April ‘09 to July ‘09

VIP VISITS

We have had many DV (or distinguished visitors) visiting Camp Victory as it is one of the largest bases and is located right next to the BIAP (Baghdad International Airport), and is also the headquarter of the Multinational Forces-Iraq.  President Obama made a “surprise” visit to Bagdad on April 7th.  We were very excited that the President made his way to Iraq to visit the troops and showed his appreciation for the sacrifice that every one here has made.  The Al Faw Palace was completely packed; those of us who could not get in had to watch the speech on CNN.  President Obama reassured us by saying “as long as I’m in the White House, you’re going to get the support that you need and the thanks that you deserve from a grateful nation.”  Of course, everyone is hopeful as the timetable for withdrawal is on track, so the pressure is on us in logistics to help move all of our stuff out of Iraq responsibly!  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came and visited Iraq, and the security was so good that I did not even realize she was here until the day after when I read the YAHOO! News.  Then, on Mother’s Day weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the troops here and addressed some soldiers from California to show her appreciation.
 
STRESSED OUT

At the end of a late afternoon meeting, our general mentioned that there was an incident earlier in the day where one soldier shot and killed five others and injured a few more in a stress medical clinic on Camp Liberty where I live.  I was quite taken back and was actually very concerned - not because I live there, but that I may know some of the victims since many of my battle buddies going through McCrady Army Training Center in South Carolina were medics and mental health professionals.  So before I went home, I sent my wife, Sally, a cryptic email to let her know that I was okay, in case she heard “something in the news”, but without disclosing the details as these types of incidents are classified and could not be disclosed until the news media got the word from the proper channels.  I shared the news with some of my workmates, and many of them were very shaken up and upset.  Though we expect that there is a risk serving here in Iraq from the insurgents, we overlook the risk of something like this coming from one of our own.

So later that night, I went to a late dinner at the Liberty DFAC (dining facility) and while waiting in line for my sandwich, I recognized one of my Navy buddies from my platoon at McCrady who is a mental health Doc. (I see him often since we play trivia on rival teams Sunday nights, him being on the very good Fighting Docs team.) He looked shaken up … I was relieved to see him.  He didn’t speak at all, and I asked if he worked at the clinic where the shooting took place, and he nodded.  I gave him a big hug; when he left I had a lump in my throat and let out a small sigh of relief because he could very well have been one of the victims.

The news traveled quickly - I heard the first news report regarding the shooting on BBC radio while going home after picking up my tuna sandwich.  The next day, I received a few emails from folks back home who saw the news on CNN and were concerned that I might be hurt.  I responded to them immediately.  For the next couple of days, more information became available, and I learned that five people died, including one Navy commander whom I had a very vague recollection of the name.  It was not until later did I realize that he and I went through McCrady together, except that he was in Charlie Company while I was in Bravo, and we had a very different training schedule such that we barely had any opportunity to really meet.  Later in Arifjan, I ran into a Navy Chief Martinez who was also in Charlie Company who remembered the commander well, a great man and it was really a pity how this happened.

The shooter, who was apprehended, is a 44 year old sergeant on his third tour of duty who apparently was stressed out from the different pressures in life.  The Army life in the combat zone is very stressful when everyone is also expected to work seven days a week, and often under extremely harsh and dangerous conditions.  I’m very sad to see so many suicides and PTSD cases, especially for those serving multiple tours.  As summed up by one of the victim’s writing on the Facebook wall, “In life, we expect to lose a brother, but not in the hands of a sibling.”

Although this is only my first tour and I’m only four months into my one year deployment, my mission gets me out into the red zone between Victory base and the Green Zone (or IZ) only once every couple of weeks, I can see and feel how the workload and battle rhythm of 14-16 hours every day really gets one very stressed and exhausted.  I know I need to exercise and workout to balance the stress level, but again, if the workload is so heavy, when time to eat and sleep are already compromised, finding time to workout is even more difficult.  This is a place to test one’s limits and as my boss would say, we often run at the pace of a sprint during a marathon. 

RISKY BUSINESS

Our risk here is quite unpredictable.  Though one may say that the risk level has improved dramatically from one or two years ago, basically not a day went by where there would be no insurgent attacks at all throughout Iraq.

During one of the morning battle update assessments, I was quite pleased to find out there was only one casualty from the day before (as the numbers usually range from double digits, and once in a while, over 100).  However, upon further reading, I realized that the death was the result of a rocket (we call it “IDF” for ““indirect fire”) that landed inside the IZ and killed a US civilian.  Even though most of the IDF hits nothing, from time to time, there is a “lucky” hit.  This incident reminded me of my old buddy LCDR Keith Taylor who was serving inside the old Embassy in 2005 and was killed by an IDF on a Sunday when the Iraqis had their first election.  We have these hits about a few times a month, and the IZ or green zone actually seemed to get more of it.  One of the closest one landed about a quarter mile from our office.  Another one woke me up in the middle of the night, first by the warning sirens and then my whole CHU and bed were shaking.  Yikes!  Well - there is still no safe place in Iraq; it is the wrong place, just hope that you’re not there at the wrong time.

So after going through these tragic incidents, it does put things in perspective.  I’m honored to serve my country, but I am certainly reminded to also not to forget to take care of myself and the people around me.  Life is precious, but not necessarily under our control.  Live every day as if it were going to be your last, so that there will be no regrets if it is.

Iraq – Month 4 (Offsite Conference in Kuwait & Qatar)

Camp Cupcake

The trip in May to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait was a bit of an adventure.  Thanks to my colleague Monica, she took care of the space block (plane reservation in military speak); so all I had to do was to show up to the airport at the prescribed time – of course, after turning in my weapon at the Arms Room.

The trip was actually quite smooth, all things considered – it started with the initial call at about 19:30, which got changed to 18:30 when we checked and caused some commotion to rush to the airport.  We didn’t get there until 18:35 but it turned out there was absolutely no rush. 

After leaving the bags at the staging area, we first got some fine cuisine at the Sather Air Force DFAC that has REAL silverware – a real treat when you are used to seeing only plastic everything.  We returned back to the terminal before 19:30, and waited, and waited.  We finally lined up to board the plane with our IBAs (flak jacket) on at about 21:00 and after a long walk with my carryon finally got on the plane (C-130) at about 21:20…

Then, we waited for about good hour and a half because we were apparently waiting for a DV, or Distinguished Visitor group– that just so happened to be my big boss.  So they finally arrived, by then, we were soaked in sweat and finally took off.  The seating of the C-130 is along the fuselage and back to back in the middle, so basically four columns.  It’s a much smaller plane than I thought, with props, and it’s my first time on one of these.  I’ve flown on the C-17 which is jet propelled plus they have airline-like seating on the plane when I first arrived from Baghdad.

The flight time to Kuwait is only about 1 hour 20 minutes but sure felt a lot longer, given the solder behind my back constantly moving – you see, sitting back to back means we are basically leaning on each other’s back as support through the whole flight  - it’s like the back of your seat keeps moving.  Oh well.

Once airborne, it started to get cold and now instead of being too hot, I was glad to have the IBA on to keep me warm.  Once we landed, I noticed a few SUVs waiting to pick up the DVs – i.e. my bosses.  It would have been perfect to get a ride with them, BUT, our bags were being moved to the passenger terminal and would take another 20 minutes - so better to let the DVs go and stick with their original plan.  After getting the bags, we checked in with our ID card for accountability purposes, and then looked for the bus to take us to Camp Arifjan. Oops, bad news.  The bus left eight minutes ago at midnight, and the next one is not leaving until 06:00!  The good news is the mid-rats was still open so we went to eat. Not that hungry but really not much to do otherwise.  Then we went to the PX that’s open 23 hours a day.  Ali Al Saleem being the main air gateway into the entire CENTCOM theater (Iraq and Afghanistan), there are constant transients that come through and so with the hours of flights at all times of day, it makes sense to have a PX that is open all the time – and guess what, there’s even a long check out line at 02:00 with more than one cashier.
 
So after the PX, we went back to the waiting area and hoped to get a comfortable seat to snooze for a couple of hours before the 06:00 bus – then I ran into a soldier asking if I was going to Arifjan – turned out he’s the assigned driver and was there to pick up people like me. Wow – that’s great – so we boarded the van a little after 03:00 (shaved three hours from 0600) and arrived at Arifjan after some fast driving at 04:40.  Checked in and got the linens – and put that together and finally hit the top rack in the open bay barracks at 05:30 Sunday morning.  Welcome to Arifjan.
Slept until about 11:00 and then started to walk around this base – first thing I noticed – NO concrete T-Walls.  No weapons worn by most people, and civilian clothes worn by every one – it’s Sunday.  In Iraq, no military personnel would be allowed to wear civilian clothes at all, not even after hours, or Sundays. The only thing besides our uniform that we can wear is our PT gear (workout clothes), and that’s like wearing civvies.  There’s a tennis court, basketball court and a track outside our billeting or the I-Building.  Across from the courts is a large 24-hr gym with two racquetball courts, a basketball court, a swimming pool, and next to this sports complex is the large PX, and then the Oasis DFAC (same name as Camp Victory – but what a difference!)  Nice décor like a restaurant in the US, with real silverware – (nicer than Sather) and get this, porcelain plates!  I have not eaten off a real plate for months, and it feels really nice to be back to civilization.  Now I know why some call Camp Arifjan “Camp Cupcake”. 

The food in the Arifjan Oasis is definitely nicer – the breakfast eggs were not overcooked, and they even have fresh milk (full, lowfat and skim!)– I really missed my fresh milk for we only drink those boxed milks in Iraq.  The next day for lunch, they served prime rib to which I almost cried… I saw red liquid coming out of the beef when it was cut and it was NOT overcooked.  It’s the best prime rib I’ve had for at least 4 months.  In Iraq, the meat is always dry due to over-cooking for health reason since the cook is paranoid of not cooking the meat thoroughly in case someone might get sick (and no one can afford to be sick there).  On this base, you also find Panda Express (closest thing to real Chinese food), donuts (Hole in one), Starbucks, and McDonald’s which we don’t have up in Iraq as well.

The return was quite a trip … Monica flew back the day before rushing to the airport with only 30 minutes notice when I was still trying to finish work, so I decided to stick with the original plan to leave the next day… but the flight would leave at some ungodly hour… 6am.. So I’ll have to leave Arifjan on a bus by 11pm to make it.  Not a good plan.  Thanks to our general who changed his plan, I was able to get a good night’s sleep and took his seat and left at a more reasonable time and got back in Baghdad at 17:30.

That also allowed me some quality time to meet with a few colonels at night and worked out some upcoming issues.  It’s great when things worked out better than planned.

Qatar

This is the place where soldiers get to go on a 4-day pass for rest and recuperating (“R&R”) after three months in their assignment.  The trip out was actually very smooth – this time, I learned how to space block the flight, and despite not being available, there are more than 23 seats open with another 50 on a later flight… so I knew I’d be getting out for sure.  Again it’s the C-130, but my name was called out earlier so I got to go to the front of the plane instead – and actually the seat leg room is longer by quite a bit.  It’s still a sauna with the IBA (body armor) on, but at least the flight was not so packed to have more room on the side as well, and I can even pull up my laptop to type out this experience.  I also learned NOT to take the middle column seats and have my back banging the IBA of the soldier on the other side, so I get to lean against the fuselage.  Little things we learn from experience, and experience is what I’m gaining quickly every day in the army.

I was supposed to take this four-day pass exactly one month ago with the pass in hand, I wasn’t able leave on schedule because one of my other colleague was not able to return from her 4-day pass due to some unforeseeable reason and turned that into a 14-day excursion.  Since another colleague also left at that time, my busy workload became ridiculous trying to cover for three people, and so by the time she returned, I had too much going on to just leave.  So finally, I was able to find the opportunity to go now.  My boss was supportive so long as I finished my projects, and I was happy to comply.

The airbase we flew into Qatar is nicknamed IUD, or Al Udeid – and then one would take the bus to get to Al Saliyah, the base where the four-day pass people go to.  I did not even have a reservation since my departure was quite a rush, but knowing there is always transient berthing available, I was not overly concerned.  With such low expectations, even open bay with a bed with clean sheets will do just fine.  Forget “Aim High”… Try “Low Expectation” … life is suddenly much more bearable here.
So we arrived after 1:00am; went through customs that x-rayed our bags twice – looking for weapons for those who forgot to check them in… apparently earlier in the day, someone going home forgot and had his weapons and ammo in his bags and got deported, to Kuwait… so the security was not in a good mood.  I think that guy luckily got to Kuwait before everyone else and was probably home early…

We finally got to billeting, and in front of me were some officers going back and forth about room assignments, at the ungodly hour of 04:00.  After a bunch of haggling, when it was my turn, I just got the sheets and blanket, and was assigned to a rack in a tent in one minute.  Done, too easy… again low expectations.  Then I went by this warehouse, with many large tents inside – something surreal, and there were lots of empty racks; so I picked one, unpacked and slept at 05:00… just then I heard the call to morning prayer before dawn…. Welcome to Qatar.

DOHA

Qatar does not appear as nice as Camp Arifjan as there are still T-walls and bunkers everywhere, and security is still tight.  The base is not large, with a whole bunch of boring warehouses throughout the base.  Everything else is in the warehouse – tents to live, and even a good size MWR center with different bars (with nice décor and the whole nine yards).  The biggest hype is the fact that there is alcohol – as most places in the Middle East do not allow that, so many soldiers came to drink their limit of three beers per day ($4-$6 a beer – no competition!). I don’t even drink beer, so I have a couple of glasses (plastic) of red wine -  three choices – merlot, Italian Chianti and Spanish Roja – the latter two are actually pretty good.  As they say in Sideways, Friends don’t let friends drink merlot…

I came here to attend this conference which is a working conference, so we don’t usually finish until after 20:00, and then we’d go hang out for a little while, where I download my emails.  In the last few days, I was able to get some R&R by signing up for trips to visit some shopping mall in Doha. The Landmark Mall looks exactly like a US upscale mall, with all the same name brands one can imagine, Starbucks, Haagen Daaz, and even Krispy Kreme!!!  There are more English than Arabic writings, and men and women dressed in Arabic gowns.  Many, of course, also have nannies from the Philippines and other foreign national helpers in tow, and this mall is clearly for the affluent.  After cruising around, I finally parked myself for dinner at THE OPERA Café on the second floor overlooking the mall and Circus Land – basically a food court with all the usual American fast food joints, McD, KFC, Cinnabon.  The café has a decent menu, and the Chinese Salad is not at all Chinese but it has good grilled shrimp and fried “wanton” (sic) and it was actually decent.  Too bad they way overcooked my “medium rare” lamb – the Arabic tea was interesting but nothing too out of the ordinary, except for the small tea cup with gold rims.  The most ironic scene is of course stores with bikinis, and women wearing the black burkas, with many women covering from head to toes, only showing their eyes.  Some you can tell are wearing some fancy heels underneath the burkas from the sound when they walk; some wearing jeans … and of course, some holding fancy LV handbags or big shopping bags.  East meets West indeed.

Iraq – Month 5

7 June 2009

Lots of buzz in the air this week because the TV show host, Stephen Colbert, is doing his live broadcasting with the USO here all week. I got to attend a show and was asked about it by an NPR reporter. You can hear it at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105241013&ft=1&f=3.
Also, video of the Colbert USO shows is at www.colbertnation.com/video. It’s quite funny the way Steve Colbert was trying to go through the Army obstacle training…..
In other news, the big issue here is the weather.  May and June are the worst months due to dust and fog which dramatically compromises visibility, and sometimes we even have to wear our mask to sleep.  Sleep is important here for everyone because the work is very intense; we consistently work about 14-16 hours every day (except for “only” 6-8 hours on Sunday).  It’s easy for people to get burned out.  I’m really happy I have a 2-week leave coming next month.

30 June 2009

June 30th is the special day where our combat troops leave the cities and villages in Iraq. It’s a national holiday, but our troops don’t get the day off, or any days off for that matter.

By now I've finally gotten used to the routine (or Battle Rhythm as the Army calls it).  “Joining” the Army at the age of 41 is quite an experience (there's very little Navy culture here, except what is brought by the few Navy people mobilized here).  Today the weather is VERY hazy, fog with sand, and these are the days that we try to wear a mask so not to breathe in all the dust particles (two weeks ago, it was so bad that we had less than 5 ft of visibility.)  Another bad thing about this kind of weather is that it’s the perfect time to get indirect fire attacks (mortar/rockets) as this is good cover for the bad guys when the helos are not flying to catch them quickly.  The closest one I had was a couple of months ago: My bed shook at 2:30am, but then I went right back to sleep.  If it's my time, oh well.  Until then, there's still too much to do….
I work with base closings and transferring items to enable the Iraqis, and this is very interesting and important work to help our Iraqi partners succeed.
In a couple of weeks, I'll finally have a taste of civilization for my 2-week R&R at home!

 4 July 2009

We had an awe inspiring July 4th as the naturalization ceremony took place on that day.  I knew some VIPs were visiting because the security near our building was suddenly very tight when I left work the night before. This morning over 200 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines were sworn in as US citizens before Vice President Joe Biden!  He gave a speech (without following the teleprompter which he is famous for).and thanked the new citizens for serving (even before they were sworn in as US citizens) and the strength of our nation being based on diversity of immigrants.  As I was naturalized myself 21 years ago, I was very proud of these young men and women and later went down to shake their hands, and reminded them to consider becoming an officer.  (As many were surprised, one can serve in the US military without being a US citizen – which was the case with my grandfather who joined the US Navy in the 30’s – but one must be a citizen to become a military officer).  Therefore, it was quite comical when someone saw me carrying a flag thinking that I was naturalized that day – and I responded: “thanks, but that was many years ago!..”
During the long ceremony, in the back of the crowd, I even spotted George Stephanopoulos yawing and falling asleep ….(the time change is tough for visitors.)  It was a great ceremony, and I even got to meet our Commanding General, General Odierno, and got a snap shot with him.

Afterwards, I was eating at the DFAC and noticed some unusual security, along with multiple July 4th decorations and cakes.  After finishing my special lunch (roast beef – very overcooked as usual, and with plastic glasses of apple and grape ciders looking like champagne), then comes the VP.  He was walking around, shaking hands and talking to the troops for a long time!  I even had the chance to speak with him for almost 10 seconds and even got his coin!  I guess I was in the right place at the right time. His son Beau and I later sat for a while talking about the VP’s trip and his wearing a fine tan suit with desert boots.  Beau is a lawyer (“Staff Judge Advocate” in military-speak) deployed to Iraq.  I met Beau for the first time last month in another DFAC and learned about his being the attorney general of the State of Delaware before coming to Iraq…  it’s interesting to see quite a few of the reservists who also serves locally in the community are here as well.

In the evening, the bands were playing patriotic tunes by the Al Faw Palace, and the special lights were turned on – and I even took some nice pictures (which are posted on my website at www.ottolee.org/iraq).  This was truly an unforgettable Fourth of July in Iraq, and I’m so glad to have the chance to be spending this day with these great men and women here.