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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Bullets, Braves and boiled peanuts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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| Louie Favorite / AJC |
| Cpl. Michael NeSmith of 1st Battalion, 6th Marines walking back to the 17th Street security station in the Jumaiyah neighborhood of Ramadi. |
Ramadi, Iraq - Cpl. Michael NeSmith, 33, a former lineman with Albany Water, Gas & Light, joined the U.S. Marine Corps three years ago. So did Lance Cpl. Clinton Fort, 22, of Marietta.
The two went through basic training together and did a tour in Fallujah in 2005. Last fall they arrived in Ramadi, then Iraq’s most dangerous city, with 1st Battalion, 6th Marines.
Here in central Ramadi, the two Georgians share space with the rest of Alpha Company and a host of Iraqi security forces in a multi-story building that used to be a school at one time.
The idea is for the Americans to live among the people. The 17th Street security station is in the middle of the Jumaiyah neighborhood, where, until a few weeks ago, the sound of gunfire, mortars and makeshift bombs reverberated daily.
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| Louie Favorite / AJC |
| Cpl. Michael NeSmith, 33, of Albany, and Lance Cpl. Clinton Fort, 22, of Marietta. |
The concrete is crumbling off the walls. The broken staircase leading to the roof is precarious in parts. The hallways are a haze of dust. The dining room resembles a Vietnam-era mess tent - dark, dingy and devoid of hot food found in the chow halls at big U.S. military bases.
The Marines sleep in proper rooms, but they are crowded - 10 to 12 guys on bunk beds. No room for footlockers or tables or anything, really, but you, your rucksack and a pillow.
There’s no running water in the building, which means no showers or bathrooms. There aren’t even port-a-johns here. The Marines use disposable WAG bags,” dry toilet waste bags with Pooh Powder that works sort of like kitty litter.
It’s down to the basics for the Marines and soldiers who occupy these security stations throughout Ramadi. But that’s how it should be, they say, when you are at war.
An Army platoon sergeant once described Baghdad’s sprawling Camp Victory complex — with amenities like beauty salons, Pizza Huts and a swimming pool — as Disneyland. He said infantrymen should live like the grunts that they are in a combat zone; that a place like Liberty gave Iraq a surreal quality.
Ramadi’s 17th Street security station never lets anyone forget that the war is here. And now.
NeSmith and Fort say the living conditions are rough but being in the thick of the battle helped them win the trust of the local people.
“It’s letting them know we’re here to help,” NeSmith says. “The people are beginning to stand up for themselves.”
NeSmith and Fort talk about home with each other to keep sane - boiled peanuts, hunting, the Braves.
Alpha Company has a handful of Georgians who bear the brunt of jokes sometimes from their fellow Yankee Marines.
NeSmith, for instance, has to suppress the urge to say, “y’all.”
Navy Hospital Corpsman Tristan McCauley of Riverdale shakes his head in disapproval.
“Somebody show Georgia some love,” says the medic attached to Alpha Company, “‘cause we don’t get enough of it here.
“Georgia - it’s the Empire State of the South.”
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| Louie Favorite / AJC |
| Medic Tristan McCauley, 22, in the room he shares at the 17th Street security station. |
