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Monday, October 31, 2005
Heading to a new base
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Convoy Support Center Scania, Iraq — Rain is sprinkling on the windshields of the Humvees as the soldiers roll out of their old base in Mahmudiyah.
Jeremy Redmon/AJC
2nd Lt. Chris Kehl (left) and Sgt. Eric Knight get ready to explore their new home at Convoy Support Center Scania.
Raindrops are a rare sight for the Georgia National Guard soldiers, who have suffered nearly intolerable hot weather for almost six months just south of Baghdad.
The nights are growing chillier now that fall has arrived in Iraq. Along with the heat, the troops from the 1st Battalion, 108th Armor Regiment are leaving behind painful memories.
Insurgents repeatedly attacked them with roadside bombs, mortars and rockets in Mahmudiyah. Meanwhile, the soldiers bonded into a cohesive unit.
Sgt. Eric Knight has mixed feelings as he drives his five-ton truck out of the gate on Halloween, past a red sign at the entrance that reads: “Close With and Kill the Enemy.�
He and about 20 other 48th Brigade Combat Team soldiers were heading to a new base and new missions in southern Iraq Monday morning.
“Somebody told me the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know,� says Knight, 30, a father of three from Guyton.
Second Lt. Chris Kehl sits in the gunner’s hatch next to Knight, manning a .50 caliber machine gun. And next to Kehl sits a third passenger, a talking Yoda doll from the “Star Wars� movies.
Kehl occasionally asks the battery-operated doll questions, squeezing its left hand to trigger responses. In the movies, Yoda is an almost all-knowing creature with a special power called “the force.� Kehl asks it if the new base will have rocky road-flavored ice cream.
“Yes, I feel this will be,� Yoda responds in a gravely voice.
Kehl chuckles about his “comic relief.�
Jeremy Redmon/AJC
2nd Lt. Chris Kehl (top) and Sgt. Eric Knight arrive at their new home, Convoy Support Center Scania.
“If you don’t have humor in war, it’s not really a war,� says Kehl, 32, a software consultant from Atlanta.
Around 9:30 a.m., the convoy arrives at a much larger base near the Baghdad International Airport called Camp Striker. The convoy picks up two soldiers and some tank parts there.
Meanwhile, the battalion commander, Lt. Col. John King, attends a ceremony in which the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division officially takes over control of the 48th’s area of operations.
The 48th is being moved to several bases across Iraq.
Knight and Kehl get going again in the afternoon. As they travel south, they pass young boys begging along side the roads. They see farmers mining salt from pools of standing water. Kehl occasionally fires warning shots from his machine gun as Iraqi motorists get too close to his vehicle.
Along the highway, they see street lights in Iraq for the first time and wonder if they work at night. They drive by an odd sight in this war-torn country: picnic tables and umbrellas lining the highway.
Finally, around 3:30 p.m. they arrive at their new base, 65 miles south of Baghdad. Knight waves at a fellow soldier from the 108th, who is manning the front gate. He and Kehl see other friends jogging in T-shirts and shorts. In Mahmudiyah, they were required to wear body armor and helmets because of the threats posed by insurgents.
They see soldiers playing volleyball and basketball. There was a Halloween costume party here a few days ago. And they have several flavors of ice cream in the cafeteria. Knight and Kehl are home.
‘We have lost a lot of people’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Yusufiyah, Iraq - The Iraqi soldier wears a green mask over his face to work. He reveals only his brown eyes as he mans his checkpoint.
Dozens of Iraqis see Mahmud Abdul Karim when they cross the bridge he guards each day. He dons the mask because he doesn’t want them to recognize him when he goes on leave to his home in Nasiriyah south of here.
Louie Favorite/AJC
An Iraqi soldier mans a checkpoint near Yusafiyah.
Insurgents have killed scores of other Iraqi soldiers for cooperating with the U.S. military. Karim said he knows of at least 70 fellow soldiers who have been killed while on leave.
“We have lost a lot of people,” said Karim, 24, who has served in the Iraqi Army for 15 months. “They stay in the street and wait for us.”
Part of the problem is Iraq’s banking system. It is in disarray, leaving Karim and other Iraqi soldiers with no reliable place to deposit their money.
The soldiers are paid roughly the equivalent of $300 U.S. a month, which is a lot of money in this farming community south of Baghdad. On average, people make $50 a month in this area, according to U.S. soldiers.
The Iraqi soldiers receive their pay in cash. And they carry it with them on leave, sometimes traveling many miles with it. That’s when they face the greatest danger.
To protect themselves, many Iraqi soldiers like Karim wear disguises. Some wear bandanas over their faces. Some wear ski masks with slits for their eyes and mouths.
And when they leave here to visit their families, they shed their uniforms and put on civilian clothes. In some parts of this country, it is still not safe to travel alone in an Iraq Army uniform.
