Friday, December 21, 2007
Dec 20 2007 - Kuwait Day 2

12-20-2007
Join Military Base
Somewhere in Kuwait

We have been at this base in Kuwait for over a day now. Eventually we were picked up yesterday from Kuwait City and drove by unmarked vehicle for a good long while to a military installation in Kuwait, the name of which I cannot disclose ate the request of the public relations officers here.

It is interesting to be here and see how things “work” on a base like this. Kuwait is basically like the truck stop on the way to anywhere for our guys in the Middle East. It kind of reminds me of Salt Lake City. When I went to school in Austin, TX or when I lived in Great Falls, MT, almost any flight I took to California went through salt lake. It was like the universal stopping point and this is the kind of place Kuwait is. Wherever one of our guys is headed, whether it’s Baghdad, Fullajah or somewhere in Afghanistan, they all go through and get processed in Kuwait. The guys helping us get to Baghdad tell me that it has been dead here for months now, but that just these last two weeks it has gone from dead to crazy-busy as many of the imbedded press people are trying to get out and home for Christmas. Both press and civilian contractors come through these bases along with the troops coming and going. I thought that the military had stopped referring to “temporary leave” as “R & R” but I have heard the term used several times so I guess it is still in use. Soldiers going on R and R come through here too.

We arrived here with Melanie Morgan, Debbie Lee, Mary and I and we first went to the PAO office where all the press gets processed. We had to get clearance to get into Iraq so we surrendered our passports to this desk on the other side of the gigantic tent. I don’t know what that office is called but they said it would be until 9pm the next day until everything was approved. So that left out any possibility of getting to Baghdad that day.

Well some amazing things did happen, even here in little old Kuwait.  So we’re standing around this office where the PAO guys work and over walks none other than super blogger Matt Sanchez. Matt knows Melanie very well because he has called into her show at KSFO several times, so when he introduced himself as Sanchez and mentioned that we had to hang out. Sanchez (if you read his blog then you know this) has been all over Iraq and I think he was just coming from Afghanistan when we met him here. Matt is one of the few freelance journalists who are out and about in this area and also one of the few who actually brave the tougher parts of Iraq on patrol with our guys. Matt had a lot of advice to give us maffers about going out on patrol, he said that most of the imbedded journalists are nervous about going out on patrol in a war zone, so most stay on base where its nice and safe. But it’s really not that dangerous if a journalist wanted to go out on patrol. In an extremely dangerous area, there’d by no way the captain or first sergeant would let reporters out on the streets. But much of Iraq is no more dangerous than Detroit or LA at this point. But then again, even the safest war zone is still a war zone, and Iraq is most definitely still a war zone. Matt warns that when you get out on the street and you realize that there is a very real (unlikely but real) chance that a firefight could break out or a bomb could go off, you stick to those soldiers you’re with like white on rice. They may be 19 or 20 years old but these boys and girls are tough, they have nerves of steel and doing exactly what they tell you is about the best way to stay alive in Iraq. I hung out with Sanchez for a while and got some great advice on how to get where we wanted to go and see the things we wanted see in Iraq. We traded some political opinions too about the presidential candidates and stuff. It was a very interesting conversation.  Sometimes it’s difficult to actually report from Iraq because internet access can be sketchy, but Matt offered some advice on how to get access so hopefully I’ll be able to update the blog more often.

[[ Melanie Morgan and Matt Sanchez meet in the desert of Kuwait, of all places… ]]

We also ran into this other imbedded freelancer, Jim. We were standing around talking with one another outside the public relations office and someone asked a question of Debbie Lee by name. So Jim comes walking out and says “I was waiting for someone to say Debbie Lee!” and Debbie looks at him and screams “Jim!”

[[ Another amazing coincidence… Debbie Lee and Jim Carrier reunited...in Kuwait! ]]

So this Jim Carrier is a huge fiend of Debbie Lee’s, as Jim does a lot of stuff back in The States to support the troops. He especially loves all our Special Forces; Rangers, Delta Force, Seals, etc, but Jim especially loves the Seals (who according to Jim are the most insane) and does a lot of philanthropy stuff to help the Navy Seals and their families. So Jim is here in Iraq reporting on some of the great success our troops are having and reporting to a newspaper which I can’t tell you the name of but I guarantee there’s a good chance it’s on your kitchen table. Anyways just like with Sanchez it is an amazing coincidence that Jim is here at this base at this office at the exact same time that move America forward is just standing around there. So Jim had lots of great stories too. He just returned from some city in Iraq, I don’t know where – where he had the rare opportunity to actually go out and meet one of the local village elders with the unit he was imbedded with. These small villages coming around to support the military and work with the US to drive out al Qaeda are like the big success story lately so that’s a great opportunity and Jim’s story should be an amazing read when it comes out.

If that wasn’t enough, we’ve been talking to soldiers galore out here. We met the base Chaplain, Rachel Coggins, who took Mel and Debbie to go see some soldiers around base…they came to this tent where some soldiers were being processed to go back stateside for R & R, a group of about 300. Melanie told them all about Move America Forward and told them about the 40 city tour we just finished up. Debbie Lee was crying, as sometimes happens, but she says that this crowd, speaking of our military of course, is the toughest crowd to talk to and share Marc’s story with. It was all she could do to try and maintain some semblance of composure and thank the group for everything they had done and tell them how much she loved them, but when the tears were overwhelming and she just could not talk anymore she reached out to give Mary a hug. Mary pointed for teary-eyed Debbie Lee to turn around, and when she did there was a room full of soldiers; some army, navy, air force, and some marines, but many teary eyed, standing on their feet in rapturous applause. It was a very gripping moment.

We have met so many interesting people out here, it’s just been surreal. I met a guy in the Army named Byrne from Belt, Montana, which is just a short 20 minute drive from where I lived in Great Falls. Belt is a town of probably two or three hundred people at the most. It consists of one narrow dirt road that loops around through the town, a tiny grocery store, one little pub and some houses and barns with horses to accompany. So to meet a guy from Belt out here, that is a real trip!

We were talking at one point to a whole group of Army guys who had just come back from Ramadi – where Marc was stationed when he was killed – and I had an interesting conversation with US Army 1st Lieutenant Star from Orlando, FL, who had been in Ramadi since September, who said, “What kills me is, I’m flipping through the channels and I see Jay Leno or letterman or someone like that making fun of the war, saying that we, ‘want more funding for a war we can’t win’ and what gets me is that the corner is already turned.” I think Lt. Star is right; it’s crazy how people can sit and just deny and deny all the progress that’s been made in this war. I mean not only have our guys been working hard to rebuild the schools and help the Iraqis (while Hollywood does everything it can to portray our soldiers as drug addicted, murdering, rapists) all this time, even in 05-06 when the war wasn’t going so well, but even now when the tide is turned, Al Qaeda is scattered and the military is finally winning the hearts and minds of your everyday Iraqis, we STILL have people like Harry Reid with the NERVE to allege that “Al Qaeda is regrouping” and other people like Rep. McNerney (D-CA) trying to downplay our success in Ramadi saying that it’s only a “a very small piece in a complex puzzle” yeah…right…Ramadi is a city that was once the most dangerous place in all of Iraq, part of the Triangle of Death, and in a few months it’s now a model of success in Iraq and now they have the nerve to say its just some small little city. When Ramadi was in bad shape, the left would always point to it first and say we were losing the war despite any success we were having elsewhere, and now that Ramadi has turned around it’s no longer important.

We were shaking more hands and wishing Merry Christmases to people when Debbie Lee and I came across a Marine by the name of Chavez who earlier gave a KIA bracelet/band of a fallen buddy to Melanie Morgan earlier today before we spoke to him. But the story is that Chavez was a marine recruiter in Fremont, CA when he recruited a young marine Layfield into the USMC. Then, while deployed, Layfield was killed in a firefight with the enemy and Chavez carried the guys KIA band all over up and down Iraq. Now having met Melanie Morgan earlier today, Chavez gave the tag to Melanie in the hopes that Mel can track down the boy’s mother and give her back her son’s KIA band. More on that story when MAF gets back to California…

Now we are waiting around in a gigantic tent, hoping for a ride to an airstrip in Baghdad. We basically signed up for the flight like 3 hours ago. Then at a given time they “call roll” which means if you signed up, you find out if you will actually get on the flight or not. Then they tell you to wait another hour, so after you wait around for another hour or so they come in and tell you how to pack up the bags and then you wait a little more, and then you pack the bags up on these pallets for transport. So then after you do THAT, you go inside and wait a little more, till finally this bus comes and takes you to a plane and eventually after a little more waiting you’re in the air. It’s actually about four hours later now; since we first came down to wait for the bus. I can’t be specific about when we fly, but rest assured it is an ungodly hour.