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Thursday, January 26, 2006
Relay points can be lonely outposts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Moni Basu/AJC
Spc. Nathan Rosser, 24, pumps fuel from a truck at Relay Point 10 in southern Iraq.
When the 48th Brigade Combat Team moved out of Camp Striker near the Baghdad airport last October, soldiers of the 148th Support Battalion found themselves scattered all over Iraq.
They are the truck drivers, mechanics, fuelers, ammunition haulers, medics and cooks — the soldiers who support combat units in the field. Some of them were sent to relay points — known as RPs — that dot the desolate landscape in southern Iraq.
Just off what the U.S. military calls Main Supply Route Tampa, the miniature bases assist the convoys that travel this main north-south road between Kuwait and Baghdad. Soldiers stop to refuel, fix vehicles that break down or to seek safe haven within the walls of giant Hescos, mesh bags filled with dirt and sand that form the perimeters of the RPs.
These bases are worlds unto their own; the soldiers live somewhat isolated from the rest of their companies on outposts that do not offer the conveniences of 21st century war.
At Relay Point 10, somewhere between Nasiriyah and Basrah, a solitary Georgia flag flutters above the ground at the main watchtower. The 22 soldiers of the 148th occupy trailer space and cook their own food with groceries and supplies trucked in from Tallil Air Base, about an hour north of here.
Battalion soldiers from Tallil regularly convoy in with water tanks, food and other necessities to sustain the rustic camps. There’s no PX, and dining or recreation facilities here. All the eye can see beyond the sand berms are the deserts of southern Iraq and miles of highway. There is often nothing surrounding these pockets of military life.
“It’s a little boring. When you’re here, you’re here,” said Spc. Nathan Rosser, 24, who works in a Wal-Mart return center in Macon.
But sometimes, the soldiers said, they like the fact they are far from the hustle and bustle. And it can be liberating being away from the watchful eye of the brigade’s command, they joked.
There’s not much to do but “it’s not really that bad,” Rosser said.
Noor released from Atlanta hospital
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Baby Noor, the Iraqi infant who had surgery for spinal defects, has been released from the hospital after a week of monitoring for the possible buildup of fluid in her back, hospital officials said Thursday.
Noor al-Zahra was evaluated by her surgeon, Dr. Roger Hudgins, and listed in good condition before her release Thursday from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She is expected to return to the hospital next week for a checkup, hospital officials said in a statement.
The 4-month old has spina bifida, in which the backbone and spinal cord do not close before birth. She had surgery Jan. 9 to remove a fluid-filled sac from her back and to position her spinal cord in its proper place.
But she returned to the hospital Jan. 18 so doctors could insert a drainage tube after her grandmother noticed swelling in the baby’s back. Hospital officials said the swelling appeared to be a minor accumulation of tissue fluid and not more dangerous spinal fluid, which could have required major surgery and led to a buildup of life-threatening pressure in her brain.
Her father and grandmother have been staying with a host family in the Atlanta area while Noor recovers.
Baby Noor was discovered in December by U.S. troops during a raid. The soldiers noticed paralysis in the baby’s legs and what appeared to be a tumor on her back and contacted U.S. physicians, who agreed to treat her.
