Saturday, December 15, 2007

Iraqi oil? or Recycling the Middle East way!

Mulling around the highways and biways of Iraq isn't the best way to enjoy scenes of nature. Unless by nature you mean the city dump. This country is sooo dirty and trashy it is hard to really care about it. I found the following scene funny and ironic so I snapped a few shots. I guess the reason we are pumping out so much oil from this region could be because people have been pouring so much oil into the soil! It looks like the local auto garages don't recycle used oils. Unless by recycling you mean returning oil to the earth for another day of pumping?

Saturday, December 01, 2007

An Explosive Experience

It was a cold night in November; a first of many. I didn’t bring my thick black sleeping bag and only had the thinner green summer bag. Who knew Iraq got this cold in the Fall? I thought it was supposed to be a scorched desert! I was waiting for it to warm up a bit in the morning before getting out of my bag so I was sort of half sleeping/half awake. I was tired from an all night patrol and had only been sleeping since about 0430 but by 0830 it was so bright I couldn’t really sleep much longer. That was when the “L-T” (our 1st Lietenant platoon commander) told me to get up and get my guys up, “Sergeant Williams’ vehicle hit an IED.” That instantly woke me up. I quickly got up, pulled my trousers on and slid into my boots. I didn’t bother to buckle up or lace up yet. I went and rustled up my crew from their various hiding/sleeping spots in, on, and around our humvees. Once I told them all we would be mounting up in a few minutes I went over to see what the story was. Normally we were the night crew and that meant we got to rest in the security of the small outpost compound during the day after going on night patrols. Our only job during the day was to monitor the radio and “blue force tracker” satellite communication system and be a “QRF” (quick reaction force) for the other guys during the day as necessary. This was the one job we all dreaded and hoped would never come. If it was at least a firefight it might be exciting because we could finally get back at some insurgents, but an IED meant anonymous destruction with little opportunity to fight back, and worse, IED’s tended to do very bad things to our vehicles and more importantly its crew. We flew over the small dusty ruts through the desert to the location of the attacked patrol. As we drove I prayed nothing serious had happened. As we neared the site I hadn't received any news of injured persons and took that as good news. Luckily it was. The vehicle had been immobilized by about 30 pounds of HME (Home Made Explosives) stored in plastic jugs buried just under the surface of the dirt road they had been patrolling. It most likely was detonated by a connecting wire strung from across an adjacent canal where insurgents were known to be operating. How clever of them to hide completely out of reach considering the closest bridge was 10k away. Well they weren't out of range of our weapons! Before we arrived another vehicle shot at some individuals across the canal fleeing on a motorcycle. Unfortunately they were not hit. Luckily for everyone the vehicle hit happened to be the only MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle on the patrol, one more vehicle ahead or behind and somebody would have been dead or seriously injured. 30 lbs of HME is enough to completely destroy a Hummer. The MRAP sustained a broken drive shaft, shorn off fuel tank, and various suspension damage and other cosmetic and auxiliary system damage. We were able to tow it back to our compound and the crew was all checked out by our doc for head/neck injuries. Luckily our first IED experience was survivable, it sure wakes you out of any complacency you may have and makes things real for you. On the other hand, because no one was harmed it still may give you a false sense of security.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

All quiet on the Western Front

Anbar Province is the Western Front of the war in Iraq if you would still call it a war with fronts in the classical sense. However, this front is quite quiet. Life in and around Fallujah Iraq is very well described by this accurate portrayal, worth a read: http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/001542.html

Includes great pictures too.

Friday, November 09, 2007

Army screw up or unfortunate incident?

So while operating in the Lake Thar Thar region, we are often left in the dark as to what the Army is doing just to our north. You would think that with technology and organization improvements of a modern era a quick phone call or comprehensive intel collaboration were easy. Well, it is. The problem is the individuals in the middle responsible for making it happen. They are often not quite competent enough to multi-task like that. Hey its a combat zone, some people have a lot on their plate. One particular night our company is manning the highway checkpoint and we get a call not to travel north of a certain grid line. A few hours later a rainstorm of fire descends from the sky in the distance. A few helicopters and gunships are in action! The next morning our company is called in to assist in setting up a security perimeter for the Army at the location of the previous nights' assault. The scene we enter is the demise of 34 Iraqis: 19 Adult Men (all quoted by official sources as either Al Qaeda operatives, insurgents, or both), 9 Women, and 6 Children (cited by news sources as 15 Civilians). Of course the Adult Male survivors were 'suspected insurgents'. How fortunate that they were able to kill all the ACTUAL insurgents and leave just the SUSPECTED ones living! I guess the Army Helo's have less discrimination when it comes to civilians.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101200590_pf.html

What am I saying here? Well, I am saying the Army is sloppy. Also, when were they going to tell us they had been tracking a known Al Qaeda cell for weeks just miles away from us? Thanks for the heads up. It turns out the story was they had tracked a small group of Al Qaeda planners from another meeting location to this house. When the Army came upon the house they received gun fire from multiple persons in the house. The Army cordoned off the area, returned fire, and called in the Helos for superior firepower. While there was plenty of spent casings in the house, it hardly seemed enough for an air strike. Perhaps they could have used their armored vehicles to create a siege line from a safe distance and let the bad guys run out of gas. Then perhaps they would have had 19 captured insurgents with all the intel they inevitably died with. I am no war planner, and certainly this incident is not the result of failings at higher levels (Generals, President, etc.), but I think sometimes the Army is dumb, and sometimes there are incompetent officers out there doing a bad job. Luckily, the great majority of men are doing an outstanding job. It is too bad seemingly innocent women and children (innocent by virtue of their sex/age) had to die, but the insurgent men made that decision. They fired upon coalition forces with lethal force as if to use the women and children as a screen or shield to hide behind. Certainly they were bad guys. Most farmers and ranchers in this area do not and are not allowed to stockpile Russian made military grade automatic weapons with enough ammunition to cause the Army to call in an air strike.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/12/america/iraq.php
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=9349
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/world/middleeast/13iraq.html?ex=1349928000&en=d2a1b1380409154e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/1012/breaking1.html?via=rel
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/13/MNUNSPBFC.DTL

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Mass Grave Found

In the Anbar Province of Western Iraq where we do most our work, there is a lot of open rural area and a lot of farmers and ranchers. One particular area in between Ramadi and Fallujah is the Lake Thar Thar region. In Anbar a major freeway connects Baghdad to the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi on the way to Iraq's western border with Jordan and Syria. From this freeway there is a major road which runs north along Lake Thar Thar on the way to Samarra and Tikrit in Iraq's northwestern Salahuddin Province. Given that Samarra is one of Iraq's holiest Shia cities actually populated mostly by Sunnis there is natural tension. Additionally, Tikrit was Saddam Hussein's birthplace and is also a Sunni stronghold. This region has always been a hot bed of insurgent activity since late 2004. Over the course of the last 2 years, especially after the major Marine Corps offensives in Fallujah and Ramadi, most of the insurgents from the "Sunni Triangle" and the whole western Anbar province have been pushed out, most have fled north to the Salahuddin province (an Army area!). As the Army has fought them in the cities of Samarra and Tikrit, the insurgents have all ended up in this rural region between the two provinces near Lake Thar Thar. Thus, it is no surprise that this north-running road has been riddled with IED attacks and the Iraqi Police don't dare spend much time in the area. This is where our first assignment upon entering Iraq came! In order to secure the road for safe transportation for us and civilians, the plan was to place a checkpoint along this road between two small combat outposts.

Task Force Military Police watches over Golden land
http://www.marines.mil/units/hqmc/Pages/2007/OCTContentSorted15.aspx


The checkpoint would be operated by local Iraqi Police based mostly out of Ramadi (30 minutes away). Well, just like all good plans, it didn't work. The problem? Nobody forecast the Iraqi Police response to this assignment-abandon post! It doesn't take a very smart man to decide that they don't want to spend the night at a place in the middle of the countryside where mortars are launched on them continually accompanied by small arms attacks and daily IED blasts! So the plan was modified, now a platoon worth of Marines would stay with the police day and night to help them feel safe and mostly to make sure they don't abandon post. The IHP or IP's as we call them (Iraqi Highway Patrol and Iraqi Police, respectively) would run the checking of vehicles and local patrols, we would tag along as necessary and mostly provide a constant observing eye (overwatch) and respond to any threats as necessary. For the first month IED's went from daily to weekly and machine gun attacks from 500 meters turned into mortar attacks from 2K. The engineers built earthen walls around the compound and huts for the police to sleep in and overall it kept insurgents from moving south of the Thar Thar region and fleeing into Ramadi. This enabled the Army to the north to pin down lots of groups hiding out in the rural areas and flush them out. While operating at this outpost we have seen lots of hostile activity, from IED attacks against us and civilians, to incoming mortar fire, to hostile machine gun fire, insurgents are definately vying for a piece of this region. Luckily our heavily armored vehicles and strong defensive posture have kept us safe and no one has been harmed or injured. One truck had a machine gun bullet weld itself to the armor plate due to the heat and velocity from the impact.


A lot of intel can be gathered from civilians passing through the checkpoint. One day we received multiple reports of insurgents who had taken innocent civilians hostage in an effort to find out who in the community had been informants for the IP's about the whereabouts of insurgents. Supposedly these civilians had been held in an underground shipping container buried a few miles north of us. After verifying this intel with enough of the locals we leaped into action hoping to save some lives and thwart the efforts of the bad guys. Upon traveling north to the nearest Army outpost we learned that we were too late. A few days previous they had recovered the shipping container full of blindfolded and handcuffed corpses.

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15075&Itemid=128
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4kR9S0llrozRn2RiLMpz7QykrGw
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/world/middle-east/article3133307.ece
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/world/more+bodies+found+in+mass+grave/1020252

Apparently the terrorist insurgents had been terrorizing locals who cooperated with Iraqi Police. It is unfortunate that these Iraqis had to suffer so much for the sake of their community and their freedoms. Yet despite this, hords of locals continued to loyally assist us and Iraqi Police in the hunt for insurgents in the area. I am convinced that given enough time for economic stabilization and normalization in the country, these people will ferociously defend their liberty. They have sacraficed so much and continue to sacrafice so much more. The last thing we must do is turn our backs on them now. They are doing so well by themselves knowing that we are there to back them up if things get too hard to handle.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Monday, October 01, 2007

The words we live by

Every business and industry has a jargon and corporate culture. These things help define the work you do and guide your attitudes and philosophy. Iraq is no different, however our corporate culture can mean the difference between life and death for us or our enemy. The following is a list of words, phrases, jargon, and philosophies we live by. I hope to make this a regular piece on my blog.


The words we live by:

ROE = Rules of Engagement, a broad term encompassing all the actions we are permitted or required to take when locating and engaging enemies on the battlefield. Generally speaking our ROE are best defined by the Force Continuum or EOF. Engaging the enemy always requires meeting two tests: 1)Hostile Intent/Act and 2)PID (Positive Identity). Our ROE would usually include specific threat rings and actions for given distances. For example up until 50 meters from our position if no obvious hostile intent we would warn/notify with non-lethal, non-dangerous means like sirens, flags, and maybe flares. After that maybe a warning shot if warranted. Keep in mind we would have to fill out a lengthy report for each flare fired. I can't imagine the paperwork for a warning shot or a disabling shot.

EOF = Escalation of Force. A term reflecting the nature of using force in minimal amounts as required with marginal increases as necessary. Specifically we are instructed to use the least amount of force necessary to resolve any given situation. This usually comes into play when dealing with civilian populations who get too close to our operations and pose a potential threat if they were hiding hostile intentions. In practice this means that we begin by warning through audible and observable means like sirens, flags, flares, etc. Then if someone continues to act hostile or show hostile intent we could warn using warning shots, and then as required use disabling or killing shots.

Hostile Act = Any act designed to harm coalition forces or vital coalition resources, or civilians. Usually things like fired shots, mortars, detonated explosives, etc.

Hostile Intent = An individuals actions or posture may display the intent to commit a hostile act. This is usually a judgment call and requires a serviceman to meet the 'reasonable certainty' standard which is nebulous at best but necessarily so as it allows us the most flexibility in order to defend ourselves. Driving a truck full of unknown containers at a checkpoint at a high rate of speed without regard for warnings would be hostile intent, detonating the truck/bomb is the hostile act (at which point it is too late).

PID = Positive Identification is obtained when you can positively identify your target and match them positively with the Hostile Intent or Act. You may continue to engage the enemy until they are neutralized or until positive identification is lost.

Despite these regulations and allowances we are taught the following:

Tactical Patience: patiently letting a situation develop before hastily responding or acting. Wait and see what happens, don't rush to shoot. Of course this is within reason but there was a time when soldiers would automatically follow strict guidelines concerning a threat radius: ie- truck did not stop within 50 meters therefore I begin shooting when perhaps the driver just didn't notice your flare the first time and a little patience would have saved an Iraqi life.

Tactical Restraint: Hold off the trigger long enough to think first, if safe to do so.

When you first get to Iraq it is easy to think that everyone is a potential insurgent or bad guy and this will influence your entire outlook and posture. It is good on the one hand because you are always prepared, but on the other you are paranoid and become distrustful and almost hateful of all Iraqis. Hence we were taught:

"Iraqis are not our enemy but our enemy hides among them"

All of this stuff illustrates the the complex field of battle we are in. Other things we have been taught:

"Seize the initiative with the offensive mindset of a warrior and the heart of a peacemaker"

Rules for Iraqi Civilians:
1 firearm per adult over 25, if carried in public must either have a permit or be an identified security force

Things to think about when conducting operations (new and reformed mindset)
How are our procedures viewed by the Iraqis when conducting Escalation of Force?

Wouldn't you freak out if someone was yelling at you in a foreign language and pointing a loaded weapon at you? How exactly would you behave or respond? How about if you were less educated and impoverished and from another culture?

"First, do no harm"

"Keep the civilians on our team"

"win the hearts and minds"

"Do the right think not the easy thing"

This is the "Super bowl of the Marine Corps" make every move count, you have trained for this and this alone.

"The insurgent gets a vote" = this means that we cannot control their actions, they will try and kill us and no matter what we do to protect ourselves or fight them we cannot control their actions.

Make yourself a "Hard Target" = one that is hard to kill and unpleasant to attack, this may make the insurgent think twice about attacking you on a particular day and he will choose a softer target elsewhere another day.

And finally before we ever leave the compound, every sign reads:

"Complacency Kills" = don't become lazy in your defensive posture or operational duties, the day you forget something may be the day you get attacked.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Journey to Iraq

Let the journey begin. After months of training working up to this point we are finally shipping out. After getting our rifles and other sensitive equipment items out of the armory we loaded buses for Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point, North Carolina where we loaded a North American Airlines charter jet. We flew to JFK NY for a 3 hr layover for refuel and crew change and then flew to Shannon Ireland for a 45 minute tarmac refuel stop to get us to Leichsteig Germany for another 2 hr layover and crew change and finally to Kuwait.

Upon arrival in Kuwait we rode a bus for an hour to Camp Virginia where we were each given 60 rds of live ammunition and told to carry it with our rifle at all times. This one act, above all else, helped really make it feel real for me. I was now in a combat zone. After a night’s stay in air conditioned tents we flew on a military transport jet (C17) in the tiniest seats ever (made tinier by our wearing flak jackets and Kevlar helmets) to Al Taqquadam (AKA "T-Q") Air Base in western Iraq (Al Anbar province) only 10 miles from Al Fallujah and camp Fallujah. After a couple nights we flew once again (this time on helos) to camp Fallujah.

Despite it only being 10 miles away, the road from T-Q is well worn (by worn I mean nearly blown to hell by repetitive IED attacks) and fraught with danger. Finally, under the cover of darkness, by early morning Sunday September 30, our 30 minute helo ride got us to our final destination and forward operating base for our tour here in Iraq—Camp Fallujah!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The symbols we adorn ourselves with

While the Lt. General was here, one Marine made a gripe in the form of a question about the Marine Corps’ new policy concerning tattoos: Marines cannot get any new tattoos that are visible while wearing PT gear. This pretty much bans tattoos on the lower arms and legs. While the wording of the policy seems expansive and restrictive, I am told there are a number of exceptions to include a caveat that you can have tattoos in those areas so long as they don’t cover a certain percentage or portion of the extremity. This basically means they are outlawing ‘sleeve’ style tattoos which cover large swaths of the extremity. The interesting part though was how the General approached the topic in general. He didn’t discuss the nitty gritty of the policy rather he discussed the philosophy behind why the Corps was interested in banning something which seems so quintessentially military. His reasoning was that Marines should not seek to adorn their bodies with symbols unbecoming a Marine. He continued saying that as a Marine there is only a few symbols which all Marines have on at all times, one being the Eagle Globe and Anchor symbol on the uniform. Having excessive tattoos would take away from that simple symbol which defines each of us as one of the few and proud. He further spoke of professionalism and how we should look professional in our uniform and tattoos might distract from this professionalism. His comments and style reminded me of my mission president who warned the missionaries against wearing loud and busy ties because they could distract our contacts and investigators from the message and the spirit we bore. How interesting that this General would have such deep insight about the way outward symbols may define who we are. I am reminded of many symbols people wear and how these symbols define them. For example, Jews are circumcised as a symbol of covenants made with God. Additionally, they wear special headgear and clothing to symbolize their faith and their relationship to God. I also wear LDS Temple garments which do the same and similar things as Jews. The symbols that define us are worth pondering.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Camp Lejeune: The General's Visit

We had a gathering of all the activated reservists who will be a part of 1st Battalion 10th Marines’ Task Force Military Police (TFMP) while in Iraq in order to hear from Lt. General Bergman of the 4th Marine Division (the Reserve Division). He had a lot of motivating things to say and helped remind me that there are very smart and competent leaders in our military (sometimes a few errant NCO’s and SNCO’s give me doubts!) The general came primarily to check up on us reservists to see how we were doing and how we were coming along in our mobilization pre-deployment training.

He said that it was good that many of us had not deployed before because "multi-deployers have the potential to be the most dangerous." This is because the war in Iraq changes so often that what worked 6 months ago may not work today and those who have already developed habits or a ‘know-it-all’ mentality about that war would be at a greater risk to themselves and their fellow Marines. This came mostly as a warning to us that we should all keep an open mind and seek first to understand the nature of the war and our task before developing and sticking to arbitrary SOP’s (standard operating procedures).

The General also spoke of the vitality of cultural awareness training for this particular conflict. He emphasized the necessity of winning the hearts and minds of Iraqi’s as the way out of Iraq and as personally important to our safety because the Iraqi you offend today may become the terrorist that kills your comrade tomorrow. He also put our minds at ease about the political turmoil over pulling out: "if we pulled out tomorrow we’d be somewhere else, we (The Marines) wrote the book on small wars," meaning that as reservists we would be effected the same way by pulling out because of the many micro-fronts on the war on terror (to include Indonesia and the Philippines) which would still require our service. The Marine Corps has a rich and vibrant history and successful record of fighting small conflicts all over the globe in ‘every clime and place.’

He went on to say that "the American people believe in you" and that we should walk with our heads held high despite the seeming out lash everywhere that is created by the loud cacophony of a liberal minority. Finally he exhorted us to live by our Marine Corps values and assured us that if we do we would not have any problems in Iraq like those that have dominated the recent media spotlight (Haditha, etc.). He asked us "would you do the right thing while alone?" I was surprised that he spoke in these terms. In a way, the General reminded me of a wise Bishop or Stake President in my church.

A few questions were asked, two in particular that caught my attention. The first was about tattoos which will become the topic of my next blog entry and the second was about the accessibility of Tricare health care benefits to our dependents while on active duty. Apparently, as reservists we are entitled to Tricare benefits for ourselves and dependents for up to 90 days prior to our mobilization (activation date). However, those benefits are only accessed once you have been issued your official activation/mobilization orders. In our case we were notified that we were being activated way back in January, a full 5 months prior to our activation date, however we were not given our orders until approximately 2 weeks prior to our actual date of activation. The problem here is that many people had to quit jobs or make serious life re-arrangements prior to our activation date because there were a number of training days and annual training for 3 weeks right before our activation date. This would potentially leave many people without health insurance coverage for a time. According to the General, we were supposed to be given our orders around the 90 day prior mark and thus yield the health insurance benefits. He wasn’t sure why our orders were not issued in a more timely fashion but he promised to find out. All in all it was neat to have an afternoon with the stars! Oh, by the way, Camp Lejeune is very hot and I think I sweat continuously every minute of every day here.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Arriving in Camp Lejeune

We were activated and amid gear inspections and paperwork we prepared for our departure to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. I was chosen to go ahead of the rest of the company in order to assign rooms and iron out any other details prior to the rest of the company’s arrival. This ‘advance party’ assignment only meant I ended up spending a few less days in Utah with my wife (to include a weekend) and a few more days in the VERY muggy Camp Lejeune! The base is located right on the Carolina coast and includes a large river/inlet which increases the coastline bordering parts of the base. This means I sweat A LOT. I think I have my father’s gene for sweating, he sweats a lot too. The advance party duties are not difficult but the NCOs here on base that we work with to iron out these details would say otherwise. You would think it was the hardest thing on earth for some of them to find room keys or missing furniture for the rooms. I think really they just pick the Sergeant or Corporal that they don’t want around or doing anything important and put them in charge of things like barracks. When we first got here the rooms they wanted to assign us looked like a hurricane came through. They were torn apart and dirty. I was shocked and appalled that anything military related could look like this. Half of the damage looks to be the result of stupid drunken behavior or just mere carelessness. Boy am I glad I haven’t had to live the barracks life for very long in my Marine Corp career. I would go nuts. The people here are loud and obnoxious and are constantly throwing beer bottles and cigarette butts off of the higher floors. The grass in between buildings is littered every morning as if the back to school fall frat party just took place. While there may be some adjusting to do and some kinks to work out here, I think Camp Lejeune won’t be that bad, once everyone gets here I think we will make it livable and accomplish our training schedule. Our company gunny/ops chief is also good at hooking up lots of great things like rental mini-vans for each platoon to use to drive around base and town. All in all it won’t be so bad and could definitely be worse. The only complaint is that we have 3 months to accomplish the tasks we could complete in 1 back in Utah. I guess that is part of being on active duty. Wasted time and resources and lots of inefficiency.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Joining the Corps

Well,

The reason most people join the reserves and guard and such is for money for college and for the easy commitment of only "one weekend a month and two weeks a year!"

When I first signed up in September 2000 (I actually swore into the military on Sept 11 2000, exactly 1 year prior to 9-11) my mom freaked out and said:

My Mom: "but what if we go to war and they call up my only son to go to the front lines of battle!?"

I laughed and said dismissively:

Me: "mom, your crazy, we have not had a real large scale war for 2-3 decades, the gulf war was over before it began and there is nothing on the horizon to suggest we will be engaged in a real long protracted military conflict in the proximate future, furthermore, they rarely call up the reserves, only if it becomes really bad and this is highly unlikely, so don't worry mom, your overreacting!, this is a great opportunity for me to be involved and serve my country while attending college and reaping some nice benefits too."

Well, I went to boot camp in May of 2001 and graduated in August of 2001 so that August 2001-September 2001 I was in Marine Combat Training (MCT: a shortened version of infantry school for non-infantry personnel). On Tuesday September 11th 2001 we were awoken by the sound of our Infantry Instructor: "Oh my h*ll, somebody just blew up the world trade center in New York, I think they fired a missile on it, wake up, your never going to believe this, were under attack!" Throughout that day I couldn't focus on my infantry school final exams, I couldn’t remember the difference between an M240 G and M240 E machine gun, all I wanted to do was watch some news and see what was going on. Throughout the day we got little updates about the attacks and the implications for our next set of schools and training. Throughout the day the instructors were able to find a television and between our final exams we were able to watch a little news.

Many of us thought we were going to be activated right there on the spot and sent to war considering we were freshly trained in infantry tactics (yeah right, imagine that, a bunch of boots tripping over themselves in Afghanistan!)

One immediate impact of the attacks for me was that when we graduated that week we would not be leaving right away for our various MOS schools due to a shutdown of flights. I was pretty sick of our squad bay living arrangement and crappy chow hall food. I was pretty sure that the Army Post in MD (Aberdeen Proving Grounds) was better, so it was a disappointment that we would not be leaving right away. How selfish of me considering the great tragedy in New York (similar in a magnified way to how many of us see an accident on the highway and get mad at the traffic inconvenience it causes).

The other impact was that I never saw much television news coverage on September 11; it wasn't until Friday September 14th that we were able to leave on some of the first flights and were able to buy some newspapers and magazines and watch news.

I flew to Newark NJ on a “red-eye” overnight flight on Friday September 14th. We got in around 4 am Saturday September 15th. If you know Newark NJ, then you know it is east of Manhattan across the bay (see attached picture of the view from Newark pre 9-11). Well this meant that the sun would rise behind the Manhattan skyline that morning. It was a chilly clear morning with a bright sunrise, but not for the Manhattan skyline. As the sun rose, the light through the still billowing smoke from ground zero filled the sky with a deep reddish gray hue. Even 4 days after the collapse of the towers, the site was still smoldering and the sky was still filled with smoke. It was a sad and eerie sight that morning, but still somehow pretty in an eerie way. I still can't really believe the unique situation I was in during that time and the view I was able to have firsthand from that particular vantage point. I wish I had taken a picture but I didn't have a camera. Luckily I found this picture of the same vantage point pre 9-11.

Later that morning we flew into BWI (MD) and eventually arrived at Aberdeen Proving Grounds for our respective MOS schools.

Now, nearly 6 years later, I have served an LDS mission to Boston MA, married a beautiful girl, and finished college. I am set to graduate this April 2007 with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Economics and with University Honors. All the while I have continued serving in the reserves wondering if I would eat my words that I so ignorantly spoke to my mother. Well this past month (January 2007) I was promoted to the rank of Sergeant (the "back bone" of the Marine Corps as they say) and in the very same formation as I was promoted, our LAV (Light Armored Vehicle) company, was given a "warning order" through our commanding officer that we were to be activated for the period of a year and to serve a 7 month deployment in Iraq as a provisional military police company (not LAV’s) most likely in the Anbar Province of western Iraq. It turns out Mother always knows best even if seemingly irrational at the time! Our company was excited for the chance to serve again because the first time they were deployed (while I was in IRR status on my mission) they only spent 4 weeks in Iraq during the initial invasion and then 7 months in Okinawa on various cross-national training missions. Luckily, the schedule will permit me and other students to finish this semester (for me, graduate) before we begin a three month “workup” training before deployment some time in September.

Other details at this point are loose and vague and due to the need for "OpSec" (Operational Secrecy) any more than this is probably not open to disclosure. At this point it sounds like we will be operating as mobile infantry which means armored “humvees” (actually HMMWV: High Mobility Multi-Wheeled Vehicle) and thus probably convoy security. If you know Anbar, you know that it is the center of the "Sunni Triangle" west of Baghdad. It is known for its insurgent activity due to its Sunni population and has two major cities along the highway that follows the Euphrates river from Baghdad to Syria, Fallujah and Ramadi, also known endearingly by US forces as the "explosive road." Missions in this area include securing the major cities in the province from insurgent forces, securing the waterways and major highways, and securing the border against "illegal immigrants" from Syria (think Arizona only with gun toting insurgent Mexicans!) who tend not to be "looking for jobs" but rather looking for a fight.

While I am happy and somewhat excited to serve and be a part of this monumental time in history, I am sad for my wife who will have to deal with my extended absence and for my family and friends who worry about the safety of our servicemen. The biggest thing I am apprehensive about is my new position as a Sergeant. Most likely this translates into stewardship over the lives of fellow Marines while in Iraq. I feel up to the task and confident in my leadership and military abilities; however, nothing can settle the nervousness that comes with being responsible for the lives of fellow Marines in a combat situation. I plan on training hard and paying close attention while in our 3 month training workup so that I will never have to feel I could have done more to save someone’s life. While any operation in a place like Iraq is seemingly dangerous, I feel that our servicemen and our company in particular, are up to the task. I feel the Lord's watchful presence and know he will not abandon us.