Written minutes after the first of many IED detonations

Minutes ago there was a powerful explosion just beyond the wall, no more than a half-mile from us. Minutes ago someone thought they’d be with their family or in the chow hall later this morning. Maybe the scum who planted the IED missed. In a few days, when we get our camera in the air, we won’t have to guess .

Saturday morning, after a difficult trip, we finally landed in a C130, “U.S. Embassy Flight”, at Baghdad International Airport. We departed Baltimore-Washington International for Ramstein, AFB, Germany at 01:00 on Friday, May 4. A little over 24 hours later we were in Kuwait City on a bus to Ali Al Salem, AFB, Kuwait where we boarded the flight to Baghdad just before noon. They tell me it usually takes longer at Ali Al Salem. As it was we were in planes and buses or waiting for one or the other for thirty-six hours.

Our quarters on the Victory Base Complex were Republican Guard married officers quarters on the Abu Guyrab presidential compound in southwest Baghdad. The prison isn’t here. The two places just share the name.

I thought Baghdad was an exotic, mysterious yet ultimately accessible place when we were kids. The Arabian Nights, and documentaries we saw in fourth grade about the Tigris and Euphrates, Babylon, the Assyrians and the first city were sources for what I knew then and the images I conjured. It was a place that I thought someday I might visit as I traveled about. It’s not like that.

I know it’s a cliché but it’s different than what I expected from the news too. Of course, I don’t know much of anything yet. I will pretty soon though. I’ll be in a Blackhawk over the city in the coming weeks and when we get the balloon off the ground and that million-dollar camera switched on, I’ll be much better informed.

We’re temporarily at Camp Slayer east of the International airport within the walls that surrounded Saddam’s compound. The flights will be to the Forward Operating Base (FOB) that will be our permanent home so I can help prepare the site and meet the men in the units we’ll support.

The PTDS site here is between the “Perfume Palace”, Saddam’s personal brothel, and the base’s outside wall. Beyond the wall is Al Atiba’a, a neighborhood of closely spaced homes, trash and considerable trouble. Every morning the people on the other side tear into each other. There’s automatic weapons fire for a half-hour at least every morning and evening and at random times throughout the day. One day some of our guys in the towers opened up with their machine guns, which stopped the fight outside just in time for morning prayers. If the wind isn’t blowing we can hear the call to prayer.

On Sunday, our first day on the job the AKs stopped when two Apaches flew over and fired on them. I asked one of the guys who’s been here a couple of years about it and he said, “So what”. It happens all the time. I was struck by it though. Never before has my first day at a new job included gunfire.

It never included this kind of heat either. It’s like a desert out there! And it’s not the humidity, it’s the damn heat! It is really hot!

The site we’re on hasn’t had a balloon over it for months. A helicopter hit the tether and cut it loose. The Army, and the non-violent residents in the adjacent neighborhoods are looking forward to its return. The guys who operated the balloon before say when the balloon was up children came out to play. I was with a soldier at lunch who said the kids are out begging every day anyway but he admits the balloon makes matters better for everyone. It’s the case in the neighborhoods around the other site too. When the balloon is up the murderers know we can see them so they move outside the camera’s view and life for the nearby population and the Americans improves.

The enemy despises us. They mortared the other site right after we arrived. They were “just 60 mm, wait till the rockets start comin’ in . . .”, was what the site leader here said. Then he showed me a piece of a rocket that landed 200 meters from where we were standing. Rockets and larger mortars can be very destructive but so far they’ve all missed anything of value on this site.

Danny was at Camp Liberty just before we arrived at BIAP (“biop” is how everyone refers to Baghdad International Airport) and he told me that Liberty, Slayer and Victory, and all the other camps on and around BIAP, are preferred assignments. When we were at Ramstein a Marine Major said he sends his men here for R&R. Some of the guys on my team have been in Iraq before. They agree and refer to the Victory Base Complex as “Camp Cupcake”. That may be, but the lifestyle and accommodations are inferior.

The buildings Saddam built are inferior too. They are huge and adorned with colorful tile, limestone columns and chandeliers but the workmanship is awful and the details flawed. Many of the structures are bombed out hulks but even before they were pounded by cruise missiles and artillery they were deteriorating and tacky. Riding around this place with people who’ve been here is fascinating. They know bits of information about the buildings, who lived there and what happened. The Bath party headquarters, for example, is on the huge lake in the middle of Camp Slayer. It was one of the first places we bombed. One wing is demolished and there are huge openings in the roof over the wings that didn’t collapse. There are still bodies in the fallen portion. One of Saddam’s sons’ houses is on the main road around the lake and it too is quite uninhabitable. He’s the one who tortured and killed the members of the national soccer team and killed some of the women he abducted and held there. Saddam’s houseboat lies derelict in one of the marshes. He used it for meetings and dinners with political and business associates who he sometimes shot in the head after cigars.

The food is OK and plentiful. There’s a gym with plenty of gear, an Internet café, although access and bandwidth are very limited, a 24 hour coffee shop, a swimming pool, fishing in the polluted lake, and free laundry service. The PX has many of the necessities and the one on Camp Liberty, which we can drive to, is like a mini Walmart. I can’t complain, particularly when I hear about what others are enduring.

We tried to inflate the balloon Wednesday night but the wind prevented it. A front went through Thursday and the wind hasn’t subsided since. In fact I saw my first dust storm this morning. It wasn’t much but the smell of dust is still thick.

I really want to see what’s going on beyond the wall. The camera we’ll use is an amazing piece of equipment and from our vantage point we’ll see what’s going on in detail. The morning fire fights and daily explosions will be pretty compelling video.

It’s going to be an interesting year. I miss home and I miss Judi so much that when I think about it I get a knot in my chest. But this is very good work and the men I’m with are interesting with some very good qualities. They’re hard workers with skills and experience and some are funny and good to be with. We’ve already been through some trials together and more are coming.

I’ll keep a record of what’s happening but there will be times when I won’t have the time. When we get to our final destination and operating normally there will be. I expect there to be plenty to write about.

© Robert A. Crimmins, Felton, Delaware, USA