Posted on 04/12/2004 8:16:01 PM PDT by BenLurkin
EDITOR'S NOTE: Valley Press Editor Dennis Anderson, who embedded with a California National Guard unit deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom last year, has rejoined them as they near the one-year mark in Iraq and Kuwait.
CAMP VICTORY, Kuwait - It was nearly Easter Sunday and Sgt. John O'Hern declared a small victory in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"I managed to send flowers home to my wife and daughter," O'Hern said, grinning.
During his tour, O'Hern, of the Riverside area, managed a couple of other small victories. He alerted the higher levels of command, right up to Congress, that National Guard troops needed the same quality of body armor that was issued to the regular Army.
O'Hern wasn't the only one to raise that alarm. About the time he was writing letters and making calls, Congress was being briefed on the topic.
Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, the Santa Clarita Republican who represents the Antelope Valley, and Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-San Diego, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee that both congressmen serve on, got the briefing.
McKeon explained that one contractor had been producing the heavy-duty "Interceptor" vest with the ballistic ceramic plate that stops bullets. Also, Hunter related that the Army supply system tied itself in knots, with armor stored in places it wasn't needed, like Alaska, and wasn't making its way to where it was needed, Iraq.
About the time O'Hern, of the 1498th Transportation Company, rang the bell last fall, six new contractors were licensed and vests started arriving in time to save soldiers' lives.
Small victories from Camp Victory near the Iraqi border. And such victories matter all the more with bloody, fierce fighting ranging from Fallujah west of Baghdad, to central Baghdad itself through the past week and into the holiday weekend.
Spc. Walter Brady of Palmdale, recently arrived at the unit after nine months medical hold at Fort Lewis, Wash. He looked forward to Easter sunrise service more than heading out on the bomb-strewn Iraqi roads, but said he knew his duties.
"I won't say I'm eager to go on missions, but I will do what I am called on to do."
Sunday dawned in Kuwait with patches of light rain and pink clouds, with uncharacteristically cool temperatures in the 60s. A few hundred miles north, in Baghdad, nothing was cool.
On Easter Sunday in Baghdad an Apache attack helicopter was shot down by anti-American insurgents. A day previous, rocket fire set an M-1 Abrams tank ablaze near a highway cloverleaf that is a regular traffic route for the combat support truckers of the 1498th, which has troops assigned to it from the Antelope Valley, Riverside, Sacramento and across the state of California.
A week of fierce fighting capped by nearly 50 U.S. troops killed found elements of the hometown Guard unit serving in areas ranging from the embattled Sunni Triangle to the recently restive region south of Iraq near Basra.
On Sunday, troops from the "Big Awesome Truck Company" prepared for a fresh mission into southern Iraq to help British coalition troops bring some of their heavy equipment out.
The combat support truckers were on call to support Army and Marine forces.
"We are needed to be moving stuff into the fight," 1st Sgt. James Earl Norris said.
Among the unit's responsibilities is protection for private contractor drivers from companies such as Texas-based Kellogg, Brown & Root. One such convoy was attacked and burned Friday in central Baghdad's Abu Gharaib district near Baghdad International Airport. A soldier and civilian were killed, and a dozen or so others injured, with the possibility of the taking of a U.S. hostage.
On Sunday, the Guard troops at Camp Victory greeted each other, calling out "Happy Easter!" and casting furtive glances for Easter bunnies, but none were to be found in the sand-swept moonscape that serves as home to thousands of troops who are either on their way into Iraq or on their way home to CONUS, the acronym for the Continental United States.
Troops from the Germany-based 1st Armored Division got word to expect their probable extension for another 120 days service in Iraq. The "Old Ironsides" division has some of the heaviest combat power in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and has been deployed in the Baghdad area since the middle of last year. At the same time, the California Guard troops from 1498th had been given no word on whether they could begin preparations for return to home in California, or to expect to continue providing the combat support that has made this conflict unique because of its support from the National Guard and Reserves.
At least 40% of the more than 125,000 U.S. troops deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom are Guard and Reserve. For nearly a year, such troops have provided sustaining power to the combat arms troops of the regular forces, but Guard and Reserve soldiers often note they are treated as second-class citizens in the "Army of One."
Spcs. Maria Garcia and Albert Lopez recall the times they were not allowed to use latrines at regular Army bases such as Dogwood in the environs of Baghdad. They were told they could not use the facilities because they did not provide help burning the human waste at the camp. "You don't burn it, you don't use it," they said they were told.
They could not provide such aid because their mission was long-haul trucking, so they were turned away from the latrines. And getting comfort stops was always a hazard during the supply convoy journeys across Iraq that measured in hundreds of miles and multiple weeks before return to a base area.
"I stopped eating fruit," Garcia recalled. "I stopped eating anything with fiber, because it was a time in our lives when we couldn't afford to be regular."
The Victory Chapel was filled with GI and Marine worshipers on Sunday. In Protestant services on Easter, Chaplain Troy Harrison, a major, gave his sermon on man's separation from God beginning with Adam and man's reunion with the Deity through communion in Christ.
"It would be a blessing to come home," one soldier said, leaving the service. "Been here nearly a year."
The chaplain quoted Scripture, reminding the flock how fleeting life can be to emphasize the need for a relationship with God.
"Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. … By the skin of our teeth. These are sayings from Scripture."
Jewish, Catholic, Islamic and evangelical Gospel services were also scheduled.
People have business and pleasure to attend to when they get home.
Cpl. Dean Frame of Quartz Hill is still paying off a pretty fancy 2001 Dodge pickup. One of the unit's senior NCOs is contemplating purchase of a Harley-Davidson, full-dress.
Meanwhile, preparations for the mission into southern Basra continued apace, with Capt. Paul Peterlin and Sgt. 1st Class Romeo Cabbat delivering a briefing. In businesslike fashion, they discussed the weapons that would be mounted for the mission: Squad Automatic Weapon, M-249, of course; the M-16s; and the MK-19 automatic grenade launcher.
Apart from preparations for a new mission, troops enjoyed the cool Sunday weather.
"Not much transition here," Peterlin said.
"It tends to be bone cold or killing heat. We had a thermometer in a tent last summer, it measured 154 degrees. My watch melted."
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