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Life in a remote US Army outpost in Iraq: IEDs, DVDs, and A/C
Doria, near Kiruk, is part of the new US counterinsurgency effort, where 110-degree heat isn't the only foe US troops face.
from the May 30, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
"Once again, we missed our ticket home," jokes 1st Lt. Frank Walkup of Woodbury, Tenn., the patrol leader, initiating a round of tension-releasing black humor among his crew.
But the incident also sets eyes scanning the arid, deserted fields. Are the hands that planted these explosives in the ground now wrapped around a hoe or a shepherd's staff?
"It's like fighting ghosts out here," says Lieutenant Walkup. "We have a huge area to cover, and you may not see that much going on, but we have proof enough that they're out there."
Spotting a group of men and boys working on a field pump, Walkup's Humvee stops to investigate. "Is this where you came after you planted that IED in the ground?" Walkup demands. The farmers insist they know nothing.
The patrol's interpreter tells them that if they plant IEDs, they will be turned over to the Iraqi Army, "and they will torture you." The youngest of the farmers begins to cry. Lest the American soldiers see that as an admission of guilt, one of the older farmers hastens to explain: The boy is crying because his brother was recently killed by insurgents simply for selling bootleg gasoline on the highway. The farmers are allowed to resume their field work.
The patrol returns to Doria. Cumbersome body armor is stripped off, and the chow wagon beckons; The evening's fare of chicken burritos earns the cooks a little extra praise. Nightfall brings little relief from the heat, so the tents fill quickly.
The soldier's new best friend, the laptop computer, is illuminated on beds, across chests. The laptops run games, movies, old TV series ("M*A*S*H" is one favorite). An Iraqi card game, 51, taught by the Iraqi "terps," or interpreters, occupies a few cots. Doria has a modest array of weights and benches spread out under the water tower, so some conversations run to how much one can bench-press, and bulking up.
"I was skinny when I got" to Iraq, "but I changed that," says Pfc. Alex Franjul, from Homestead, Fla. "I hit the weights, but I also put away some serious chicken quesadillas" at the Kirkuk-base Taco Bell, he says.
Doria has no Internet access, but a few clever soldiers find ways to get online and talk to family: They buy international Iraqi cellphones from the platoon's "terps."
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