Last night I met a guy who recently returned from a 15 month deployment to Iraq and took the opportunity to ask him a bunch of questions about his experience. Although I have talked to a couple of other Iraq veterans this was the first guy I met who was infantry and served on the front lines. This is a rough transcript, paraphrased from memory:
Q: Tell me about the IED threat.
A: Not a big concern for me personally, as I was in a heavily armored vehicle and the insurgents seemed to prefer to target the lighter-armored vehicles like Humvees. They got it the worst.
Q: You were in an M-2?
A: No, Stryker.
Q: You like the Stryker?
A: Love it.
Q: So, you arrived in June 06 and came back this October, meaning that you were able to see the "surge" and it's impact -- have things really changed?
A: Definitely. Thing is, my unit was tasked with preparing for the surge -- going into neighborhoods, clearing them out of bad guys and letting the new surge troops occupy it, so you didn't see a change in one neighborhood over time since you were always moving from place to place. But the killings, bombings etc. are definitely on the decline. It's amazing how many soldiers we have over there now, it was hard for me to believe seeing so many.
Q: What about the Iraqi Army, how do you rate them?
A: Generally not too bad, they have some units that have such a high level of professionalism they could be mistaken for U.S. military. Others seemed to lack basic tactical awareness and when attacked would just start firing at random rather than first seeking cover and trying to figure out where was the fire was coming from. The better Iraqi Army units tended to be those that had been trained by either U.S. or British special forces.
Q: Did you trust them?
A: Yeah, for the most part.
Q: Did you share intelligence with them?
A: You had to. The strategy right now is to have the Iraq security forces take the lead -- have them plan and execute the missions and call us only for back-up.
Q: Did you get a chance to interact much with Iraqi civilians? What did they think of you?
A: Yeah, a lot. Some them would be really happy to see us and others not so much. The reception depended on a lot of factors such as who the local religious leader was and his disposition towards the U.S. But it also depended on what was going on in the neighborhood. If the place had really been suffering then they were glad to see us because we would bring in security. Others didn't like seeing us because it might mean that one of their family members could wind up in jail or the neighborhood was already doing pretty well and our presence would lead to attacks.
Q: Ok, this is probably a terrible analogy, but after living in Europe for 5 years and coming back to the U.S. -- it was kind of weird, a little difficult to adjust for a while. And that was going from one first world country to another -- I can only imagine that the transition from a war zone in Iraq to the U.S. had to have been 100x more strange.
A: Coming back was about the most emotional experience of my life. Landing at Ft. Lewis and seeing all of our wounded buddies there waiting for us was great. And these are guys that had pretty bad wounds -- missing legs, etc. -- and to see them and see how well they so many of them were doing was great. You know, my units is like a family and everyone tries to take care of each other. Those with families look after the single guys and send them gift baskets, etc. to let them know people are thinking about them. It was just great seeing everyone waiting there for you.
And yeah, some things have been tough. I had a friend tell me the other day that he was driving down the highway and couldn't exit. He just freaked out about being in traffic and being surrounded by all these other cars. It's happened to me as well -- it's a bit different when you go from being in an armored vehicle to a thin sheet of metal like a car. But fortunately you have all of your fellow soldiers you can talk to about stuff like this.
Q: What's the dumbest question you've been asked about Iraq?
A: Have I killed anyone. (shakes his head)
Q: Are they serious or are these lame attempts at humor?
A: Both, but mostly serious. Second dumbest question is "So how was it?" How am I supposed to respond to that? I just tell them it was hot and sweaty.
Q: Yeah, so how was the heat? What was your first impression of arriving in the country?
A: We showed up at 11pm and the plane doors open and you get his with a blast of hot air and are thinking about how you are supposed to go patrolling that weather carrying 80 pounds of gear.
Q: What was the longest you went without a shower?
A: About six weeks. In the meantime you just try to stay clean with industrial size cartons of baby wipes, change your undershirt, underwear and socks and put on some deodorant.
Q: So, Vladimir Putin was recently named Time magazine's Man of the Year. Gen. Petraeus was a runner-up. Obviously people here think he is a big deal, what do the soldiers think?
A: I don't know. I mean, we don't make the big decisions. For me having Petraeus in charge just meant that we had more work to do. Working 12 hour days non-stop.
Q: How much time off did you get?
A: I think the entire time I was there I got about 2 weeks. I got to go back to the States for about 10 days after my first two months. The worst was about 10 months in when we found out that we were being extended for an additional 3 months (tours used to be 12 months, now 15). I was so ready to go home.
Q: Any downtime?
A: Not really. I mean, even when they pulled you off the front line and sent you to rest up you still had so much stuff to do like vehicle maintenance. Also took that time to shave and get your hair cut -- we were looking pretty rough and they didn't want to see any soldiers with Afros.
Q: So, you re-enlisted while you were over there, which probably means you will have to go back for another tour at some point -- how do you feel about that?
A: It's fine. My only thing is, they told us that it would probably be about 2 years before we go back. If it ends up being less than that I'm going to be pretty upset. You know, we need time to incorporate new guys into the unit and get them trained before we go back, we need them to be proficient.
Q: How well did your training prepare you for Iraq?
A: The training we did at Ft. Lewis was great and really helped.
Q: What about the Mojave?
A: With the Arabic speakers? Yeah, to be honest, not as much.
When we first went out there you wanted to use your training and you looked forward to blowing stuff up.
Q: How long did it take you to get your fill? At what point were you like 'Ok, this isn't fun anymore, I've blown enough stuff up?'
A: Well, we got there in June -- I'd say about by November we'd been shot at enough times.
Q: When you say 'shot at' -- you mean guys taking pot shots?
A: No, we were in some major firefights. One time we caught some guys that had been mortaring our base. They had run from us and they had the mortar tube, base, ammo -- everything. Well, turns out they were bait for a trap. We parked our armor in the town square and took these guys into a house for interrogation. In the meantime Al Qaeda rallied and attacked us, pinning us in the house. We had to shoot our way and get back to our vehicles and ended up in a fight that lasted from about 5 o'clock that afternoon until 8am the next morning.
Q: So the enemy isn't stupid?
A: They're probably smarter than us. (I got the distinct impression that this was only a half-joke, if he was joking at all)
Q: Was there ever a time that you thought 'Oh man, we're f***ed, I don't know if I'm going to make it home?'
A: Yeah, that fight I just described was probably it.
Q: I read this book that described gun camera footage from a fighter jet that recorded a bomb being dropped on the main drag in Fallujah that resulted in about 20 secondary explosions. Also talked about these guys walking into a house that was wired for demolition with a jet fighter fuel tank as the centerpiece of the whole rig. Now, obviously that town was wired from end to end, but did you encounter anything like that.
A: Yeah, Baqubah. You'd walk into a house and then see it was wired to blow and order everyone to get out. Then you call in an airstrike to take it out. You blow that house up and then 3 others also explode and you think "Oh boy."
Q: I read that in Baghdad you can find absolute grinding poverty but also pretty nice homes such as in the Mansour neighborhood.
A: Yeah, absolutely, Mansour has homes that rival anything in the U.S. with really ornate carved marble. But then you see homes that have walls that consist of bottles filled with clay all stacked together. The contrast is amazing. Plus there is trash and sewage everywhere -- disease and infection is a real problem.
Q: What were the Iraqi kids like?
A: They run up to you and ask for a pen or your watch. They all says "Mister, mister, gimme money!" Then we tell them, "No, you give us money." We also give them candy from our stashes, which, considering their diet probably isn't the best thing. They also really wanted our eye protection, which was orange or yellow colored and they thought was really cool, but those don't belong to us (U.S. government property).
Q: So basically you were taking part in what is arguably the biggest news story in the world. What is your take on media coverage? Do you read stuff and think "Man, what a bunch of BS?"
A: No. Look, you only see your little slice of the war. You don't see the big picture. You can only speak for what is going on in your little corner. Iraq seems to be in the back pages of the newspaper anyhow nowadays.
My only complaint is with how the dead soldiers are portrayed. The news just gives you a name, stating that so-and-so died. You don't know how he died. Was it in combat? You don't know who he was or anything about him. He's just a name. I don't know, maybe I am expecting too much and it's not possible to talk about each soldier.
Q: Did you ever feel like people back in the States don't care about what's going on? Like perhaps, "Hey, I'm putting my life on the line here and no one cares?"
A: Nah, I don't really hold it against them. To be honest when I am here I don't really want to read about Iraq.
Q: So was it worth it?
A: Yeah. I mean, I'm glad I was there. I was able to help make a difference -- you can see the improvements and changes. It was kind of frustrating though that sometimes you felt like you were doing more for Iraq than the Iraqis. So many of them seem so apathetic, which makes you question what you are working so hard for. But it's not all of them, there are also lots of Iraqis that are working hard and trying to build a new Iraq.
So, that's it. Not sure I got the order of questions quite right and the exact language but I think that captures the general thrust of it.
Q: Tell me about the IED threat.
A: Not a big concern for me personally, as I was in a heavily armored vehicle and the insurgents seemed to prefer to target the lighter-armored vehicles like Humvees. They got it the worst.
Q: You were in an M-2?
A: No, Stryker.
Q: You like the Stryker?
A: Love it.
Q: So, you arrived in June 06 and came back this October, meaning that you were able to see the "surge" and it's impact -- have things really changed?
A: Definitely. Thing is, my unit was tasked with preparing for the surge -- going into neighborhoods, clearing them out of bad guys and letting the new surge troops occupy it, so you didn't see a change in one neighborhood over time since you were always moving from place to place. But the killings, bombings etc. are definitely on the decline. It's amazing how many soldiers we have over there now, it was hard for me to believe seeing so many.
Q: What about the Iraqi Army, how do you rate them?
A: Generally not too bad, they have some units that have such a high level of professionalism they could be mistaken for U.S. military. Others seemed to lack basic tactical awareness and when attacked would just start firing at random rather than first seeking cover and trying to figure out where was the fire was coming from. The better Iraqi Army units tended to be those that had been trained by either U.S. or British special forces.
Q: Did you trust them?
A: Yeah, for the most part.
Q: Did you share intelligence with them?
A: You had to. The strategy right now is to have the Iraq security forces take the lead -- have them plan and execute the missions and call us only for back-up.
Q: Did you get a chance to interact much with Iraqi civilians? What did they think of you?
A: Yeah, a lot. Some them would be really happy to see us and others not so much. The reception depended on a lot of factors such as who the local religious leader was and his disposition towards the U.S. But it also depended on what was going on in the neighborhood. If the place had really been suffering then they were glad to see us because we would bring in security. Others didn't like seeing us because it might mean that one of their family members could wind up in jail or the neighborhood was already doing pretty well and our presence would lead to attacks.
Q: Ok, this is probably a terrible analogy, but after living in Europe for 5 years and coming back to the U.S. -- it was kind of weird, a little difficult to adjust for a while. And that was going from one first world country to another -- I can only imagine that the transition from a war zone in Iraq to the U.S. had to have been 100x more strange.
A: Coming back was about the most emotional experience of my life. Landing at Ft. Lewis and seeing all of our wounded buddies there waiting for us was great. And these are guys that had pretty bad wounds -- missing legs, etc. -- and to see them and see how well they so many of them were doing was great. You know, my units is like a family and everyone tries to take care of each other. Those with families look after the single guys and send them gift baskets, etc. to let them know people are thinking about them. It was just great seeing everyone waiting there for you.
And yeah, some things have been tough. I had a friend tell me the other day that he was driving down the highway and couldn't exit. He just freaked out about being in traffic and being surrounded by all these other cars. It's happened to me as well -- it's a bit different when you go from being in an armored vehicle to a thin sheet of metal like a car. But fortunately you have all of your fellow soldiers you can talk to about stuff like this.
Q: What's the dumbest question you've been asked about Iraq?
A: Have I killed anyone. (shakes his head)
Q: Are they serious or are these lame attempts at humor?
A: Both, but mostly serious. Second dumbest question is "So how was it?" How am I supposed to respond to that? I just tell them it was hot and sweaty.
Q: Yeah, so how was the heat? What was your first impression of arriving in the country?
A: We showed up at 11pm and the plane doors open and you get his with a blast of hot air and are thinking about how you are supposed to go patrolling that weather carrying 80 pounds of gear.
Q: What was the longest you went without a shower?
A: About six weeks. In the meantime you just try to stay clean with industrial size cartons of baby wipes, change your undershirt, underwear and socks and put on some deodorant.
Q: So, Vladimir Putin was recently named Time magazine's Man of the Year. Gen. Petraeus was a runner-up. Obviously people here think he is a big deal, what do the soldiers think?
A: I don't know. I mean, we don't make the big decisions. For me having Petraeus in charge just meant that we had more work to do. Working 12 hour days non-stop.
Q: How much time off did you get?
A: I think the entire time I was there I got about 2 weeks. I got to go back to the States for about 10 days after my first two months. The worst was about 10 months in when we found out that we were being extended for an additional 3 months (tours used to be 12 months, now 15). I was so ready to go home.
Q: Any downtime?
A: Not really. I mean, even when they pulled you off the front line and sent you to rest up you still had so much stuff to do like vehicle maintenance. Also took that time to shave and get your hair cut -- we were looking pretty rough and they didn't want to see any soldiers with Afros.
Q: So, you re-enlisted while you were over there, which probably means you will have to go back for another tour at some point -- how do you feel about that?
A: It's fine. My only thing is, they told us that it would probably be about 2 years before we go back. If it ends up being less than that I'm going to be pretty upset. You know, we need time to incorporate new guys into the unit and get them trained before we go back, we need them to be proficient.
Q: How well did your training prepare you for Iraq?
A: The training we did at Ft. Lewis was great and really helped.
Q: What about the Mojave?
A: With the Arabic speakers? Yeah, to be honest, not as much.
When we first went out there you wanted to use your training and you looked forward to blowing stuff up.
Q: How long did it take you to get your fill? At what point were you like 'Ok, this isn't fun anymore, I've blown enough stuff up?'
A: Well, we got there in June -- I'd say about by November we'd been shot at enough times.
Q: When you say 'shot at' -- you mean guys taking pot shots?
A: No, we were in some major firefights. One time we caught some guys that had been mortaring our base. They had run from us and they had the mortar tube, base, ammo -- everything. Well, turns out they were bait for a trap. We parked our armor in the town square and took these guys into a house for interrogation. In the meantime Al Qaeda rallied and attacked us, pinning us in the house. We had to shoot our way and get back to our vehicles and ended up in a fight that lasted from about 5 o'clock that afternoon until 8am the next morning.
Q: So the enemy isn't stupid?
A: They're probably smarter than us. (I got the distinct impression that this was only a half-joke, if he was joking at all)
Q: Was there ever a time that you thought 'Oh man, we're f***ed, I don't know if I'm going to make it home?'
A: Yeah, that fight I just described was probably it.
Q: I read this book that described gun camera footage from a fighter jet that recorded a bomb being dropped on the main drag in Fallujah that resulted in about 20 secondary explosions. Also talked about these guys walking into a house that was wired for demolition with a jet fighter fuel tank as the centerpiece of the whole rig. Now, obviously that town was wired from end to end, but did you encounter anything like that.
A: Yeah, Baqubah. You'd walk into a house and then see it was wired to blow and order everyone to get out. Then you call in an airstrike to take it out. You blow that house up and then 3 others also explode and you think "Oh boy."
Q: I read that in Baghdad you can find absolute grinding poverty but also pretty nice homes such as in the Mansour neighborhood.
A: Yeah, absolutely, Mansour has homes that rival anything in the U.S. with really ornate carved marble. But then you see homes that have walls that consist of bottles filled with clay all stacked together. The contrast is amazing. Plus there is trash and sewage everywhere -- disease and infection is a real problem.
Q: What were the Iraqi kids like?
A: They run up to you and ask for a pen or your watch. They all says "Mister, mister, gimme money!" Then we tell them, "No, you give us money." We also give them candy from our stashes, which, considering their diet probably isn't the best thing. They also really wanted our eye protection, which was orange or yellow colored and they thought was really cool, but those don't belong to us (U.S. government property).
Q: So basically you were taking part in what is arguably the biggest news story in the world. What is your take on media coverage? Do you read stuff and think "Man, what a bunch of BS?"
A: No. Look, you only see your little slice of the war. You don't see the big picture. You can only speak for what is going on in your little corner. Iraq seems to be in the back pages of the newspaper anyhow nowadays.
My only complaint is with how the dead soldiers are portrayed. The news just gives you a name, stating that so-and-so died. You don't know how he died. Was it in combat? You don't know who he was or anything about him. He's just a name. I don't know, maybe I am expecting too much and it's not possible to talk about each soldier.
Q: Did you ever feel like people back in the States don't care about what's going on? Like perhaps, "Hey, I'm putting my life on the line here and no one cares?"
A: Nah, I don't really hold it against them. To be honest when I am here I don't really want to read about Iraq.
Q: So was it worth it?
A: Yeah. I mean, I'm glad I was there. I was able to help make a difference -- you can see the improvements and changes. It was kind of frustrating though that sometimes you felt like you were doing more for Iraq than the Iraqis. So many of them seem so apathetic, which makes you question what you are working so hard for. But it's not all of them, there are also lots of Iraqis that are working hard and trying to build a new Iraq.
So, that's it. Not sure I got the order of questions quite right and the exact language but I think that captures the general thrust of it.
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