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Safe arrival in Mahmudiyah
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Forward Operating Base St. Michael — Curtis and I arrived safely in Mahmudiyah about 15 miles south of Baghdad in the wee hours Monday morning along with about 60 soldiers, most from the 108th Armor Regiment, who traveled by ground.
The last portion of the two-day trip was surreal. All the drivers put on night vision goggles and we made the hazardous drive with all the lights out. We weren’t traveling terribly fast, I’d guess between 30 and 45 miles per hour, but the Humvee I was riding in occasionally would maneuver pretty violently to avoid concrete barriers, potholes and other obstacles. In the back, I wouldn’t see the obstacles until we went by. With no moon, it was “dark, dark.”
We were shot at a few times. I could definitely see tracer rounds arcing over some of the other vehicles. But the Hummer I was in got through unscathed.
The main danger is IEDs (improvised explosive devices), and we didn’t encounter any.
Curiously, when the convoy first came under fire, one of the guys in my Hummer started singing a Boy George tune from the 1980s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?”
The driver was doing his best Mr. Scott impression from Star Trek: “I’m giving it all she’s got captain! Should I activate the lithium crystals?” His Scottish accent was a little off, though, and I kept thinking how much he sounded like Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies.
I don’t think these insurgents have any idea what they’re up against.
The surroundings here in Mahmudiyah are verdant compared to the harsh desert of Kuwait or southern Iraq, and the place might be pleasant except that we’re getting shot at fairly regularly.
There was a noisy machine gun barrage about 4 a.m. as the gunners in the guard towers cut loose at something outside the camp. There was sporadic fire at mid-morning, but by noon all was quiet.
Soldiers here say a kind of unofficial truce takes place at mid-day when everyone pretty much agrees that trying to kill each other just requires too much effort. Better to take a siesta until evening.
The camp here has all the necessities; food twice a day, laundry and showers.
There’s a former chicken factory – known to the soldiers as “the chicken factory” — where the officers live in air-conditioned rooms with wooden walls and floors. Most of the soldiers, as well as Curtis and I, are in tents where we sleep on cots.
At our “Welcome to Mahmudiyah” briefing this morning, the soldiers were ordered not to complain to people outside their own units, and not to refer to Arabs as “hajiis.” The term has become ubiquitous among U.S. soldiers, and can be used to describe any Arab but is generally meant to describe the insurgents.
There was some chatter about what to call the bad guys if hajii was deemed inappropriate. Some wanted to revert to “Charlie,” the word used to describe the Viet Cong a few wars ago. Others suggested “Benji,” “knucklehead,” or just “casualty.’”
Other units from the 48th are at Camp Taji — known as a “Super FOB” for its swimming pool, plush accommodations and upscale PX and dining facility— while others are at Camp Liberty and Camp Stryker.
Camp Stryker is the low-rent side of the Camp Liberty complex at the Baghdad airport, but it’s still the big city. Thousands of soldiers pass through there every day, and the PX is reputed to be the largest outside the U.S.; it’s like the New York City of FOBs.
Some of the soldiers I talk to here say they don’t want to move to better digs, however. They say they like being on their own away from the higher-ups who tend to micro-manage their every action.
And they like the area. It’s big, about 40 square kilometers, and geographically larger than Baghdad. There’s a lot of insurgent activity, but the soldiers say they’re preparing to go on the offensive — and that idea appeals to them.
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