25. Our Camp

Written: March 27 - 28, 2003

Thursday, March 27
We woke up at 7am and prepared our aircraft to move 1,000 meters to our new landing spots that put us very close to the huge tent city that has risen over the past few days.

We tried to start the APU but it failed twice and finally started the third. We then started our engines and the #2 engine failed during the start. All of this happened due to the large amount of sand that had penetrated the aircraft over the past days during the sand storm. They eventually started and continued to run. What a gamble huh?

We finally got in the air and repositioned to an even more sandy location. We could see huge plumes of sand rise up and engulf the other aircraft as they repositioned and landed within the perimeter.

Spent the day moving into our new home—a DRASH tent. I am not sure what the acronym means, but it is a nice tent system--much different from the GP Mediums that some of you may be familiar with. The DRASH sleeps about 9 (although its tight) and has a layered system to trap heat or cold. It provides a decent amount of protection from the elements but sand is still floating around the tent. While we set up, we heard many stories of battles that have gone on from the people who drove in the convoy to what we experienced here.

Looks like the 101st is going to wait for their deep attacks until the 30th or so when the Marines are in a better position to help with the fight. I think for now, most units are going to slowly advance and hold the ground they have.

We are now sleeping in a Drash tent with 8 people. It is not tight, but it is not roomy either. We have a table set up to put my laptop on and other items.

Saw some ATACAM rounds fire high in the sky. The sky is clear and it is supposed to get down to 45 degrees tonight. You can, once again, see the city of Najaf and can hear the bombs hitting in various places.

My digital camera is not doing so well. Looks like it is dead and I am not sure I can get it to work again. I will have to work on it tomorrow.

We haven’t shaved since we left Udairi to come here. We spent the past few days with limited water and food so could not waste it on shaving.

Received 2 packages from Stefanie today. They were mailed on March 11th. Chad brought them up from Udairi today.

I can hear loud jets flying overhead.

Team 2 is providing PR coverage tomorrow night while Team 1 (partially) is flying back to Udairi to get some equipment that was left behind.

Friday, March 28
Woke up at 9am. Sleeping in the Drash tent is awesome because you can’t even tell the sun is up until someone opens the door or windows. I woke up from people opening the door and I think I could have slept much longer if given the chance.

Shawn and CPT Cushwa cut their hair off and Jim took a shower with a camp shower strung up between two trailers. Today was Shawn’s birthday. I received a package from Stef and it had a chocolate cake in it, but it was molded. So, we ate spoonfuls of frosting that she sent instead! We stuck a match in a spoon of frosting for Shawn and sang Happy Birthday to him.

Everyone else was moving around the camp doing their own thing.

Our camp is interesting. We are living amongst irrigation ditches and crop fields in the middle of the desert.

There are tons of tents and vehicles in this very small area. The irrigation ditches are elevated and sloped slightly to get water flowing in the correct direction but there is no water in them.

There are two adobe huts near here and at least one of them had a family in it when we got here. I am told that they used to peak out every now and then, but now they are gone. The Public Affairs Officer was going to offer them some money for their land but I don’t know if he got to them before they decided to leave.

Just outside of our tent city are the rice/wheat fields that we walked through the other day. The Army is trying not to mess up the crops but I think that may be out the window.

Intelligence last night indicates that there is an apparent line around Bagdhad where the Iraqi battlefield commanders are authorized to use their chemical weapons. If we, the Americans, cross that line, then they can use them freely. We are dancing on that very line right now. The good thing is that we are 40 miles from that line here in Najaf.

The 101st did a Deep Attack into Karbala tonight. We were covering Personnel Recovery for it. They ended up crashing 2 or 3 but they were due to landing in the dusty environment. One guy broke his leg.

Worked until 3am then watched, “The Thomas Crown Affair” on my laptop. We have it set up like a mini-theater in here. I fell asleep curled up under a poncho liner and woke up when the movie ended. It was freezing.

Went to bed at 4:45am.