Despite hardships, U.S. troops make best of it in heart of Sunni Triangle (USA spirit bump)

www.stripes.com ^ | By Steve Liewer

[bogdanPolska12]

BALAD, Iraq — Hot chow comes only once a day on a truck.

There’s no post exchange to sell cigarettes and soda pop.

The electricity is jury-rigged and spotty. Too often for comfort, mortars fall out of the sky.

Welcome to Forward Operating Base Paliwoda, an Army stronghold in the heart of Iraq’s volatile Sunni Triangle.

Since arriving last June, the troops of the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment have used aggressive policing to keep a lid on the simmering conflict between the largely Shiite, pro-American city and its sullen Sunni suburbs.

Formerly known as FOB Eagle, the camp was renamed in memory of Capt. Eric Paliwoda, who died Jan. 2 when an enemy mortar round scored a direct hit on his room.

In their limited spare time, the soldiers have built the dusty infantry camp into something like home.

The Army has given them Internet service, telephones, air conditioners and toilets.

They’ve rigged up their own power grid, fixed showers and built desks, tables and cabinets out of salvaged plywood.

Now the 1st Infantry Division’s Task Force 1-77 has arrived to take over the camp and the mission.

They admire what their predecessors did with the camp, but they want to make it better.

“They did all this under combat conditions,” said Capt. Erik Booker, 31, of San Antonio, Task Force 1-77’s intelligence officer.

“We actually have the time now to put the finishing touches on it.”

Most of the task force’s soldiers assigned here arrived in convoys Saturday evening.

Their trucks and Humvees passed through the concertina-topped sand berm and a serpentine trail of dirt barricades, then were greeted by a rusty water tower bearing the camp’s name.

The base is shaped like a fat horseshoe; its perimeter is 1½ miles long.

On the north side is a road and the entrance. On the south there’s a canal, on the east a mosque, and on the west a school soccer field.

In the middle, behind giant chain-link fences, is housing still occupied by the families of former Iraqi soldiers.

One side of the horseshoe used to be a school, but it is now the battalion headquarters. The other side used to be a training camp for Saddam Hussein’s guerrilla fighters. Its sturdy concrete barracks, shaded by palm trees, have become the home of the 1-8 Infantry’s Company A. Task Force 1-77’s Company B now has squeezed in there, too.

On the Company B side, the soldiers live in spare, windowless concrete rooms. The roofs are strong enough to withstand a mortar hit. A set of Army-provided portable barracks rooms, called Conexes, sits empty while the unit looks for a way to reinforce the ceilings.

“Our commander said until we get overhead protection, no one’s moving into the Conexes,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Flesher, 38, of Leesburg, Fla., the base “mayor” for the Company A, 1-8 Infantry side.

On the Company C, 1-26 Infantry side of the base, soldiers do live in the Conexes. Although their roofs remain exposed, tall concrete barricades have been built close around them. It would take a very lucky shot to cause damage.

Flesher said mortars have been fired at the base about 30 times since June, sometimes in bursts. Ten have landed in the perimeter, five of them in the Jan. 2 attack that killed Capt. Paliwoda.

Despite improvements, there’s still an enormous contrast between these forward operating bases and camps such as 1st ID’s new division headquarters at Tikrit, or LSA Anaconda, the sprawling air base 12 miles from Paliwoda.

In Tikrit, Maj. Gen. John Batiste’s staff pitches their cots in a complex of marble palaces built by Saddam for his family. Kellogg Brown & Root runs a large meal tent that serves a choice of menus as well as a selection of ice cream, cookies, pie and cakes — luxuries soldiers at Paliwoda almost never see. Once a day, though, a convoy delivers some lukewarm leftovers from the KBR chow hall at Anaconda.

The Tikrit headquarters features a single palace dedicated to Morale, Welfare and Recreation that 4th ID uses for rest and recuperation. It includes a marble-decked indoor swimming pool, a huge exercise room, a movie theater, a rug store and a fleet of bicycles. MWR at Paliwoda is a second-hand pingpong table, a big-screen TV and a few board games.

Still, the infantrymen take a perverse pleasure in their relative squalor.

They scorn the rear-echelon soldiers who live comfortably at fancy places like the nearby air base.

“Anaconda is full of nongrunt people that get on our nerves,” said Spc. Efrain Munoz, 23, of Diamond Bar, Calif., a 1-8 Infantry soldier. “Now that there’s phones here and Internet, I like this place a lot better than Anaconda.”

The Task Force 1-77 newcomers are getting into the same spirit. “You can’t complain,” said Sgt. Michael Lopez, 25, of Dallas. “At least you’re not sleeping out in the middle of the desert.”

But the soldiers are looking for ways to spruce things up. Sgt. Nick Lewis, 25, of San Francisco, already has restored power to several rooms 4th ID soldiers said lost it weeks ago during a rainstorm. He’s still working on the electricity to the showers and latrines.

The Company B commander, Capt. Henry Delacruz, and the noncommissioned officer-in-charge, 1st Sgt. Mark Oldroyd, are working to get a second hot meal delivered daily to Paliwoda.

Later, they’d like to get a field kitchen and two cooks so the unit could fix its own hot chow.

The soldiers also know their infantry brothers in other units have put up with much worse.

“It’s kind of what being a soldier is all about,” said Spc. Jess Escamillas, 24, of Tucson, Ariz.

“We’re going to be here for a year. There’s no use bitching and complaining.”

— Steve Liewer is embedded with Task Force 1-77 at FOB Paliwoda, Iraq.

[festus]

If the Sunni Triangle is such a big problem why don't we just :

1. Fence it in
2. Pave it
3. Put a WalMart in the middle.

Problem solved.

[luvbach1]

So proud of our troops in so many ways. Thank God for another "greatest generation".

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thank you for your great posts, bogdanPolska12.

Please add me to your ping list if (when) you have one.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

BALAD, Iraq — Hot chow comes only once a day on a truck.

There’s no post exchange to sell cigarettes and soda pop.

The electricity is jury-rigged and spotty. Too often for comfort, mortars fall out of the sky.

Welcome to Forward Operating Base Paliwoda, an Army stronghold in the heart of Iraq’s volatile Sunni Triangle.

...The soldiers also know their infantry brothers in other units have put up with much worse.

“It’s kind of what being a soldier is all about,” said Spc. Jess Escamillas, 24, of Tucson, Ariz.

“We’re going to be here for a year. There’s no use bitching and complaining.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     

 

             (Had to post this pic at least once today!)

[bogdanPolska12]

I will. No problem

[Iberian]

Amen to your comment. The most polished troops in the planet deserves the best, (our prayers).

[StarCMC]

AWESOME story ping!

Our troops rock!

[SwatTeam]

This is a great post, describing the spirit and attitude of our terrific troops. Thanks for posting it.

[blackie]

We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!

~~ Bush/Cheney 2004 ~~