Nancy Lawson's recent Blog Post Sack Lunches has inspired me to post this letter of a solder in Iraq, Steve Webb, who is a Hopewell Fire Fighter.
Steve is asking for donations of school items for children, pencils, papers, crayons, ect. that cannot be obtained from the PX along with personal items for the men. These items can be donated locally at the Hopewell Fire Department in Hopewell Borough on South Greenwood Avenue.
The letter is long, but well worth the read. Here is Steve's letter:
Hi everyone,
Let me get you up to speed about what has happened to me so far here in Iraq. First off, let me fill you in about where we are. We are located about 65K North of Baghdad at a place called Ashraf City. Actually, we are located just North of Ashraf, at a place called FOB Grizzly (FOB stands for Forward Operating Base. Our FOB is small, but adequate (think of the old west Forts from the Indian wars---like Fort Courage from F-Troop and that is what our place is like.
We have a gym, DFAC (which is the Dining Facility), a laundry that does out clothes for us, a PX (which has almost nothing to buy its so small), coffee shop, small Hajji mart, a chapel, phone center and a MWR (which is the place that we go to watch TV, use the computers, get some books and just hang out). We have one fire truck (which was in poor shape when I got here so I took it upon m yself to fix it up, and now I'm in charge of Fire Protection here on the FOB), and a dental and medical clinic. We all live in what are called pods- basically trailers with small rooms. Depending on your seniority, you either room with two other guys, one other guy, or you get a room to yourself (like I have), which is about 10'x10'. After living in a big room, or tent, with 70 guys, this is like living at the Hilton! Th e food here is really good, and there are 4 meals (mid-rats is the 4th one-from 2300-0100 hrs).
Our area of operations covers about 457 sq. miles, has 7 towns or villages and is in the Dyalia Province, which is the last bastion for the insurgents in Iraq. Three weeks ago, in one of the towns in the southern part of our operations area, the "mayor" was beheaded. The insurgents are all around us, and we work in what's called an "operating box", which is basically our jurisdiction. The insurgents know what our "box" is, and know that we cannot operate "outside the box", so the come in, do something, then high tail it out of the box. We are doing patrols 24/7 to try and hit them before they do something. When they do strike, and we are in the area, we usually end up in a chase across the desert, guns blazing.
We patrol in up-armored Humvees, that have thick armor sides, 3" thick glass, and the doors alone weigh about 485 lbs-each! We also trucks called MRAPs, which stands for "Mine Resistant Assault Protected", which are about 12 feet tall, weigh about 20 tons and cost one million
On my first night patrol, we where North of the FOB, traveling about 12 mph, when our front left tire hit an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) that had been buried in the road. We later found out that the IED was an HME (Home Made Explosive) that weighed about 70 lbs. the force of the blast blew the left front tire off of the truck, and caused the truck to flip over on its right side. The entire front of the truck was blown off, but the design of the truck worked because nothing entered the crew compartment and besides being shaken up, no one was hurt, but the truck was totaled.
Three days later, during a day patrol, just before we were to escort a water truck to deliver water to a village north of the FOB, we were met by an IA (Iraqi Army) patrol that reported that one of the patrols had hit an IED and they had 3 wounded soldiers. About three minutes, a cars pulled up with one of the wounded inside, we followed them to the gates of the main town that we are protecting (I can't go into details about the place, due to "Operational Security"-but I will tell all once I get home), and I got out to render first aid. The guy was in the back seat, and when I opened the door, I saw that he had suffered blast wounds to his entire front. I pulled him from the vehicle (which was not the one that had been hit-that one had been destroyed), and evaluated his injuries. He had no shirt on (it had been blown off in the blast), and he had shrapnel wounds over both arms, his entire chest and he had severe blast damage to his face. He was maintaining his own airway, but his face was very bad. I assessed his injuries, bandaged his wounds the best I could, and stabilized him. We called for a Medevac helo for him, and placed him in an ambulance and escorted it to the helo pad at our FOB. I later found out that he made20it and was in surgical intensive care.
Later, we did the water drop and when we entered the town, a bunch of kids came out to greet us! I mean there had to have been about 50+ kids, ranging from 2 to about 12, there. Most of the adults did not show themselves, except for the Muqudar, which is the Mayor of the village. I met him, and found out that he ran a small store in the town, so I asked if I could visit his shop, which he was grateful to show me. All of the building in this town is made with mud walls, and they try to farm the land around the town. The kids ask for things like pens, and ask to buy our watches with Saddam money. Seeing these kids almost broke my heart-most of them had no shoes, and the village has a school, but they do not have a teacher, so they don't go to school. They don't travel outside the village either, so we are the only outsiders that they have met. I plan to get some things, like pencils and pens, dollar store trinkets and candy to get out to these kids while I am stuck here. I will admit that I have been pissed because my guys and me have to be here away from out families for a year, but once I met these kids, I understand why we are here, and yes, our caus e is good. Beyond all the talk that you here from Washington, these kids are the future of this country and if we can do anything to help them and hopefully made their lives a little better and safer, then I guess being here isn't that bad. I fell that every person that I interact with, and make a good impression on, help with our cause. But, don't get me wrong; I know there are lots of very bad people here. We have a saying here, "Be friendly, courteous, and helpful, but be prepared to shoot them, if you have to!"
We work a 9-day schedule, were we go out on patrols everyday (day missions, night missions or QRF (quick reaction force) and our missions last about 5-7 hours at a time. Then, we go back to the beginning of the schedule, and start over again. Basically, we are working every day.
This place is amazing, and would be a nice place----if it weren't for the people trying to kill us. Some of the things that I have seen so far, I know will be with me for the rest of my live, and I will always=2 0appreciate what we have at home, and I know how lucky we are.
Sorry for being so long winded, but, I can't talk about this stuff over the phone, because we never know who might be listening. We might get a leave halfway through our tour, but we will see if that happens.
I must go know...its 1:20 am, and I have a mission at 6 am to get ready for. I will write again, when I can, and remember that you all are in my thoughts all the time. See you when I get home.
Yours truly,
Steve
