Ruff Week in a Little Corner of Iraq

This past week should have been a very happy week in the 3-1 National Police area of operations - - they received their first 75 Up Armored HMMWVs, which is quite an honor for a non-Iraqi Army unit - - but there were some very sad events that took place in the AO that made it a sad week instead.

The first event was the death of LTC Mohammed on friday. He died in a traffic accident (more on that later) on his way to pick up his unit's HMMVs. He was a true hero of the regiment, in 2006 he was wounded in action, shot three times by the insurgents. He spent the next two years in the hospital and recovering from the wounds. He returned to the brigade about 5 months ago and immediately started working hard. He was a very strong officer that had a great rapport with his soldiers and other Iraqi officers. I enjoyed working with him, no matter what he was doing if I saw him he broke into a huge smile and came over to shake my hand. He also spoke a little English, which was cool. Needless to say, BG Emad was crushed that day. The NP's evacuated LTC Mohammed to the BDE HQs, he was still alive, BG E saw him and said take him straight to the hospital. He died of his wounds at the hospital. 4 other soldiers were wounded in the accident.

The truck he was driving in was a Chevy Silverado, the Iraqi's love the Silverados - - big V-8s so they move out. LTC Mohammed's driver was driving too fast, hit a pot hole, lost control and the truck flipped over. LTC Mohammed was not wearing a seatbelt, and was thrown from the vehicle. Very sad day, and a loss for Iraq.

The second event happened on Saturday night. An IED exploded in Center City, killing two kids and wounding two others. A kid had found an IED (probably some Un-exploded ordnance left over from the hard times) and was carrying it to town to show his friends or sell it in the market. When he pulled it out of the bag to show his friends, he dropped it and it exploded, killing him. Iraq is a tough place to live sometimes. Another sad day for Iraq.

The bad thing about the whole situation was that at the same time the IED exploded, our Explosives Ordnance Disposal team was blowing up some other things that were found or turned in, so there was a series of explosions at the same time as when the IED exploded in Center City. One of the local leaders (not the best leader and definitely not interested keeping public order) ran straight to the TV and radio stations and claimed that Center City (a Shia city) was under attack from a smaller Sunni town, stirring the sectarian violence pot a little bit. He also claimed that there were 10 people killed and hundreds wounded. He did this without permission or making sure he had all of the correct facts. Unfortunately, this story got picked up by several news agencies and now Center City is famous for the wrong reason. There was even a story in Stars and Stripes about the attack, the story used the leaders account as a reference, so even our friendly press got it wrong.

Needless to say, that leader has been talked to by most everyone that is doing the right thing in the area. BG Emad called him out and let him know how much damage he had done, Sheik Q dressed him down in front of several other sheiks, so the guy either got the message or is too stubborn to admit he was wrong.

The final thing that happened was a comic sort of tragedy. We asked BG Emad to record some radio announcements, asking kids not to pick up Un-exploded ordnance and if they do find something, they should report it to the National Police. He of course agreed to do it and we made an appointment at the local radio station (a US friendly radio station, pretty much because we give them money for generator fuel and bought all of the radio equipment). We arrived at the appointed time, and were ticked off right off the bat. You can always tell if something isn't going to happen in Iraq if nobody is around. The radio station was deserted. We made some phone calls, got the manager there 30 minutes late. He went into the Iraqi song and dance, Iraqi's really hate saying they can't do something - - there was no fuel for the generator (not true), we can't start the first generator, the generator mechanic is on his way to start the second generator . . . blah, blah, blah. After about 30 more minutes of beating around the bush it turns out that an employee of the radio station had stolen all of the gear and they couldn't put BG E on the air. I have no idea why they couldn't say that on the phone, but it was very frustrating.

I was pretty frustrated, we bought the equipment, paid for the fuel to run the radio station and someone stole the show, literally. BG E, being the total pro that he is asked to not be frustrated, these things happen in Iraq.

That sums a bad week, and the enemy didn't do a darned thing.

Kids, if you are out there, wear your seatbelts, drive at a reasonable speed and don't play with UXO.