An American base somewhere in the Kuwait desert.
Friday, December 21, 2007
This base is like a Greyhound bus station --only for airplanes-- so you can imagine what this busy base is like. It’s a transit terminal for thousands of troops who are moving in and out of all Iraq and Afghanistan theatre operations. Most of the soldiers are trying to get home for R&R during the holidays. While the military does many things well (like kill people and break things) running the planes on time is not one of them. Some soldiers have waited and waited and waited for a C-130 to bring them out, which is very frustrating for them.
The most frustrated are the National Guard, who are operating now on 15 month deployments. One Captain with whom I spoke with during dinner at the Chow hall says that he personally talked to the SecDef about this problem. If these deployments keep up, they are going to lose a lot of troops who can’t take being away from home for so long. The word from Washington is that they will, in fact, end soon.
Many people don’t realize this, but the ‘surge’ that has been so successful is simply keeping a high number of troops already in Iraq here longer. The military isn’t flooding the zone with new personnel, just keeping the highly experienced troops in place with new orders and a change of tactics for a counter insurgency. Everyone I spoke with says that the ‘close-in-contact’ plan or befriending the warring factions and winning their trust is working quite well. The number of reports on terrorist plans and contacts has sky-rocketed, and that is saving American and Iraqi lives. Even the Iraqi Army, either under American control or their own, is reporting the same results.
Civilian and military casualties are down, and the number of IED explosions are dwindling. The ones that do go off aren’t hitting the convoys --apparently the terrorists are having difficulty setting off the cellphone signals to detonate the devices in a timely fashion. Hooray for our side!
Debbie Lee, our Gold Star mom met a young Navy Seal this afternoon. She was excited because he told her that he decided to join the military and specificially the Seals because he heard the story of Marc’s bravery in his last few hours before he was murdered. Debbie says that this is the fourth Seal who has told her that since the Honoring Our Heroes at the Holiday tour began three weeks ago.
When we arrived here, we were told not to take any pictures that might identify our location. That’s because the U.S. government is trying to stay small with it’s footprint on Kuwaiti soil. We snapped a few, mostly with young soldiers. While I was interviewing Chaplain Rachel Coggins, a young troop whose Aunt and legal guardian died today was trying to get out on emergency leave. He didn’t have a dime to buy civilian clothes, which the rules say you have to wear when flying commercially. I gave him my last 45 dollars, and he went to the PX and was able to find something with a bit of change to spare.
Pfc. Tuche’ Jackson was very grateful. We took his picture as he thanked us. But it was I who felt humbled and grateful that I could help with such a small thing.
Everybody sees our sweatshirts that proudly say: “Our Troops, Our Heroes” and they smile and love to chat with us. They all want to know what we are doing and many seem dumbstruck that Move America Forward is working hard to show appreciation for them. The reason is because they see cable TV, everyone is on-line at the Internet cafes, and they hear regularly from their families that the politicans like Congressman Jim Moran say completely idiotic things about what they are doing—accusing American and Iraqi troops of ethnically cleansing Baghdad is one of the most offensive, not to mention ridiculous statements I have ever heard.
The USO tour came through here two days ago, and actor/comedian Robin Williams, as wells as Lewis Black performed. I have to give those guys credit. Both are screaming liberals who hate the war, but not one word about politics, Bush-bashing or any other negative stuff crossed their lips. Hollywood should take a few lessons from them.
Also out here was Kid Rock and Lance Armstrong. Everyone in the audience said it was a great show..
I spent a lot of time talking with women soldiers, who are doing their job very professionally and with dedication. But having said that, I still have a lot of reservations about women in the military. It breaks my heart to talk to these gals who are single mothers (as many are) who have to leave their children in the care of relatives (if they are lucky) while they are serving. Kids and Mom’s belong together, not apart. Another aspect is that lots of women are deliberately getting pregnant in order to get out of the military and back home. That breaks up unit cohesion, and it hurts morale.
Okay, I’ll have to sign off now. My 30 minutes are about up. I want to say for the record that I am worried about Mary. She looked like a penguin wearing cammo today, with 50 pounds of body armor and her bad back, not to mention all the backpacks she’s lugging around. Good Lord, she was struggling. But she kept that smile plastered on her face - she believes it’s that important to be here with our troops at Christmas, and she won’t let anything stop her from accomplishing that goal.
Danny and Debbie are in extremely high spirits. I’m very, very disappointed that I won’t be able to go all the way with them.
Let’s just hope we get everybody home safely before New Years.
Mel
