Home > Georgians@War > Archives > 2007 > March > 20
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Marking time in Iraq …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ninevah province, Iraq — The concept of time is altered out here in the northern Iraqi desert, where the days of war are marked not by calendars but by the sun and moon. And when the next mission begins.
 |
| Louie Favorite/AJC |
| Staff Sgt. Brett Paul of 2nd platoon of Company H, 121st Infantry (ABN)(LRS) detains an Iraqi briefly after weapons were in his family’s home. He was released because he had the proper permit for the weapons |
• More photos from Company H patrol
The birth of Tuesday, March 20, 2007, is heralded by three distinct sounds:
Staff Sgt. Damon Russell yells, “It’s 06:00. Time to wake up, ladies!” and soon afterward there is the revving of engines as drivers warm up their Humvees. And then, a lone soldier’s song: “It’s a Beautiful Morning …”
The dew has barely dried off weeds sprouting on sand-swept dunes when 2nd Platoon, Company H, 121st Infantry (ABN) (LRS) rolls out of the gates of this Iraqi border outpost, where they have been camping out.
It is a day like countless others for these Georgia men who belong to a long-range surveillance company based at Fort Gillem in suburban Atlanta. In daylight, they gather information on suspicious people. At night, they hide near ramparts separating Iraq from Syria, trying to catch illegal border crossers and their smuggled goods and weaponry.
The Humvees traverse rugged terrain through the Sinjar Mountains to surprise the residents of Barrah, a densely populated village in the valley. On the way, Spc. John Giunta, a student at North Georgia College and State University, notes a giant crater created by a bomb that disabled an armored vehicle a while back.
That’s another way American soldiers mark time in Iraq. When was the last bomb? The last firefight?
The Sinjar Valley is inhabited in part by Yezidis, an obscure community who follow a little-known religion. They are not Muslims and have few allegiances to sectarian factions in Iraq. But poverty can propel anyone into wrongful acts. That makes few in Iraq free from suspicion.
In Barrah, Staff Sgt. Jon Hughes of Gainesville talks to the mayor while his men search the house and surrounding compound. The soldiers empty out cabinets and toss weapons and ammunition onto an open verandah.
“It’s another day in the office,” says Spc. Andrew Prater, 2nd Platoon’s young medic from Newnan, repeating a line often heard from soldiers.
It’s another day that takes Prater and his comrades closer to home. That is a soldier’s mental calendar.
Not that the significance of every day is lost amid war. Sunday was 1st Sgt. John Gunning’s birthday. Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day — the soldiers chowed down on green corn bread and cake at the dining hall back at Forward Operating Base Sykes in Tal Afar.
They never forget a child’s birthday. Or a wedding anniversary. But ask a soldier what day of the week it is and the answer might require some calculating.
On this Tuesday in March, while Hughes is inside speaking with the mayor, Staff Sgt. Brett Paul of Columbus takes three soldiers with him to a small shed at one end of the property.
Sgt. Ryan Stephens, another student at North Georgia College and State Univerity, opens up a wooden box. Inside are 5,000 rounds of 7.62 ammo that can be fired with an AK-47 automatic assault rifle. Iraqis are allowed only one AK-47 per household and only one magazine, or about 30 rounds of ammunition.
Hughes gets on his radio and calls Capt. Kenneth Hutnick at the Company H headquarters at Sykes. “Do you want us to confiscate the rounds?” he asks.
The answer is yes. The soldiers pack the ammo into the trunk of a Humvee, and soon they are racing through the desert again, in full body armor, machine guns pointed outward from the gunner’s turrets.
Second Platoon has to get back to the border fort. By 7 this evening, they are due to head back out on reconnaissance.
In the Iraqi fort’s courtyard, Sgt. Billy Massingale gathers his usual group for a round of Yahtzee. Prater knifes open his second MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) of the day. Others use the precious down time for a nap.
Theirs is a world far removed from the streets of Washington, where anti-war marchers voiced their sentiments this weekend, and from the streets of Baghdad, where bloody attacks marked the start of the war’s fifth year. Those are the images that America saw this Tuesday, March 20.
But Company H soldiers took no notice of the date. The war’s anniversary is a milestone unobserved on this edge of Iraq.
As the sun sets, 2nd Platoon soldiers are back outside, gearing up. All they know right now is that it’s time for another mission.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Reports from Iraq
