without Coalition Forces (CF) but the first one going this far south. They reasoned that even Bagdad had been given back to the CF to patrol and this was just too dangerous for IA on the road by themselves.

This was a blow to me, really, we’d been training them for some time, and they knew what had to be done and how to do it and had excellent leadership to get them thru it. They had never turned down a mission before and I had faith in them. This last minute request was out of character. Both officers were highly respected and included the Kurd who the day before had called them, in effect, ineffectual as a unit. That’s not what he actually said, he called them all Shia, but that’s what it means. This was my Infantry officer and the rest of the officers hated him, but he happened to be united with this other IA Major whom I highly respected. This had to be taken seriously. We got thru breakfast and went back to the office to talk it thru.

I think their biggest fear was returning with civilian trucks. They’re being issued a whole bunch of Silverado trucks and the distant station was waiting for them to pick them up. Putting them inside convoy’s create 1) a very long convoy difficult to protect, and 2) target’s of opportunity, for bandits. They told me that convoy’s like these under the control of CF are hardly every hit (true) because we can call in so much support to protect them. When they go on their own, insurgents notice and shoot them up or bandits will cull one of them from the herd. So, we ditched the 15 extra civilian vehicles and just concentrated on filling up the trucks with cargo. As we discussed it, the mission was training and anything we brought back from the distant station makes it a successful mission. It was a difficult day, but they agreed to go on their own.

Turns out they were hit twice by IED’s on the way down. Both were within an hour of each other but to their credit, they did all the right things. They pulled into a safe haven; they left the disabled vehicle with a guard for the return trip and continued the mission. I was sitting in the Operations Room when they called in the second IED strike. They headed back to the safe haven where they’d left the first vehicle. All of this is happening in the middle of a 6 hour convoy trip in the dead of night. There are all kinds of responses you can give them, but we try to let them work thru the problem. We quietly started calling nearby coalition units to see if they’d be available to provide emergency support.

There was a time I’d thought we’d have to rally our coalition team and drive down to pick them up, but Allah be praised, they put their heads together and cannibalized some parts to make one whole HMMWV and got at least one of them back on the road. They picked up the second HMMWV on the return trip and towed it back. They did what they had to do and what an Army expects of them. They got back into those vehicles in the middle of the night in a very dangerous country and completed the mission.

They brought back two of the pickups. They arrived in camp the next morning at 1:30am. Iraqi’s returning from missions honk horns and wake everybody up; I think it’s a cultural thing. Horns honk, headlights flashing, the new pickups had cop lights on top with a piercing siren. It was a huge spectacle. Everyone came out of the barracks and you had 500 Jundee in various stages of dress jumping up and down cheering, waving, and crawling over the new equipment. It felt really good to be a part of them.

I had my super flashlight with me and took Col Maud (finally returned, bout damn time) to see the HMMWV that got hammered by the IED. I and about 200 Jundee crowded around it. It must have been loaded with ball bearings, it had taken out both front tires. There were minor injuries to the occupants; the guy in the front seat had hearing loss which we hope is temporary but it could have been much worse. Given the two IED’s and all the cargo they returned with, I’m calling it a VERY successful mission. It’s even more successful since they completed it themselves and did what they had to do. This will be a tremendous morale boost for the entire unit.

My General called just after and we had a nice conversation. I received my yearly review for the OIF tour and she had some nice things to say about me and the team here. That felt really good, but not as good as seeing that convoy come thru the gate at 1:30 in the morning with horns honking, sirens wailing and everyone safe. I’ll keep that image with me for a long time. We’re doing the right thing here, I’m convinced of that.

I’m getting close to finishing up. I’ve been in contact with the new team and they’ll be here inside of two weeks. I’ll be going back to Balad for the rest of my tour. We have lots to do before I go, more later.

Best wishes from Iraq.