All Hell Busting Loose

It felt like all hell was busting loose. The morning had started quietly enough in worship and praise of God at the chapel. Following my last morning service, I joined an Army Chaplain assistant and walked over to one of the main gym complexes for a memorial service remembering the soldier whose ramp ceremony I had attended earlier in the week. We had not even stepped into the gym when the dark thunderous blast and rumbling concussion of a large blast shook our bodies and buildings. One young Army Captain looked at me and said �thunder� but I knew better. I flipped my radio to scan the Security Forces Net and sure enough, a large VBIED (Vehicle Born Improvised Explosive Device) in the city had gone off. Thirty minutes later, in the midst of solemn ceremony, another. Shaking the building so hard that we were not sure if that one had been a rocket attack on the base, I could see the concern in the faces of the young army troops around me. I flipped my radio on to its lowest volume and raised it to see what was happening. Another VBIED. It was followed shortly by another. The radio was filled with chatter from different sectors on the perimeter as bad guys were moving, observing, and firing into the city from rooftops just outside our perimeter. Our dogs alerted to suspicious objects in a couple of places. (False alarms). The service was wrapping up, so I quietly excused myself on the heels of the Group Commander, figuring we would be having work to do shortly. There were more VBIEDS in the city in the afternoon. These were big ones throwing up white mushroom clouds of smoke crawling upward into the sky and sending shock waves through the buildings and our people. But our people were standing strong and standing together. There was a fire fight in the city within easy observation of our SFS folks on the perimeter and they could see people with weapons and binoculars looking in our direction. But these insurgents were not foolish enough to try attacking our heavily armed perimeter manned by some of the best trained security people in the world. One of our fast movers, I think an F-16, screamed in and the fire fight ceased. I learned of incoming wounded when contacted to cover a service for one of the Army Chaplains. I made my way to EMEDS as soon as I was free. My chaplain friend was quiet distraught because he knew the casualties well. I visited with him and with the soldiers who had been the victims of an attack.

I cannot say enough about the incredible professionalism, competency, and heart of the folks manning our EMEDS facility. All from Lakenheath, they are at testimony to their profession. I have seen them work wonders, not with an inhuman strength, but with a very human touch. They were exhausted. They had worked several traumas of local people and yet they more with certainty and deliberation to take care of our American casualties. But I could see the fatigue and concern in them as things wrapped up. It is a true honor to be working with people like this.

As the news broke we learned they had targeted a school and young girls had been killed. This especially touched our chapel staff as we had in recent weeks provided marterials to Army forces and others for the rebuilding and reopening of local schools. I don�t know if this was one of them or not. Later we learned that there was a death in the various bombings of the day. This valiant American began his final journey home shortly after midnight here with another ramp ceremony.

I observed a lot of resolve in folks yesterday. Our security folks as they came off shift, running by the chapel to make use of our cappuccino machine, determined that tomorrow nothing comes through our wire. Our medical folks working without sleep as long as there was need. The army troops I spoke with, determined they would continue with their mission. The insurgents can reach out and touch our humanity and raise within us profound questions of how can people do this to one another but they cannot shake our resolve. Evil will not win. We spoke of this in our morning and evening services � that good will triumph for God has promised it. The God who created us in the very beginning and who has redeemed us in the person of His Son Jesus Christ, has promised that in the end there will be a new heaven and a new earth and evil will be eliminated. It can be hard to fathom how misguided people in the name of a god they credit with creation can reach out to wreck mayhem and destruction on innocent people, even children. But I praise the one true God that He has revealed to us that evil cannot win, for He has already won with the cross and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

Midweek update October 18

October 17th

As darkness fell I made my way over once again to guard mount for one of the sectors that our security folks watch over. This was a sector that I had not been to previously. I spent five hours out visiting the troops on the various posts. The city has an entirely different feel to it looking out from the towers at night. You see the city lights pushing back the shadows of darkness to reveal a vibrant city. People are coming and going. Markets were thriving. One could almost feel that he could step outside the perimeter and walk down the street for a cup of coffee or a pastry. But the wire, the weapons, and the vigilance remind you quickly that there are people killing one another out there.

I did have a great honor last night. I was asked by one of the young sergeants to do her re-enlistment. So in the middle of the dark night with the stars clear over head, standing at the base of one of our towers, and oil fires glowing in the background, as her team member held a small flag, I administered to oath of office to her and we congratulated her on continuing her career with the Air Force.

After midnight I made my way over to our EMEDS to check on folks there to find that a 9 line (casualty notification) was being made. The surgical team was woken up and people assembled and quickly, amazingly quick, they were ready. This time the patients were diverted to Ballad so that our team could get some much needed rest.

Today, the 18th of October that rest came in handy as this morning we had a couple of wounded come in. Once again our team did a great job and our guys are on their way to Ballad and recovery. After lunch the entire chapel team, Army and Air Force, met with the Medical Commander for some orientation and training. I had suggested that perhaps the chapel staff could be a solution for a few issues we have observed around the EMEDS the last few times we have had casualties and he had graciously agreed to put us to work in a more productive way. So today, our chapel staffs became much more integrated into the whole medical team and hopefully we can make even more of a difference than before.

Why Kirkuk is Important

The following story does captures the key context for why Kirkuk is so important for the future of Iraq and why insurgent activity has heated up here. But we had good news today. Early this morning I heard the deep steady drone as another medivac descended to the landing pad about 100 yards from me. So I made my way to EMEDS finding an enemy combatant had been shot in the leg. I can't say too much, but this was great news because this was a man we'd been looking to stop as he had been responsible for some of the mayhem experienced in the area.

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Analysis: Battle looms of Kirkuk, its oil
By BEN LANDO
UPI Energy Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Oil wealth in -- and historical ties to -- Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, is spurring increased violence in the once peaceful city as the future of it, and the country, is decided.

The Iraqi Parliament Wednesday cleared the way for Iraq to be carved into autonomous regions, which puts Kirkuk in a tug of war that could escalate to a full-scale civil war.

Oil revenue funds 96.3 percent of Iraq's government operations, according to Washington-based analysts PFC Energy, nearly all of which can be found in the north and south, where the Kurds and Shiites are majorities, respectively.

And although capacity is at around 2.5 million barrels per day, still below prewar levels, production is volatile and settling around 2 million barrels per day.

While estimates vary, oil fields in Kirkuk are estimated to have reserves of about 11 billion barrels, according to a 2005 survey of experts conducted by the Paris-based International Energy Agency.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, which has enjoyed autonomy since 1991, wants Kirkuk as its capital. The historically Kurdish city -- heavily mixed with Turkmen, Christian, Shiite and Sunni populations -- lies outside officially recognized KRG control. Its Kurdish majority was further eroded in the 1980s during Saddam Hussein's forced settling of Arabs there, displacing Kurds.

But as Kurds begin to return to Kirkuk, control over the territory has become more critical for directing its future with the region witnessing an upswing in violence more familiar to other areas of Iraq. The Kuwait News Agency reported five tortured bodies were found Thursday in the city.

Sunnis also eye Kirkuk as a vital part of a potential central autonomous region, viewing it as their only means of direct access to Iraq's oil wealth if the country splits in three.

"I don't see any possibilities in the near future" of resolving the Kirkuk issue, said Erik Leaver, policy outreach director of the Foreign Policy In Focus project at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies, both because of the deep divisions within the city now and the bloodshed sure to follow any decision of Kirkuk's fate.

"It can't be a flashpoint like that," said Leaver. "They just can't handle it," he said, referring to the civilians trying to live in a battlefield country and the occupation forces trying to quell the impending civil war.

"The oil issue is sort of central to it," he said.

Kurdish politicians, wielding the power autonomy brings, are ensuring the Kirkuk debate happens.

"Their prominent role in drafting the constitution in 2005 enabled them to insert a paragraph that ordains a government-led de-Arabisation program in Kirkuk, to be followed by a census and local referendum by the end of 2007" to decide who would control the city, the International Crisis Group wrote in a July 18 report titled "Iraq and the Kurds: The Brewing Battle Over Kirkuk."

But Kirkuk as a part of the KRG, let alone the capital, is heavily opposed -- not only by Sunnis who would lose oil resources. Both Iran and Turkey fear a Kurdistan in Iraq would be too much inspiration for their Kurdish minorities.

"Within a year, therefore, Kurds will face a basic choice: to press ahead with the constitutional mechanisms over everyone's resistance and risk violent conflict, or take a step back and seek a negotiated solution," the ICG report states.

And with the Parliament's move Wednesday the clock's now ticking: Overcoming a protest boycott by Sunni and some Shiite members by just one vote it passed legislation outlining a process by which provinces can form autonomous regions, although any such move can't happen until April 2008.

Raed Jarrar, director of the Iraq Project at Global Exchange, said now politics will unfold fast on the local level, adding Kirkuk is likely to see "more clashes, more violence and less stability" as various factions compete to control the city and decide its destiny.

A powerful bloc of Shiites, led by the Iran-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, is intent on creating a southern region, like Kurdistan in the north, which would control vast oil fields (and other possible reserves that energy experts have said could put Iraq at or near Saudi Arabia levels).

"The problem is there's no oil in Sunnistan," as John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, refers to the swath of land in the middle of Iraq Sunnis would be left with, especially if Kirkuk becomes part of Kurdistan.

"It's the one possibility of oil in Sunnistan, but it's not self-evidently in Sunnistan," said Pike, which means the Baghdad-like violence already evident in Kirkuk will get worse.

Pike says there's no telling how bad the fight over the city will be.

"I'm afraid we're going to find out," he said.

Honoring the Fallen

Very early in the morning here on Thursday, our chapel team assembled with many other Air Force personnel to join the Army in rendering honors to a fallen brother. A young man, recently married, leading his troops fell to a grenade attack. Following the attack, I had ministered to one of his fellow soldiers who had been wounded. I had visited with this wounded troop both before and after his surgery here at our medical facility before his evacuation onward. I also had an opportunity to visit with another person in the vehicle, who fortunately was not hurt in the attack as well as with other soldiers of his unit. They all spoke very highly of the man whose life was taken from him. I feel for his wife and loved ones, but I suspect having heard from his fellow soldiers, that this man's ability and leadership has saved lives and had a direct impact on the mission here.

So early in the morning in the middle of the night, we drove to the assembly area and formed up in ranks. I remember hearing during my Office Basic training that the Air Force doesn't march beyond training, but that is not true. We formed up and waited at Parade Rest for the C-130 to land and take position. It was starkly quiet as the plane came in and pulled around. Then we marched out smartly to take our position on one side of the pathway. The Army marched out and took position on the other side. The color guard stood proudly; unit penants were clearly displayed as there were many upon many people there to render honor as our brother began his final journey home.

We rendered salutes as our fellow soldier passed, carried slowly with deliberation, lead on the first steps of his journey home by a chaplain. Then our chaplain colleague from the Army mounted the ramp of the aircraft followed by the members of the unit that the fallen soldier had belonged to and spoke some quiet words of comfort and promise. We stood stark still, in the silence of the night, hundreds of men and women frozen in rocklike solidarity and tribute covered with a canopy of stars with the silence broken only by the occassional audible sobbing that accompanied some falling tears and I suspect not a few prayers for family and loved ones and thoughts of why we are here and why we do what we do.

Then his team returned to their position, the ramp of the aircraft closed and we were dismissed to quietly return to our work with resolution and purpose. If they enemy thinks that loss will break our will and lead to our defeat, they truly do not understand us as a nation and a people.

I pray that God watches over and keeps the family and friends of my brother in arms.

I love Sundays

I love Sundays. Our worship services continue to grow in popularity. Our contemporary services have re-established new and vibrant bands following the turnover with the most recent rotation. We have some great talent in our musicians and vocalists. Their energy and motivation levels are inspiring as well.

Today we farewelled our last Army musician from the last rotation as he is on his way home soon. We will miss him, but we are happy for the fact he will be returning to his family.

I personally also enjoy the Lutheran bi-monthly service that I am holding. I enjoy the contemporary format but I also appreciate being able to gather with my fellow Lutherans and reach back to the traditions which help form our beliefs and identity.

All in all, a day spent in worship gathered around God's Word is a great day.

Quieter Week

The back end of the week has certainly been much quieter than it started out last weekend.  The news has reported that Kirkuk has been placed under a very strict curfew which I am certain makes it more difficult to mount attacks on our folks.  I had an opportunity earlier in the week to visit and talk to one of our security folks that had some small arms fire come a little too close.  Most of the week has been spent doing visitation and working to finish setting up our new chapel.  Our services and Bible studies continue to grow in number.  I'm running through Galatians with a group on Thursday nights.  There is a fairly substantial Bible study on Wednesday night and tomorrow we shall have some robust services. 

 

We've had some beautiful sunsets the last few nights thanks to some significant dust in the air.  I've managed to take some decent photographs of these.  It was hot today, but for the most part the weather has moderated. 

 

There is not much else to report that is new or different.  Most of my time is spend out visiting with the troops or speaking with them as they come to the chapel.  Some time is spent in preparation for Bible studies and worship.  I think one of my most enjoyable times is after I finish eating I usually get myself a cup of coffee and find some of our folks to sit and visit with.  Tonight I sat and talked with the leadership of our medical facility ---great people.  And it is a good thing that the coffee is good - very strong and very hot.  I'm also making use of our gym facility here.  It's not the best gym I've ever worked out in.  The equipment quantity and condition is limited partly due to the large number of folks that use it.  I wonder if the contractors who manage it could do somewhat better. But it gets the job done for the most part.  I may just be spoiled by our Air Force Services folks because when they run the gym of dining facilities they always do above and beyond.

 

Some of my mail has finally arrived including a letter from my oldest daughter - her first grown up letter to her daddy.  I have it tacked onto the wall beside my desk.  The mail is hard to fathom here.  Some items I purchased after I arrived were received weeks ago.  But one box my wife shipped out the day I left the country still hasn't shown up.  Go figure?  By the way, Walmart says it can ship anything over here that they sell on their website.  One of the guys I was talking to in the DFAC (dining facility) claims he purchased a patio set and that it is on the way.  I did order some storage cubes as furnature is sort of hard to come by here -- and they arrived -- no problem.

 

I've included two news stories about events, including one about the curfew.

 

Below is a story from Stars and Stripes that provides a little more background about what is going on the city of Kirkuk. 

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KIRKUK, Iraq -- On the third floor of a ramshackle housing complex in northeastern Kirkuk where scores of insurgents are rumored to live, 1st Lt. Michael McCave and two members of his squad gathered around a dented metal door Sunday and arranged themselves to go in.

It was the kind of door soldiers in Company B, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division might otherwise want to kick down, but this time McCave just knocked.

A few seconds later, a woman answered and the soldiers presented her with a small bag of toys for her children. It was a type of visit McCave and his fellow soldiers make regularly in their sector of this city of about 775,000 people in north-central Iraq, part of a patrol that touched on many of their objectives in Kirkuk.

McCave's squad was in Hussein Apartments to make a show of force in an area known to be less-than-friendly, and to gather intelligence from a friendly source about recent events in the area.

The soldiers only got to talk to the widowed mother of five for about 10 minutes, however, before a hollow metallic pop echoed in through the window.

"We've just had an explosion," said a voice over a sergeant's radio.

The soldiers left quickly to respond to the reported roadside bomb, but by the time they got to their Humvees someone else was on their way, and instead they diverted to perform some "route reconnaissance" around the sector.

For the 3rd Platoon, the afternoon included elements of much of the unit's work in the oil-rich city about 160 miles from Baghdad.

A great portion of the soldiers' effort in the city is aimed at maintaining stability, rooting out pockets of insurgents and "legitimizing" Iraqi police forces.

Earlier in the day, the platoon had made its daily visit to a police station in its area after the original plan for the afternoon -- to deliver supplies to local schools -- was scrubbed because the materials weren't ready.

The squad's mission reflected, in part, the situation in a city defined by its status as a multiethnic metropolis shared by Kurds, Sunni Muslims, Turkomens and others.

Originally Kurdish, it underwent a period of forced "Arabization" under Saddam Hussein that forced out many original inhabitants and moved in Sunni Muslims.

Since the invasion and overthrow of the dictator, however, the Kurds have made a return. The groups are now at loggerheads over who has a majority, and whether the city's future -- and oil -- should lie with the Kurdish north or the Arab south.

Either way, the American military is received well in some parts of the city, though the reception is cooler in the poorer, often Arab, areas, soldiers said.

"The Kurds love us," said Sgt. Aric Zern, serving on his second tour in Iraq.

Soldiers said the level of violence directed at the U.S. military has been low since they arrived about eight weeks ago from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, to replace elements of the 101st Airborne Division. But attacks have picked up in recent days, soldiers said.

McCave said the group had a scare not long ago when it came through one of the gates at Forward Operating Base Warrior, just before a truck loaded with hundreds of pounds of explosives detonated near the entrance. Roadside bomb attacks also persist throughout the city.

___________________________________________________

Iraq oil city shut down as troops hunt insurgents
(AFP)

7 October 2006

KIRKUK, Iraq - The northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk was deserted Saturday except for the rumble of military vehicles and the sound of patrolling helicopters as a curfew and military operations kept residents inside.

Iraqi police and troops were conducting raids across the city, hunting for insurgents and unlicensed weapons in a bid to end a wave of assassinations and bombings.

�These operations are the first of their kind in Kirkuk, with more than 14,000 police and soldiers supported by US helicopters,� said Captain Emad Jassim Khidr of Kirkuk police.

He added that all vehicles and pedestrian traffic had been banned and shops closed during the open-ended curfew.

Roads into the city have also been closed and in some cases sealed with newly dug trenches to cut down on rebel infiltration.

�We are tightening security on these entrances and searching the incoming vehicles,� said Khidr.

The new lock-down tactic is one increasingly being used by coalition forces in troubled cities across Iraq, including Baghdad where trenches and barriers are being built to control access to the capital.

In some cases, whole towns or neighbourhoods have been surrounded by massive earthen walls with limited guarded entrances in an effort to halt bombing campaigns by insurgents opposed to the US-backed coalition government.

More on the curfew from Aljazeera    http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0CB40C3C-34CD-44E1-85CD-A70E13070C3A.htm

 

 

Supporting the troops

These past few days have been very busy with many opportunities to provide support to our troops.  One night last week I spent some time with some of our security folks who took small arms fire near our perimeter that one person said came to close for comfort.  Yesterday I was once again at our medical facility watching as the medivac gently touched down.  Our litter teams went straight to the bird and began taking off wounded from an IED attack in the city.  Once again our troops were fairly fortunate. While they were hurt, it could have been much much worse.  Once again I have to say that our medical folks form a great and efficient team. 

 

News has reached us that one of our forward operating bases has once again suffered a death of one of our army troops.  I've spent some time encouraging our army chaplains as they once again are called on to provide comfort and encouragement to their troops. 

 

This week we visited a number of sites around the base we had not gotten to yet.  We went out to the ammunition bunkers, a place I feel at home in given my prior service as a torpedoman in the Navy where I worked quite often in similar bunkers.  These Iraqi bunkers have interesting character though.  On the surface they look like something out of the civil war era with walls composed of large rocks and cement.  But walking inside they penetrate deeply into the earth into cavernous rooms.  None of their weapons are stored there now.  In fact in areas around the ammo storage area one finds piles of collected and destroyed weapons from mounted machine guns even up to a couple of obsolete and destroyed armoured vehicles.

 

 

 

Visitation and counseling continue to be high priorities.  Already one month has passed and it feels like it has flown by.