Mike v. Mesopotamia: June 2009

Hey strangers! Please accept my apologies for the long absence – as predicted free time has become a precious commodity and I’ve been using most of mine lately to sleep. Since my last post I took another trip and of course promptly got stuck due to the nastiest sand storm we’ve had here so far. My stay wound up lasting twice as long as intended again, and although it was shorter than my trip to CCCI, it was much more operational in nature and a lot dirtier, so you can imagine the corresponding increase in hobo-power I experienced. Finally got a ride home in a General’s helo after they dropped the big dog off – video of that to come if Youtube will ever cooperate.

My fellow 25ID Navy JAG and I headed down to FOB Warhorse just outside the city of Baqubah, home of the 1^st Brigade Stryker Combat Team and one of our four investigative task forces. Our goal was to get out in Baqubah with our MA’s and investigators for a few days to meet with the local Iraqi Police and get some face time with a local judge to try and get some local national assistance with investigations. Baqubah is in Diyala province, which begins in the suburbs northeast of Baghdad and runs all the way to the border with Iran. It’s a pretty extreme ethnic melting pot and as you can imagine it’s been the site of a great deal of ethnic and sectarian violence in the last few years. Things have calmed down significantly since the peak of nastiness about two years ago, but it’s still a very unstable area.

As bases here go, Warhorse is a completely different animal than I’m accustomed to. When I arrived on Speicher, I found it to be refreshingly distant from the flagpole at VBC/IZ and a lot more focused on operations, but it’s still a division level HQ and the perspective here is accordingly wide-angle. Warhorse is the real deal. It’s not as raw as the really compact battalion and below level bases you’ll find inside the cities (for a few more days anyway), but it’s been at the tip of the spear for a long time and you can definitely tell they live life differently down there. IDF is an ever present threat and kinetic operations are just a few minutes’ drive away in Baqubah proper. I’ve been wishing for an experience more “real” than you’ll find on VBC, and I got it. And you know what they say about getting what you wish for…

We headed out on two missions with the local Police Transition Team (PTT – pronounced “pit”). These teams have worked since the beginning of our reconstruction efforts to equip and train the Iraqi Police at all levels. I got my first exposure to the PTT mission back in DC through several of my PEB clients who had received disabling injuries in the line of duty here. Not fun work, but very important. The Diyala Provincial team we rolled with were awesome – utterly professional and very serious about their mission, but at the same time very welcoming of us legal weenies trying to help in our way. We spent two full days at an IP station in Baqubah meeting with the police, and eventually an extremely elusive judge (judges are prime targets here – can’t blame the guy for keeping a low profile) trying to get some investigative and judicial assistance on cases we’re pushing out to them. I don’t know how successful we were. This is a hard culture for a foreigner to do business in and our fiscal rules hinder us from doing business in the traditional Iraqi manner. We got some face time and raised awareness though, and that seems to be a first… sooooo…. Hooyah progress.

At any rate I’ve got two real live outside-the-wire missions under my belt and my convoy count is steadily rising – for anybody keeping score I guess that means I’m really living the dream. Many more to come, including Mosul later this summer which will be a real challenge due to the security situation there. I’m enjoying myself immensely and I’m doing things that I’m sure I’ll look back on years from now in sheer amazement. I keep having these moments of miniature revelation in which I feel like I’m waking up from a dream, take a look around and think to myself “holy #@$&! I’m in Iraq and this is happening.” I’ve been in some truly surreal situations these first six weeks. Pretty weird. Happens a lot just before leaving the wire, flying, etc. I don’t know if that will go away. On the one hand I make a conscious effort to treat everything in my life like an adventure and stay amazed, but on the other hand it’s a constant battle against complacency here because at any moment circumstances can change drastically and we all need to stay sharp. It’s not wearing on me and the fact that I don’t do this kind of thing every day is a blessing for me, but not everyone is so fortunate. As such I view the work I do from my desk above all else as an effort to support those who do it all the time. Guys put their lives on the line to capture the criminals that are only infrequently more than obnoxiously huge PDF files to me, and I’m glad I’m acquiring the real-world experience to appreciate that. I think it’s essential to do this kind of thing to fully understand the situation were in and make appropriate decisions – it’s a shame not everyone has the opportunity to do so. Lucky me, huh?

In other news – a camel spider was recently captured at the Warhorse DHA (Detainee Holding Area – “dee-haw” – mini-jail where new captures are held for a few days until transferred elsewhere or released) and based on information I gathered it seems that water and vegetation are two essential elements to the camel spider’s natural habitat. These things are not in abundance on Speicher, but there are a few areas here in which I’m going to refocus my efforts and hopefully rustle up my amazing pet. I love them. Why won’t they come to me? I found a tiny spider in my CHU a while back and spent a few minutes on the floor face-to-face with it trying to figure out if it was what I’ve been looking for. No such luck. Poor guy got smashed for his trouble. My personal space equals death for all unwelcome critters and I make an example of intruders to set the tone. Maybe I’m sending the wrong message.

Finally - I’ve spent a great deal of time in Mexico and I’ve learned to live with less than savory sanitation facilities. The Iraqi crapper puts everything I’ve ever experienced to shame. Mexican toilets are Single-A baseball compared to the big leaguers they’re working with here. I’m convinced that if we’d brought a ton of flush toilets with us in 2003 there would be no insurgency. Take notes, State Department.

Headed out to one of the gates to watch a detainee release that never materialized. What also never materialized was my IBA, which I was told I wouldn't need. This was an error. The razor wire behind me is it - no more taking PPE (personal protective equipment) advice from Ugandans.

1/25 Arctic Wolves Brigade HQ.

Apparently my soul mate works at the 1/25 command post.

Warhorse CHUs look a little different than ours. Why?...

... Katyusha rockets is why.

This deck was spotless before I turned in for the evening - 6 hours later it looks like this. It's a 20 minute walk from this spot to my CHU. My lungs are going to be a case study when I get out of here.

Two shipmates from NIACT - our 1/25 BITF (Brigade Investigative Task Force) MA's.

I no longer ride in the turret, but the back seat has it's own perils. MRAP's don't have the gentlest suspension in the world and the roads are bumpy - I've hit the ceiling had some rough landings back there.

Iraqi Police roll a little differently than we do. When they say "Waring," it's no joke.

Iraqis are extremely courteous to guests - they employ an army of tea dudes to keep the Chai flowing. The ratio of sugar to tea by volume in the glass is approximately 1/1.

Country helooooooooo, take me hooooooooome...

In strips of about a mile on either side of the rivers this country is absolutely beautiful. Further out, not so much.

These dents in the desert are pre-Gulf War Surface-To-Air missile sites. There are a ton of these and dug in tank fighting positions around the cities.

Aaaaaaaaand we're back. Perk of riding in the General's helo - skipping the airport and landing right outside the office. I work in the building at the tip of the sidewalk triangle there and I live on the far right side of the block of CHUs right across the street. Charming, No?

So I finally made it back to my home away from home. Clean uniform day brings me no small measure of joy under any circumstances here, but I must say that this clean uniform day was one for the record books. I bagged up my laundry when I got back and handed it to the uniform I had on last week and it was kind enough to walk over to the laundry shop on its own. Can't say I'll miss it, but as disgusting as it was I am mildly surprised at how well it held up given the circumstances - I was far less foul than I thought I'd be after all I put that thing through.

My ride home was absolutely amazing. If you ever have the chance to hitch a ride in a UH-60 Blackhawk, do yourself a favor and jump in. I sat in the back row in a forward facing seat right next to the "window," which is a two foot square of open space. That meant I got 180 mph wind directly in my face the whole ride, but it also meant I got a great view of the countryside and some very intriguing things that were going on below us. Wild ride - hope I get to do it again.

I'm anticipating being stationary for the next few weeks and looking forward to settling in a grinding out a lot of the paperwork that our Baghdad HQ requires of all OCI types. As an embedded attorney it's a lot harder for us to keep up with that part of the mission because we're invovled in perfecting the finished product, which is the actual investigation, once the initial attorney work is done. I am relieving the other OCI guy here when he leaves for home in July, so much of my time is spent shadowing him and learning the ins and outs of the division and brigade investigative task forces we work with. It's an involved process and there are a lot of administrative wrinkles being thrown on us suddenly, so standby for thoughts on that. It's a delicate balance between keeping the head shed happy by producing numbers and helping the operators I actually work with here. Given the choice, I'll help my operators. It remains to be seen how much longer we'll be given that choice.

I've been in Iraq a full month now and it's been the quickest month of my life. I'm afraid that by the time I get comfortable and really good at this job it'll be time to go home. One of the downsides to a 6 month deployment. I mulled over requesting an extension, but for a number of reasons I think at this point I'll stick to my scheduled return date. New job list came out recently and I'm already in line to leave my current job in DC next year and rotate to something new as early as April. Amazing how it's flown by. The job I want probably more than any other available to a Navy JAG has a spot, but it's in Virginia. I'd hoped to get back to San Diego next tour but I decided a while ago that this was the one job that I'd place at the top of my list over any other and there is an opening in line with my time to roll. Somewhat torn. We'll see if I'm even remotely qualified for it before I go into it any further - could be a pipe dream anyway. I sent my detailer (the person who gives us our assignments) my "dream sheet" and we'll see what he has to say. For now, I'll just plug away in my dusty paradise and hope for the best.

97 steps to work every day at CCCI. At least one trip up and down in full IBA, 2 for lunch and dinner, and as there is no running water in the building, maybe a few more for "incidentals." Good times.

I don't know what this statue in the IZ commemorates, but if it follows the Hussein trend, it might be for a victory over a foe he did not actually defeat.