By Pfc. Mike Pryor
82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs
BAGHDAD, IRAQ -- The insurgency has been bad for business at Baghdad's Sheraton Hotel. On a recent Monday afternoon, the hotel's opulent lobby was quiet. The marble floors gleamed, the carved alabaster fountain gurgled, and the flowers were fresh, but the bell at the reception desk was silent.
Almost all of the available rooms were vacant. Without any guests to wait on, employees sat idly in couches, smoking cigarettes and watching TV.
Just before sunset, however, several trucks loaded with passengers pulled up outside the hotel. Inside them was the first large group of paying customers the Sheraton had seen in months.
But as the trucks emptied out and men in fatigues and body armor began filling up the lobby with rucksacks, equipment, and weapons, it was clear that these were no ordinary guests. The 82nd Airborne was checking in.
Approximately 70 Paratroopers from C Battery, 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, made the Sheraton their new base of operations when they assumed control of the Baghdad Hotel District from an Oregon National Guard Battalion Feb. 6.
"Not bad for a bunch of gun bunnies," said Spc. Brian Gilbert, of Lubbock, Texas, surveying his luxurious new home.
C Battery's mission is to secure the area around the Sheraton, Palestine, and Baghdad Hotels and maintain a deterring presence in the rest of the district via regular mounted and dismounted patrols, said Sgt. 1st Class Phong Tran, one of C Battery's platoon sergeants.
The Hotel District is a densely populated area on the edge of the Tigris-Euphrates River in between the International Zone and Sadr City. It contains a mixture of businesses, residences, government buildings and the hotels, which gives the area it's name.
The most famous hotel in the district is probably the Palestine, which used to house reporters for CNN, Fox News and numerous other media outlets. CNN's famous footage of bombs bursting over Baghdad during the first days of Operation Desert Storm was filmed from the Palestine's roof.
The Palestine currently houses a small number of C Battery's paratroopers. Others are staying down the street in the Baghdad Hotel. The majority of the battery, however, resides in the Sheraton.
The hotel, despite its glamorous outward appearance, was actually more like a crack house inside when the paratroopers first moved into their rooms. They found smashed mirrors, broken pieces of furniture, and even a stack of blood-stained mattresses in one room, said Staff Sgt. William Hutchens of Carrollton, Ga.
The industrious staff quickly cleaned up the mess, however, and by the end of the first day, every room was sparkling. Besides, considering where C Battery had been staying before -- a leaking, cavernous government building in the IZ shot full of Tomahawk-missile holes -- none of the artillerymen were going to complain about a few blood stains when they had heated rooms, indoor plumbing and cable TV.
"Yeah, we're living the life," said Sgt. Jason Meyer as he took in the view from his room's balcony. "I wouldn't even mind being extended as long as we can stay here."
The Sheraton's enterprising staff, happy to finally be making some money, have been giving the paratroopers the full-service treatment. There's no room service, but they can have their laundry done and their rooms cleaned for only a few dollars.
Not surprisingly, maintaining a military atmosphere in a place focused on pampering guests has presented a few problems. On one occasion, the battery's team leaders and company commander were discussing strategy inside their penthouse Operations Center when a smiling room attendant wandered inside to clean. He was quickly escorted out.
For the most part, life at the three hotels has been comfortable. The rest of the district, however, has been more challenging. Recent attacks on coalition forces in the area have included the wounding of an American Soldier by small arms fire and a car bomb that exploded close to a nearby bridge.
The neighborhood even looks dangerous. A few blocks from the hotels the buildings turn into crumbling, decrepit hovels.
"Part of this area looks like something out of a Charles Dickens novel," said Tran.
Patrolling such an area was once the exclusive job of infantry units.
Not anymore. With this assignment, the artillerymen of C Battery have become infantrymen. It is not the first time.
Tran estimated that about 60 percent of the company had experience with infantry tactics during their last deployment.
"We were with the infantry last time, and everything they did we were right there with them," said Tran.
Even so, it took a few days of patrolling for the men of C Battery to find their rhythm as "ground-pounders." Some of the demands of the job seemed foreign to them.
"I'm an artilleryman, I'm not supposed to walk," said Sgt. Patrick Jacobson of Walton, N.Y., only half-jokingly, after his second long foot patrol of the day.
Thanks to their seasoned leadership, however, most of the paratroopers have adapted well to the mission, Tran said. But the streets are still dangerous, and he counsels his younger paratroopers to listen and learn from the experiences of their senior non-commissioned officers -- men like Sgt. 1st Class Lincoya Martinez.
Before setting out on a recent patrol, Martinez gathered his squad around him and passed on some quiet words of advice.
"I don't know what your mantra is or what makes you tick, but you need to find your spiritual happy place right now. You need to get fired up.
Because every time we stop, you need to be thinking this could be the OK corall, this could be the last stand, and you need to be ready," Martinez said.
They listened, and everyone returned from the patrol safely.
The work never stops in the Hotel District, and the paratroopers of C Battery are maintaining an intense operations tempo to keep up. They work 36 hours and take 12 hours off.
Teams rotate between patrolling, sitting on observation points, and manning a quick reaction force before they get a break.
However, many of them say that being able to come in and relax in their comfortable hotel rooms afterwards makes the work easy.
"When we first got to Baghdad we saw units living in nice conditions like these and thought "Man, these guys just don't know how good they've got it." Well, now we're those guys, and we're going to enjoy it," said Tran.
| Date Taken: | 03.01.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 03.01.2005 11:46 |
| Story ID: | 1232 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 94 |
| Downloads: | 26 |
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