Ten Years Ago

"Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended" - George W. Bush

September 11, 2011 - Ten years ago to the day the United States suffered through its second "Day of Infamy" - a brutal attack upon our soil perpetrated by sadistic terrorists. I woke up this morning with a Led Zeppelin song on my mind entitled "Ten Years Gone" from the Physical Graffiti album. It really has been that long ago, yet the memories of that terrible day are still fresh. Everyone who was old enough to remember can tell you exactly what they were doing that day. I had just walked into my office at Bryant University to begin another day teaching Army ROTC. A professor from across the hall burst into my office to ask if my TV worked (it was an old set hanging from the ceiling). He wanted to know what I thought about the plane hitting the World Trade Center. My first thought was to recall that in 1945 a B25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building. But that was a foggy day in which the pilot became disoriented. This was a crystal clear blue sky day. Before I could check the TV, the professor had already switched it on. In absolute horror we watched the second plane hit. There was no question - America was under attack. My office was the only one along the hallway that had a TV and it slowly began to fill with students and faculty. Nobody spoke. Some people were crying. We didn't know it at that moment but two recent Bryant graduates were one of the planes. When the Pentagon was hit, I had reached the point where I was alternating between shock and rage. By noon, the university president called a faculty meeting and cancelled classes for the day. Counseling services were set up for students and faculty in the rotunda of the Unistructure Building. I went home that night in a complete trance. I lit a candle and left it on my doorstep and pondered what I could do. Like everyone else, I literally remained glued to the TV for the next two days.

The vast majority of Americans were nowhere near New York City or the Pentagon on that day. Regardless, the events changed the lives of all of us in some way. I had never deployed to a combat zone up to that point and had reached the conclusion I never would. I had applied to the FBI and then got caught up in a hiring freeze that wan't lifted until after the attacks. By then I was too old (36.5 years old is the cut-off with no waiver). My military career was about to undergo a transformation. I didn't need to volunteer for an opportunity - within months I was already on my way. In the ten years since the attacks I have deployed to Iraq four times and spent another six months in Liberia. Even as I write this I am deployed. I am not a unique case. And the toll of the war, although necessary, has been immense. Over 4,000 of my comrades have paid the ultimate price in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many thousands more have endured grevious physical or psychological injuries. For many, these are wounds that may never heal. But the sacrifices continue to be made in order to keep the battle at the enemy's doorstep and off of our soil. Every American death that resulted from the attacks of September 11th has been exacted on the enemy tenfold or more. And the leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, the punk bastard who ordered the attacks, is now dead from a 5.56mm bullet straight through his brainpan. However, the war goes on.

Many people think that just because OBL is dead that the Global War on Terrorism is over. They are wrong. Al Qaeda still exists. The Taliban are still out there. Many others want nothing more than to destroy America and everything we stand for. They hate our freedom, our prosperity, our generosity, our way of life, and anything else they can think of to hate. There are only two options for the terrorist thugs who are aligned against us - victory or death. Victory for them is NOT an option for us. Therefore, the fight must go on. For the United States to not emerge victorious in this war would be a terrible legacy to the memory of those who died on this day ten years ago. Whether everyone wants to accept this or not, our only options are also victory or death.

As we reflect on the attacks of September 11, 2001, remember the victims of that day, and ponder the past ten years, let us also keep our eyes focused on the future. Let us all continue forward with solidarity in defending freedom. God Bless the United States of America for eternity.

- In memory of all of the victims of September 11, 2001 and all of those who have died defending our Nation

Saying Goodbye, Saying Hello

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.” – Winston Churchill
The first time I ever visited COB Speicher was in spring of 2007. The surge was just beginning and Speicher was home to almost 30,000 Soldiers. New units seemed to be arriving daily. New Life Support Areas (LSA), dining facilities, gyms, recreation buildings, and other construction were a constant way of life. At the time of my visit I never could have envisioned the place closing. Yet that’s where it’s come to. All of us here are witnessing the end. Facilities are closing, buildings being vacated, equipment turned in, and units departing for good. One of the units that has earned their “big iron bird” ride home belongs to me. The “Border Bandits” from Brownsville, TX have completed their mission. During the past week, we’ve been honoring them for the job they’ve performed while here. This included an awards ceremony, a “Hail and Farewell”, and the Transfer of Authority (TOA) ceremony. Their mission is now being assumed by our newest transportation company – the “Blue Devils” from Orlando, FL.

We started out with the Hail and Farewell. On a fine Saturday night we all gathered at the Battalion HQ recreation area. The 4th Infantry Division (Ivy Division) Band provided entertainment. We cooked over 300 steaks on several grills as the band serenaded us. Once everyone had their chow the CSM and I grabbed the mike and shared a few heartfelt comments. Most of our words were in praise of the Border Bandits. They will be missed. However, the Blue Devils are eager and ready. The beauty of the Army is how readily Soldiers will assume practically any task or mission. I have the utmost confidence that we won’t even skip a beat.

Later in the week we held the awards ceremony for the Border Bandits. It took well over an hour to hand out all of the medals these crazy Soldiers from Texas had earned. They have certainly accomplished a Texas-sized mission. During their time in Iraq, these Soldiers have driven over a million miles over some of the most dangerous roads in the world. Their trucks have hauled almost 100,000 short tons of cargo, which provided continued sustainment to combat operations over a geographic area larger than the State of Georgia. What’s most important is that they accomplished this monumental task without losing a single Soldier to enemy activity or accident. Their awards were well-earned. Over the course of the ceremony we presented multiple Bronze Stars, Meritorious Service Medals, and various other commendation awards.

Finally came the TOA ceremony. It didn’t last nearly as long as the awards ceremony. The Border Bandits cased their colors to signify completion of their mission. Then the Blue Devils unfurled their colors to represent the assumption of the mission. After both the Company Commanders spoke, I shared a few words. I am certain that the biggest party in Texas will be in Brownsville following the “Welcome Home Ceremony” for the Border Bandits. It is a guarantee that the local supply of premium tequila and beer will be depleted for several weeks afterward. But I cautioned them that their mission isn’t truly complete until every single one of their Soldiers has made it safely home and reported in following the party. That’s when the Company Commander can finally email me to let me know everyone is safe, accounted for, and mission accomplished. Border Bandits – I salute you now and forever. You are always a part of our family and I will serve with you any time, any place. Godspeed.

The Army is a small world. I know the Blue Devils from past experience. In March 2003, I was OIC of a Deployment Support Team at Fort Stewart, GA prior to deploying myself for OIF I. One of the units we assisted with deploying was the Blue Devils. Almost ten years of war, constant circulation around Iraq and other places, and I’d say I’ve come in contact with almost every Army unit that’s ever been to the birthplace of civilization. Welcome back to Iraq Blue Devils!

Back to War, Back to Blogging

"I want an Officer for a dangerous and secret mission. I want a West Point
football player" - General George C. Marshall
Just to put everyone at ease, I've not been selected for a secret mission somewhere. I love the quote though. After all, I was a three-time varsity letterman on the 150's back during my West Point days. For the past three years I've even suited back up at the alumni reunion and scrimmaged the current Cadet team. I'm proud to say I'm still in good enough shape to still play running back. Heck, in the most recent game I toted the rock seven times for a respectable 35 yards and three first downs. I'll keep on suiting up every year until the day comes that my body says it's useless to keep thinking I'm as fast, agile, and strong as the Cadets. But, given that I'm Class of '87 and there are still members of the Class of '78 suiting up to play, I know I have several good years at the reunion to look forward to. During our latest reunion we weren't just playing the Cadets, we were playing the reigning National Champions. That's right. Last season the Army Sprint (150's) Football Team won the title - capped off with a thrilling victory over Navy at Annapolis. The "Old Grads" hung tough for 60 minutes. The Cadets won but the final was only 19-6. I made it through without any lingering injuries.

Ok, back to blogging. The days that immediately follow R&R can be some of the most desolate times of a deployment. It's a very difficult transition - more like shock treatment - to have popped out of the war for two weeks and then inserted straight back into the fight. Being the Commander only intensifies this, as the heavy burden of responsibility is happily placed back on your back by your Executive Officer. I think he had the biggest grin of anyone upon my return. That being said, I had no opportunity to get over the jet lag. It was straight back to work. We are getting into the "sprint to the finish line" phase of our deployment so there is a ton of stuff to get done. We're not quite at the sprint yet but we are definitely at the point at which we can see where we have to begin our final kick.

All this being said, I've struggled a bit the past few days. That, in itself, has made it difficult to get back on to sharing my thoughts and observations. It's hard to go home and then leave home again. I miss home. We all do. But none of us can allow that pain to cause us to lose focus. Yet, there are times when we let our guard down and reveal that Soldiers are human too. Fortunately for me, I have Joe to put things back together for me. I was having a moment the other day where my human side was overcoming my Commander side. Just then I stepped into a latrine to find that Einstein Joe had given me the answers I was struggling with. On display before my wandering eyes were the Laws of Thermodynamics. I don't quite know how Joe could have known that I needed a refresher from one of the most painful college courses I ever took. But he did and it put a smile on my face. That's when it occured to me that we never leave a fallen comrade. I walked back to my HQ and shared my newfound smile with my Command Group. The post-R&R pain is still acute but it will fade. Work dictates our priorities and our focus is mission success. We'll all be sprinting to the finish line very soon.

Hey! Football season is here!

Silent Warriors Among Us - Civilian Contractors

"America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on
imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand." - Harry
Truman

There are silent warriors among us. They represent the backbone of the continuity that has sustained the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Often derided by many back home as overpaid byproducts of pork-barrel politics, they drive on and stay focused on the people they care about most – the Soldiers. I’m referring to the civilian contractors. We depend on them here. They always deliver quality in all they do. Civilians can be found toiling at every FOB. Perhaps best known for the amazing dining facilities that keep us fed, the civilian workforce also provides various other services. These include laundry, facilities maintenance, air terminal operations, MWR facilities, fuel issue points, water treatment plants, military equipment maintenance, and many other services. They also risk their lives every day driving trucks alongside Soldiers while conducting convoy operations on some of the most dangerous roads in the world. Unlike Soldiers, civilians don’t deploy for one year. They stay as long as their contract continues. There are contractors in Iraq who have been faithfully serving Soldiers since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. They will be with us all the way to the end of Operation New Dawn. Many of them will then move on to Afghanistan and continue their faithful service. They are amazing people who we’ve come to respect immensely for their dedication.

My Battalion manages some of the contracts at Speicher. While the civilian contractors involved with those contracts don’t work for me, they are still accountable to our mission. As such, we have civilians driving trucks on convoys planned by my staff, managing fuel yards that issue thousands of gallons of various types of fuel daily, and provide maintenance support to the tenant units. I am extremely proud of all of them. We try to give them recognition whenever we can. Since we can’t give them an achievement medal, we make do with special gatherings to honor them. Normally, this means we also hand out a few Certificates of Appreciation to thank them for their hard work. Recently, my Direct Support Maintenance section held a special breakfast to thank the civilian contractors who are part of their operation. CSM and I attended and shared a few words of praise and thanks. I had them hold their hands up if they had been in Iraq at least a year and keep them up as I counted up additional years in country. Every one of them had been in Iraq for at least two years. One of our mechanics had been serving the DS Maintenance at Speicher for seven years. Now that is continuity. The Soldiers have come and gone but the contractors have labored on in selfless dedication.

I have little tolerance for people back home who have never deployed yet feel they need to wax eloquent to me with their various opinions about the reasons we’re in Iraq. Often times they’ll use the civilian contractors as “proof” to their argument that the war was concocted for oil or to pad a politician’s stock portfolio. It’s a tired, sad argument at this point. It’s also an argument that shows complete ignorance with regards to really knowing who the contractors are. Simply stated, the contractors are a Soldier’s best friends in this war. They are truly “salt of the earth”. They are the unsung heroes of this war and will always have my respect.

Kalsu Another Day

"Those that hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not" -
Thomas Jefferson

Given that our battalion area of operations is over a geographic area larger than the State of Georgia, it's only logical that I have to travel to see all of my Soldiers. They perform many roles in support of our mission and operate from remote locations. One such location is FOB Kalsu - a place I'm quite familiar with from my previous deployment. I have fond memories of Kalsu, one of which is the time I had to fill two sandbags prior to going into the DFAC on Thanksgiving. Ah yes, the memories... But back to the present I go. It was a bright, clear and very hot day as CSM, Chaplain, an NCO from my HQ and myself all loaded into a Blackhawk. We wouldn't be making this trip all the same day. Our plan was to fly into Liberty Main (aka Club Liberty Pad) at the VBC complex and then fly on to Kalsu the next morning. Leg one went as planned. A 45-minute flight and we were touching down at another of my old haunts from "The Surge" days. My HHC Commander met us and drove us over to our waiting CHUs. Then we made another stop along my memory lane - DeFleury DFAC. Camp Liberty is a massive complex that reminds me of a dirtier version of Fort Hood, TX. It is a seemingly endless series of CHUs, HQs, motorpools, and mess halls. They say it isn't as crowded now as it was back in 2008. To me it still looks exactly the same. After chow we hit the sack. An "O-dark-thirty" flight to Kalsu awaited us.

0300 the next morning we were all on our way to BIAP for the early bird special to Kalsu. It was too dark for us to notice the haze of a building dust storm. Once at BIAP, we hit the 24-hour Green Beans Coffee for a jolt'o joe. I got the MOAC (Mother of all Coffees), which is a GB 24-ounce concoction of dark coffee mixed with four shots of espresso. In the end, this turned out to serve only as a bowel movement inducing blast of hardcore java. As the sun began to come over the horizon we began to realize Kalsu might be just beyond our grasp. Then the official word came - red air. That's the new phrase for what used to be called weather hold. The wait began. Two hours later our original flight was cancelled. We were shifted to a later flight. The wait continued. By 1100 we were tired, crabby, and impatient. My MOAC had given me a burst of energy that subsided after I dealt with the Mother Nature side effects of drinking something so bold. We called the HHC Commander and had him return to pick us up. Not long afterward, the other flight to Kalsu cancelled. We would have to see Kalsu another day.

That evening we all stopped by the Camp Liberty PX, which is a large complex that is surprisingly well stocked. We all purchased cigars and fake beer. Then we headed out to the smoking area and lit up. The weather won this round. It happens here. I made the decision not to try again the next day. Instead, we would return to Speicher. With the decision made we relaxed and enjoyed our cigars, all the while pretending our beer was real. It was a brief respite from an exhaustive, frustrating day.

As if to mock us, the flying weather the next day was perfect. Truth is, we had the last laugh. We didn't get stuck at Liberty for another day. Kalsu is in our future. We'll spin the roulette wheel on the weather somewhere down the road and it will work out. Another Thanksgiving at Kalsu perhaps? I may plan that just to see if I have to fill another two sandbags to get in the DFAC.

Never Forgotten, Never In Vain

“I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.” – Abraham Lincoln

As dawn broke it seemed like just another Saturday morning here at COB Speicher. Soldiers, Airmen, Contractors and others went about their normal business as we continued our daily preparations to close up shop and continue our responsible retrograde from Iraq. As the sun climbed into the Iraqi sky we started to hear trickles of news from a tragic event that had taken place hundreds of miles to our east. On a distant battleground in another country in which our brave men and women selflessly toil, a helicopter had been shot down with terrible loss. Another war in which we fight with equal professionalism, selfless service, and painful sacrifice rages on in Afghanistan. Thirty American warriors, seven Afghan brothers-in-arms, and a fearless military working dog, all dedicated to one another in faith, confidence in each other and their mission, paid the ultimate sacrifice when their CH-47 Chinook was struck by a missile and downed. It was the worst combat loss in a single day since the start of the war in Afghanistan. Its impact resonated across the entire military community. For when one mourns we all join hands and hearts together. In the military we are all family and we share the grief for the loss of a fallen comrade. I can’t say if anyone here at Speicher actually knew any of our comrades on that helicopter. I know I didn’t. But to all of us that is irrelevant. We don’t need to know our comrades personally to feel the sting of their loss or share the sorrow felt by their family and friends. For we are all linked together by our sense of duty to serve our Nation, preserve her Freedom, and our commitment to the Warrior Ethos. August 6, 2011 was a dark day for all of us, as though there truly was a “tremor in the force” that is the bond of military service. Our resiliency is in knowing that from this sad day we will recover, we will prevail, and we will emerge victorious. We will never allow a fallen comrade to have made such sacrifice in vain. The thirty Americans lost aboard that Chinook may be gone but they will never be forgotten for the sacrifice they’ve laid at the altar of Freedom. Neither will the seven Afghan patriots who gave their last full measure for their Nation and their people. Last, the Military Working Dog is yet another in a long line of devoted K9’s who never questioned faithful service and died alongside the men with whom they served.

God bless the families, friends and the fellow members of their unit in this time of loss and know that all men and women of our military family are bowing our heads with you now and always. Although there are times when we feel our life of service is eternal, we know that in the end we are all mere mortals who are made mighty only by our trust in one another. We know that when Heaven’s roll call is sounded we will all one day be present and accounted for. Amen.

Farewell Burger King and Good Riddance

“If we do not lay ourselves at the service of mankind whom should we serve?” – John Adams

Throughout multiple deployments I have never been a person to frequent the food courts found on every FOB. Normally, they are located at the PX and range in variety from Pizza Hut to Subway. Green Beans Coffee is another fixture. Now that base closure is the name of the game, these food courts are on the wane. The one at COB Speicher isn’t very large, consisting of a Burger King, Subway and Green Beans. A sad day came for many a Joe in the past week. The Burger King closed and the trailer facility that housed it is being removed. Soon the other two will follow. It really makes no difference to me. The DFAC serves massive quantities of quality chow. I never really understood why anyone would pay money at the food court when they have so many options for free at the mess hall. Oh well, it is becoming a moot point. As the FOBs get closer to their end the food courts are disappearing. Joes have no choice now but the DFAC.

Food court closures are just a sideshow to the real events ongoing here. Oblivious to such events, and ignoring the increasingly bare shelves of the PX, we drive on in pursuit of our mission. Along the way we seize every moment we can to recognize our amazing Soldiers. There are two times we have an opportunity to recognize Soldiers – awards and promotion. We’ve had several of both. In the past two weeks I’ve had both Officer and Enlisted promotions within the Battalion. This has afforded us the opportunity to give special recognition to various members of our unit for their hard work, excellence of performance, and professional progression of their careers. What makes this all the more special is that we are able to take time out from our pursuit of mission success in Iraq to pay homage to our own. What’s best is that we have many more Soldiers to recognize in the coming months. Food courts may be soon a thing of the past here in Iraq but what isn’t is the incredible determination and drive of our Soldiers. They’ll just all be fueled by the DFAC from now on.