Posted on 08/19/2004 1:37:27 PM PDT by Pest
NSPE Member Experiences Fear and Violence in War-Torn Iraq
By Jane Byrne Staff Writer
NSPE member James Wernicke recently spent two weeks in Iraq avoiding sniper attacks, mortar assaults, and roadside bombs while working to restore order in a land torn apart by violence. He's not a member of the military; he is a professional engineer.
For security reasons, Wernicke cannot talk about his company or the specifics of his work. However, the Albuquerque, New Mexico, resident does have a harrowing story to share about his experiences and offers insight into what it's like to live and work in a war-torn country.
"It was rather scary," he starts out. "You'd be lying there sleeping and a mortar would land, and it would be loud enough to wake you up. You would hear that explosion and you also knew there would be another one."
Most nights were filled with mortar attacks. Wernicke and his companions would lie silently in their tents, awaiting the next crash in the darkness, hoping not to get hit.
"If you could hear the explosion, you were pretty sure that it was close by," he says. "So you had to come out of your sleep and make a decision as to what you were going to do. Basically all you could do was wait and hear where the next one landed."
Attacks were often launched into the "Green Zone," the so-called safe area inside Baghdad where Wernicke and thousands of others slept each night. The mortar assaults, fired by insurgents, came from the opposite side of the Tigris River.
Wernicke and other engineers and workers inhabited the Green Zone along with 5,000 Iraqis. Despite being heavily guarded and barricaded with 10-foot concrete barriers, the area was still quite dangerous, he says. In fact, on the day Wernicke left Iraq to return home, one mortar landed about 200 feet away from the tents where he and his cohorts had slept.
Before entering the country, people heading into Iraq are trained and prepared in Kuwait, Wernicke explains. Each person receives a flak jacket, a helmet, and a gas mask and is taught how to use the equipment. They are also instructed on what to do in dangerous situations, such as the possibility of exposure to toxic gases or biological agents.
"From there, you take a military transport into Baghdad, and from the Baghdad airport you go into the Green Zone," he says.
This safe zone is an area of blocked-off streets in central Baghdad where U.S. authorities and Iraqis live and work. The area also encompasses Saddam Hussein's main palaces, with his former presidential compound at the center.
"The problem with the Green Zone is that it's not that large," Wernicke says. The area is a couple of miles wide and about half of a mile deep. Also, the concrete barriers are not sufficient protection against rocket and mortar attacks. "That's what we were faced with," he says.
Shortly after Wernicke's team arrived in Iraq, guerilla warfare in the area intensified significantly. One day when he and another engineer were walking into the Green Zone after finishing a job, two mortars landed 100 yards away from them.
"The shrapnel from those mortars passed by us. We were fortunate we didn't get hit," he says. He describes the shrapnel as heavy pieces of ragged metal about the size of a quarter. "If you get hit with it, it's gonna do a lot of damage," Wernicke adds. "We were very much aware that the potential for getting killed was there."
Precarious Travel
Driving to and from work sites was another dangerous endeavor, Wernicke says. The workers had to travel in special convoys for safety. The convoys were led by two Humvees armed with machine gun mounts and followed by two more Humvees. Wernicke's vehicle, an unarmored Ford Explorer, and others like it, were sandwiched between the Humvees as all of the vehicles drove.
For further protection, passengers in the SUVs wore Kevlar helmets and ceramic armor that was three-quarters of an inch thick and could stop a 7.62 millimeter bullet. However, the armor didn't protect against military rifle rounds or shrapnel. The ceramic armor covered each passenger's chest and back, but not the person's sides, so riders had to face outward to avoid leaving their sides exposed to possible sniper attacks.
Sniper killings occurred daily, Wernicke says, because snipers had excellent vantage points from numerous highway overpasses around the city. In addition, improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were scattered along the roadsides. Made from old artillery shells and leftover pieces of explosives, these bombs pose a serious threat to any car that is forced to stop on the road. To kill with IEDs, attackers stall a vehicle in the road near an explosive device and wait for a car to stop close to the the device. Then they detonate the bomb.
To avoid such attacks, Wernicke says, once the convoys set out, they would speed down two-lane highways at 50 miles per hour, avoiding obstacles at all costs. "We did not want to stop under any circumstances," he says. Also, every vehicle would contain a "shooter" who sat next to the driver with a gun. Passengers helped by watching out of the windows for snipers at all times.
"If you were not constantly aware, you'd end up getting shot," Wernicke says. "Not a day went by that we were not reminded of our vulnerability."
Supplies and Labor
When it came to availability of construction equipment and supplies, Wernicke was pleasantly surprised. Concrete mixers and pumpers, backhoes, and cranes were readily obtainable. "You could pretty much get all the heavy equipment that you needed over there," he says.
However, certain quality standards and building methods were a concern, Wernicke adds. For example, to build a wall out of concrete blocks in Iraq, workers didn't strive to craft uniform blocks. They would place a half of a brick or two-thirds of a brick in the wall because materials were scarce. As a result, the strength of the structure was uncertain. "The walls looked like hodgepodges," he says. "You had to adjust for that."
Methods of doing business in Iraq are very different from how things are done in the U.S., as well. For instance, half of the cost of any project in Iraq must go toward security, Wernicke says. "It's not an option."
Also, laborers are paid only $300–$400 a month, and they must be allowed to take five daily prayer breaks, two of which are usually in a mosque. As a result, employers have to decide whether to build a mosque on-site or let their workers go to a nearby mosque.
Other problems stem from frequent interruptions in electrical power, old equipment breaking down, and language barriers. In addition, Iraqis work in a tribal structure, Wernicke explains. "You can't just pick up the yellow pages and find somebody to work." Instead, many positions are filled by word of mouth from workers to their friends and family members. "That's very much common over there," he says.
Not everything is different in Iraq, though. The people there wish for normal lives, just like everyone else, Wernicke says. "Ninety-nine percent of the people that we met wanted nothing more than to have a job, to go home to their family and their kids, and to wake up in the morning and go back to work."
And in France, productivity is also low because of the wine and cheese break 5 times a day. Not to mention all the "bad air".
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