Men at War

Coming home

2010-03-02T06:43:00.007-05:00

Caribou calved everywhere those weeks in June on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge in northeast Alaska. Bears hunted through the herd, wandered into camp, slept in willows, blended into invisibility among the rich brown tundra vegetation. Shotgun was always in hand or within reach, awake or asleep. Encounters with griz were numerous. They were fearless and arrogant. This was their land. I was the interloper. A helicopter lifted me out, dropped me next to an idling plane at Kaktovik, and 24 hours later, never having really slept, I was in my house. That night the fan was the arctic wind; my bed was the floor of the tent; the sheet was the sleeping bag. Tilla the black lab was a bear as she clambered onto the bed in the middle of the night. I lunged for my shotgun, which wasn't there; Tilla licked my face, and I was home from bear country.
There has been no similar homecoming from these wars.

Then and now

2010-02-26T09:46:00.014-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Epitaph for Leonidas and the 300 at Thermopylae:
"Go tell the Spartans, Passerby,
That here, obedient to their laws, We lie."

Marine in the Hindu Kush:
"Have they forgotten about us back home, sir? It feels like it."

Memories

2010-01-31T08:06:00.009-05:00

Memories flash through consciousness: A smoking slab of meat on a Baghdad street - the torso of a car bomber; 124 Iraqis, most of them schoolchildren, dead from three car bombs; three Americans being put into body bags on Senators after a roadside bomb ripped them to bloody shreds; an overlooked boot with foot inside and dog tags in the laces; gashes left in Humvee armor from two RPGs that hit and glanced off; a bullet hole in the back wall of a Humvee from a round that came in the open window as everyone inside returned fire during an ambush; White alive in the mess hall and dead on patrol; Christoph teaching Iraqis to read a map, and dead on patrol; Conboy alive on patrol and then dead from a stupid accident back on base; Ramseyer cleaning his M4 in Afghanistan and dead in Iraq; Allen alive through a year’s deployment, then dead of invisible wounds sustained in combat; too many hot zone landings, endless dusty roads, night raids, car stops, sullen faces, explosions, mortars, small arms fire, anxiety, no exit.

Evolution of thought

2010-01-28T22:09:00.015-05:00

Visitors to this blog see the most recent posts first, and immediately sense disenchantment with the wars. It wasn't always so. If visitors go to the oldest posts first, and work forward through time, they will see this disenchantment evolve over repeated trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. I noticed that the other day when reviewing the archives in chronological order, oldest to newest. So many have died in these wars. Some live in my memory; most live on in the memories of those who knew and loved them. Did these deaths serve a purpose? A friend, a journalist whose beloved died in Iraq, spoke about her life and death, and ended with the words, "Was there some purpose to this? I hope so."
Ted Kennedy spoke of a letter his father wrote to a friend when a child had died. Why the death? How to go on? What's the sense in that loss? We have to go on, the letter said, fold the loss into ourselves, appreciate the value of life and not waste it going forward.
Maybe part of maturity is being able to do that, to savor joy of the fleeting moment in the shadow of inevitable sorrow.

Home is the soldier

2009-11-15T10:53:00.006-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Paraphrasing Stevenson: "Home is the soldier, home from the war ... "
Sgt. Skyler Koch, U.S. Army retired, and his friend, Shasta, enjoy food and drink, after coming down to Princeton from Vermont for the photo exhibit.

Photo Exhibit Nov. 13-14

2009-11-10T02:57:00.005-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

I am hanging 66 prints from Iraq and Afghanistan at the Princeton (Mass.) Arts Society at the end of this week. Reception 7 to 9 p.m. Friday Nov. 13, exhibit 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Nov. 14. It would be great to see any old friends who are close enough to drop by either day. Doc Griego left a comment on the post just below this one, wondering if I remember him. The answer is yes, clearly, vividly and often. Indeed there are several photos of him in the exhibit: with Scout Platoon in a pre-mission briefing, on a house raid, and upon his return at Fort Hood. Doc and anyone else from 1-8 Cav or 3-3 Marines should feel welcome to drop by. Skyler Koch is coming for sure, making the drive with his lady from college in Vermont. I last saw Koch at Lt. (now Capt.) Derek Ping's wedding at West Point. The exhibit also has several photos of Skyler: pointing to the gouge left on his HUMVEE by an RPG, and watching Derek Ping dance with his bride. Capt. (now Maj.) Rex Blair - D Co. commander - may drive over from West Point with his two oldest sons, Rex and Connor. He's in at least one pic, with Lt. (now Capt.-retired) Matthew Cohen and several of the Scout Platoon troopers, all in full battle rattle.

Reality of War

2009-09-23T06:50:00.018-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

When we send our children off to war, they enter a world of death. The photo above shows three American soldiers in body bags after they were killed by a bomb Feb. 21, 2005 in Baghdad. A boot, with foot still inside, lies overlooked in the foreground. Blood trails show where two of the soldiers were dragged from the places they fell. This is the first time this photograph has been published. The question of whether to publish photos of dead American soldiers and marines has been much discussed in recent weeks. Too much reality for people who think war is neat, clean and contained? It's none of those things. It is terrible, and should always be the last choice.

Letter from Afghanistan

2008-09-20T14:16:00.011-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

KABUL, Afghanistan – Once upon a time, visiting less-developed parts of the world seemed like time travel; the perspective of age now makes it seem more like peeling away the glossy outer layers of the 21st century that overlie a more basic existence. The most ancient aspects of life in Afghanistan are just as much a part of the modern world as New York, Boston or Central Massachusetts, hard as that may be for travelers from the West to believe.

Anyway, this was not to be a lecture on comparative culture, more a letter home to friends. So let's begin.

First, here's a travel tip: Never connect through Charles DeGaulle Airport outside Paris. It is a nightmare. Crowds, too-small facilities, lines, bus transfers from terminal to terminal. Who knew? The first leg of the chosen route from Princeton to Kabul went from Boston, through Paris, to Dubai aboard Air France. Air France served a barely edible pasta meal, then recovered with a very tasty chicken dinner; even so, it was a long flight. Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates on the Persian Gulf, lived up to billing: wealthy, lively, energetic, exotic. Nightlife showed no signs of slowing down as the cab made its way to the airport at 4:30 a.m., and the flight to Kabul aboard Pamir Air, an obscure carrier that does a lively trade between Afghanistan and its neighbors.

Kabul airport was much as first seen in 1969. One difference: New stainless-steel barriers led travelers to glass booths in which Afghan immigration officials checked passports and visas, by computer.

A construction boom is under way in Kabul. New buildings are going up throughout the city. Some are three- and four-story office buildings, some are homes or apartments. This burst of activity follows on a prior wave that saw the creation of several dozen wedding halls – four-story cube-like structures encased in reflective glass.

Streets are potholed with craters tire-deep. They (the streets, not the potholes) are filled with cars, trucks, buses, donkeys, horse carts, bikes, handcarts, pedestrians, motorbikes and camels, and flocks of sheep and goats being driven to market. There is one traffic light in Kabul. Drivers weave through the streets, tooting for right-of-way, alert to everything around them.

Children fly kites everywhere.

The city is at 5,876 feet above sea level, and feels like it. Afghanistan has a population of about 32 million, 3.4 million of them in Kabul, which has grown by more than a million since the American invasion of October 2001.

The city is sprawling north over the Kotal Herhana pass that separates it physically from the Shomali Plain. This rolling region is called "the Garden of Afghanistan" for the rich farms that reach to the foot of surrounding high mountains. Grapes are ripening there now. It is August, hot and dry. A years-long drought is rolling through Afghanistan, moving from region to region. Dust obscures the view beyond a certain distance. In clearer months the snow-capped peaks of the Hindu Kush are visible, peeking over nearer mountains.

A few factories belch black smoke into the air. Kuchis – nomadic people who move their flocks from the southwest in winter to northerly high pastures in the summer – have pitched tents at the edges of the Shomali Plain.

The road north from Kabul reflects the recent history of Afghanistan. That history includes 10 years of war following the Soviet invasion in 1979, another 12 years of war among the mujahedeen and Taliban, and seven years of war since the American invasion. It has been blown up and rebuilt, wholly or in part, many times. It passes between ruined mud-brick homes that were bombed by the Taliban. It veers around Bagram Air Base, built by the Soviets and now an American base. It is lined with isolated shops and farm stands selling seasonal produce. New gasoline stations have been built alongside it just outside Kabul. Farther north it passes through a series of village bazaars, different from Kabul in scale but not character.

The city has grown quiet each night of this visit, beginning a few hours after dark, which falls around 8 p.m. That has lasted until about 3 a.m., when dogs, roosters and mourning doves begin to bark, crow and call. Around 4 a.m. the muezzins at several nearby mosques begin the Muslim call to prayer. Sleep becomes difficult.

There are lots of little girls, so there must be Afghan women, but for the most part they are not evident beyond blue-shrouded figures moving quietly through the city streets.

Life seems peaceful in Kabul, but many say this is illusory. Thirty years of war have inured Afghans to fear. One professional Afghan who works in animal veterinary medicine said, "I died 100 times in the last 30 years. I have no life; what I do now is for my children and my family."

Half the country – the south and east – has fallen back under Taliban sway. Girls are again finding education difficult or impossible. Road bombs, ambushes and kidnappings make travel to many areas dangerous. One young Afghan man who works for a communications company, said, "Be very careful while traveling outside Kabul." He was kidnapped three weeks ago on a main road in Logar Province, east of Kabul. He was held until his company paid 500,000 Afghanis, or about $10,000.

Security was evident around the city for several days leading up to Aug. 18, Afghan Independence Day. The holiday celebrates the departure of the British in 1919. Afghan police and army patrols were set up at every major intersection and rotary in the city, and were stopping many cars for quick searches and document checks.

As night fell Aug. 18, Taliban forces launched two major attacks. One was in the Sarobi District 30 miles from Kabul, against a patrol of newly arrived French peacekeepers, part of the NATO International Security Assistance Force. Ten French and 27 Taliban were killed and more wounded. The only signs of that fighting in Kabul were explosions heard at 3 a.m. Aug. 19, likely from U.S. air strikes in support of the French. The other incident was an attack against Camp Salerno, a U.S. base in the Province of Khost, east of Kabul, by 15 Taliban suicide bombers supported by 30 others with automatic weapons. Ten of the suicide bombers were killed before they reached the perimeter of the base; five were killed at the wall. Three Americans and six Afghan National Army soldiers were wounded.

One British resident of Kabul who works as a security consultant described how suicide bombers are smuggled into the country from Pakistan: "The Taliban pays Hekmatyar (a renegade Afghan warlord) $250,000 apiece to get them in. He in turn pays each of the mafia-style gangs on the road from Pakistan to Kabul, and they pass the bomber along one to the next. The final stop is a pickpocket gang in Kabul. Those guys scope out a high-visibility target, and if it's safe, report in by cell phone. They disappear, the bomber comes in, and bang."

A development worker who has spent five years in Afghanistan detailed realities of life here. "In much of the country, there's no education, high illiteracy, no health care, no infrastructure, no roads, no electricity," he said. "These are tough people. I've worked and traveled in over 57 countries and this is the most fascinating country I've been in."

(This article was published in The Landmark Aug. 28, 2008.)

2007-12-28T12:46:00.003-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Evzones march on the half hour and change on the hour at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma Square in Athens.

Few Options, None Good

2007-10-29T07:07:00.004-05:00

An old friend asked my assessment of morale among the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and my thoughts on the war, based on four embeds. I replied:

Depends on who you're talking with, and at what point in their deployment. At first, in most first deployments, there's a strong sense of purpose and mission; experience tends to erode that. In the words of one sergeant: "When you first get over here, you want to get it on; after a few contacts, you just want to do the job and go home."
Now that many of the troops are in their second or third deployment, there's a sense of futility: They clear the same ground, over and over, hand it to the Iraqis, and watch the insurgents return.
In some cases, the Iraqi security forces are the insurgency, or are as bad as the insurgency, pursuing vicious sectarian aims that amount to murder or genocide or ethnic cleansing.
Imagine a country that's totally different from the cultural experience of Americans, where people know whose grandfather betrayed whom - but won't tell outsiders, and where there's no real way for troops to get inside the heads of everyone around them.
Plus, the insurgents regularly kill the interpreters - effectively blinding the military, and adding a layer of impenetrability that makes the U.S. role extremely difficult.
Additionally, by my fourth go-round I felt like I was in "Groundhog Day" and living the same experience over and over. New commanders were saying the same things the old commanders had said about rebuilding infrastructure and restoring Iraqi society and rebuilding the Iraqi security forces, but each time the situation had grown worse.
This was particularly true in Baghdad.
I don't see a good end there - we're faced with few options, and none of them are great.

If the cause be not good ...

2007-03-02T09:42:00.000-05:00

"But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath
a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and
arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join
together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at
such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a
surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind
them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their
children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die
well that die in a battle; for how can they
charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their
argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it
will be a black matter for the king that led them to
it; whom to disobey were against all proportion of
subjection."

Henry V, Act 4, Scene 1

Three Years Ago ...

2007-01-01T12:30:00.001-05:00

U.S. soldiers capture Saddam Hussein Dec. 13, 2003 in the village of Ad Dawr, near his hometown of Tikrit. The former Iraqi president was executed by hanging Dec. 30, 2006.

On Nov. 23, 2004, a well-educated, well-traveled Iraqi wrote to me about life in Baghdad, and about Saddam Hussein and his supporters: "... all the time there is bombing and clashing, the situation is getting worse. Most of our friends left and two other been killed, on(e) of them a young lady worked in the Green Zone and the other one is one of my closest friends in UN. I don't know what to say. Why is all that? This shouldn't be happening. I don't know why the US troops (are) watching over Saddam while people here r dying because of that? U know what the terrorist preparing here? They r convincing local people that they'll bring Saddam to power and people believe that. I can see and hear, our people r so scared. And the Resistance r his guys, they worship the guy and really stupid that they could make him rule again, they think he is a God. If only the US hang him up they will understand that their god is dead."

Long Ago and Far Away

2006-11-16T07:47:00.000-05:00

“By daylight they took sniper fire, at night they were mortared, but it was not battle, it was just the endless march, village to village, without purpose, nothing won or lost. They marched for the sake of the march. They plodded along slowly, dumbly, leaning forward against the heat, unthinking, all blood and bone, simple grunts, soldiering with their legs, toiling up the hills and down into the paddies and across the rivers and up again and down, just humping, one step and then another, but no volition, no will, because it was automatic, it was anatomy, and the war was entirely a matter of posture and carriage, the hump was everything, a kind of inertia, a kind of emptiness, a dullness of desire and intellect and conscience and hope and human sensibility.”

Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried"

"Wild, Wild West"

2006-11-11T13:27:00.001-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
A convoy travels from al-Asad to Haditha Dam through desert in Anbar Province.

ANBAR (MAY 2006) – A visit in May to Iraq’s Anbar Province, to the area assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 3rd Marine Division – “America’s Battalion” – found very different conditions than encountered on trips to Baghdad in September of 2004 and February of 2005.
Conditions also were very different from those found on a visit to 3-3 Marines in Afghanistan a year ago.
Anbar Province, called “the wild, wild west” by the U.S. commander on the ground there, is enormous, remote, dangerous and seemingly ignored to a degree by the Iraqi government in Baghdad.
Daily foot and motor patrols take Marines of Kilo Co., 3-3, out of their firm base – a fortified compound in the middle of Haqliniyah – into city streets and surrounding villages.
Each foray brings danger of attack, most dangerously from roadside bombs which so far have accounted for all but two of 3-3 Marines 12 deaths since arriving in Iraq in February.
Pitched battles always end in favor of American troops, but they are few and far between in most parts of Anbar, where the remotely detonated bombs are a daily occurrence, and take a toll on men and morale.
One facet of this war is the repeated deployment of the same troops, sometimes to Iraq, sometimes between Iraq and Afghanistan, with some time in the United States between deployments to train and refit.
Many of the Marines now in “the Triad” – an area of Iraq along the Euphrates River northwest of Baghdad – with 3-3 also were in Afghanistan last year. They were deployed there for seven months, returned to their base in Hawaii in June 2005, then deployed to Iraq in February.

Dangerous Duty

2006-11-10T08:56:00.011-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
Lt. Col. Norman L. Cooling

ANBAR (MAY 2006) – Lt. Col. Norman L. Cooling, 41, commander of 3-3 Marines, said, “In Afghanistan we weren’t particularly safe anywhere, but we knew we would be contested if we went certain places. We planned for that.
“Here these areas are everywhere. Simultaneously an urban patrol can be hit with small arms fire or IEDs or both and at one of our firm bases we can be taking indirect fire – mortars or rockets.
“High-intensity combat? No. But we’re most often fighting at a time and place of their choosing,” Lt. Col. Cooling said.
“The history of this area is problematic. All Anbar is a Sunni area of Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s government was their government. Many did not like him and many suffered, but the great fear sometimes is to be dominated by one of the other groups – Shia, Kurd, etc. in the government.
“In part this stems from being deathly afraid of Iran, which is Shia,” he said.
“There’s a real debate at home about whether we should have invaded Iraq three years ago. That’s counterproductive. The debate should be about what we do here now,” Lt. Col. Cooling said.
“Americans should be concerned about this area of Iraq providing al Qaeda the kind of training ground that led to 9-11, and part of Iraq breaking off and allying with the Shia theocracy in Iran.
“I really believe we should be here. I’m asking these Marines to potentially pay for these beliefs with their lives and I’m the one who has to call their Moms if something happens to them,” he said.
In Afghanistan, 3-3 Marines lost two men in one of 22 firefights during the unit’s deployment there. So far in Iraq, 12 men have been killed – nine by bombs, one by sniper fire, and two in non-battle incidents.
Kilo Co. – one of four companies that make up 3-3 – is in Haqliniyah, a city about 15 kilometers south of Haditha Dam, a flood control dam built by Czech engineers on the Euphrates in 1981. Marines conduct daily foot and mounted patrols in the city and environs, and each day are hit by IEDs.
Rarely, the Marines come under direct enemy fire, which they say they greatly prefer to the gnawing impact of bombs detonated remotely by faceless enemies.
In one of these instances, a foot patrol led by Sgt. Gayle L. Anders, 23, of New Braunsfels, Texas, spotted men carrying 155mm shells and Ak47s into a derelict building that had once been a hotel on the southern edge of Haqliniyah. As the patrol moved in, the Marines started taking small arms fire from several points in the building. They returned fire, set up a cordon around the building, and called for fire support. As the day progressed, more Marines from Kilo Co. arrived and began firing into the building. Attack helicopters and fixed-wing planes arrived and dropped an array of weapons onto the building. The south wing was leveled. One bomb went astray when it failed to acquire the airborne laser designator and hit a building – about 100 yards north of the former hotel – in which 13 Marines and eight Iraqis were sheltering.

Lucky Marine

2006-11-10T08:47:00.002-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
Lt. John C. Burke, commander of 3rd Platoon, Kilo Co., 3-3 Marines, has a shamrock pasted inside his kevlar.

HAQLINIYAH (MAY 2006) – Lt. John C. Burke, 25, born in Foxboro, living in Boston, commander of the 3rd Platoon, Kilo Co., 3-3 Marines, was in the house when the bomb hit.
Looking at a video shot from a small digital camera, Burke described the blast: “This is the rooftop we’re on. See all the shell casings? Then ‘Blam,’ blackness. There were 13 Marines there. Myself and three others were on the roof, six were inside and three on the outside, and at least eight Iraqis.
“It was three sensations all at once: I heard the noise, felt the overpressure , saw basically darkness.
“One child has a laceration above the right eye, turned out it was nothing a couple of band-aids couldn’t fix, but we called for a Priority 1 medevac.
“I didn’t know if everyone was all right. It took about 30 seconds to figure it out then another few seconds to get on the radio.
“It was an accident. Noone was seriously hurt. The Marines didn’t let the bomb make them lose focus on the mission. It was a good learning experience,” Lt. Burke said.
That ended the day’s aerial bombardment. Next day, it resumed and over the course of the following week the derelict building was leveled.
Maj. James F. Kendall, 37, of Nashua, N.H., fire support coordinator, said that between May 11, when Sgt. Anders’ patrol was attacked, and May 18, when the former hotel was leveled, at least 16 aerial weapons were dropped.
These included seven 500-pound bombs, five hellfire missiles, two TOW missiles and two 2,000-pound bombs, some guided by laser beams, others by programmed coordinates, others through thin wires.
“We were able to come up with a weaponry solution to drop the building without collateral damage and without endangering Marines,” Maj. Kendall said.
“The hotel has been a problem for a long time. It was a known insurgent location, and having bad guys in the building was a good opportunity for us. PsyOps (psychological operations) did make surrender appeals, but they were ignored. Battalion urged the mayor to talk with the insurgents, to surrender. He couldn’t go near the place, it was rigged to blow up,” Maj. Kendall said.

Regimental Combat Team 7

2006-11-10T08:36:00.002-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
Col. W. Blake Crowe, commander of Regimental Combat Team 7, at al-Asad in Anbar Province.

ANBAR (MAY 2006) – Col. W. Blake Crowe, 48, of Alexandria, Va., is commander of Regimental Combat Team 7, which operates throughout Anbar Province, a violent region of Iraq.
RCT7 comprises 5,000 men in five units: two Marine infantry battalions, one Marine light armored recon battalion, an armored cavalry unit out of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, and TF 136 out of Germany.
It covers an area of 33,000 square miles.
Like Lt. Col. Norman L. Cooling, commander of 3-3 Marines, Col. Crowe emphasized the importance of training Iraqi security forces – soldiers and policemen – to take over for U.S. and other Coalition forces.
“It’s a challenge,” Col. Crowe said. “We have to be in the cities, maintain a persistent presence, provide security. And security is improving. People are talking to us. If you told me two months ago that people would talk to us, I would have laughed at you. Now they’re coming forward.”
IEDs remain the most effective weapon against U.S. and Coalition forces, but also in spreading fear among Iraqis, Col. Crowe said.
“We meet with the local mayors, the local sheikhs, and they say their people are being hurt by IEDs as well. If the enemy had aircraft, they would drop those bombs on us. They don’t, so they use IEDs. If we stop the IEDs, we can open bridges and bring more wealth into their area.
“It’s a campaign of fear, murder, intimidation. We counteract that by showing people we’re not fly-by-night,” Col. Crowe said.
But the United States can’t hope to do it alone, he said.
“The Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Police have to stand up. The Iraqi Army is on the way. The Iraqi Police have to be trained to more of a paramilitary standard than police anywhere else. Once police start taking root, that’s the No. 1 threat to the insurgency.
“An Iraqi policeman from this area, he can look at someone and say, ‘He’s a Syrian, look at his feet –nice manicured feet. He’s not a farmer, look at his hands.’ They pick up on accents and dialects – and we just don’t have that ability,” Col. Crowe said.
His hopes for the future – like the hopes of most American commanders in the region – are for Iraqi security forces to take over most operations.
“Every town in the Euphrates River Valley is going to have an Iraqi presence supported by American forces. We provide that windbreak because we have heavy armored vehicles and humvees.
“As Iraqis pick up more of the burden, the U.S. becomes a QRF – quick reaction force – for emergencies,” he said.
“But if we’re willing to continue to do what we’re doing now, they’re willing to let us. We have to start weaning ourselves off and letting the Iraqi forces take more responsibility,” he said.
“When we do downsize, there will still be advisers, and a few enduring bases to provide fire support to the Iraqi Army to defeat this insurgency,” he said.
One common concern among U.S. commanders is that political pressure in the United States will force troop reductions too soon for a solid transition.
“While looking at bringing forces home,” one commander said, “you have to look at areas that don’t have enough. I didn’t come here to draw and my Marines didn’t come here to lose. We’re at a tipping point here. Some strategic decisions will be made here this summer, bring some troops home, and not send over some that are scheduled to come. Why not shift those troops to areas that need them?”

"Crisis of Attrition"

2006-11-10T08:26:00.002-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
Iraqi soldier on patrol in Haqliniyah.

ANBAR (MAY 2006) – While the wisdom or necessity of the invasion of Iraq four years ago remains an open topic, the attention of Americans, particularly those on the ground in the Middle East, increasingly focuses on how to extricate U.S. forces from a persistently dangerous and seemingly open-ended conflict.
The consensus among commanders is that stronger Iraqi security forces are the best – perhaps the only – way for U.S. forces to downsize and, ultimately, leave.
But enormous problems – of recruitment, pay, supplies and personal safety – are hampering efforts to build up the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Police.
Officers assigned to train Iraqis in al Anbar Province say the problems have reached critical proportions.
“We’re in a crisis of attrition,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey J. Kenney, 48, of Hartford, Conn.
Lt. Col. Kenney has been a Marine 31 years, the first 12 rising to the rank of gunnery sergeant, the rest as an officer.
He is the Military Transition Team chief for the Iraqi Army’s 2nd Brigade, 7th Infantry Division .
“We’re supposed to have 2,400 Iraqi soldiers, we have 1,600. There’s no banking system, so when they are paid, they have to take the money home. Normally they work 21 days on and a week off. Since we’re in al Anbar, which is insurgent country, it takes days to go home through some of the most dangerous places on earth.”
More than $1 million a month is involved in supporting the 2nd Brigade, 7th Infantry Division – including $670,000 in pay and $250,000 for food, water and fuel – but that money has not been forthcoming since February.
Besides no pay and little or no supplies of food and water, Iraqi soldiers serve with no fixed term of enlistment, Lt. Col. Kenney said, which means they can walk off the job at any time.
He listed other problems that included inadequate equipment and materiel; a literacy requirement that prevents otherwise willing recruits from enlisting; and murder and intimidation campaigns that scare people away.
“If those problems could be fixed, we could retain Iraqi troops and start winning the war,” Lt. Col. Kenney said.
“If we could solve the retention problems, we could step back and be support, and Iraqis could take over. And we need that. Americans don’t have enough people to control the battle space. We need the Iraqis and we have to stop the hemorrhaging.
“The only thing the insurgents have to offer is threats, is terror, and that’s powerful. Community police work is resolving disputes – I don’t’ see a lot of that, what we have is murder and intimidation and IEDs.
“The only way we’re going to win the people is to protect them – we have to have enough people, we need cops to protect the people, and need the Iraqi Army to protect the cops.
“People are sick of seeing foreigners driving around their streets with guns, making people pull over and stop.
“To really win the war, Iraqi forces have to do it,” he said.
“If the Iraqi Army was half again as numerous as we are now, we’d see two years of strife and then things would settle down.
“Whoever sticks it out wins, and they count on us quitting. Doing it, sticking with it and not giving up is the key,” Lt. Col. Kenney said.
“We need more Iraqi guys, and that means we have to fix the problems with retention. Otherwise it’s like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom,” he said.

Iraqi Police

2006-11-10T08:12:00.001-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
Col. Shaban al-Ubaidi, police chief of Baghdadi, with photos of recruits killed in an ambush while on the way to join his force.

ANBAR (MAY 2006) – Maj. Lowell F. Rector, 42, of Columbus, Ohio is the Police Transition Team chief working with Iraqi Police in Anbar.
Maj. Rector has been a police officer for 12 years, and in civilian life serves as a sergeant on the Columbus Police Department.
“We’re trying to hire and stand up from scratch 4,550 Iraqi police officers, to work in six districts out of 28 police stations, mostly in metropolitan areas along the Euphrates River Valley.
“The IPs out here are trying to provide security and are not getting paid a dime because the Ministry of the Interior is not freeing up the money. Bureaucracy’s in the way of paying them the money. They have been working since November without pay – working with Coalition forces, with the Iraqi Army, cooperating with sheikhs and local councils.”
Maj. Rector cited Col. Shaban al-Ubadi, an Iraqi asked by the city of Baghdadi – a small Iraqi city about 100 miles northwest of the capital – to serve as police chief.
The son of a Sheikh, Col. Shaban accepted.
Maj. Rector described him as charismatic and fearless, able to attract and retain a small police force in Baghdadi. (Another U.S. commander cautioned that Col. Shaban’s unit had more similarity to an armed gang than what Americans think of as a police force.)
Col. Shaban was imprisoned and tortured twice under Saddam Hussein’s regime, was attacked by insurgents after Hussein’s fall, has seen two brothers killed and his mother shot, and his home destroyed.
On a visit to his compound outside Baghdadi, Col. Shaban displayed gruesome pictures of the mangled bodies of 15 police recruits ambushed and killed while en route from Baghdad to join his force.
“He just wants the insurgents to go away, and when they’re gone, he’ll quit,” Maj. Rector said.
---
Two months after this interview, Maj. Rector outlined significant changes in the situation in Anbar Province.
"The Provincial Chief, Brig. Gen. Sha’aban (not Col. Shaban), was arrested for suspected embezzlement of pay," he said in July.
"The Baghdadi Police and the remainder of the police in the Western Euphrates River Valley have been paid to date ... But the problem is still not fixed," he said.
At its heart, he said, is a long tradition in the region of the powerful controlling others through monetary leverage, guided by self-interest rather than service to country.

Baghdad, Again

2006-11-10T07:17:00.000-05:00

IRAQ (JUNE 2006) – In the wake of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death this month, conditions in Baghdad and across Iraq remain violent.
Col. Michael F. Beech, a Worcester native, commands the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4,300 soldiers conducting military and civil operations in central and southern Baghdad.
On average, five to seven attacks occur each day in 4th BCT’s area, and the death of al Zarqawi has not significantly changed that, Col. Beech said.
“I wouldn’t expect the death of Zarqawi to have an immediate effect on attack levels in a small particular area, but it’s certainly had a disruptive effect on the network at large in terms of ability to plan, coordinate and carry out attacks in the future,” he said.
One part of his sector, the al Dora district, which has a power plant, oil refinery and sewage treatment plant, is among the city’s most violent neighborhoods.
One of Saddam Hussein’s defense lawyers was taken from his home in Dora in June, and killed. His wife said the abductors wore Iraqi police uniforms, and carried identity cards from the Ministry of the Interior.
That’s disheartening in light of Col. Beech’s assessment that conditions in al Dora had been improving.
“People were being targeted there,” he said. “Sunni insurgents would target Shia, and Shia militia were targeting Sunnis. In the past couple weeks we have made some progress in the al Dora market. After the Samarra shrine bombing in February, it was on the verge of closing. In April, 50 percent of the stalls were empty. I walked through there yesterday,” Col. Beech said two weeks ago, “and that market is 100 percent better.
“There’s a perception that the security situation is improving in Dora,” he said.
Other American commanders and administration officials also say conditions in Baghdad are improving.
Despite these postulations, conditions seemed to have grown worse in terms of security and quality of life for Iraqis compared with two previous visits to Iraq.
On those trips, the Dora power plant had two of four burners operating, computer controls not functioning, and the furnaces using crude oil, diesel or propane depending on what was available, producing six to eight hours of electricity a day.
Since then, the plant has brought a third burner online, but electric output has dropped to three to six hours of power a day.
Col. Beech said that’s because the plant machinery has continued to deteriorate, foreign contractors are reluctant to work on it because of violence, and the power is being spread among more neighborhoods.
He said that one local response has been the appearance of local entrepreneurs who wire houses into small electric generators, and start them up when the power plant shuts down. Each house on the mini-grids gets an average of 3 amps of power.
The city is – to say the least – a huge change from the quiet Tatnuck neighborhood where Col. Beech grew up.
His family lived on Mower Street, and he went to West Tatnuck Elementary and Middle schools, Doherty Memorial High, and then Norwich University in Vermont, a military school, where he graduated with honors.
He and his wife, Kathleen Earley, met in high school. She grew up on Vassar Street off Newton Square, where her mother, Roseanne, still lives. Col. Beech’s parents – Jim and Peggy Beech, live in Centerville on Cape Cod. Col. and Mrs. Beech now live at Fort Hood, Texas.
The commander of 4th BCT used to deliver the Telegram & Gazette as a boy; his brother, David, worked on the newspaper’s loading dock.
He and his wife – then girlfriend – used to babysit for a child named Tim Murray, who grew up to become mayor of Worcester.
“Say ‘Hi’ to him for me,” Col. Beech said.
Col. Beech has deployed widely, including tours in Bosnia and Panama. This is his first deployment to Iraq.
“My brigade – the 4th Brigade Combat Team – is responsible for conducting counterinsurgency operations and training Iraqi security forces in central Baghdad and southern metropolitan Baghdad, including the International Zone and the Rasheed District,” Col. Beech said.
His forces are partnered with several Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police brigades, and also work with district councils in the Rasheed, Karadah and Karkh neighborhoods of Baghdad.
Counterinsurgency operations include collection of intelligence; reconnaissance to identify locations of cell members; cordon and searches and raids to find caches of insurgent materials such as bomb making equipment, weapons and mortars; arrest and capture of insurgents; training of Iraqi security forces and Iraqi police; and building essential services such as water and sewer projects, Col. Beech said.
“The focus of everything we’re doing in my area is protecting the local population from the insurgents, be they criminal elements or insurgents preying on certain aspects of the local population. Certain groups target Shia minorities, some target Sunni people, so a lot of what we do is simply protecting the population, much like you would think of neighborhood police, working with Iraqi police and local police,” he said.
Col. Beech said his soldiers have good morale and a strong sense of mission, evidenced by high reenlistment rates – 172 percent of target, or 222 compared with a goal of 129 – among initial term soldiers, those in their first enlistment.
Of the brigade’s 4,300 soldiers, 14 have been killed since deploying to Iraq in January.
“The death of Zarqawi was celebrated by a lot of Iraqis, and it brings a lot of relief to a lot of people because that particular individual and his associates have brought a lot of suffering to people of Iraq,” Col. Beech said.
“Also, the minister of defense and minister of interior positions were filled, the last two ministerial positions to be filled in the new government, so people hope government can be more sustaining of their security forces,” he said.
“A lot of folks are cautiously optimistic,” he said.
“With two ministers in position, they have an opportunity to take a leading role in providing security. Iraqi security forces are now responsible for controlling 60 percent of Baghdad. Even in areas where they’re not running their own security ops, I have Iraqi partner units conducting operations with me every day,” he said.
The 5th Iraqi Brigade that is partnered with 4th BCT has relatively few pay problems – 15 soldiers out of 2,200 had problems in one recent pay period, Col. Beech said.
The Iraqi Police units partnered with 4th BCT have more problems with getting pay, he said, and as the number of police increase, he expects pay problems also will rise.
“They’re trying to increase the number of Iraqi Police in Rasheed and in al-Dora, and pay is one of the things the new government is going to have to address. That’s capability at the ministerial level. I can certainly train a battalion to do its job every day, but government has to perform those activities we take for granted – pay, medical care, training and supply, the institutional pieces of our army,” Col. Beech said.
“Things in our army we take for granted – repair parts, fuel, replacing equipment when it’s battle lost – those types of sustainment functions, those are the kind of things that need to be fixed for Iraqi security forces to take the lead,” he said.
“They’re certainly going to have to focus their efforts on key areas of sustainment – pay, medical, repair and regeneration of equipment lost to combat, fuel and repair parts. If they can do those things, I think they’ll come along pretty well,” he said.
“At my level I don’t have interaction on the ministerial level, I see how it plays out on the ground. Certainly my Iraqi Army unit is further along than my Iraqi Police unit
“The 5th Iraqi Army Brigade, commanded by Gen. Mohammed, was formed well over a year ago, and reached full operational capability back in February, from a personnel, equipment and readiness perspective, capable of operating on their own and conducting operations independent of us. We still operate together to take advantage of our own particular strengths,” he said.
Col. Beech cited one operation in a Baghdad neighborhood where the U.S. forces were attacked by small arms fire.
“It was a densely settled neighborhood, with lots of homes. What we decided to do, I formed the outer cordon, provided counter-mortar, some aerial recon capability, and Gen. Mohammed conducted the inner portion, and went through the target homes. We were in and out of the target area in a couple of hours,” Col. Beech said.
“The thing that worries me the most is not the attacks on U.S. forces and not attacks on Iraqi security forces. The things I’m most concerned with is attacks by insurgent groups on unarmed civilians in the streets, such as market place bombs. Those are things that concern me the most, sectarian-based attacks where groups are trying to foment civil war between Shias and Sunnis. That’s the part that worries me the most,” he said.

2006-06-05T13:44:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
U.S. Marines in Haqliniyah, Iraq, watch from inside one building as aerial weapons are used against another building from which they were attacked earlier in the day.

2006-06-05T13:38:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
U.S. Marines get ready to fire a SMAW -- shoulder-launched multipurpose assault weapon -- at a building from which they were ambushed earlier in the day.

2006-06-05T13:34:00.000-05:00

2006-05-27T15:24:00.001-05:00

2006-05-27T15:24:00.000-05:00

2006-05-27T15:23:00.000-05:00

2006-05-27T15:22:00.001-05:00

2006-05-27T15:22:00.000-05:00

2006-05-27T15:21:00.000-05:00

2006-05-27T15:20:00.000-05:00

2006-05-27T15:19:00.000-05:00

2006-05-13T12:10:00.000-05:00

2006-05-13T11:57:00.000-05:00

2006-05-11T11:28:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
U.S. Marines fire from a roof at a building in Haqlinyah, Iraq, from which insurgents fired at them early today.

2006-05-11T11:21:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
U.S. Marines fire at a building in Haqlinyah, Iraq, from which insurgents had fired at them early this morning.

2006-05-10T13:16:00.000-05:00

2006-05-10T13:08:00.000-05:00

2005-09-16T09:45:00.000-05:00

2005-09-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo
Marines in Kilo Co., 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, patrol the Alishang Valley north of Mehtarlam in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan.

2005-09-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Lt. Col. Michael Lennon of Massachusetts talks about veterinary medicine in Afghanistan at an annual veterinary conference held this year in Providence.

2005-09-16T09:36:00.000-05:00

One Marine's introspection

2005-06-05T06:13:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

"The interesting thing is - well, a lot of us grew up with the shade of Vietnam hanging over our parents' heads right? ... We joined the military because we WANT to go and fight and see if we are as worthy under fire as the previous generation. It's part of our mentality and culture. The average Marine here really could care less about global politics - he wants to know what he'll do when the bullets hit. The rest of the stuff floating around his head about patriotism and duty - it's not as solidified an ideal as the rest of it."

Dispatch from Afghanistan

2005-06-04T23:00:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Two Marines were killed in the Alishang Valley on Mother's Day. Their unit engaged several armed groups working for local drug lords affiliated with terrorist groups in a three-hour firefight and 10-hour withdrawal over 20 kilometers of mountainous terrain. More than 23 enemy were killed over the 13 hours the Marines were in contact. Lying in his firing position on a ridge at about 4,500 feet in the Alishang Valley as night fell, one Marine asked, "Have people back home forgotten us? It feels like it." No, people at home had not forgotten -- but sometimes it seems Iraq pushes Afghanistan out of our minds. Our boys are still here.

Bedding down

2005-06-04T05:57:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

From left, Lance Cpl. Eric J. Darby, 20, of Lafayette, La.; Lance Cpl. Gino J. LaRocca, 21, of Sayreville, N.J.; and Lance Cpl. Matthew T. Kallback, 21, of Pompton Plains, N.J. -- the 60mm Mortar Section of 2nd Platoon, 3-3 Marines -- get ready to bed down for the night at a patrol base high in the Alishang Valley of Afghanistan.

War damage

2005-05-27T05:24:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Decades of war have left a legacy of damaged buildings across Kabul, a city of 4 million or so. West Kabul was the most heavily hit area, but few neighborhoods are unscathed. Some buildings have been removed, but many still stand, and people have moved back into the lower floors -- a nervewracking prospect in this earthquake-prone region.

2005-05-27T05:07:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

German soldiers -- part of NATO's 1,600-strong International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan -- man their post at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.

Street scene

2005-05-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Schoolchildren in uniform head for class in Kabul. Under Taliban rule, girls were not allowed to attend school.

Opium war

2005-05-26T23:49:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Afghans harvest opium poppies in the Alishang Valley above Mehtarlam, where two Marines were killed May 8 in a 14-hour firefight.

Fire base

2005-05-26T23:46:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Marines burn trash before leaving their patrol base high in the Alishang Valley above Mehtarlam near the Pakistan border in eastern Afghanistan.

Kuchi

2005-05-17T23:39:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Kuchi, Afghan nomads, have moved into the Kabul Valley with their families, tents and flocks. James Mitchener wrote about them in "Caravans," a wonderfully romantic novel set in Afghanistan after World War II.

Panjshir Valley

2005-05-17T23:35:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

A long, long day yesterday touring the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, where Massoud, the hero of Afghanistan, fought in turn the Russians, the Mujahaden and the Taliban. Soviet tanks and armored personnel carriers are scattered across the landscape. In places, these rusting skeletons of war have been built into riverbanks to control erosion, into stone walls to keep animals in or out, and are being used as dwellings or guard posts. Elsewhere they have been gathered into clusters. And in still other spots, they stand starkly against the rolling grass-covered land.

Insecurity

2005-05-17T22:34:00.000-05:00

The international community in Kabul is worried over security in the wake of several incidents of kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, a bombing, a rocket attack and anti-American demonstrations. Opponents of the current Afghan government seem to be adopting an Iraq model -- attack vulnerable targets rather than heavily armed U.S., Coalition or Afghan troops. The purpose? Hamstring relief efforts, drive out U.N. workers and other NGOs, bring that whole sector to a halt. It devastated international relief efforts in Iraq.

Landmines

2005-05-16T23:31:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

The countryside is covered with landmines. Between 7 million and 9 million landmines are believed to have been deployed in Afghanistan, in a succession of wars. (That's out of a world inventory of 80 million landmines.) By 1999, 143 square kilometers of the country had been cleared; at that time 713 square kilometers remained to be cleared, but that area is increasing as more mined regions are discovered. In the Kabul Valley, travelers do not step off the hard road surfaces. And the landscape is dotted with rocks painted white -- safe, and red -- mines.

No go zone

2005-05-16T05:13:00.000-05:00

All about animals

2005-05-15T23:18:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Animals are 80 percent of Afghanistan's legal economy and, after 20 years of war and 10 years of drought, the country has become an importer, not exporter, of animal protein. So Massachusetts State Veterinarian David Sherman, DVM, of Newton, left; Lt. Col. Michael B. Lennon, DVM, of Groton, center; and James Q. Knight, DVM, of Hardwick, director of animal sciences at Becker College in Leicester, right, are working together to help here. (As my old colleague Bill Clew often says, "There's always a Worcester connection.") This willingness to put their normal lives on hold and come here is important to think about amidst the poverty and violence, destruction and despair that hit a visitor in the face when one first sees this country. As often while traveling in the Third World, it is striking how lucky Americans are.

Kabul

2005-05-14T23:11:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

This city shows all the energy and bedlam of the Third World. Wild drivers who use the horn to say "Hi" and "I'm about to pass" and "Get out of my way" -- constantly. Bicycles everywhere, vying with horse- and handcarts for travel room. Street vendors selling everything from shoes to fresh potato chips -- cooked on the spot -- to vegetables to radios. So far the only sign of unrest is on BBC and online, and the presence here of a group of UNHCR workers who fled violence in Jalalabad three days ago. A mob ransacked and burned their quarters. They lost everything. (Another visitor was in Jalalabad that day, and saw no riots.) Today their security chief is flying back down -- Jalalabad is east of here, about four hours by car -- to see if they can return. A visitor to this teeming city played tourist yesterday -- palaces, historical sites, bazaar, museum, lunch in a restaurant -- and saw no hostility, much less rioters. It's a big place.

Reality check

2005-05-08T00:05:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Water taxis ply Dubai harbor in the United Arab Emirates. This bustling commercial and social center of the Arab world provides extraordinary contrast to the otherworldly reality of Afghanistan -- where credit cards are unknown and the economy runs on cash.

"A History of Warfare," John Keegan

2005-04-24T07:35:00.000-05:00

"Most soldiers are satisfied merely by the company of others, by a shared contempt for a softer world, by the liberation from narrow materiality brought by the camp and the line of march, by the rough comforts of the bivouac, by competiton in endurance ..."

"Henry V," Shakespeare

2005-04-11T14:57:00.000-05:00

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Act IV, Scene III

2005-04-10T13:10:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Spc. Skyler M. Koch of Syracuse, N.Y., left, and Sgt. Steve Young of Cooperstown, N.Y., tell a fellow 1st Cavalry Division trooper about an ambush in which their trucks were hit by RPGs -- rocket-propelled grenades -- at this spot in September. Koch, driver of one of three Humvees attacked by RPGs and AK47 fire that night, lowered his window and fired back with his M16 with one hand while steering his truck with the other. Two rockets hit his truck, and an AK47 round came through the window, missing him, the gunner and a passenger in the back. Young commanded the lead truck, hit by RPGs and AK47 rounds, which shredded the left rear tire and severed a hydraulic line. Spc. Andre M. Glaze of Sheboygan, Mich., was gunner in Koch's truck. Koch, Young and Glaze attended the wedding of their platoon leader, Lt. Derek Ping of Alvin, Texas, at West Point on Friday April 8. Ping was in command of Koch's truck -- and the patrol -- the night of the ambush.

2005-04-10T04:49:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Lt. Derek Ping dances with his bride, Jamie, while, at right, Spc. Skyler M. Koch of Syracuse, N.Y., Sgt. Steve Young of Cooperstown, N.Y., and Spc. Andre M. Glaze of Sheboygan, Mich., three of his Mortar Platoon troopers, look on. The men are back from a year in Iraq.

2005-04-10T04:42:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

From left, Capt. Rex L. Blair. 29, of Birmingham, Ala., his wife, Michelle, Lt. Derek Ping, 25, of Alvin, Texas, and his bride, Jamie, and Lt. Matthew F. Cohen., 24, of San Francisco, and his wife, Jennie, gather outside the Cadet Chapel at West Point after the Pings' wedding.

2005-04-09T13:02:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Lt. Derek Ping, leader of the Mortar Platoon of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav, and Jamie McMahan kiss on the steps of the Cadet Chapel at West Point after their wedding Friday April 8. Lt. Matthew F. Cohen, left, Scout Platoon leader, and Capt. Rex L. Blair, right, commander of Dawg/HHC Co., demanded the newlyweds kiss before allowing them to pass. Lt. Ping, Lt. Cohen and Capt. Blair returned March 16 from a year in Baghdad, Iraq.

2005-03-26T07:23:00.001-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

1st Lt. Matthew F. Cohen, 24, of San Francisco talks with his Scout Platoon, Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav before a patrol in Baghdad. From left are, Spc. Vinson, Spc. Melgar, Spc. Perry, Lt. Cohen, Sgt. Culver, Sgt. Wells, Staff Sgt. Maldonado, Pvt. Cobb, Spc. Tinker, Spc. Mendoza and Spc. Griego.

2005-03-26T07:18:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Spc. Cipriano J. Griego Jr., 20, of Amarillo, Texas, and his wife, Victoria, at Fort Hood in Killeen, just after the Scout Platoon of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav, returned from a year in Iraq.

2005-03-26T07:17:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Spc. Corby T. Vinson, 29, of Cape Coral, Fla., and his wife, Kristen, at Fort Hood, Killeen, Texas, just after Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav returned from the Middle East on Wednesday. Spc. Vinson is a member of the Scout Platoon.

2005-03-26T07:15:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

1st Lt. Derek Ping, 25, of Alvin, Texas, and his wife, Jamie, at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, moments after his return from a year of war in Iraq. Lt. Ping is Mortar Platoon leader with Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav.

2005-03-26T07:12:00.001-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Staff Sgt. Rene M. Maldonado, his wife, Brianna, and their son, Michael, 4 months, at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, minutes after the 1st Cav trooper returned home from war on Wednesday. Staff Sgt. Maldonado, of San Antonio, served a year in Iraq with the Scout Platoon, Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav.

2005-03-19T07:40:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Spc. Rodolfo Mendoza Jr., 24, of Del Rio, Texas, and his girlfriend, Sunshine Nieto, 25, of Dallas, kiss moments after his landing at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, on Wednesday.

2005-03-11T03:20:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Iraq's economy is recovering ... slowly ... from the war and everywhere shows a Third World blend of old and new.

2005-03-11T03:16:00.000-05:00

2005-03-01T09:21:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Spc. Andre M. Glaze of Sheboygan, Mich., mans the Mark 19 grenade launcher atop his Humvee while on patrol with the Mortar Platoon of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav. The Mark 19 can fire more than 300 40mm grenades per minute. Spc. Glaze's face shows the effects of riding in his truck's gun hatch while driving along the very dusty roads of rural Baghdad.

2005-03-01T09:20:00.001-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Airman 1st Class James D. Trussell, 21, of Memphis, Tenn., and Airman 1st Class Nidia Trussell, 21, of Laredo, Texas, wait for a flight out of Baghdad International Airport on Friday. The Trussells, who got married a month before deploying to Baghdad last year, finally got out to Kuwait late that night. The C-130 transport plane was delayed ... first by lightning and rainstorms, then by an engine flameout. It was midnight when they landed ... and much later when they reached their hotel. They are with the 67th Security Forces, were stationed in Baghdad's Green Zone, and are based at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas.

2005-03-01T09:20:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Spc. Zachary B. Matthew, 23, of Reading, Pa., smiles on his last ... or maybe next-to-last ... patrol in Baghdad. A member of the Mortar Platoon of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav., Matthew is at the end of his year-long deployment in Iraq.

2005-03-01T09:19:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Children in a farming community in southeastern Baghdad ... like almost every other kid encountered by the Scout Platoon of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav ... love to have their pictures taken.

Third World

2005-02-27T05:54:00.000-05:00

Soldiers say things - in anger or fear or frustration - they don’t mean, and feel things they can’t or won’t say. They personify insurgents as "haji" - a singular name used as a collective noun - like Charlie from another war in another place and time. It embodies respect for their enemy’s skills at sudden violence, and the contempt fighting men have - perhaps must have - for their enemy. How else could they kill instantly when need arises? At the same time, living in Iraq for a year, seeing the reality of the Third World - the grinding poverty, the living conditions of daily life, the absence of what Americans and the rest of the West and some of the developing world take for granted - clean water, security, schools, civil rights, health care, opportunity - has had a profound impact on the mostly young Americans who joined the army for a host of reasons. It has hardened a few to human suffering, but in most it has kindled or reinforced a sense that Americans are among the most fortunate people on Earth. In many, it has sparked kindness. Soldiers here are almost universally good - maybe in small ways - to the Iraqi kids who flock around them. The kids have come to associate soldiers with candy and soccer balls and pictures, rather than with fear and violence.

2005-02-25T09:53:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Iraqi girls herd their goats away from a watering tank in southeastern Baghdad. Farm fields roll away in all directions from the city's edge, with crops starting to green up and flocks of sheep and goats finding rich grazing as winter's cold ends and spring warmth begins.

2005-02-25T09:52:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Spc. Nicholas J. Hubert, 22, of Chicago, Ill., mans the M240 machine gun atop his truck as other members of the COLT Platoon, Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav. set up an observation post in southeastern Baghdad. When soldiers dismount from their vehicles, the roof gunners always stay in place.

2005-02-24T09:14:00.001-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Members of the Mortar Platoon of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav., check out a bomb crater made when a 500-pound bomb went off the night before as an Abrams M1 tank went past. The bombs ... improvised explosive devices, or IEDs ... are the scariest and most dangerous threat to daily patrols in Baghdad.

2005-02-24T09:14:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Iraqis make bread in a bakery in Horajeb ... a neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad. U.S. soldiers love the bread and the tea.

2005-02-24T09:13:00.001-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Never a dull moment on the roads of Iraq for the Mortar Platoon of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav. One of the four drive shafts in a Humvee ... high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle ... broke and had to be jury-rigged into place for the trip home.

2005-02-24T09:13:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Spc. Hunter B. Perry, 22, of Kingston, Okla., and Sgt. Thomas J. Rollins, 22, of Pottsboro, Texas, wrestle over a can of silly string to work off steam after a mission as the days wind down to the end of 1-8 Cav's year-long deployment in Iraq. The two soldiers have served together in Iraq for a year, and the horseplay ended in laughter.

Better to be lucky ...

2005-02-24T01:15:00.000-05:00

"I have to have my leaving-the-gate cigarette," said Pvt. Eric T. Cobb, 27, of Salina, Kansas, lighting up with one hand while driving his uparmored M1114 Humvee with the other and looking over his shoulder like a New York cabbie. "The only times we've gotten hit is when I haven't had it. I have to have it ... like his lucky frog." He was referring to the toy frog carried by Sgt. Thomas J. Rollins, 22, of Pottsboro, Texas. Powers are ascribed to the strangest things. In one truck, soldiers have a small green plastic GI on top of the radio, crawling forward over the commo equipment, rifle in one hand, alert for danger. It's the kind that children have played with for generations. Other soldiers don't say things because they believe it will jinx them. They don't talk about their good luck to date, or say that they haven't been hit on a particular road, or that things are quiet. Some even came to believe that a reporter visiting them for a few weeks was a good luck token, and were happy to have him in their trucks.

2005-02-22T09:28:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Three Americans died Monday on Senators -- Iraqi Highway 5. They were new guys -- had just arrived from the States for their year in Iraq. They were driving from the main American base around BIAP -- Baghdad International Airport, a strange name for a landing field with planes to almost nowhere -- to Forward Operating Base Falcon, to zero -- sight in -- their weapons. A Humvee crashed off the road, flipped over and three MPs inside were injured. Bandit Co., 1-8 Cav rushed to the accident. A medevac helicopter landed on the other side of the highway, and as the wounded MPs were being carried to it, a bomb exploded right next to them. The bomb had evidently been hidden in an old tire. The three injured MPs were killed, and eight other soldiers were wounded, four of them seriously. A medic has lost his leg, another soldier, a platoon sergeant, is out of action for the rest of his deployment. They and two others, including a medic on the first helicopter, had to be airlifted to the CSH -- Combat Surgical Hospital -- in the Green Zone. Blood and wreckage covered the highway. Cars were stopped in all directions. People watched quietly, somberly from around the neighborhood. From time to time, soldiers fired bursts from their weapons. Soon nobody was outside except the Americans. Soldiers covered the broken bodies with tarps, then placed them in body bags, then carried the bags to an ambulance. Soldiers poured water on the blood and swept it with brooms, then shoveled dirt onto the residue. Soldiers picked up every scrap of debris they could find. “It’s not supposed to be like this,” one said. “Not this close to going home.” Metternich, the 19th century German statesman, said, “The Balkans are not worth the life of a single Pomeranian grenadier.” Iraq has taken the lives of 1,539 American soldiers. One thousand five hundred thirty-nine Amercans, as of March 25. A higher price by far than Metternich was willing to pay for pursuit of empire in another land.

2005-02-21T10:48:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Soldiers from 1-8 Cav and the 3rd Infantry Division rest for a moment after a long day of searching houses, farm fields, date palm groves and reeds. From left, Pvt. Eric T. Cobb, 27, of Salina, Kansas, 1-8 Cav.; Sgt. Corey J. Coffelt, 24, of Jackson, Mich., with 3rd ID; Sgt. Jason L. Cook, 22, of Inverness, Fla., 3rd ID; Sgt. Thomas J. Rollins, 22, of Pottsboro, Texas, 1-8 Cav.; Sgt. Thomas L. Mentes, 35, of Fort Stewart, Ga., 3rd ID; and Spc. Jairo Melgar, 31, of the Bronx, 1-8 Cav. Besides looking for weapons, the Scouts of 1-8 Cav. were teaching the 3rd Infantry soldiers about the area, which 3rd ID is taking over as the Cav's year-long deployment comes to an end.

2005-02-21T10:47:00.001-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Sgt. Michael J. Nashif Jr., 27, of Newberg, Ore. found this 200-lb. bomb during a search Saturday for weapons caches. "I was walking up a little spider trail like this one," Sgt. Nashif said, pointing to a side track off a beaten-down path through the reeds, "and found it." The bomb was old, rusty and unimpressive looking. But when EOD ... the bomb squad ... came and blew it up, the explosion was loud and powerful.

2005-02-21T10:47:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Scouts from Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav., search through giant reeds in a rural area of Baghdad Saturday, looking for weapons reported to be there.

2005-02-21T10:46:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

After their dismounted patrol Saturday night, troopers from the COLT Platoon, Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav. took part in house raids in a remote part of Baghdad along the Tigris River. The raids resulted in the detention of several Iraqis who showed signs of explosives on their hands when soldiers tested them.

2005-02-21T10:45:00.000-05:00

2005-02-21T10:44:00.001-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Spc. Steven M. Bradshaw, 22, of Pittsburgh, Pa., serving in the Mortar Platoon, Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav., loads his M16 while driving out the gate of Forward Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad Saturday morning. Weapons are locked and loaded on leaving the FOB, cleared when entering.

2005-02-21T10:44:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Spc. Stephen C. Fraim, 20, of Sheridan, Ark., a soldier in the COLT Platoon of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav., mans an M240 machine gun atop his Humvee while other members of his squad are out of the truck. The gunner ... who can have the M240, or a 50-calibre machine gun, or a Mark 19 grenade launcher ... always stays in place when soldiers leave the heavily armored vehicles. An Apache attack helicopter flies overhead.

Tidbits of soldier talk

2005-02-20T20:54:00.000-05:00

“It’s bad when you say this is a good bomb because it’s only a 120mm,” one soldier said the other day.
Later, from another trooper whose truck was in a convoy hit by a deeply buried IED ... improvised explosive device: “One guy said, ‘They buried it too deep.’ I said, ‘There’s no such thing as too deep, you dumb ass. They didn’t bury it deep enough.’ ”
From yet another: "It's pretty bad when you start joking about stuff like, 'You dumb asses, you set it off too soon. If you'd waited 10 seconds, you'd have blown us all up.' It's bad."
Sudden death is no joking matter, yet soldiers here in Iraq joke away merrily, nonstop. It's one way they deal with the constant pressure, apprehension and fear, and still go outside the wire.

2005-02-18T16:34:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Soldiers of the Mortar Platoon, Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav, eat a late meal after getting in at 4:15 a.m. Friday from a patrol that began at 9 p.m. the evening before. The Mortars were introducing soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division to the southeastern section of Baghdad that is their patrol sector. The 3rd ID is taking over from 1st Cav, which is preparing to head home after its one-year deployment. Much of the night was spent providing security as Army engineers set up concrete barriers for several checkpoints along area roads. They missed midnight chow, but found made-up cafeteria plates of spaghetti and chicken waiting when they returned to their barracks.

2005-02-18T16:32:00.001-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

COLT Platoon of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav, talks about plans for its patrol through southeastern Baghdad early Friday morning. 1st Lt. Michael P. Lennox. 25, of Fort Worth, Texas, COLT Platoon leader, showed the sector to 1st Lt. Andrew J. Mounce, 24, a 3rd Infantry Division soldier from Huntington, N.Y., and two of his men. The 3rd ID will take over coverage of the sector when 1st Cav comes home next month.

2005-02-18T16:32:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

1st Lt. Michael P. Lennox, 25, of Fort Worth, Texas, left, and 1st Lt. Andrew J. Mounce, 24, of Huntington, N.Y., talk with Iraqi security guards at Baghdad's sewage treatment plant, one of the three prime pieces of infrastructure in the area of Baghdad that 1-8 Cav is handing over to 3rd Infantry Division. The other two? The al-Dora power plant and the oil refinery. 1st Lt. Lennox is COLT Platoon leader for Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav; 1st Lt. Mounce is with Bravo Co., 6-8 Cav attached to the 3rd ID. American commanders say the change is happening in the wake of the election, at the same time that Iraqi forces are taking more responsibility for security in the city.

2005-02-17T09:24:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Sheep surround a Humvee parked on a dirt farm road in southern Baghdad Thursday morning. The COLTS of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav patrol a sector of Baghdad that includes farms with fields and flocks, and has established relationships with many of the farmers and shepherds. "We don't get hit," Spc. Kenneth R. Kragie said. "They know us, they know our trucks, and we don't get hit here. It's because of the way we treat them."

2005-02-17T09:16:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Sgt. 1st Class Jeff A. Mallo, 36, of Akron, Ohio, left, talks with 1st Sgt. Anthony M. Wagner, 40, of Pittsburgh, Pa., about his patrol Wednesday night. Sgt. Mallo was out with the Mortars of Dawg/HHC Co. 1-8 Cav. when another company's patrol ran into an IED. The Mortars went to the bombing, called in backup, helped care for the three injured Americans, and drove them to a hospital in the Green Zone.

2005-02-17T09:12:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

A trooper from 1-8 Cav stands in the blast hole left by a bomb -- an improvised explosive device, or IED -- set off at the side of a secondary road in Baghdad Wednesday night. The force of the blast, which hit a patrol of uparmored 1114 Humvees, sent the closest truck crashing off the road and through a cement block wall. Three soldiers were injured -- not severely -- and were taken to a hospital -- the CSH, or Combat Surgical Hospital --. in the Green Zone. IEDs and car bombs -- vehicle borne improvised explosive devices, or VBIEDs -- are the most deadly weapons used by the Iraqi insurgents against U.S. troops, other coalition forces, and Iraqi security forces. Since the war began in 2003, more than 1,450 American soldiers have been killed.

2005-02-17T09:10:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Soldiers from Mortar Platoon, Dawg/HHC Co. 1-8 Cav check houses in a rural section of Baghdad Wednesday night. The search of houses ... mud-walled farms and new brick homes ... turned up a few illegal weapons, which the soldiers took. The Mortars trained back in the States to fire mortars, but in Iraq have learned how to search homes, set up traffic checks, establish a network of informants, and many other tasks more often linked to police work than soldiering.

2005-02-17T08:59:00.000-05:00

(c) Roger Leo

Soldiers in the Mortar Platoon of Dawg/HHC Co., 1-8 Cav., hold a patrol briefing before heading outside Forwarding Operating Base Falcon in Baghdad. Meanwhile the 3rd Infantry Division is moving in. As 1st Cavalry Division's year-long deplyment ends, they will hand off to 3rd ID.