a mobilized year

I’ve been asked (at an impressive frequency) what would our troops appreciate over here and recently what would we like for the holidays. My reply has thus far been, “we really don’t need anything.” Of course, since people are so good natured, they ignore me . . . and end up sending something anyway. So, to avoid things being thrown away or wasted, I thought I would put together a list of things soldiers here have requested. Just so that we’re straight though, the soldiers here (myself included) are taken care of fairly well. But, because I know that some people are just “hell-bent” on sending holiday care packages, I thought that a list may be a good starting point in order to avoid receiving some of the items that we’ve already received that aren’t . . . well, let's say, totally appropriate (I’ve included a summary of those items in the second list below). The final list (and as you can tell, I do like lists) is a list of items of which we have many boxes of already.

The items below are ones that soldiers have mentioned would be nice:

PC Games (they have XBOX and PS2 games already)
DVDs (recent movies, TV series (season))
Twin bed sheets
Calendars
Mail order gift certificates
Starbucks (or other brand) canned coffee products for missions
Edge shaving cream
3 x 5 picture frames
Male/gender-neutral toiletries
UnderArmor/Coolmax undergarments (L-XXL)
Breakfast bars
CDs (music)
Christmas decorations
Trail mix
Jerky
Apple Cider and Cappucinno Mix
Dried fruit

Not to sound ungrateful (and I do hear in the back of my head a voice saying, "sometimes, you are such an ingrate!"), but the list below includes items that we have received that for one reason or another, weren’t appropriate for an infantry unit stationed in the Middle East:

Combs
Feminine hygiene products
Mistletoe
Nail polish
Rum
Perfume
Used deodorant sticks
Stale cookies (I’m sure they were fresh when they were sent)
Teen Magazine
Expired canned products
Danielle Steele books

This final list below contains items that we already have waaay too much of already:

Dry drink mix
Hard candy
Hotel soaps
Chapstick
Baby wipes
New Yorker magazines (we just received several huge boxes of them)

For those who can hold out and/or are interested, I’ll be publishing a blog update shortly on The Badger OIF Foundation and our efforts and needs there. That would be a more noble and needed cause to which to contribute.

By now, virtually everyone has heard (probably ad nauseam) of IEDs. I’ve become very familiar with these buggers, as I’ll elaborate on one episode in a bit. But, based on the number of questions that I’ve received concerning them, I wanted to first write a little about some of the unclassified (and publicly available) information that I’ve learned about them and how they are employed.

Not all IEDs are created equal. At the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality and effectiveness are poorly disguised mortar or artillery rounds (ranging from 120mm to 155mm) placed on the side of the road that are remotely detonated via wire device. AIF personnel will be somewhere between 50-150 meters from the roadside with a trigger device. Once the IED is detonated, the AIF run or drive away along a predetermined (usually concealed) route. Except in certain areas in Iraq, IEDs are currently not typically accompanied by small arms fire, RPGs, or other forms of engagement. It’s sort of a pop and run type tactic they use. Here’s a little more background on these types of IEDs: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/intro/ied-packaged.htm/

Somewhere above the basic IEDs in terms of quality and effectiveness, are those that employ better technology or require more coordination to properly employ. In this category, one or more of the following are present: more sophisticated triggers such as shortwave radio or FM frequency initiated devices (remote control, garage door openers, beepers, etc.) that allow the triggerman to be further away or allow quicker emplacement, the munitions are bundled (e.g., four 155mm artillery rounds in a cement casing), or the IEDs are part of a “complex” attack. The complex attack can mean that an IED round detonates in combination with small arms and/or RPG fire in a single kill zone. Or, it could mean that the IED are sequenced in time—a second IED is detonated one minute after the first in an effort to hit the “first responders,” who often (at least historically) dismount from their vehicle to assist those hit by the first IED. Another form of complex attack is referred to as a daisy chain IED, which is what hit us the other week. A daisy chain is a string of IEDs that are strung 50-100 meters apart and are typically detonated at the same time by a common igniting device.

Our experience with a daisy chain IED occurred when we were traveling north, just south of Baghdad at about 0200 in the morning. I saw the explosion of one of the IEDs about 75 meters in front of us (11 o’clock to our direction of travel). At the same time, I felt and only heard (but did not see) the explosion of another IED that seemed much closer at about 8’oclock to our direction of travel. The explosion literally rocked our 12,000+ pound vehicle. At first, I thought there was only one explosion (to our front) and that the noise may have ricocheted so that it only sounded as if the explosion went off behind our vehicle. But, the gunner, who was oriented to our 5 o’clock direction of travel at the time, confirmed that an explosive device just behind our vehicle went off. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the IED behind us caused a 2” piece of shrapnel to slice through a portion of the rear of our vehicle (we discovered this later). After the detonation, we emerged from the dust and debris of one explosion and moved into the dust and debris of the second explosion to our front. I did not see the aftermath of the explosion behind us, but the one in front of us disabled a "white truck" (a TCN-driven vehicle) traveling south. I (along with the rest of my crew) was remarkably calm throughout the entire event. Our reaction was well-rehearsed and automatic, which I’m sure was the primary reason we took the event in stride. While I didn’t expect us to react in an out of control manner, I was just somewhat surprised at how relaxed everyone was—like it was "just another day at the office.” As I said in an earlier post, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast” and that’s how we performed.

The most sophisticated form of IED to date are heavy shaped charges that are detonated by IR triggers. According to the BBC, the Brits think that these IEDs are actually brought in through Iran and the technology is actually Hezbollah based. Here’s an article on this type of sophisticated IED (although, I think the analogies in the article are over-sensationalized and somewhat exaggerated): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4320818.stm

Somewhere in the mix of the above are VBIED and other suicide IED attacks. VBIEDs and other suicide IED attacks get a lot of the headlines, but are relatively rare (under 1-2% of all IED attacks).

While the number of IEDs have gone up, rest assured, so have our efforts in defeating or at least minimizing their impact. In the overwhelming number of IED attacks or attempted attacks that we encounter, we walk away from unharmed and equipment undamaged. There are a number of devices and tactics that we have and use to overcome and beat the IED threat. Just as the IED threat is evolving, so are our technologies, vehicles, and tactics. While for security reasons I can’t elaborate much on them, take a look at the buffalo and cougar vehicles (http://www.forceprotection.net/news/news_article.html?id=60) as examples. We (as in the US) have also increased the budget for a "new and improved" IED taskforce (3-star general level) to over a billion dollars to address the IED threat. While I don’t for a minute think that the IED threat will go away in the foreseeable future, we are making considerable efforts to minimize their effects.

There I was. 7 November. I was walking to the commo shop and I felt a drop on the back of my neck. It was just one drop, but it was rain. Rain. No doubt about it. Something I hadn’t experienced in three months, since leaving Mississippi. Within a minute, there was another drop that landed on my cheek. Yep, it was official—a Kuwaiti rain storm.

At the end of October/beginning of November, we started to have these crazy, white puffy things in the sky. If I remember right, I think they call them “clouds.” Since our arrival in Kuwait in August, the skies have been virtually spotless. The only exception to this has been smoke from the oil fires and blowing sand and dust, both of which can (and occasionally do) completely obscure the blue sky and sun.

Kuwait typically gets as little as an inch of rain a year. Some years though it gets up to a whopping 8 inches. Kuwait is different than Iraq in this regard. Some of the northern regions of Iraq get a lot more rain: some even exceed 25 inches of rain per year. For now, I'll just have to be happy with the two drops I received.

One element of training that we keep up on while in country is weapons training. The other week, we made a trip down to Udari Range in Kuwait. We had an interesting experience.

Udari is a wide-open area that is well suited for a weapons range. It is in a fairly desolate area. Although upon arrival, it wasn’t as desolate as I initially thought. In opening the range, we had to clear it to ensure that no one was "down range." Upon sweeping the area, we saw men in trucks and a bunch of camels (the trucks and the camels were in different areas). We tried to usher the two groups off. Below is a picture of the camels. When they travel in packs/herds, they look pre-historic to me.


Curiously interested in one of the white camels, one of my soldiers (doing what he was told not to do) approached one of the white camels to get a close up picture. Another soldier took a picture of the interaction:

What was funny about this is that after the soldier took the picture of the camel and turned around to walk away, the camel let out a snorting bellow. The camel then started to run after the soldier and chased him for about fifty meters. Camels are fairly fast. In seeing this chase scene, one of my other soldiers concluded that there must have been some sort of mutual attraction between the two.

After we opened the range up, we fired the various weapon systems that we had in order to give guys more trigger time. We also took the opportunity to allow soldiers to cross train on different weapon systems. Here’s another picture:

At the end of the day, we cleaned up the brass and links (like we should have done). Right around dusk, a number of Bedouin appeared. They were very upset. Apparently, they have become accustom to picking up the empty brass cartridges after American military units fire on the range and then they turn around and sell the brass. We apparently frustrated their expectation.

For those who don’t know, Bedouin are small nomadic tribes that roam the deserts. They’re devoutly Islamic, but are not integrated fully with the locals. They typically survive by raising sheep and camels. I’m sure someone will correct me, but I view them as Middle Eastern gypsies.

The next morning, we had an absolutely beautiful sunrise. It was incredibly quick. The pictures below were taken within a five minute period:

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was working on setting up a nonprofit organization to support some of our charitable efforts. Well, the organization has been set up and we’ve filed for the tax exempt status. The organization’s name is The Badger OIF Foundation, Inc. Our first project with the organization, assisting with the collection of school supplies for the children of Safwan, Iraq, is coming to a close. The end result was two (2) forty-foot connexes of supplies—pens, pencils, paper, crayons, scissors, etc. We literally have received hundreds of banker boxes of school supplies. Wow! I am still amazed by that. What an incredible response from the people of Wisconsin, especially in light of what people have already given to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

In the upcoming week or so, we’re going to be handing out the school supplies to the kids. I hope to have some pictures of the events at the various schools.

We’ve already got an eye on the next couple of projects. One project involves acquiring 450 desks for school children and 50 blackboards on which to write. Another project involves obtaining soccer equipment for the area’s 30+ soccer teams. Many kids around here don’t even have shoes (let alone cleats). We’ve already obtained an initial commitment from the Milwaukee Wave, which has agreed to donate 1,000 used soccer balls (yes, 1,000!). FedEx has expressed a willingness to ship the soccer balls over here. With some luck, this will all come together.

Stay tuned!