By Spc. Chris Chesak, B Company, Task Force 2-116 Armor
FOB WARRIOR, Iraq -- It's about 6:30 P.M. when Staff Sergeant Kiril Dmitrov bursts into our squad bay. "Okay, get your stuff on. We're heading out, NOW."
We don't know if it is a raid, a patrol, or if we are being called out to backup another unit, but we quickly put on our 35 lb. body armor, bandoliers of ammo, Kevlar helmets, and weapons.
We arrive at the sparsely populated edge of town, just three homes scattered around a back roads intersection, and use the armored Humvees to establish a perimeter around the site.
"One of our interpreters told us about a cache of munitions," said Sergeant First Class Rik Williamson. "Once we got to the site, we were surprised by just how much was actually there."
We find six bunkers littered with artillery rounds, rockets, and numerous fuses and smaller munitions.
One local man died at the site just a few hours before our arrival. Some cash-poor Iraqis actually melt the copper off the live rounds to sell the raw metal. We find his tools, his kettle, and not much else.
We immediately call the Explosives, Ordnance and Demolition (EOD) team, but receive some bad news. They are so busy that they won't be able to come out until the next morning. We have to stay put and pull security all night long.
Our sister squads brings us coffee and some warm food for dinner as local children, slowly feeling more confident, start to wave from their doorways.
As darkness falls, we talk about the stores of munitions just up the hill from us. If the unstable and rusting rounds detonate, the chain-reaction explosion would probably take most of the hillside with it.
We wonder if any of these rounds were taken and turned into Improvised Explosive Devices, the homemade roadside bombs that are currently our biggest threat.
We talk too about the boldness, and the desperation, of people actually melting metal off of live artillery rounds.
Soon the local children build enough confidence to actually approach the closest Humvee. We find what candy we have in the vehicle and pass it out.
Williamson cuts up some Tootsie Rolls and gives a piece to each of the dozen children now gathered around us. Two of the dark-haired little girls wear traditional Middle Eastern dresses, theirs are red with golden sparkles on them. They all chat excitably as they chomp on the candy.
Williamson shows them photos of his family. "These are my children. They're about your age. And this is my wife." He gestures to his face. "She's very beautiful." The children giggle, point, and keep up their chatter as a waxing moon bathes the crossroads in moonlight.
Specialist Jacob Smith shows them his night vision goggles. The children take turns looking through the device. As each one steps up to the goggles, their eye is bathed in green light and then widens in wonder as they see into the darkness.
Pointing to the children, Williamson smiles and says, "These are the ones that are going to make a difference here. They're the ones that are really going to change this country."
Williamson opens up a box of chemical light sticks from the back of the Humvee and we methodically crack each stick. The children's eyes again widen in awe as the chemicals mix and glow. They play excitedly and in the darkness we can see only blue, green, and orange light sticks dancing and frolicking down the road toward their homes.
Eventually the oldest two boys come back with an English textbook, just a stack of staple-bound pages. Smith illuminates the pages with the flashlight mounted on his M-4 rifle and gives them an impromptu English lesson.
Soon, and with Smith's help, the boy's stuttering English carries through the darkness. "Let's go to the cin-e-ma. Let's go to the cin-e-ma after din-ner."
After the children finally retreat to bed and our own conversation dies out, we spend the night between fitfully dozing off inside the Humvee and pulling guard duty.
As a predawn lighting storm rolls in, our platoon's other two squads finally come to relieve us. They eventually spend another 16 hours guarding the site, assisting EOD with identifying the munitions and pulling security while they are destroyed.
The concussion of one large blast blew out the windows of all three of the nearby homes (the U.S. military will pay to have them replaced).
EOD eventually destroys all the munitions, rounds that now cannot be used by the insurgents to create IEDs and that will no longer threaten the local populace.
The eventual tally is impressive: about 50 155mm Soviet artillery rounds, numerous 152mm rounds, 82 and 60mm mortar rounds, several rockets, and innumerable fuses and small arms ammunition.
But another tally will probably, in the long run, have an even deeper impact: twelve Iraqi children shown that American soldiers are regular guys, not monsters"guys who truly care, when we can, about them.
NOTE:
The 116th BCT took over responsibility for combat operations in Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah Provinces in February.
The unit is accomplishing a four-fold mission that includes developing Iraqi security forces, supporting Iraq's elected leaders, helping jump-start economic development and assisting Iraqis to better communicate with the populace.
Made up of component units from the states of North Dakota, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Utah, New Jersey and Maryland, the 116th BCT is one of several Army National Guard units deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III.
| Date Taken: | 06.29.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 06.29.2005 11:34 |
| Story ID: | 2257 |
| Location: | KIRKUK, IQ |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 11 |
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