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Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Weary troops face life-or-death tasks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forward Operating Base Michael, Iraq — It’s not easy to awaken a group of dog-tired soldiers in the middle of the night, especially when most are wearing earplugs and eyeshades.
But Spc. Jonathan Roberts accomplished that feat recently with an angry, guttural yell in the wee hours, followed by shouts of “Bring it on! Bring it on!”
The neat, mannerly soldier from Lawrenceville also was sound asleep and remained that way during the verbal outburst apparently sparked by an especially vivid and violent dream. He’s taken the resulting ribbing in good humor and says he doesn’t remember anything about talking in his sleep.
But it’s understandable that the line between being asleep and awake is blurring to Roberts and fellow members of the 1st Battalion, 108th Armor Regiment’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company. They’ve been on guard duty at this regularly assaulted base virtually around the clock for weeks without a day off.
“We fire warning shots on every shift,” said Roberts, a married father of an 8-year-old daughter. “Everyone who tries to look over the wall or stops their vehicle gets one.”
Roberts, who in civilian life works as a technician for a medical equipment manufacturer, is an Army mechanic who expected to be repairing heavy equipment in Iraq. But his unit was short of guards to stand watch in medieval-looking towers and at dusty gates here so he and dozens of other soldiers were given the open-ended, front-line assignments.
Unlike other military bases far removed from populated areas, Michael is in the town of Mahmudiyah directly on Route Jackson, a major highway leading to Baghdad.
A solid concrete wall is all that separates road traffic from the base, and every car is a potential threat in a country where car bombs have become one of the most deadly and frequently used insurgent weapons.
Roberts and his crew typically arrive for work at midmorning and are at their posts before lunch. They stay at sweltering gates and towers in four-hour shifts, then remain on standby for other missions for eight hours, which often keeps them awake well into the night.
Then they go back on duty at the gates and in the towers before midnight for four more hours before returning to their tents to sleep sometime before dawn.
At midmorning, they go back on duty. It is a mind-numbing, sleep-deprived life that they now lead, working 16 hours a day with eight hours each day to catch some sleep or do personal chores.
It’s been that way for them day after stressful day almost since they arrived here.
“We’re short-handed right now,” Roberts said, “but everyone is short-handed. We’ve worked for so long without a day off that I’m not sure I’d know what to do with myself if I had one.”
Roberts keeps a journal, and this entry from June 22, a few days before his “Bring it on!” wakeup call, is fairly typical.
It starts at midday when an Iraqi man driving a battered minivan comes to an unexpected stop directly in front of Roberts’ gun tower. He points his M16 rifle at the driver and must decide whether to pull the trigger:
“I remember the look of fear in the man’s eyes ? and felt sorry for him. I really felt bad for him and hoped that he wouldn’t see my actions as personal.
“I didn’t want to take this man’s life, but I would have had he become a threat to me or my brothers. Would his last thoughts have been about friends? Family? Allah? I had no anger toward the man. We were simply two men caught up in a situation beyond our control.
“He worked feverishly to get his minivan going again. When the driver of a car behind him blew his horn, the man jumped due to his already frayed nerves. He made a symbol of an “O” with his hands [an obscene gesture] toward the other driver.
“His luck got better when another minivan pushed him [and his vehicle] down the road.
“We both got lucky that day.”
