Week Nine
In one of my
previous emails I wrote the following:
The sun is shining (as usual) the
temperature and humidity are perfect. Our campus is littered with sand and palm
trees. If you gaze in just the right direction,
you can almost imagine being at the beach.
I’m serious! The atmosphere is a
perfect spring break day. The only
problem is, that instead of the continuous sound of
waves lapping against the shore, there is the sporadic barrage of gun-fire off in
the distance.
This sporadic
barrage is not an exaggeration. It is
usually accompanied by two to three large explosions each day. Many of the explosions shake our FOB
buildings. Today, I was sitting in an
ambulance at the hospital when a mortar round hit so close, the entire vehicle
shook.
The sources of
these attacks are label insurgents. The
insurgents are considered disgruntled Iraqis not content with the current
political structure or path. They may
not necessarily be Bathist party members or Saddam
loyalists. More likely they just don’t
agree with the status quo. Many don’t
even have a grudge with the
For the most part,
the attacks are against Iraqis. Many,
many civilians are injured or killed in these attacks. Few
In fact, since the
beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), the
The attacks come
in the form of handgun and rifle fire, rocket propelled grenade launcher (RPG),
mortar fire, improvised explosive devices (IED), and vehicle borne improvised
explosive devices (VBIED). I can’t say
with certainty, but they may have had one or two surface-to-air missiles at
their disposal as well.
High scoring hits
have mostly been against helicopters. As
many as 20 soldiers can be found in helicopter overhead, and high casualty
rates occur with these attacks.
Two high mortality
events happened last year here in the Green Zone. Suicide bombers blew themselves up at local
café’s simultaneously. 40+ soldiers lost
their lives that day.
The remaining
combat related deaths of soldiers comes from the
sporadic gun-fire and explosive events.
We patrol the
streets daily, convoys bring goods from location to location, and areas are routinely
swept for weapons caches. These
activities bring on contact with the insurgents.
As we train the
new Iraqi ARMY, we increase their presence with us on these patrols. The insurgents tend to find their own Iraqi
soldiers to be higher value targets.
This is so for many reasons:
- It physically decreases their numbers.
- It detracts from enlistment.
- It makes a political statement.
- It’s safer than shooting at US troops.
In a typical day,
I hear 5-10 episodes of gun-fire and 2-3 explosions. These result in extremely few
Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG)
People routinely
ask me to evaluate my level of safety.
As my colonel
likes to put it, “These guys won’t go toe-to-toe with us”. It’s true.
To what he is referring is that the insurgents will not get out there
like a regular army and fight with structured lines and embattlements. It is this kind of warfare, in which the
Instead they must
resort to small surprise attacks.
Additionally, up
until now, they have also lacked the ability to enact coordinated attacks. By this I mean,
their attacks have been limited to one or two insurgents acting at one point
with one weapons system. (i.e. a car bomb, RPG, hand grenade, IED, or small arms fire,
but never more than one at a time)
The insurgents
have learned that these types of attacks are best aimed at locals. Shooting at
“Obliterated” is
NOT an exaggeration either. During
Now we seem to
have an unofficial “one shot, one kill, and then send a whole lot more lead his
way” approach. Enemy forces are usually
found in small pieces.
Our weapons
systems are significantly more lethal as well.
A burst from a coaxial mounted weapon can deliver so much volume of
metal in a manner of time, that targets are
effectively cut in half.
It’s ugly, but definitive. Merely being wounded by US troops is an
unusual occurrence.
All this makes for
an insurgent’s best option to attack the ING or civilians, rather than us.
This leaves really
only one significant threat on my life. The IED. There’s not
much I can do about this. My driver
tries very hard to keep an eye out for potential bombs. Any cardboard box, trash can, rubber tire,
mattress, or junk pile along the street is a potential threat. Some times I have to just hold my breath and
pray. I keep my eyes peeled as well.
Our troops
routinely patrol the streets that we travel along. This reduces the threat level some. One soldier commented to me the other day
that he holds his breath every time he passes a garbage truck. (The Ministry of Agriculture was hit by a
VBIED in a garbage truck and 50+ people died)
And I thought my
conditioned taste aversion to cold cheese was bad enough…
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If you noted a few
paragraphs back, I said, “up until now…coordinated attacks…”
In a movie, the
name of which eludes me, a great line was spoken, “the enemy is evolving, its adapting.”
Unfortunately,
military sources here are worried that the insurgency is also adapting.
The most recent
attack at Abu-Garib (sp?) was most definitely a
complex attack, and may be the early signs of a more organized enemy.
Allow me to share
some of the unclassified aspects of the attack to make my point.
Multiple elements
made the simultaneous attack on the compound.
The elements were not adjacent to each other. This meant that some form of coordination
must have been present. Either real-time communications took place via radio/cell phone, or
a predetermined time-line of the attack was drawn out which designated where
and at what time each element would engage. This is a hallmark of a
organized fighting force.
Second, multiple
weapons systems were employed. Each
weapons system was targeted at a point where it was most effective. Hence signs of further strategic planning.
Third, a large
number of enemy troops were involved.
Emotionally motivated attacks can commonly include two or three people
in a small group that feed off each other and build up to a
immediate attack or a single combined violent effort. Larger groups, with
individual assignments of varying complexity, shows more of a political
or tactical agenda. It also shows the
ability to recruit. The motive does not
die with its combatants. It even allows
for the possibility that the orchestrater of the
attack was not even present, and lives on, ready to compose further assaults.
Fourth, VBIEDs were placed along strategic points that US forces
were known to use as response routes to the area. For this, surveillance of US activities was
necessary. Intelligence and
counter-intelligence is probably one of the paramount indicators of an advanced
enemy. These people must have been
monitoring our behavior for quite some time.
They knew the strength of our forces, the technology we’d employ and the
method of our response.
They’ve evolved…
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I would also like
to take a moment to fully explain what my battalion’s and my own role in all of
this is.
Understand that I am
a Battalion Surgeon. A battalion is the
smallest military element that can wage a complete war on another country. A Delta-Force or Navy Seals team can run a
mission or two, but they always rely on outside help to get them there, bring
them back, buy them equipment, pay them, tend to their wounds, feed them, save
for their retirement, recruit new members, re-enlist them, and generally do all
the daily activities of a regular business.
The men themselves merely use their equipment and fight (or execute
whatever their mission is).
A platoon is the
next step up. It is comprised of various
squads. Each can conduct similar or
related missions.
Multiple platoons
combine to form companies. At company
level, some extra command elements are added, but overall, the company still
addresses very specific missions.
A battalion
however, has many extra resources to sustain its entire membership
indefinitely. There are “shops”
(departments) within a battalion. These
shops address all the issues facing a fighting force or a military. There is a finance shop for getting soldiers
paid and saving for their retirement.
There is a legal shop, a supply shop, an intelligence shop, a planning
shop, a training shop, a recruiting and re-enlistment shop, a religious shop, a
medical shop, a transportation shop, an engineering shop, a janitor shop, a
potable water shop, a records shop, a civilian affairs shop and many
others. There are translators, and
historical experts. There are financial
resources and a budget. Many of these
“shops” are actually referred to as such, others are
incorporated into the companies that would control them. Some shops have multiple employees, others
are just one man. A battalion can also
employ civilians if necessary.
Essentially the
Joint Chiefs of Staff could say to my commander, “Go wage war on that country”
and he would have all of the necessary resources at his disposal to comply.
In truth, OIF
requires far more than a single battalion to succeed. OIF is currently being executed by dozens of
battalions from multiple divisions, but the idea is still the same: each
battalion can handle its own internal operations (including their own judicial
system) and they function in unison with each other to form Operation Iraqi
Freedom.
Our battalion has
the mission to control the Green Zone
I got
this off the internet. Our satellite
images are far more detailed. You can
actually see open car doors in them. The
blue outline is roughly the Green Zone, but I made it somewhat inaccurate. You’ll get the idea however. The map to the right shows the placement
within
The Green Zone has
a wall around it. Much like
We employ many
means of searching the people and vehicles that come through each day. We have mirrors for looking under the
vehicles, electronic chemical detectors, dogs, and just plain old
manpower. Some check points also have
X-ray machines.
Various badges
have been issued to people to travel around
Coalition Force
members carry United Nations badges (which we don’t issue). They can go almost anywhere.
Then the locals
get
DOD members are
usually not searched, but our soldiers on the checkpoints have the final say as
far as our commander is concerned. Those
guys out there keep us safe at night, and if they damn well think something is
amiss, they’ll search whoever they please.
Our commander is willing to back them up. (His wife wants him to come home safe)
Some times local
political officials object to some of these unauthorized searches, but until we
stop finding things, we just may have to keep searching…
For the most part,
I doubt enough explosive making supplies have made it into the IZ to assemble
an effective IED or VBIED. That is one
of our greatest fears however…If enough supplies were amassed within our walls, a large number of soldiers could loose their
lives. Although we run routine patrols
outside the IZ, most of us eat and sleep within it. There may be well over 5000
Other IZ residents
include the other government agencies I mentioned earlier, as well as civilian
contractors from the states. Local
contractors have also set up residence in the IZ. And some squatters are also present. (They are currently being removed)
Only a few local
businesses are authorized in the IZ.
Most of the owners live hear as well, but some must go in and out everyday.
The last group of occupants are the Iraqi police force. Their headquarters and training facilities
are within the IZ.
I have no idea
what the final population comes to, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was over
10,000.
That’s a lot of
people for our 980 “Tuskers” to take care of, but we manage. So far, no big events. Mortars fall with some regularity, but they
are terribly inaccurate and don’t do much damage.
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I’ll conclude with
my mission:
The first part is
easy. I am the doctor for those 980
“Tuskers”.
“Tusker”
is our name. It refers to the tusk of
the elephant we use as our trademark.
The trademark came from the fact that the 4-64 Armor
Regiment was the first African American Armor unit in the US Army. They were quite a fighting force! Now the 4-64 is completely integrated and no
racial lines differentiate us from anyone else.
Our motto is “We Pierce” which is exactly what both a tusk and our tanks
do. We pierce the enemy’s line.
Right
now, were not doing much piercing. We’re more protecting…But that’s fine. A big-ass M1 Abrams tank staring down the
check point at you is intimidating enough that most people think twice before
attempting to bring any contraband into our IZ.
Did
I mention how lethal the weapons systems on one of
those tanks is? It’s truly a
scary thing.
As their doctor I
am responsible for the health and welfare of every last one of those
“killers”. I like them, and for the most
part they seem to like me. I haven’t met
every last one of them yet, but give me a week or two more and I will.
I have a second
mission however.
My mission stems
from the Task Force 4-64’s other mission: To win the hearts and minds of the locals.
Essentially,
public relations.
And I’m loving it!!
I get to go out
into the community and provide medical care to the locals. I get to coordinate medical coverage to the
population through the Iraqi Surgeon Generals office, local hospitals, and
coalition providers.
I’ve been
fostering relationships with members of the Ministry of Health and local
hospital directors.
I even have my own
set of local Iraqi business men with whom I converse with daily.
I’ve been
attending local council and government meetings as well.
There is also a
tactical advantage to my undertakings.
By providing much needed medical assistance to locals in our patrol
areas, we bring about good will. Much of
this good favor has resulted in locals divulging information about weapons
caches and insurgent operations. I can’t
directly account for a single event, but mine (and the rest of the medics)
contributions have definitely been felt.
My final
responsibility is the Medical Quick Response Force. I think I mentioned it before, but this is
simply a trauma team that goes to the scene of an event in which
That’s all for
now…Keeping my head down and my spirits up…
Daniel