Active Unit News

Fort Lewis soldiers spread all over Iraq, some in comfort, others without
MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune
KIRKUK, Iraq - Soldiers from the 14th Engineer Battalion from Fort Lewis are blowing stuff up and living in aircraft bunkers in eastern and central Iraq. Soldiers from the battalion's A and B companies and the rest of the 555th Engineer Group are spread all over, from Tikrit to Kirkuk and Bayji. Some are living fairly comfortably, as the soldiers say, but others still have it pretty rough. Put Bravo Company - mostly Washington National Guard soldiers - among those roughing it. They're about 20 or so miles south of Kirkuk, working for the 3rd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division. "No electricity, no running water, no phones, no Internet," said the company commander, Capt. Shane O'Donnell, on a visit Friday to Alpha Company. "We come up here to do that." Alpha Company is living in a great arched, dirt-covered aircraft bunker at Kirkuk Airfield, a large base just north of the city that the Army and Air Force share. The space is roomy enough for cots for about 40 soldiers. Like Bravo Company, they're augmented by a platoon of construction workers from the Mississippi National Guard. The Mississippi guys have been handy to have around, the soldiers say. They're building a nice little plywood shed at one end of the bunker that the company will use as an Internet cafe, with up to four computers for soldiers to e-mail home, said Lt. Jason Toth, the company executive officer. "It's great having these guys - carpenters, electricians, plumbers. They're great," he said. When they're done, Alpha Company will have two phone lines and the Internet connection. "By then we'll be the only ones in the battalion with Internet, so they're all going to want to come visit us," Toth said. The engineers have been doing lots of work to upgrade security at the places they've stayed. At the moment, Alpha Company soldiers are helping shore up defensive works around the airfield in Kirkuk, clearing away vegetation from buildings, widening trails and building walls and barricades at the entrances. They've built bunkers and guard towers, and cleared and leveled ground. They've built concrete pads for satellite dishes, field latrines and field showers. They upgraded some of the run-down Iraqi barracks where Air Force airmen are staying, fixing the plumbing and wiring and putting up new screens and doors. "They've got some pretty ratty-looking barracks here," Toth said. When they were working out of an air base at Al Sahra, the construction crew repaired a damaged water pumping station and restored service between the airfield and the town. Local Iraqis told them service had been out for 50 days, "so we 'reacquired' the pumping equipment from the Iraqi soldiers who looted it," Toth said. At least two other Fort Lewis units are based in Kirkuk: part of the 54th Air Ambulance Company and the 250th Forward Surgical Team, both units of the 62nd Medical Brigade. The Fort Lewis brothers are helping each other out. The 250th's executive officer, Lt. Marc Welde, said he needed a hole dug at his unit's bunker across the runway; the 14th Engineers helped him out for the low, low price of two styrofoam blood boxes. They're keeping the Juicy Juice ice cold. "They're a hot commodity with the units," Welde said. Alpha Company commander Capt. Robert Clark said the engineers also have been busy destroying Iraqi ammunition. The first time, they didn't use enough C4 to fully destroy about 800 73 mm rounds. The ones that survived the blast started cooking off, sending missiles flying everywhere. "For about an hour it was like a fireworks show," Clark said. "It's funny to talk about now, but at the time it was scary. We were safe, but we didn't know where those rounds were going to go." B Company these days is going out looking for Iraqi munitions and destroying what they find - mortars, artillery rounds, mines. Soldiers also are guarding Iraqi detainees, said 1st Sgt. William Rasche of Lacey, who works as an underground-utilities laborer back home with Laborers, Street Pavers & Tunnel Workers Local 440 out of Seattle. After it left Kuwait on April 24, the company went first to Samarra, north of Baghdad, and stayed about two weeks before moving on to Tuz Khurmatu, east of Tikrit on the way to the Iranian border. They went out looking for abandoned Iraqi munitions, destroying what they found, Rasche said. They've also deployed at checkpoints along the highways of central Iraq, detaining Iraqis moving with large amounts of cash or weapons. Among the more memorable events, the soldiers talk about the heavily guarded dump truck that showed up one day a few weeks back at the Kirkuk Airfield apron. Inside were 250 gold bars, each one weighing 40 pounds. They were part of a two-truck shipment that was seized on the way to the Syrian border. The other contained 749 bars - 999 in all, leading the soldiers to speculate that somewhere along the line, somebody grabbed one of the bars. The drivers reportedly told the Americans they were being paid $300 to move the lot of them to Syria. The B Company commander and his top sergeant said their night ride through Baghdad on April 26 was also something they'll never forget. They heard lots of gunfire, tracer rounds making a light show in the sky all around them. "Nothing seemed to be pointed at us, but you can't tell," O'Donnell said. Most of the 140 or soldiers in B Company are making their first deployment, although about eight, including Rasche, are Desert Storm veterans. At this point, they say they have no idea when they might be coming home. "They said expect up to a year," O'Donnell said. "Anything less and we'll be pleasantly surprised." Toth, the A Company executive officer, put his money on Nov. 22 on the company's redeployment pool, based on nothing more than a hunch. For A Company soldiers Cpl. Jason Fraki and Spc. Andrew Browning, the most memorable event lately was when they finally got to call home last week - the first time since they were in Kuwait. "That was a major priority," Browning said. The mail is still slow. It continues to be a huge issue for soldiers all across northern Iraq. Soldiers say packages and letters are trickling in, and their letters home still aren't there. "My wife hasn't gotten anything," said Sgt. Matt Harrington. "Even when we were in Kuwait, all the mail I sent there, she still hasn't gotten any of it." Reporter Michael Gilbert and photographer Peter Haley of The News Tribune have deployed to the Mideast with the U.S. Army's 62nd Medical Brigade from Fort Lewis. To contact Gilbert, e-mail him at mike.gilbert@mail.tribnet.com, or leave a message at 253-597-8921. REPORT FROM THE WAR ZONE (Published 12:01AM, June 2nd, 2003)

Back to Active Unit Main News Page