My Boss
My boss is having a hard time after coming back from the war, he asked me to write something so he can start getting help for PTSD. Here is the draft of that letter.
Baqubah-2005. 26 June, 2007
CPT C. and I were selected to man the Joint Coordination Center at the Diyala, Iraq the Diyala Provincial Police Headquarters from January 2005 to January 2006 as a part of 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. 3rd Brigade was in charge of the Diyala Province and Task Force 1-10th FA was in charge of the Provincial capital, Baqubah. There were two large Forward Operating Bases in the Baqubah area; FOB Warhorse and FOB Gabe. Both were within five to ten minute drive, but when under attack, those few minutes seemed like an eternity.
Our initial mission was to be the liaison element between the Iraqi police and the US forces. Any movement was coordinated between both units and mutual support was expected.
CPT C. arrived at the JCC two days before I did, and was welcomed by the terrorist with two mortar attacks, and a suicide bomber attack against police recruits that left approximately 15 dead and 17 wounded. That was to become our daily concern.
I was welcome to the JCC with another mortar attack and drive by shooting right outside our gates.
To instill and enforce a spirit of friendship and leadership on the Iraqi senior Officers; CPT C. decided, and I agreed on his decision, to NOT wear our protective gear when the JCC was attacked. The first line of defense for the JCC was the Iraqi police, second was the Force Protection force on the JCC that consisted of 100 US soldiers, and last the elements of the Quick Reaction Force from FOB Gabe and Warhorse.
The reasons behind not wearing the protective gear was that it showed a lack of trust in the police force on dealing with the crisis. It also showed fear and weakness in our part while the Iraqis had no protective gear.
At the beginning of our tour with the Iraqis, we were issued a 9mm pistol for self defense because the JCC was 90% Iraqi, 10% US forces. All the Iraqis had weapons and were loaded at all times. Our day started at 0700 with the daily briefing from the Iraqi leadership and the US night shift. The first few months, I was running the night shift, I was suppose to only inform the US forces in FOB Gabe and Warhorse of what the Iraqi forces were doing and inform, through an interpreter, the Iraqi leadership on what the US forces were doing as to avoid a crossfire and friendly casualties, but because their timid nature we had to take over their operational command almost every time we were attacked. We had lower enlisted instructing Iraqi Colonels on how to deploy their forces under fire, what the Iraqi forces should do when in a check point, where to call for support, how to use the equipment that the US had given them, etc.
The JCC was set so that the Iraqis controlled the first floor; the company of US soldiers controlled the second floor. Every day we had to leave the security of the second floor and go to the JCC which was located on one end of the first floor, all security to the JCC was done by the Iraqi police. There were hundreds of people walking the halls of the JCC at any given hour of the week, as the liaisons between the US and Iraqi forces we had to walk those hallways and talk to the people waiting to ask us for favors, money, send a note to a family member in jail, claims that the Americans had destroyed their house on a raid a few nights ago, their house was blown up by an artillery round (that happened three times). At night we had to make sure that the Iraqi police didn’t torture the prisoners, make sure that the inmates were received and handled humanly. Many times CPT C. and I had to visit inside the jail to assess if the prisoner could go to the hospital or was just faking it. In order to do this we had to walk inside the cells without a weapon where 200 Iraqi prisoners were staying to make sure they were well taken care of.
After a few weeks into our tour in the JCC, CPT C. and I noticed that the JCC was becoming the center of political, urban development, training and detention center for the Diyala Province. At this point the Brigade leadership decided to increase the personnel in the JCC and we were given authorization to hire more Iraqi personnel to man both the Baqubah JCC and the Provincial JCC.
As the Diyala Province started to show progress the attacks became more frequent and the US forces started to pressure the Police chief to control the city and to deploy more forces to deal with the violence spreading in the city and the province. We started to provide for the other JCCs in the province and with the influx of money the city started to trust the police and the Iraq Army.
In one single day, we would deal with pay issues, attacks all over the city and province, attacks against the JCC, attacks against Iraqi forces and US forces, city resources, city officials, threats of suicide bombers already inside the JCC, receiving reports of all insurgent activities and translating them from Arabic to English, sending those reports up the chain of command and following up on those reports. At one given time there were 100 Iraqis and 10 US soldiers inside a very confined space, all of us and them were armed.
The electrical power to the JCC came from the city but we also had a generator that was our back up. Maintenance was performed by SPC Y, CPT C. and myself. We had no choice; the Iraqi mechanic was good but needed a lot of help from us. Many times the maintenance was performed under fire. The terrorist knew that the JCC received the power from the local grid and it was taken out every time we were attacked. We lost one generator to several mortar rounds in early September and the second generator didn’t arrive until a month later.
By the month of May our mission had been added the supervision of the October 15th and December 15th elections for the Diyala Province. When I say supervision, I mean that the JCC US staff was on the Iraqis back every single day so THEY could have an election, working 20 hours a day sending and receiving reports from the Iraqi election officials, coordinating with the US and Iraqi forces. Because Iraq had never never had an election we had to set up, staff, supply, secure and monitor the polling sites. All done from the JCC.
On August 23rd a suicide bomber walked into our mess hall and killed 2 Americans, 7 Iraqis and wounded 9 Americans and 15 Iraqis. All the Iraqi dead and wounded were from the JCC, people that we had hired and were working to make Iraq a better place.
We increased our security but that did not stop the threats of a suicide bomber attacking us again. We would receive about three threats a week and we would have to react to it as if it was an imminent attack.
I remember one day, late fall, when the city of Baqubah got hit with five (5) Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIED). The whole city was under attack, and we responded with all the police forces that we had, we were also attacked with Katusha rockets and RPGs, small arms fire and a suicide bomber that was killed before he could do any damage. A few days later in a small restive suburb north of New Baqubah a truck selling fruit exploded killing about 40 people and injuring hundreds. The first question from the Iraqi leadership was to ask us what to do next. We had to organize the response, the MEDEVACS.
The greatest fear among the US troops in the JCC was the next suicide bomber, the next IED and the next VBIED. We could take them one on one, or ten to one, but that unknown suicide bomber would not give you a chance to fight. The question asked every morning by all of us was; “Who is going to blow us up today?”
That was my year in Iraq, working side by side with the Iraqis, trying to bring civility, peace, hope and pride to the oldest civilization on the planet.
RC
US Army (Retired)
posted by Rob @ 6:54 AM
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