"NEW FRIENDS - Capt. Matthew R. Hook, commander of the National Guard unit that has many Antelope Valley soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom, practices his diplomatic skills in Kuwait. DENNIS ANDERSON/Valley Press
Posted on 09/03/2003 10:37:30 AM PDT by BenLurkin
EDITOR'S NOTE: Capt. Matthew R. Hook, commander of the 1498th Transportation Company, a National Guard unit in which many Antelope Valley soldiers find themselves serving in Iraq, sent this letter to his sister Marianne, a veteran of Desert Storm. We elected to run this at length because of the unique nature of the experience and the high interest shown by Valley Press readers about their local troops in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Thought you might like to hear that I'm safe and sound after my trip into Iraq. I know that you may have heard about interesting things happening here, and hope that you haven't been too worried.
My company has had a few close encounters, and recently one of our trucks was hit by what we believe to be a command-detonated mine. Two soldiers suffered minor injuries and one received nonlife-threatening burns that were nonetheless very serious.
This soldier has been sent to Germany and then on to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio for better care. He is doing well, but prayers and/or positive vibes for Staff Sgt. Arrington are appreciated.
My trip into Iraq was very interesting - if relatively uneventful - and took my group to various camps scattered throughout central and northwestern Iraq. We stayed out for about eight days and covered around 1,800 miles.
The drive through southern Iraq was a long ride mostly through the middle of nowhere. Southern Iraq is, generally, an exceptionally barren desert.
About 50 miles into Iraq on the MSR (Main Supply Route), the pavement disappears and the absolute worst road in the world begins. The guy who thought up the old saying "uglier than 20 miles of bad road" must have spent some time here - except this is more accurately 90 miles of bad road.
It is dusty, sandy, hard, rutted, washboard, hot, ugly and every other pejorative you can think - and four hours of travel time - possibly the longest four hours of my life, and I got to do it twice.
The dust on that road got stirred up by the trucks - at times we had huge convoys going in both directions - and it was so thick you can't see 15 feet ahead of you - which is kind of scary when you're driving trucks with 60 tons of cargo on the back doing 30 mph.
So we would have to slow down and sometimes stop to allow the dust to settle or allow the wind (which never blows in the same direction for more than about 30 seconds) to dissipate the dust.
This is also scary because you don't know if the truck behind you is slowing or stopping or if he can even see your brake lights. The whole experience was similar to driving your car with the heater on full blast while your passenger intermittently places a paper bag over your head (please note that paper bags are not toys).
With the proverbial paper bag being employed, the washboard on the road shakes, rattles and shivers everything so bad that entropy is exponentially sped up. Anything sitting on a horizontal surface will vibrate into falling to the lowest horizontal surface possible. Anything that can come unscrewed or unfastened will do so. Anything that can come unsecured or untied will.
On my truck alone, we broke three of the chains that secured our load. It kind of reminds me of the British explorer who came upon the Indian Brahmin lying on the bed of fire ants. As the Brit sat and watched the ants bite and sting the man, he asked, "Sir, why would you lie there like that?"
To whit the holy man replied, "Because it feels good when I stop."
And indeed I don't know why the Army has us going up this road, but it did feel good once we got past it.
It was obvious that our route had been well traveled by U.S. troops - the MRE litter and empty water bottles strewn along the road is one sure indicator, as are the remnants of Iraqi tanks, trucks and whatnot.
Sometimes its hard to tell what is recent damage and what has simply been lying around for the last 12 years. There is one spot an hour or so from the border that seems to be a large military vehicle graveyard from the first Gulf War, as though a large fighting force was attacked on the highway and they simply pushed it to the side of the road and left it in the desert to rust away.
I guess it's as good a spot as any.
As you move north you see more anti-aircraft weapons, tanks and trucks, all bombed out and destroyed. It's a chilling sight to see, as it is so obvious that they never had a chance. I imagine that many of the average Joe (Mohammed?) soldiers caught on pretty quick and abandoned their posts as soon as they safely - i.e., when the colonel had his back turned - could.
Southern Iraq is obviously very poor, and the contrast with wealthy Kuwait is striking.
Immediately after crossing the border - a long ditch in the desert and some barbed wire - you pass though a crumbling town with streets lined by people waving; selling AK-47 bayonets, Iraqi army paraphernalia, whisky and hashish; and begging for food and water. The people in southern Iraq - whom Saddam had been trying to starve because they revolted after the first Gulf War - seem to like us quite a lot, and appear very happy to see convoys move through.
Convoy watching - and dodging - seems to be the game of choice among Iraqi children - north and south - and it's been hard on people with kids to see such small children in obvious need. The kids are very cute - they give us the thumbs-up and peace signs, and love when we notice them and wave back. We aren't supposed to give them food or water or buy from vendors on the road, but everyone does from time to time. Yes, I'm quite the soft touch with the kids, and I've become quite adept at judging windage and speed when tossing MREs or candy to them.
Once into central Iraq the environ turns into a green, populated swath around the Tigris basin. Lots of farms and palm trees and stuff. The people appear more healthy and well-fed, but through all of Iraq I only saw about three fat people - the joke is if you see a fat Iraqi, get a picture of him because he's probably someone important.
They aren't quite as fond of us around the middle of Iraq. These areas got quite a bit of Saddam's largesse over the years and likely see us as an end to all that. That being said, many adults still give us the thumbs-up or blow kisses, which I am told means that they approve.
I was actually thanked for coming here by a group of middle-aged Iraqi men sitting around at a coffee shop. And the ever-present kids still like to wave and shout and see if they can get us to throw them some candy, but they appear to be doing it more for the fun of it than their southern counterparts.
In Baghdad I had a nice conversation with a young man named Abdul Rachman. He was just standing on the side of the road, and when our convoy slowed and then stopped he walked up to let me know that he spoke English and to say hello - he was about 10, and a right smart chap.
Although his English wasn't really so hot, it was much better than my Arabic, and he was very enthusiastic about trying it out. After a short conversation our convoy once again started to roll and I bid young Mr. Rachman good day. He said to say hello.
There are quite a lot of air and army bases in central Iraq - no doubt a result of Saddam's pork-barrel contracting style. These were hit very hard during the first Gulf War, and they didn't seem to have the inclination or money to make many repairs but rather just moved to new areas on the bases and built new stuff.
As a result you can't tell what was busted up in February and what has been busted up since 1991 - but the bases are all pretty well busted up.
While most of the buildings on the bases are a wreck, either a total loss from bombing or a crumbling mess from looting and neglect, this stands in stark contrast to the nonmilitary structures. I've seen almost nothing off the bases that appears to have been bombed or shot up, with the obvious exception being areas that the Iraqis drove their tanks into to seek shelter.
This is in stark contrast to pictures of post-World War II Europe or even Vietnam, where everything is rubble.
One bit of damage that is obviously from this latest conflict is the damage to the runways - large, no, huge craters blown in the middle of each runway intersection. Its either a testament to the accuracy of our laser-guided weapons or a last-ditch bit of sabotage by the Iraqis, an attempt to stop us from using the runways. Engineers have been busy patching them up, and most are good to go.
One weird sight on several of the air bases we visited is that there are planes and ordnance lying around all cattywampus. The Iraqis appear to have tried to hide planes in the desert, on roads, in date orchards or just about anywhere. They seemed to favor digging large rectangular berms in the sand, dragging the planes inside and covering them with camo net and dumping sand over the planes to hide them.
By and large, the ploy didn't work, and so there are lots of destroyed planes littering the landscape now and lots of big piles of dirt with wings and tails sticking out of them. Bullets, bombs and missiles are everywhere just sitting around - it's nuts.
One of the U.S. bases we pulled into for the night had been receiving sporadic mortar fire for about a week or so. Early that evening, I heard four thumps, and all of a sudden there were parachute flares lighting up the sky - evidently fired by the Iraqis to keep the base on edge. I, however, thought it was pretty and went to sleep on top of my truck. ZZZZZZ. At about 3 in the morning something woke me up, and I sat up to look around. All of a sudden I saw a flash and heard a big CARUMP! - which turned out to be a mortar round landing about 200 meters away.
As I lay there trying to make up my mind on what to do (stay put, run for a bunker, drive somewhere, whatever), it struck me that these guys are just lobbing these rounds in at random. If I move I might be moving to where the next random round lands. With that bit of statistical analysis out of the way, I laid back down and went to sleep.
With all that's going on, you'll all be happy to know that U.S. troops in Iraq have mastered the art of burning excrement - pulling pans from under the latrines, pouring in some diesel, lighting it on fire and stirring it until there is nothing left. Somehow, it feels downright biblical around there - and talk about your marketable skills.
Up north in Mosul and to the north - we made it to Talli Aeffar, if you can find that on your maps - Iraq looks like Nevada, flat with mountains off in the distance.
The people up north definitely have some cream in their coffee. Some appear to be all cream - even have redheads floating around.
In general I don't think you can stereotype an Iraqi - pigmentation-wise, it's a very diverse place. I also found that Iraqis appear to be very attractive people, but the ugly ones are frightening.
Way up in the north the Kurds seem to be very hip to Americans, although throughout Iraq people (read: adults) get a bit testy when we drive our oversized trucks through the towns. No more or less so, I guess, than folks would be if we drove 25 of these things through the Mission District during rush hour.
The Iraqis drive very aggressively, but you can only be so aggressive when the other guy is driving a 70-ton behemoth. Something like honk, honk, crash, crunch - then sounds of breaking glass as a rock impacts the windshield of the truck.
Anyway, like I said, our trip took us about eight days and covered about 1,800 miles. Along the way, we crossed over the Tigris River and drove by about 10 of Saddam's palaces.
Upon returning to Kuwait I realized how nice it is, relatively speaking, notwithstanding the fact that it's 30 degrees hotter (i.e., 140 degrees) and much sandier than Iraq.
We get to eat "real" food (ice cream bars at the chow hall almost made me cry, they were so good) and hit up the doublewide trailer we call a PX at will. No AC, but we do get eatable ice - whoo hooo!
So things go on here. I'll likely be going out on another mission late next week. I'll send an update once I get back. In the meantime, know that I really miss y'all!
For everyone else, drop me a line when you can and let me know how you're doing. Also, send bits of news! We have almost no idea what is going in the world and the war (are we still calling it that?), or what is left of it.
At night in Iraq we could see firefights all around the skyline, but no one tells us much about what is going on unless it affects our convoy routes. Very frustrating for a news freak like me.
When I do get a chance to get online I don't have much time to hunt for news, so all interesting tidbits of info and/or hometown gossip will be summarily devoured.
Capt. Matthew R. Hook
Operation Iraqi Freedom
"NEW FRIENDS - Capt. Matthew R. Hook, commander of the National Guard unit that has many Antelope Valley soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom, practices his diplomatic skills in Kuwait. DENNIS ANDERSON/Valley Press
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