Not even Generals outrank the weather here

"Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great
goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend.
Grant us fair weather for battle. Graciously hearken to us as Soldiers who call
upon Thee that, armed with thy power, we may advance from victory to victory,
and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice
among men and nations." - excerpt from General George S. Patton's "Weather
Prayer" at the outset of the Battle of the Bulge.

The weather we contend with here is at the opposite end of the spectrum than the winter cold, snow and icy rain General Patton's Third Army had to contend with back in December 1944. However, the summer months in Iraq provide a stark reminder to everyone that weather plays a critical role in military planning. Every day is blisteringly hot, which makes even touching bare metal a hazardous event. The heat we can work around. It's the sandstorms that cause the serious problems. They come and go frequently. Sometimes they are only here for a few hours. Other times they can linger for days. Their winds are like a blast furnace that scorches everything. The blowing sand carries contaminates and, if you fail to wear protection, can scratch the corneas of your eyes. For our planning purposes, the decrease in visibility can bring military operations to a standstill. Helicopters simply do not fly in them. Depending on how bad the storms are even fixed wing aircraft can be grounded. Convoys carrying high priority cargo end up cancelling due to no overhead protection from air assets. Bottom line? The weather here in the summer is unforgiving, hostile, and oppressive. It even outranks General Officers.


Our Battalion had back-to-back GO visits scheduled on successive days. I was looking forward to seeing our first scheduled visitor. He is our peacetime Commanding General and he had traveled to Iraq for a few days to visit deployed units that normally belong to him. General Sandstorm came to us first. Visibility dropped to less than fifty yards. The temperature soared to almost 120 degrees. Sand choked out the sun, engines and our lungs. The visit was cancelled. Instead, we bunkered down for the day and tried our best to stay indoors. The storm was so bad that most of us assumed the second General Officer visit, scheduled the following day, would cancel as well. I told my staff to continue planning as though it was still on. There was no way I would allow us to make a bad assumption. It was a good call. Late that night the weather began to clear. As I bedded down for the night I heard aircraft taking off from the nearby airfield.

The next day dawned bright and clear. Sure enough, our second GO visit was on. He arrived right on time with an entourage. They loaded up in our vehicles and we whisked them over to our HQ. I met with the General (a Brigadier General who is my current higher Commander) for a few minutes in private to discuss the morning's events. Then he stepped outside to recognize some of my deserving Soldiers by presenting them with his personal coin. The heat was already beginning to burn down with normal intensity as we loaded up and headed over to our conference room for a briefing. No matter what a General plans to do it is a guarantee a briefing will be required at some point. We were ready. His timeline was very tight, so we hurried through as much as we could. Just as we were about four slides short, his aide, a giant adonis of a Captain, whispered in his ear that it was time for his next appointment. We cut our brief short and hurried his entourage over to the USD-N HQ so he could meet with another General. Very ominous signs in the weather had started appearing. The previously bright and clear day had degraded into blowing sand and rapidly decreasing visibility. It was not surprising to learn his flight for later that day was delayed by several hours. Lucky us! Now we were stuck with the General for a lot more hours than we had planned for. After his meeting at D-Main, we now had plenty of time for lunch so to the DFAC we went. The briefing we cut short earlier in the day? No problem! Now there was plenty of time to finish (and we did and then some). But we also filled in time by letting the BG recognize a few more of our Soldiers for their hard work. Fortunately, the weather began to clear. Almost seven hours later than originally planned, we watched the BG and his entourage load back up and fly back to their home FOB. It was a long day that reminded us of two things - First, Iraqi weather outranks Generals; Second, Generals outrank us so when the weather pulls rank on a General you better have a plan. Fortunately, we did.