MC, back to Balad

This was my last day and these are some of the officers of the Regiment that came over to say good-bye. They’re a good group of people and it was nice to be able to get them all together and thank them for their work and for taking care of us. I didn’t get to say good-bye to all of them, Major Saad wasn’t there and he was one of my favorites. He’s the one with heart problems; I don’t think he’ll live much past this year. He has small children; I hope they’ll be OK.

I’ve been working with the new MiTT but I’m worried about them. There are 10 of them and they’re getting totally thrown into the fire. We came in with a distinct advantage having been in country for 6+ months and at least we understood the concepts of support before we had to live them. They have to work quickly to understand where to get fuel, how to get munitions, the minutia they’ll need to survive. They’re rank heavy which means they have high level officers and NCO’s. I suppose they feel the rank is necessary to work at division level, but there’s too many chiefs in this group and not enough indians. They also sent one female, a MSG who seemed pretty sharp but could be an issue down the road.

They signed for their three HMMWV’s but had to use Majors as gunners for the turrets. That’s not a very efficient use of rank but they’re on their own out here and dependent on each other to both train and travel around. In truth, they’ve had some training for this, but it’s been from the states, actors dressed up who jump out at you from behind a tree with a sign that says, ‘insurgent, shoot me’. Its different here, more dangerous. It’s worse now than when I first got here.

They have their first long distance mission tonight with the Iraqi’s. They’ll be going about 250 Km south into some dangerous country and I hope they don’t run into trouble. We gave them a week of RIP/TOA (Relief in Place/Transfer of Authority) training and they got all the information we could cram into them, all the memory sticks and continuity books they could carry. I hope some of it sticks. I know after the convoy this week they’ll be seasoned but that’ll be a harrowing journey for them.

I caught two of the Major’s coming to blows on the third day and they had to be separated. They were coming out of a meeting and apparently didn’t agree on something. That won’t go over well if the Iraqi’s see them, so they were warned to work out the differences. They’re in close quarters and the egos will have to be checked, plus it’s hot here and they’re newly formed performing a challenging mission in a foreign country.

They scared me pretty bad on the day I left. I was their first passenger during their run outside the gate. It was a short ride, only 20 Km to the airfield to catch my plane, but I just didn’t feel safe in their hands. But, they got me there safely and I made my flight back to Balad. I would ask that if you prayed for me before that you not stop just because I return home. Don’t forget the soldiers taking our places. I won’t.

I’m back in Balad and ran outside twice already, woo hoo! I stepped outside early this morning for my run and relived the differences between the two bases. Balad has jets taking off, ambulances in the distance, helicopters coming in at all hours and convoys raising dust compared to the relative quiet of Kirkuk. Balad gets mortared almost every day; K-1 didn’t have a single attack while I was there. I mingled daily with thousands of Iraqi Soldiers and ate with them in their mess hall. In Balad, an Iraqi soldier is a novelty.

I’ve already got a new mission. I’m going to work with all the different MTR’s in the country and try to get them grouped together one last time before our unit leave. It’s totally a PR mission and if it doesn’t come together, no problem. If it happens, it’ll be fun, but looks like I’ll be traveling right up until the end. I suppose that’s better than lying in my bunk, reading a book and looking at the clock...tick

Best wishes from Iraq.