OPERATION IRAQI/ENDURING FREEDOM

by: Author Unknown,

Where do I start? How do I tell my adventures? How do I tell the way my heart pounded while in the streets of Baghdad? Lets start with October 1, 2002. That is the date we arrived Kuwait. The date we were attached to ARCENT-KUWAIT for support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Many of us went the notion of making some extra money in six months. Others, few, with the notion of getting a deployment under their belt. I went for the bragging rights to say I have been close to Iraq. Little did we know we would end up in the heart of Iraq.Kuwait, what can I say about a country that was liberated by us a few years ago? I’ll tell you the truth about it; I cannot say much because we were on lockdown when we got there. I spent about 5 months in Kuwait and never had the chance to see Kuwait City or any other major cities. I saw a lot of the ports though. We were at the brink of war with Iraq. Guess who had to guard ports when 3ID, 101st, 82nd, and whomever touched Kuwait soil? Those soldiers that arrived through the air arrived at what we called the APOD. They got on buses to reach their destinations. They probably never noticed the gun trucks securing their convoys on their way to their destinations. I can tell you that port missions were not very glamorous at all. Mainly because their was not much at the ports. Later, when we turned those missions to others they had heating tents, actual chow halls, and more medical support.The most action at the time was doing patrols on the outside of Camp Doha. Camp Doha was a small support base. Col. Ulysses Brown Jr. was the commander at the time. Camp Doha had your basic utilities. It had showers, mess hall, PX, movie theater, and a very good food court. We had all the support we needed being that we provided security for the base. The troop broke many records at the time because everyone was coming to Kuwait for a possible war with Iraq. In less than two months each gun truck had at least 10,000 miles on them. No one had that much sleep or rest during Dec 02-Feb 03. It was crazy in other words. I enjoyed Camp Doha even though it was a huge sitting target for scuds. I thought we would be home by the end of Mar 03. Mar 15 03 CPT Clark, L Troop 3/2 ACR Commander, gave us the news that we were being extended. For many it meant war with Iraq was inevitable, for others it meant more money. I still was optimistic that war would not break out. I was wrong.Mar 19 and 20 2003 would be the most memorable days of my life. We declared war against Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom would begin. The “shock and awe” would commence. I have never seen so much damage done by our arsenal. I thought the war would be over in no time. I would be wrong again.I heard the same sirens that I have heard for almost five months. The only difference this time was that the loud speaker was yelling “This is not a test”. My heart sank lower than the deepest ocean. I saw death coming for us and we could only sit and wait for it. I saw two Patriot missiles take off and that meant that the scuds were close. I heard and felt it hit outside of the base. I do not think I have ever put my protective suit that fast before. The “all clear” was given but two minutes later we heard another set of sirens. I lost count of how many scud alerts we heard. Some of us slept with our whole protective suit on at night because scuds did not sleep. Hell, one time they were replaying the scud alerts on the news and we thought it was another one coming and we suited up just to get the word that it as the TV. I think we had like four false alarms thanks to the TV. I think the TV was not allowed to be any louder than a whisper at night from that day on.Mar 26, 2003 would be another date that I will never forget, CPT Clark told the troop that we would be joining our comrades in arms. He told us that 3ID needed our help providing security for the supply convoys heading north into Iraq. I have never been more scared at the time. We had heard stories about these Fedayeen Saddam that attacked convoys between the border and Nasariyah. I wrote my letters to my loved ones letting them know that I might not return home in one peace. One thing I did know was that the great Lord was with us . I had the support of my family. My mother knew all about oppression and suffering. Coming from a third world country you know first hand that freedom is not free. I will never forget the morning of the 27th of Mar, we had so much ammunition that we could start our own war somewhere else. I took a picture as all the trucks were lined up ready for war. I had never seen so much firepower in front of me. Thanks to the dust of Iraq, my camera broke.While at the border of Iraq and Kuwait, we were attached to 220th MP BN out of Ft. Lewis, WA. We kept hearing of convoys being attacked but our convoys never got hit. Could it be because of the firepower they possessed or simply because? We will never know. 110 miles into Iraqi territory and no one of our convoys got attacked. Many Marine convoys were being hit left and right. Just like the changing wind we got word that we would be moving into Iraq to push supplies further in to Iraq. I guess 3ID had exceeded their supply lines. At the same time we would exceed ours as well. We ended up at a place we called LSA Cedar. I have never had hated a place so much till we got there. Let me tell you how the weather was at Cedar; take a hair dryer and sand then put the hair dryer on the hottest setting and blow the sand into your face while trying to breathe. That was all the time. Once again our mission changed like the wind.We were sent 60 miles south of Iraq to set up a Convoy Support Center (CSC),named LSA Scania, for all the supplies going to Baghdad. Were we lived was best described as a house for manure. It smelled bad and the that is were most of us got sick. I have never been more sick. It was so bad that I cannot even explain. I think we gave more than 20 IV in one day. We were invited to a small town well hidden in our area. They had a feast for us. They were extremely happy to have us around. I actually thought it would be an ambush. It was perfect for it. There were no exits. It was surrounded by a deep ditch. They had us go into a small tent and they were all around us. I was very nervous. To my surprise, nothing happened to us. The feast was incredible. I forgot to mention we had the best interpreter named AB. He was Kuwaiti and he was working for us for free. He did hate Iraqis because he was tortured by them in the first war. He always warned us about them.Well, I must innumerate that the feast was incredible until I saw an Iraqi grab a handful of rice to put in his mouth and he put the excess back on the tray. I don’t think I have ever vomited more times in my whole life a few days later. Something had a few of us sick. We had a Platoon Sergeant shit on his own seat. We had never given so many IVs since the beginning of the war. It helped some but some still had the “bug” of all bugs. Even I had it. I cannot ear the hamburger Meal Ready to Eat (MRE) anymore. I cannot even look at it or my stomach gets upset.A few days after we got better SGT Montalvo from 1st Platoon bought a goat from on of the locals for 35 dollars. I remember I had to look after him for a few hours till they got back from patrols. I had seen goats killed before but never with a dull knife. We had one guy start throwing up after he saw all the blood. It was good eating that night. I had not eaten for almost three days since I had the “bug”. I think I ate enough for three people that night.For the first time in almost six months I finally had a PA to work with. It was OK is she was from the California National Guard. I loved her because she was the one that gave me some medication for my “bug”. We saw some casualties there. The most memorable one was a young Private in Marine Corps who had the top cabin from a five ton land on one of her legs. She had a femur fracture to her left leg. We gave her morphine and splinted her leg. We finally had a “dustoff” coming our way. It was awesome. It landed in the middle of the highway. I think it was CH 46 from the Marines. It was nicely set up inside. We had a few other casualties come to us.I finally had the chance to call home to wish my mom a Happy Birthday. I was very excited to hear her voice for the first time in almost two months. She was very happy to hear from me. Everyone was doing OK. That was about to change in the months ahead.We finally got word that we were moving to Baghdad. I think my heart sank a little. We were safe there for almost two weeks but it was time to go. I had to go back to Camp Doha, Kuwait to close our accounts since our supply line still went to Kuwait. Our small group spent two days in Kuwait. When were coming back we ran into a small element of our Regiment. Our Regiment finally made it overseas. Things would change for the worst I thought. We drove all day to LSA Scania. We would spend the night there.We drove the last sixty miles to Baghdad. When we arrived to Baghdad it was like a scene from a movie. It was very crowded and it made me uneasy. All eyes were on us. People were selling everything on the streets. We were told to confiscate anything that had to do with weapons. Since Iraqis sold weapon parts in the “black market” we were forced to close it in the near future. We were staying at the War College. It looked more like an elementary school to me. The Marines had their way with a lot of the buildings. They broke some walls and burned a lot of documents that were in their library. It was a mess there.We were tasked to patrol Areas one, 23, and 49 for the time being. It happened to have the markets and “black markets” in those areas. In other words, they were the worst areas to have. We confiscated many weapons. We had a small chunk of the weapons. We had over 300 weapons of all kinds, many rounds from schools, and a lot of RPG weapons. Like I said, that was only a small portion. There were many more on the streets and we had to get them off the streets. That was a hard task if you ask me.