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Thursday, September 22, 2005
Low on ordnance, high in spirits
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Photos by Jeremy RedmonCmdr. Roxanne Tweedy
Camp Arifjan, Kuwait — They may not be afraid of insurgents’ gunshots and exploding bombs. But some wounded soldiers sure are scared of needles.
They faint at the sight of needles at the U.S. Emergency Medical Facility Dallas at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. Others pass out when pricked.
Navy Commander Roxanne Tweedy knows the soldiers are on edge, so she jokes around with them.
For example, the nurse hung an eye-magnet of a photo in front of the patients’ beds. The picture shows a rifle-wielding soldier tied to the wing of a jet plane. The caption says: “military cutbacks.”
Then there is the Tweety Bird cartoon decal stuck on her left index finger. She threatens to flip patients the bird if they don’t behave.
“Military cutbacks”
“They are scared enough to begin with,” said Tweedy, of Tallahassee, Fla. “They would rather be in Iraq.”
Tweedy said she is simply trying to bring a “little sunshine” into their wounded lives.
Booze wrapped in body armor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Camp Arifjan, Kuwait — Don’t even try to bring alcohol into Kuwait.
It’s on the U.S. military’s list of “don’ts in Kuwait.â€? In official talk, it’s called “General Order Number 1A.” And soldiers must abide by it.
Booze is not the only thing banned. Also on the list: privately owned firearms, pornography, gambling, pets and promoting any religions.
The Army says it wants to be sensitive to “countries where laws and customs prohibit or restrict certain activities which are generally permissible in western societies.”
Jerry Williamson a documentary film maker from Redlands, Calif., learned the hard way recently at the Kuwait International Airport.
He had a bottle of scotch with him. It was a gift for a soldier.
Airport agents X-rayed his bags after he and a colleague got off the plane. They didn’t seem interested in their cameras, wires and tripods. And they weren’t concerned about Williamson’s body armor. But they wanted what was wrapped inside it.
Williams said the agent scowled at him as he confiscated the bottle.
“That was the only thing they were interested in,” Williamson said. “They went right after that bottle. It was good Scotch, too. Glenfiddich. Twelve years old.”
Of course, Williamson scoffed, the agent probably drank it on his way home.
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Captain wants to ease her sight plight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Camp Taji, Iraq — More than a month ago, Capt. Alan Hicks promised a young girl in a central Iraqi village that he would help her regain sight in her right eye. He had told her mother he would never forget her daughter’s plight.
Sara Hussein damaged the eye three years ago when playing ball with her brother. Hicks, an Army reservist from Birmingham, Ala., told Sara’s family he would seek medical treatment so that Sara, 12, could see again.
He made good on his promise, but it wasn’t enough.
Sara was taken to the head of ophthalmology at a Baghdad hospital a few weeks ago. The prognosis, however, was not what Hicks wanted to hear.
The ophthalmologist told Hicks that all he could do was remove the bad eye and replace it with a prosthetic one.
“It’s not looking good,� said Hicks, who serves with Alpha Company of the 490th Civil Affairs Battalion.
Hicks’ soldiers routinely check up on residents who live in villages along the Tigris River 20 miles north of Baghdad. The Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Team Combat Team provides security for those missions.
But Hicks, who works for the Alabama Organ Center back home, hasn’t given up yet. Sara can see light with her bad eye, but she can no longer focus on anything.
“In the U.S., there might be a way to save her eye,� he said. “There’s probably a couple of places that could treat her. We are going to try to get her over there.�
48th will range widely in new Iraq security role
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Camp Striker, Iraq — The 48th Brigade Combat Team’s new mission in Iraq will involve providing security for major highways and bases throughout the country, brigade officials said Wednesday.
Instead of patrolling and securing specific areas of Iraq, the 4,500 soldiers in the Georgia Army National Guard unit will be splintered among several camps and will focus more on security than on combat missions.
“This is a totally separate and different mission,” said Lt. Col. Mark London, the brigade’s operations officer. “This is a theater security mission.”
London said one of the 48th’s four combat battalions would be dedicated solely to convoy security.
Another will be posted at a base north of Baghdad to provide base security, while a third will go to Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq as a security force for that facility.
The fourth combat battalion will head west near the Syrian border to work with multinational coalition forces. That battalion will be the only one responsible for controlling a specific piece of terrain.
London declined to say which battalions would be assigned to which areas for operational security reasons.
But it is believed that the 1st Battalion, 118th Field Artillery Regiment, out of Springfield, will be moving to Camp Anaconda near Balad, north of Baghdad. The battalion currently is stationed at Camp Taji, in the same vicinity.
“It’s not like we are being pulled out of combat into a noncombat role,” London said. “We have convoys hit every day by IEDs [improvised explosive devices], or they get ambushed.”
The brigade headquarters will be located at Tallil, but there will be a forward command post located north of Baghdad.
The 48th is picking up duties from the 56th Brigade Combat Team from Texas, which is due to return to the United States at the end of the year. The 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., is scheduled to take over control of the southwest Baghdad area from the 48th.
Since its arrival in Iraq in early June for a yearlong tour, the 48th has been responsible for a large area south and west of Baghdad International Airport. Some of this area stretches into what is known as the Triangle of Death because of the anti-American insurgency, fueled largely by the predominantly Sunni Muslim population.
The brigade has been engaged in missions to snuff out insurgent activity and promote reconstruction and civil affairs projects. Much of that activity will stop when it shifts gears.
Brigade Command Sgt. Major James Nelson said officers were doing all they could to keep platoons together when the 48th is dispersed.
“We try to keep teams together whenever possible,” he said.
But the prospect of being separated from platoon mates or battle buddies concerned some soldiers at Camp Striker as details of the big move began trickling down into the tents.
“Separating us now is like taking away our backbone,” said Sgt. Rufus Veal of the Dublin-based Alpha Company of the 148th Support Battalion. “We’re like family. We need each other.”
Soldiers from the brigade’s support units will be sent wherever they are needed to supply the four combat battalions, London said. That means that companies of the 148th Support Battalion might be split up after having trained and deployed together for 10 months.
London said the 48th’s move was part of the military’s plan to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.
“As we stand up Iraqi units and as their numbers go up, ours go down,” London said. “As Iraqi security forces increase, they have to restructure the battle space. And as [U.S.] units move out, they have to restructure other units to cover them.”
Another National Guard unit that was providing convoy and base security — the 29th Brigade Combat Team from Hawaii — also is scheduled to leave Iraq by December or January.
Both the 56th BCT and the 29th BCT are conducting “critical security missions” that the 48th soldiers will assume in the weeks ahead.
No timetable has been given for the moves, but in an earlier interview Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver, commander of the 48th, said they were likely to happen in the next two months.
There are about 17 U.S. combat brigades in Iraq and a total of about 135,000 soldiers. Senior military officials recently told The Washington Post that a reduction of American forces was possible after the Iraqi national elections in December, depending on the training of Iraqi soldiers and the intensity of violence in the country.
London said 48th officials expected their role change because the Georgia soldiers came into Iraq under an off-cycle rotation. The brigade entered Iraq almost six months after the 3rd Infantry Division, to which it is now attached, and had planned for a new mission to begin as the Fort Stewart-based unit began returning home in December.
“We came in five to six months after the 3rd ID,” London said. “That’s why we got caught between two missions.”
London acknowledged the 48th would be widely scattered but said retaining command of such a large unit should not be a problem because of current technological advances in communications.
“It will obviously be more difficult,” he said. “But really, it’s no different than us talking to the 108th in Mahmudiyah.”
Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 108th Armor Regiment, have been based in three forward operating bases located in Mahmudiyah, Lutafiyah and Yusufiyah, near the Euphrates River south of Baghdad.
