Reporting from Iraq

This trip has been different than my visit to northern Iraq last winter.

The circumstances, the moods, the environment are different. So has been my work. It’s easy to see I haven’t written a story each day. Since I’ve been here, it’s been a struggle to write even a blog entry each day.

This was not my intention, nor likely my editors. When I left for this assignment, I thought, like last time, that each day, each patrol would bring something new and newsworthy. Read more »

Saturday was the most scared I’ve been here on this trip, an observation Col. Scott Wuestner with the 4-11 Field Artillery unit called “good.”

Good, I think, because he was trying to emphasize the danger his soldiers face in this area north of Baghdad. A point he made well, thanks to the many visual aids he used in his presentation. Read more »

It’s a cool rain, literally, falling on Baghdad tonight.

It came in as a warm, whipping wind, stirring up dust and dirt but obscuring the usually flaming sunset. As the clouds moved in, the misting began, then the steady, light rain. The first effect was not in the temperature but in the soles of boots everywhere. Muddy season has arrived. Caked gravel and mud on the buses that shuttle soldiers and civilians around base, mud in the PX, mud in the dining hall. Stomping and scraping helps with big chunks, but it’s a season these soldiers know all too well from last fall and winter in Mosul and Rawah. And one they didn’t expect to have to see again. Read more »

Chaplain Steve Dunn with the 2-1 Infantry battalion said he has more than 75 businesses, organizations and individuals from Fairbanks and around the country that have faithfully kept in touch with the battalion throughout the units’ deployment and extension.

He said soldiers have appreciated every care package, piece of mail, bag of candy, and variety of toiletries and other items. But who would guess the Alaska Trappers Association would provide soldiers with some of the most coveted items in the form of the 2006-07 Alaska hunting and fishing regulations. Read more »

Today I said goodbye to the battalions at Camp Stryker in southwest Baghdad, the 4-14 Calvary, the 4-23 Infantry and the brigade support battalion. I flew a few minutes north, over most of the city and some rural areas dotted with date orchards along the Tigris River and arrived at Taji, a base that hosts the brigade’s 2nd Battion 1st Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion 17th infantry regiment, and 4th Battalion 11th Field Artillery Regiment. Read more »

Sgt. Brian Patton from Austin, Texas had a interesting observation today while talking about the brigade’s extension. If Iraq had a Permanent Fund Dividend, most of the nearly 4,000 soldiers would now qualify, since they’ve remained in the country for more than 14 months.

None of them, however, would be willing to check the box on the application asking if the applicant plans to remain in the state, or country, indefinitely. Read more »

“Get wet, turn off water, lather up, rinse off.”

Signs like these are posted on the shower trailers around Camp Stryker in Baghdad, reminding soldiers and others to conserve water and utilize “combat shower procedure,” a phrase I think kind of sounds like some sort of personal hygiene mission worthy of a battle plan. Read more »

Rolling down Haifa Street in Baghdad on Thursday, gunfire rang several times. Sometimes it was a single shot several blocks away, other times a series of shots and return fire from what sounded like a couple hundred yards away. To the scouts of the 4-14 Cavalry I was with on this day, it perks their ears up and they try to determine the direction and likely location it’s coming from. I felt foolish, trying nonchalantly to ask the soldiers I was with what they thought was up. Usually it’s Iraq army or police firing shots in the air to disperse traffic, or a single sniper taking aim at Iraq forces, they said. It might also be a firefight between Iraq forces and insurgents. Read more »

Brothers Sgt. Rahsaan Tyler and Staff Sgt. Duane Tyler are getting to see more of each other since the 172nd moved to Baghdad in August. Read more »

Now that the 172nd isn’t expected back to Alaska until sometime in December, the soldiers are anticipating another round of quick acclimatization. Read more »