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Thursday, July 21, 2005
A farewell letter to the families and friends of the 48th Brigade soldiers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Camp Stryker, Iraq — This is our final blog entry and there are a few things we’d like to tell you before resuming our joyful, mundane lives at home in Atlanta.
First, getting to know some of Georgia’s citzen-soldiers and share a bit of their lives here has been an honor, a privilege and the highlight of our years as journalists. Your soldiers welcomed and protected us and at times made us laugh so hard we were in physical pain.
Through all the hardship and sadness in this woeful place the soldiers persevere because they love each other — and they know they’re loved by you. You’re their rock, their foundation and their source of pride and strength.
Your shared comments on this web site reflect the bottomless reservoir of faith that defines and sustains them. Their bravery and nobility come from you and they’re the first to give you credit. They believe in themselves because you believed in them first. They’ll succeed because you knew they would — and they knew that you knew.
Through our words and pictures we’ve tried to give you a glimpse into some of the extraordinary experiences your family members and friends are sharing here. Cruel conditions expose the best and worst of human nature and your loved ones are in the midst of it. Some of the images we’ve sent home are searing and ghastly, others are tender and heart-warming. The soldiers get through this bewilderment with resilience and grace that comes from you.
Thanks for your thoughtfulness, your inspiring words of encouragement and prayers during the last few months. They’ve meant more to us than we can express. To those who have been critical of some of the things we’ve written or photographed, we respect your feelings and the right to disagree. We’ve never meant to hurt or slight any soldier and we apologize for any pain we’ve caused.
As great a sacrifice as the soldiers here are making, yours is equal if not greater. We admire and honor your courage.
Thank you for the decent, fallible, magnificent people you’ve sent to represent our country.
We now join you in anxiously awaiting their safe return.
Affectionately, Dave Hirschman Curtis Compton
Editor’s note: The AJC’s year-long coverage of the 48th Brigade Combat Team at war will continue with reporter Moni Basu and photographer Bita Honarvar. Both spent time with the unit during training in California earlier this year and are experienced journalists with a number of previous overseas assignments. Bita spent time in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban and was in Iraq shortly after the end of major combat operations. Moni covered the devastating 2001 earthquake in India, traveled to Cuba in 2002 with former President Jimmy Carter, reported from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in late 2002 prior to the start of the war and teamed with Bita in 2003 for an examination of post-war Iraq.
Score one for the 48th, Iraqis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forward Operating Base Mercer, Iraq — The Iraqi soldiers were two minutes from letting a detained driver continue on his way.
The soldiers had stopped the blue Opel sedan because the driver tried to avoid a military checkpoint and didn’t have registration papers for his vehicle.
The soldiers had a hunch the driver might be part of a deadly Sunni-led insurgency whose fighters plant massive roadside bombs, fire mortars and rockets at U.S. bases, and try to incite sectarian violence by killing Shiites in this rural area southwest of Baghdad.
Then the driver’s cellphone rang. An Iraqi soldier picked it up.
Impersonating the driver, the soldier spoke to a man who said he had a new shipment of bomb-making materials and wanted help assembling them.
“Where should we meet?” asked the soldier-turned-detective.
“The same place we always meet,” the caller replied.
Armed with that information, the soldiers immediately interrogated the driver. They learned the names of suspected conspirators and that the group planned to meet at a nearby gas station that evening.
Backed by members of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team, the Iraqi soldiers raided the gas station and several adjoining homes and arrested 19 men. They also confiscated a mountain of Syrian currency, blasting caps, detonators and a substantial amount of explosives.
The raid, part of a weeklong offensive known as Operation Scimitar, suggests U.S. and Iraqi soldiers are starting to work well together to root out insurgents in this area, which is part of the “Triangle of Death.”
During the two months Georgia soldiers have been fighting here, their attitude toward their poorly equipped and trained-on-the-job Iraqi counterparts has gone from suspicion and mistrust to appreciation and, in some cases, admiration.
GIs call Iraqi troops a plus
Instead of keeping the Iraqis at arm’s length, Georgia citizen soldiers are rapidly coming to regard them as essential to their mission.
“The information that came from the cellphone call is the kind of thing our guys never would have been able to obtain on their own,” said Lt. Col. Ben Sartain, 42, of Cleveland, leader of about 70 Georgia soldiers assigned to work with and train the Iraqi army’s 4th Brigade. “The Iraqis are the best intelligence gatherers I’ve ever seen. They know how things should look and sound around here, and they notice right away when anything is out of place.”
Operation Scimitar was the first sustained, multiday operation in which the Georgia soldiers operated with Iraqi troops.
Maj. Jeff Dickerson, 38, a leader of the Cordele-based 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, said having the Iraqi soldiers in on the operation helped considerably, because citizens offer information to them that they would never volunteer to Americans.
“The locals are much more comfortable talking to fellow Iraqis than talking to us,” said Dickerson, a parole officer before becoming a full-time National Guard member. “They know who belongs here and who doesn’t. They recognize subtle differences in accents and customs that we as outsiders would never notice.”
During a week in the field, American and Iraqi soldiers were together around the clock. Between missions, they shared food, drinks and cigarettes, communicating through an elaborate series of gestures when interpreters were absent.
The Iraqis brought watermelons and cantaloupes from local fields and markets. Americans handed out Gator-ade and girlie magazines and traded knives and other equipment for Iraqi army patches.
In addition, the Iraqis are receiving better equipment. A fleet of new, larger trucks arrived recently to replace the decrepit Nissan pickups the Iraqis have used for years. Air conditioners, batteries and small improvements are being installed at their training compound in Mahmudiyah.
In Operation Scimitar, U.S. forces provided food, water and logistical support and used their armored vehicles to provide security. Iraqis manned road checkpoints, searched homes and buildings, and interrogated detainees.
Trust, mutual aid growing
The Iraqis do much more than put an indigenous face on American military muscle, Dickerson said
“They’re doing a lot of the heavy lifting themselves,” he said. “They’re extremely courageous and enthusiastic, and they’re doing meaningful work.”
Dickerson said integrating Iraqis into every aspect of military operations eventually would enable them to take over, the goal of American military commanders here.
“As we show increasing confidence and trust in them,” Dickerson said, “the Iraqi army is beginning to trust itself.”
Sartain, a full-time Guard soldier, said the most lasting benefit from the weeklong effort was broad acceptance by U.S. military units that the Iraqis can increase the overall effectiveness of all units involved.
“Our military units are starting to beg to have the Iraqis participate in their operations,” he said.
Living and working together also has helped allay fears among U.S. soldiers that the Iraqi army has been thoroughly infiltrated by insurgents and isn’t trustworthy.
“People who have resisted the Iraqi army are seeing the light,” Sartain said. “These guys aren’t the enemy. They’re here to defend their country, and they’re saving American lives at the same time.”
