Monday

We were involved in a six day joint operation with the Iraqi Army and the guys that I work with the National police. The National police guys - you can think of them like the equivalent of our state police force. Their missions are short and brief and they don’t have the capabilities of a regular army to fight in long term missions.

We have been asked to spend a few nights each week down at the station house. When you pull up to the building, which is basically a two story bomb shelter converted into a headquarters building for the National police, you can easily see the improvements that U.S. dollars have spent. The compound is surrounded by 12 foot high concert barriers. When you enter into the front gate there is a huge dirt parking lot until yesterday when a fleet of dump trucks showed up to cover the entire lot in gravel. The reason why they use gravel because when it rains here for some reason it becomes extremely muddy. The gravel will help keep the mud down.

For the sake of security I can’t tell you what’s inside but I will tell you that eventually U.S. dollars will clean the inside up as well. When you go inside the smell is horrible. It’s a cross between a musty basement and a bad smelling portal toilet that you see at the state fair. Our guys have been given a small room in which 15 guys must live in. The Iraqi commander of the National Police is excited that we are going to stay a few nights with them. I can tell by looks on my teammates faces that they are not too ecstatic about it. They offer us some bunk beds that they had stored in the basement along with the mattresses. The frames of the beds are made out of a flimsy metal but the mattresses, whoa!!! I smelled mine and I almost wanted to throw up!

Some of the Iraqi soldiers had set up our bunk beds and we were ready to move our stuff right in. Of course I took the bottom bunk in the left hand corner of the room against the wall. I like sleeping against the wall. It gives me a sense of security. To my surprise there was enough room for everyone to have a bunk in that little room. I couldn’t help but laugh at our guys. The expressions on their faces said everything. These guys are Americans. They have been spoiled by the American way of life. This was definitely a step down to what they were used to. I saw it as an opportunity to learn something about a life and people I had no idea about. This was going to be an interesting week.

Tuesday

We were up at 5:00 a.m. to begin our first day of a house clearing mission into a Sunni neighborhood. The National police here are mostly Shia. In the past three months that I have been here it is apparent to me that these two groups do not like each other. Their history together is so close that I really don’t understand why they would have any problems. I do understand that they argue over who is the rightful successor to Muhammad. I spoke to one Iraqi man and he told me that the religion aspect is only used for political control. I was nervous going into this neighborhood this morning because a week ago I was in a gun fight that took place in a Sunni neighborhood. When the Sunni know these guys are coming they will try to shoot them.

Wednesday

Yesterday was a long day. To my surprise we also had the support of Infantry with us that day. It was impressive with them rolling in with their big vehicles called a STRIKER. This vehicle is about four times bigger than my vehicle and it looks like a tank without a big gun on it. It has four big wheels on each side and when it stops it's like something out of your favorite sci-fi movie, the back hatch door comes down and then an awesome looking group of American soldiers will come running out of the back of it! It was a good day because there were a significant amount of weapons caches that were found.

Thursday

We were up again at the crack of dawn again. My job is logistics. My officer and I had to supply these guys with meals for their mission this week. No, we don’t feed them but we had to go order the food and give it to one of their officers. This didn’t sit too well with us because in the American army we provide for our soldiers needs. I was shocked that in the Iraqi system they don’t. I asked the Iraqi supply officer about how he feed his men. He told me “we give them a bottle of water and a biscuit for the day. The men that are out on the traffic check points, we bring food out to them.”

I had a feeling that what he was telling me wasn’t true at all. There have been times when we patrolled a certain neighborhood and then our convoy would stop suddenly. Then almost immediately a woman bearing a platter of food on head would walk past our vehicle to where the Iraqi police guys were and feed them. These guys are not stupid. I heard one of my teammates say “these guys are the best when it comes to networking for their needs.” I couldn’t help feeling that I was nor should I say the U.S. is being used. Oh well, I have to stay focused and carry out my orders. I know one thing is for sure. All of this will come to an end some day and these guys better be ready.

Friday

The mission this week has been going smoothly. Except for the day a car bomb went off the street next to me! What bothers me is that I am getting used to the sounds of this place. I don’t want to worry everyone but today I was standing next to our chief outside our vehicle and he turns to me and says “Lewis did you hear that?” “No, I didn’t” “A sniper’s bullet just went over our heads!” You don’t have to tell me twice. I jumped back behind the cover of our vehicle!

We went from house to house in another section of this Sunni neighborhood. It is no doubt that the Sunni live a lot nicer than the Shia people. The Sunni houses have nice fenced off courtyards. Inside the house is nice too. There can be as many as three living room areas. It’s understandable because in this culture many family members live in one house together. Young men and women will live with their parents until they get married.

We went to this one house and as we entered the courtyard there was this cute little Iraqi girl. She was just crying her eyes out as her father stood there answering questions by the American soldiers. It was about 25 of us, Iraqi National police, Iraqi Army and U.S. forces coming into this little girl’s house. What got to me was that she looked exactly like my daughter Jordan when she was little. She couldn’t have been any more than 3-years-old and she had the face of an angel. Well I know that could be scary to a 3-year-old. When I put on my body armor and helmet I must look like a gigantic robot! Well I had to do something so I reached into my pocket and I had some candy. I grabbed an interpreter and asked her father if it was okay to give her he candy. Her father consented and I gave it to her and the tears were beginning to subside. Then my interpreter (Steve you rock!) gave me some pop tarts that he had in his bag. I gave this to the little girl and she just gave me a smile through her tears. She ran to her daddy and he squatted down and comforted her. For a moment I could feel my eyes welling up because I thought it just wasn’t fair that this little girl has to go through all of this crap! She should be out playing on the play ground with her friends. She looked so much like my little girl who I adore so much. Well needless to say I didn’t want the infantry guys to see this big sergeant with tears in his eyes so I put my Oakley sunglasses back on my face.

Saturday

All this week weapons have been found, car bombs have gone off and people have been arrested. Let me tell you this: criminals in America have it made! I have witnessed how insurgents are treated in their system. For the sake of security I can only give you generalities.

I saw this young boy about the age of 18 who was captured in a house with pertinent information. He was questioned by Iraqi forces. You could tell that the boy was so scared. We were all in the front living room of a house. He was crying and his face was panic stricken. Our interpreter told me that it was good that U.S. forces were there because let’s just say this: the Iraqi National police have a way of interrogation that is not good. Well after an hour of questioning, the handcuffed the boy with flexy cuffs and blindfolded him and put him in a truck.

Later that evening at the station as I was walking to the bathroom to go shave I walked pass this hallway. In the hallway seated on each side were about 20 men sitting on the floor bound and blindfolded. The attendants of the station were bringing them food. Some of them were huddled into a circle and their hands were re-positioned to the front of them so that they could grab a piece of food that was on a platter on the floor. They had to eat their food blindfolded and handcuffed. To the back of line I noticed the young boy that had been arrested earlier that day. I didn’t want my humanity to get in the way of my understanding. Most of the men in this hallway are insurgents who were killing Americans. They didn’t have any passion when they decided to blow up one of our vehicles and kill some American soldier who had a family back home waiting for him.

I went back one more time that evening to look at that group again. I was surprised to see that they were left there to sleep for the evening. Some were sleeping on their backs and some were still sitting Indian style on the floor. I soon found out that insurgents would rather be in the custody of American forces because they get a warm bed and good food every night. Is there something wrong with this picture?

Answer to ‘Ask Sgt. Roy’

So where are you currently and tell me about your night patrols?
Malcolm, Riverside, N.J.

Answer: I am in the southern part of Baghdad. We try not to do a lot of night patrols but I have done a few. We try to pull into a neighborhood as fast as we can. This gives us the element of surprise. Our Iraqi National police are good at this because they love kicking down doors. We observe their techniques and advise them on what they can improve on. We are given orders to not do the work for them but let them do it for themselves. If anything goes out of control we are prepared to defend ourselves.