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Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Commander quells rumors of early return
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Baghdad, Iraq — Every soldier has his or her way of counting down the days to going home.
Some count paychecks; others strike out days on calendars or simply post the magic number on the walls of their trailers or tents.
Then there is wishful thinking.
Rumors have swirled about the possibility of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Team returning to Georgia before a year’s deployment in the Middle East. Now it looks like it won’t.
Last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumseld, on a visit to Baghdad, said that President Bush had authorized new cuts in U.S. forces below the 138,000-troop level that has prevailed for most of this year.
He did not reveal a specific figure, but the top military commander in Iraq and the U.S. ambassador said in a statement that the reduction would involve two combat brigades, or about 7,000 troops.
“That will bring down the total level from 17 brigades to 15,” Gen. George Casey and Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said.
But the Georgia brigade’s commander, Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver, dispelled talk of early departures from Iraq during a stopover Wednesday at Baghdad’s Camp Liberty, where Gainesville-based Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment is stationed.
Rodeheaver said he was required by the Army to have at least 51 percent of the brigade home by May 16, one full year after the Georgia soldiers left the tall, piney forests of Fort Stewart for the Kuwaiti desert. The brigade entered Iraq in early June.
“My goal is to get about 80 to 90 percent of the brigade back home by May 16,” Rodeheaver said on a trip from Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq, where the brigade’s headquarters is now located.
He outlined a timetable for 48th companies to trickle out of Iraq. A small “torch party” would leave Iraq by Feb. 15, Rodeheaver said. A month later, an advance party would make its way back to Fort Stewart to make preparations for the arrival of the rest of the brigade.
Companies will begin leaving their posts most likely in April. The brigade officially hands over its mission to an incoming Army unit on May 1, Rodeheaver said.
He told the soldiers to expect a minimum of a three-day stay in Kuwait and then at least six days at Fort Stewart before they can go home to their families.
“All of you know, you’ve got to keep doing your missions until you get out of here,” Rodeheaver said. “The thing I need you to do between now and when you go back home is to keep each other safe.”
Men of the ‘Lost Company’ lift hopes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Curtis Compton/AJC
Charlie Company soldiers patrol Dec. 13 through the Al-Ban Apartments, one of the poorest areas around Baghdad.
Abu Ghraib, Iraq — Not many years ago, they were high school students learning history, geography and civics at Cross Creek High School in Augusta.
Their teacher, Anthony Fournier, would sometimes issue an order or two: “Run to the library” or “Make a copy of this chapter for me.”
Now, Fournier’s orders are far more serious.
As the commander of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, Capt. Fournier has three of his former students — Spc. Joseph Noble, Spc. Patrick Walworth and Cpl. Wade Key — patrolling dangerous neighborhoods in the Abu Ghraib district of Iraq.
Noble was involved in a recent incident that ended with the shooting and killing of a drive-by gunman.
“I imagine it’s a little strange for them to be out here with their teacher,” Fournier said. “Sometimes I find myself out on a raid, and I’m in a room with just my guys. The same kid I used to send to the library is now carrying a [machine gun].”
Fournier commands about 150 men. The soldiers call themselves the “Lost Company” because since they arrived in Iraq last May, they have been separated from their parent unit, the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team.
Charlie Company soldiers even had T-shirts made bearing the name they adopted.
Parceled out first to the 3rd Infantry Division, then to the 256th Brigade Combat Team from Louisiana and now to the 10th Mountain Division, Gainesville-based Charlie Company is the lone 48th Brigade unit stationed at Camp Liberty, a sprawling complex that hugs the Baghdad airport.
The soldiers said they have had little contact with brigade officials, now at Tallil Air Base in southeastern Iraq, or their friends in other units from Georgia. But Fournier said that has not necessarily been a bad thing.
“I think being attached to active-duty battalions has been great for the company,” he said. “We’re brushing shoulders with pretty esteemed divisions. And my men are holding their own and then some.”
In the seven months that Charlie Company soldiers have been at Liberty, they have patrolled impoverished east Abu Ghraib in their armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles, scouring the neighborhoods for insurgents.
Fournier said his soldiers have captured nine suspects in the past few weeks.
“Our informants are starting to give us accurate [intelligence] as they see us snatch the bad guys,” Fournier said, “and the informants see that their identity is staying secret.”
Since its arrival in Iraq, Charlie Company has been hit with more than 30 bombs and been involved in four rocket-propelled grenade ambushes and dozens of small arms and mortar attacks.
Caring for residents
The company lost one Bradley to what Fournier described as a “rather huge” roadside bomb.
“God watched over my men that day, as the blast was enough to push the engine through the armored hood,” he said.
Fournier said morale is high among his men: The company has 19 soldiers who have re-enlisted in the Guard, and six others have applied for a transfer to active duty following redeployment.
“I feel like a coach or like a father who has kids excelling at stuff,” Fournier said of the soldiers, some of whom he has known for 10 years. “It’s just a real good feeling.”
More than anything, though, Fournier said his soldiers know their job is more than just rounding up terror suspects.
“We want to show the people how soldiers act in a democracy by interacting with the local population,” he said.
Charlie Company has been building a reputation for doing just that. A medic who sometimes goes out on patrol with the Georgia soldiers described the unit as “very caring.”
On a typical patrol through an area known as White Gold — milk production from water buffaloes was once big business here — the soldiers stopped to hear the concerns of residents.
“How has it been since the election?” asked 1st Lt. Jeff Morgan, a Douglas County engineering inspector.
A group of men standing amid a heap of trash nodded their heads and replied: “Quiet. Good.”
A woman interrupted, pleading with the soldiers to take a look at her daughter.
“This happened a few years ago,” said Hamida Madloum, pointing to her 13-year-old daughter Amel Ali.
Amel flashed a big smile, but she had large scars on her face. Her left eye was closed. Her right eye was milky white.
Where her right forearm should have been was a stump.
Amel was playing with a grenade she found in a field when it exploded in her hands.
Morgan looked at Amel and her mother.
“Tell them,” he said to an interpreter, “next time I am out with a doctor, I’ll swing by and let her take a look at the girl.”
Up close and hopeful
Charlie Company went next to check on a diabetic man who had both legs amputated because of an infection. The right leg was taken off just weeks ago.
Ali Hassoun sat on a rug on the floor of the front room of his house. The smell of incense wafted through the open halls, overpowering the stench of garbage and cow dung outside.
Morgan handed a battery-powered stuffed hamster toy to Hassoun’s grandson as he asked Hassoun to unwrap his wound. He could tell Hassoun had not be dressing it properly: The bandages were stained with pus.
Morgan explained to the family why Hassoun’s leg had to be properly tended. In the background, the hamster played “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” over and over.
The soldiers walked on through the dirty streets of White Gold, where the war had taken its toll.
Morgan surmised that trash pickup and proper sewage service was nonexistent because residents did not want to be identified with Americans and because of local government corruption.
“Everyone wants their uncle to get the garbage pick-up contract,” he said.
Still, Ibrahim Sabah Ali told Morgan that “everyone here is happy after the election.” He was hopeful the violence would wane.
Charlie Company soldiers were happy to hear optimism in Iraqi voices.
The sooner things settle down, the sooner they can go home, they told themselves.
A former Iraqi Embassy official echoed the thought. Faisal Solaybi al-Jumaili said now that the elections are over, Iraq is headed for change. Al-Jumaili had traveled to Abu Ghraib from Mansour, one of Baghdad’s wealthiest neighborhoods.
He opened up a plastic bag to show why. In it was a liter-size water bottle filled with fresh buffalo milk. He was pleased to have found White Gold.
Baby is Atlanta-bound for treatment of spina bifida
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Abu Ghraib, Iraq — Baby Noor al-Zahra, born with spina bifida and little chance of survival in the slums of Abu Ghraib, made her first move Tuesday in a long journey that Georgia soldiers pray will end, possibly this week, with medical care in Atlanta.
And perhaps give the frail child new hope for life.
Born in September with the severe spinal cord defect, Noor was discovered by soldiers of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team earlier this month when they raided the family home looking for suspected insurgents.
After two weeks of sorting out bureaucracy — it’s not logistically easy to shuttle Iraqi citizens out of the war zone — and frantic communications with military officials, lawmakers and a host of Atlanta-area hospitals and charitable organizations, Gainesville-based soldiers picked up the baby, her father and grandmother Tuesday night and carried them back in a Humvee to Baghdad’s Camp Liberty.
“I’ll feel much relieved when we get her under a doctor’s care,” said Capt. Anthony Fournier, commander of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment.
The soldiers had instructed Noor’s family to be ready to go at a moment’s notice because when arrangements finally fell into place, there would be no time to waste; for Noor, every passing day lessened her chances of survival.
With just one last obstacle remaining — clearance for Noor to enter the United States — Fournier thought it best to bring the baby on base to be seen by military doctors.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said the senator has been in touch with the American Embassy in Baghdad and that the paperwork for Noor and her relatives should be processed within two days or so.
“I’m very pleased that Baby Nora is now at a place where she can receive the critical attention she needs,” Chambliss said in a statement sent via e-mail, calling the baby by the soldiers’ nickname for her.
“This has been a top priority of mine over the past few days,” Chambliss added. “I’m proud of our troops, and we will continue our efforts to get her back to Georgia, where she can be treated.”
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is committed to treating the child at no cost, spokeswoman Jennifer Sinclair said Tuesday night.
Hours earlier, when Fournier took his men back to Abu Ghraib, he was concerned that the family would not yet be ready to go. He was unsure if they had been able to obtain passports on such quick notice — and if the family would be ready to let go of the child who lit up their lives.
For family members, whose full names are being withheld because of security issues, the moment was bittersweet. They want so much to see Noor receive the medical care she desperately needs. But America, the land of the gun-toting soldiers they know little about, is so far away.
“Please don’t be afraid,” Fournier told Noor’s grandmother Soad through an interpreter as he looked over the three passports handed to him by the woman draped in black. “We are going to take care of you.”
Three of Soad’s daughters quickly packed a bag for her and Noor. They gave Soad a brand-new black purse to carry with her to America.
Tears rolled down the cheeks of Noor’s mother, Iman. Only two adults could go with her only child: It was decided that her mother-in-law, Soad, the matriarch of the family, would be one; the baby’s father, Haider, would be the other. The family thought it was inappropriate for a Muslim woman to travel unaccompanied by a male relative.
“I am happy my baby is going,” said Iman, wiping tears. She knew that it could be many months before she would see her baby again. “It’s hard to be separated like this. But what else can I do?”
Once Noor is fully evaluated by a pediatrician here and the family gets permission to travel to America, Charlie Company hopes to put Noor, Soad and Haider on a commercial flight to Atlanta.
Under cover of night — Noor’s family lives in an impoverished area west of Baghdad that is racked with political violence — the soldiers came into the modest house where they had found the baby two weeks ago during a raid for suspected insurgents. They were smitten with the tiny girl, cradled in her mother’s arms.
“Most of my guys are fathers,” said Sgt. 1st Class Michael Sonen, a furniture maker from Dahlonega. “We would do anything we could to take care of our babies. It’s been a little frustrating that this is not working as fast as it could.
“She’s so young,” Sonen said. “What makes my daughter more special than this child? Nothing.”
Noor was born with a severe form of spina bifida, in which her spinal cord was not fully enclosed during her prenatal development. She has a large, tumor-like growth on her back.
With no resources to treat her, Iraqi doctors told the family that Noor would not survive more than 45 days, but she beat the odds.
Charlie Company Lt. Jeff Morgan, a Douglas County engineering inspector, contacted his church back home for help. As the case drew more attention, the soldiers saw that their Christmas wish might come true.
“I am thankful that this child is being given a chance for a normal life, but she still has a long way to go,” Morgan said.
Military doctors who have examined Noor said she is showing some signs of developmental delay but she could still have a chance at a productive life. Maj. Susan Robinson, an Army doctor who examined Noor on Tuesday, said she was doing well, “considering.”
Babies born with this severe form of spina bifida usually don’t survive very long.
In the United States, the defect is usually treated with surgery in utero or within the first few hours of birth.
As Robinson checked her, Noor smiled at her from a blanket-covered bed in a soldier’s trailer. Soad covered the frail child with a white-lace zippered quilt to shield her from the night’s chill.
“She’s fragile, but she looks good. She will probably end up in a wheelchair, but she’s doing remarkably well,” Robinson said. Spina bifida often causes paralysis of the legs.
Spina bifida also could cause brain damage from too much spinal fluid buildup, Robinson said. Soad explained to the doctor that the baby’s head was getting big.
“Where at the top of her head does it feel big?” Robinson asked, feeling Noor’s head.
“It is bigger, especially in the forehead,” Soad said.
Robinson said surgeons in the United States probably would have to insert a shunt to help the fluid drain.
The doctor’s visit was happily interrupted by Sgt. 1st Class James Wong of the 48th Brigade’s Chicago-based 133rd Signal Battalion, Alpha Company. He burst into the trailer with two beanbag toys for Noor.
“We heard the baby was here,” Wong said. “I love babies. I’ve got two of my own. That’s what we’re here for — to take care of the kids for the future.”
Fournier picked up a can of baby formula the grandmother carried and asked: “Is this the last of it?”
“Yes,” Soad replied.
“OK, we’ll get some more,” said Fournier, writing down the name of the formula: Dieluc. “Can she eat oatmeal?”
His question generated a stream of laughter from both interpreter and grandmother. “No,” Soad said. “She is only 3 months old.”
Later, at Charlie Company headquarters, Fournier joked about calling in his latest assignment for his soldiers.
“Here’s the mission,” he said. “Find the baby formula. Stand by for the name.”
Staff writer Maryn McKenna contributed to this report.
