129th MPAD in Qatar: Making a difference for soldiers and families

Courtesy Photo | SSG Mark Watson bakes in the morning sun. This thermometer, even in the shade, tops out at 120 degrees in the morning.  

09.01.2006

Story by Staff Sgt. Mark Watson 

129th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

by Staff Sgt. Mark Watson
129th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar — "It's weird, the wind never blows this hard here," one of the Soldiers who we were replacing told us while leaning into a stiff headwind, his head lowered to avoid a thorough sandblasting. For three days, whenever we stepped outside we were peppered by tiny particles of sand and baked by the triple digit heat.

Thus began our tour in Qatar. Our unit, the 129th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment is split between South and North Dakota and was activated in mid-April in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After two and a half months at our mobilization station, Fort McCoy, WI, we were trained and ready to deploy to the Middle East.

Looking back at the first month, all I can wonder is, "where did it go?" The forward detachment of the 129th MPAD arrived in Doha, Qatar, in early July after 20 some hours in the air, and watching the sun rise twice in one day.

I've been asked how hot it really gets by family and friends. Usually when I arrive at work, in mid-morning, the thermometer we have near the office is pegged out at 120 degrees. It will stay that way for most of the day, and then shortly before 5 p.m. it will begin to dip. Still, when I go home late in the night, it still registers in the 90s. It's funny though, 90 feels so good. I don't think I'll ever get used to the heat.

This marked my third trip "across the pond" to report on Soldiers deployed for Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, but this would prove to be my first long deployment as the other two were less than a month each overseas. Previously, I had reported on South Dakota National Guard units deployed. This time my mission is vastly different. I no longer am strictly reporting on units. In fact that mission takes a backburner to our media engagement mission.

Our media engagement team gives civilian media organizations the chance to virtually embed with units to help tell stories about service members that would go otherwise untold. We seek out a service member who is willing to talk with the media we make a call to reporters back in the U.S. The interview is conducted completely over the phone and gives smaller media outlets a chance that they would otherwise never get. Many of the interviews are conducted with hometown newspapers, others via the radio. We also have the capability to travel into an area with a satellite uplink. We are able to put service members on live TV from just about anywhere in the world.

I think the best interview I've been part of was a video shout-out to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Devil Rays asked if anyone in Qatar had family in the Tampa area. One Soldier did. We shot a brief video of him saying "Hi" to his family and wishing the Devil Rays luck at their game. Then, the baseball team invited his family to the game on the pretense that it was just a military appreciation event.

In the fourth inning, as his family was in the stands, his video played. His wife didn't see it for a bit, but her young son saw "Daddy" on the jumbo screen. The whole family was in awe. At the end of the game when the family left, everyone in the stands was giving them high-fives and made his wife feel like a celebrity, he told me. It is moments like these that make me feel like everything we do over here makes a difference. Not only to the people in the Middle East, but also our families and friends back home.

• Date Taken: 09.01.2006
• Date Posted: 09.13.2006 09:44
• Story ID: 7718