AFTA-Cincinnati

June 23, 2008 New letter from Blake in Iraq

Once again, I do apologize in my tardiness in writing you all. But to make things better, we have concluded our missions within Baqubah, cleaned, packed, and shipped most of our gear, turned in our bullets, and handed over our Area of Operation (AO) to our relieving unit.

It is sad to leave an area we have spent so much time in and a people we have grown to feel grow close with. The unit that has replaced us is only a platoon size element, yet they are relieving our entire company AO which was 4-Platoons; basically ¼ the man power. The Baqubah area was one of the strongest extremist strongholds in Iraq, and that threat has significantly been reduced over the past months. I hope and pray that the insurgency does not act on the US withdrawal of “surge” forces and fill the vacuum that it is left. Only time will tell if the Iraqi Army and Police are strong and stable enough to work with the limited US forces in an effort maintain the gains that have been made.

It was not more than a week after I wrote you last that I experienced one of my worst days in country. I experienced two things in life which are quite unpleasant, simultaneously; war being the obvious here and getting sick is a distant second. But when you combined the two, it can be a bad day! There was a viral infection going around our base that I caught which made me sick, very sick. After a night of being up vomiting it was time to head into our sector, I was less than ecstatic. Our medic hooked me up with 2-IV’s in attempt to get some fluids in me before we dismounted our Stryker vehicle and stepped out and took on the desert heat!

We patrolled and I conducted my meetings with the usual influential people within the AO, and then returned to our Joint Combat Outpost (JCOP) to get situated before heading back to our main base for the remainder of the day. It was at that time that a call came over the radio that there was a SVEST “suicide vest” attack at a checkpoint in the southern portion of our Company AO. We flung on our gear and responded within about 5-minutes. We were the only US forces on the scene and we worked with our Iraqi Army counterparts to secure the area and collected evidence for the explosive analyst at the base to work with. It was not a pleasant site by any means, especially if you spent the night before being sick.

The final verdict was a female bomber was targeting our Concerned Local Citizen (CLC). His men invited her in the courtyard to get out of the sun so she could wait for him in the shade. When they ask her to lift her arms so she could be searched, she detonated the vest. Killing three men and wounding about ½ dozen others including a little girl. There was a group of CLC guys on the side of street crying and after I spent some time talking with them through my linguist, I found out that one of the guys killed was their brother. I tried comforting them by telling them about the 3 men killed from my company a few months earlier in a similar attack and how sorry I was for his loss. I was particularly surprised to hear the weeping mans response. He said that here I was an American talking and grieving with him, yet it’s his own countrywoman that took his brother’s life, and its Americans fighting and dying to bring stability for this to stop.

I have to say I was touched and taken aback by his words, but at the same time my feelings are quite different on the matter. This difference stems from knowing of the violence that is taking place in this country, yes maybe carried out by Iraqi’s, but violence that is induced and encouraged mainly by foreign fighters. I can’t help but see and understand that this violence has been brought on by our occupation. It can be viewed that we have opened a Pandora’s Box of sorts. Under Saddam, indeed a brutal man, but extremism as far as Islamic radicalism was concerned was almost non-existent. Do to the void in strict rule and our initial disassembling of the Iraqi security forces, regulating the flow of extremism these past few years has been quite a task. Something that Saddam was able to accomplish to a decent degree. To further my argument there is a Ballet/Dance studio in Baghdad where the young girls have received death threats in recent months for trying to go back to their dance class. The conundrum with this is that under Saddam the “arts” were actually encouraged, but the extremist feel quite the opposite.

I am not arguing that Saddam was a good man; he was an evil dictator and bully, as are about a ½ dozen other dictators throughout the world at this present time who I could name of the top of my head. I guess I am writing this to shed light on a soldiers view and interpretation of what “we” think. Not all, but a great majority of us understand that we now are fighting for just a few things, in no particular order: 1st fixing our country’s initial mistake of entering Iraq, fully knowing what will happen if we fall short and Iraq fails to stand on its own, and ensuring the loss of our comrades was not in vain 2nd for the guys on our left and right, so we all can make it home , and 3rd for the people in this country we have grown to be fond of, and fully knowing the danger and grim future that awaits them if extremist take hold of this area.

It is a sad but completely understandable reality. Some of my guys have spent over 30 months over here. They don’t see America as being anymore safe now, than when this campaign started back in 2003. Now the only mission they see is getting them and their buddies back in one piece.

There is also much frustrating for many of us to see the politicians on the news back home who have been more than willing to utilize the use of military force, yet the majority has never dawned a helmet, picked up a weapon, and stepped onto a battlefield in their life. These men have actively schemed against the chance to lead a Platoon or Company of soldiers in their youth, yet they somehow feel inclined to step up and carelessly utilize and lead our nation’s military during these past few years of conflict. The most perplexing part of all is that with these credentials, the American people have elected these men to lead the world’s most powerful nation and military. I must accept that many times (like the present) even the politicians who so-called “lead/run” our nation, are nothing more than mere pawns of the greater powers that be, those who hold the purse.

Now back to Iraq… I was quite distraught the other day when I went on the internet to find out that my buddy from The Citadel had lost both his legs fighting in Afghanistan. He was one of the biggest and strongest out of our group at school, now the thought of him losing his legs is just so wrong. I know he is also strong in the mind, and even though he is knocked down he will get back up. It made me desire even more to drop everything and go to Afghanistan to fight the real Al-Qaeda, not this Iraq Al-Qaeda. I knew this wasn’t possible, and I was at least thankful he was still alive. Something surprising I found out from his family was that the Dr.’s drugged him so he would be out of it and not remember or understand what happened. They would then slowly bring him off the drugs when he arrived at Walter Reed in Virginia in attempt to make the experience less traumatic for him as possible. I am still up in the air about that rational.

I would also like to thank everyone for their efforts in helping me gather school supplies for the schools in my AO. Your efforts were an amazing success! Over 700 students each received a notebook/binder and a small handful of pens and pencils! Some also received the crayons, coloring books, and toys that were sent too! I can’t thank everyone enough for their efforts in helping me, help these kids! I received help from my friend in law school, a church group from a cousin I have never met, my family, and schools I have attended over the years, and so many others!!! As a Platoon, through the “reallocation” or “misallocation” of money, depending on how you interpret what we did, we were able to oversee the refurbishment of all the classrooms within the war torn school. Through everyone’s efforts, the Al-Asmi School (or Mike school because of its grid reference on the map) will forever be changed. Whether it is the foundation of the classrooms, or the attitudes of the students and teachers through your supplies and our interactions, it is a changed place!!

After we passed out the remainder of the supplies, I had the opportunity to visit the various classrooms and talk with the kids in an effort to make the experience more memorable from everyone. With my linguist of course, I played a little game with the kids in about ½ the classrooms to emphasize the importance of intelligence and studying, and I offered a prize for the winner. As I stood in front of them, I asked what they thought the most important weapon I brought with me to the battlefield was. You always get the 1st few that will yell out in Arabic: rifle, grenades, then knife or pistol. As a few minutes passed there would always be one bright kid who would raise their hand and say, your mind! After some commotion from the majority of the class, I would explain to them how much more important and powerful the pen was in comparison to a rifle, and now that they had pen and paper there is nothing that should hold them back. I smiled and gave the smart one some extra supplies as her prize, and headed on my way.

At the end of the day as we sat in our over watching positions of our area, as we usually do, ensuring all is well. But this day was different; as the schools dismissed we could see hundreds of little kids scrambling around with smiles on their faces and their hands full of new belongings, it was an amazing feeling!

For those of you that might be wondering, I was not telling the kids that the pen was more powerful than the rifle in attempt to merely make them study, but out of truth and belief. As a good Infantry leader you understand that your mind is your best weapon and the most deadly. With your radio and a pen you are trained and able to maneuver your men, orchestrate air strikes from fighter aircraft and attack helicopters, and call in artillery strikes from miles away; this all being done in an effort to overwhelm and destroy the enemy in the most kinetic and aggressive of fights. You must also be capable of turning off the kinetic switch to walk the streets passively, meeting with locals, building relations, and hanging out with little kids! It is this type of soldier and leader the army is striving to produce for the future of counter insurgency operations. The army has impressively grown leaps and bounds in divorcing itself from the old school military doctrine of strictly fighting kinetic battles (meaning conventional head to head fights).

As I conclude, I will tell you about the last time my men and I left sector. It was about 1100pm at night, and we decided to pay one final visit to see our little buddy Skittles! He was sleeping on a small pad on the floor when we entered. Once Skittles figured out it was us, he started making funny little noises and ran around giving all of us high-5’s! We gave him the dozens and dozens of Skittles candy bags that were sent from you all and some Teddy Bears that were also sent! I then gave him a picture of him and I that was taken some months back! We took pictures, watched him eat his skittles, and gave his family some extra money that we had “acquired” through our time in Baqubah! It was a great feeling knowing we made a small impact on his young life.

Some of the only times I have seen some of my men truly happy during my time with them, was when we did our school supply drop-off and said our goodbyes to Skittles. I overheard my Platoon Sergeant talking to another soldier on my way out of the house, and he said, “Helping and seeing him (skittles) made all his time here worth it!”

[From the editor - I'm sorry, we only have space to post one picture from Blake and it is attached below. Please check back later and we'll post another of the pictures from this letter. Thank you.]

Prior Letter from Blake in Iraq:

It has been a while from the last time I have written…so please forgive me! I will introduce my writings in 3-parts. The first section of writing is about an ARF (aerial reaction force) mission that I accompanied one of my fellow platoon leaders on. The second is one of the recent ops summaries that I wrote after a routine day at our JCOP (joint combat outpost). During our rotation at the JCOP locals arrange meetings with us or just stop by to voice concerns. The third and final section will be on a lighter note and will cover the equipment I carry; some of you have voiced an interest!

The ARF mission this past week was being commanded by a senior platoon leader who is in my company. He is a very bright and well respected captain. Because his linguist was on holiday, he asked if I could accompany him and bring my linguist on this mission, and I gladly accepted his invitation. And that night was my birthday, so what better way to celebrate than flying around the desert on a helicopter! The target we were going after was a local Al-Qaeda leader who facilitated the beheading of nearly a dozen villagers (not a nice guy), and his location was over 40 miles from base…a decent little flight!

We were sitting on the flight line early morning on the 18th of March before takeoff; the helicopter soon began to shake vigorously as the engine turbines began to power up. Something I have never experienced before, because in training the birds are already running. Then in a matter of seconds the shaking dissipated and we took off smoothly into the night. As I looked around inside, all I could see were the silhouettes of soldiers with their eyes glowing green from our night vision optics which were mounted onto the front of our helmets and positioned over our non-firing eye; Optics that turned the enemies night into our day! I am not sure if it was the anxiety of a mission to an unknown area, the moon less night, or just taking a different mode of transportation that made me uneasy, but I was probably the most nervous that I have ever been in my life during those first few minutes. Maybe it was that I was only 24 years of age for about 3-hours and it was new to me!!! But this fear that was stronger than when I first arrived in country and more so than my first days at The Citadel. You can’t help but think in your mind every possible situation that could occur, and how you will react. This forward thinking can induce fear at times, but will make you better prepared for situations that can arise. In situations like this it is easy to place yourself before your fear because you fully understand the mission and the true evil your target has inflicted upon the people of this country.

As our 20 minute flight neared its end everyone passes around the hand signal, “one minute”. You could feel the aircraft slowing and the tail dropping lower than the nose in anticipation of landing. It seemed almost simultaneous that once we touched the ground the doors flew open and 17 infantrymen stormed out of the 2-Blackhawks. At that time all fear disappeared into that back of your head to be rehashed at some later date. The ground was a dusty mess from the earth blowing in every direction, and the night resembled a laser light show with the laser sights of the door machine gunners in the Blackhawks scanning the area in addition to the laser on our rifles peering out into every window and corner. As the squads stormed through the compound you could tell it was a dry hole from the lack of resistance. Many of the high echelon leaders have multiple homes and move between them frequently in hopes of avoiding detection and capture. This time the target won, but rest assured that his crimes will not go unpunished and he will die another day!
Attached bellow is the summary of my brief from the JCOP to give you the idea of what goes on during a normal day. I have modified the names and locations in an effort not to jeopardize operational security.

This morning the 14th of March 2008, a teenage girl who suffers from a preexisting gunshot wound to the head was brought with her parents to inquire about any medical assistance we could provide. They live in RJ 17 and the mother goes by the nick-name “Ali”. She is paralyzed on the right side of her body and has her speaking ability. I informed her that we generally only give external assistance for medical aide to those with conditions that cannot be resolved by medical personnel within Iraq, but I none the less would see what we could do.

The contractor for the Mike School, Mohamed, came by for our scheduled meeting today. I let him know that I was displeased with the fact that his only renovated 3-classrooms at the Mike School with the money we gave him. After “discussing” my discontent with the job he had done, he broke down and informed me that Ali, the CLC leader for Blue Plt’s AO attempted to extort money from his contract. He said that he left 500 USD from the contract for Ali’s extortion payment. He said that Ali thought he would be refurbishing the entire school, but lost interest once Mohamed told him it was a small project with little funding. Ali was said to go back and check the completion to confirm that it was only a small project. I assured Mohamed that we would take care of Ali and he needs to complete two more classrooms in the next three weeks with the remaining funds. He agreed on the terms and went on his way.
On 14 March 2008, “intestine girl’s” father, Ahmed came to Bayonets JCOP. He informed us of two separate pieces of intelligence about AQI personnel in Bayonets area of operation. I deem him as a source that is extremely reliable for two reasons. First, he is extremely grateful for Capt Bailey and Capt Morris’s assistance with his daughter’s medical ailment. Secondly his brother was kidnapped and executed recently by AQI, and a phone call was placed with his brothers phone to threaten him “Ahmed” because he allows the IA to use his second house as an IA Safe House. I am presently working on attaining his deceased brother’s phone number which was recently used by AQI in the treating call.

He spoke of two men, Read and “Hadia”. Both men are located within White sector in B Village. In addition, the two CLC houses in closest proximity to B Village are said to assist in providing sanctuary for the men. These two men are said to partake in kill squads, kidnappings, and fostering IED emplacement. Both men have been apprehended by the IA at one time, but only for one night.

Ahmed said that his friend who lives close to the men would be too scared to write a sworn statement, but Ahmed is willing to secretly tape record a conversation of his friends speaking of the men and their activities in attempt to build the case. Ahmed stated that if we would allow him to wear one of our uniforms and a mask during the night, he would take US forces to the door step of Read and “Hadia”.

Ahmed also spoke of Bilal, an AQI member responsible for mortar attacks. He said that this man is his cousin and presently lives by H Villiage. Bilal brother Yassin works at our 1st CLC house, and is attempting to bring his brother back into the 7000 area. Yassin is said to be free of AQI activity yet talks to his brother Bilal on a routine basis. I am also working on getting Yassin’s phone number to assist in intercepting communication between the men.

I will conclude by enlightening you to the gear that I wear! The ACU(army combat uniform) was designed by Microsoft (I assume for some outrages sum) and its made of “nomex” which is a fire retardant material. Our gloves vary, but the ones I wear most of the time are Oakley combat gloves. They are quite breathable and have Kevlar enforced knuckles, which protect your hands in and out of vehicles and in an urban environment. It is also entertaining to let the local kids take turns punching your knuckles and their facial expression is priceless when they realize they are not normal gloves we wear! We also always have on knee pads to save our knees from kneeling with all of our gear and ballistic glasses to protect from the sun and also any flack that will arise from an explosion or gunfire. On my head we have the new “lighter” combat helmets with our night vision mount screwed in on the front.

I also wear the IBA (interceptor body armor) which can stop up to a 7.62 armor piecing round. The IBA has plates on my chest and back in addition to my sides. On my IBA from right to left I have my first aid kit which has an array of nifty things to include a bandage derived from the polysaccharides of shrimp and it acts as a clotting agent, then my Berretta pistol is next. I then have 2-pouches which each hold 3 30-round magazines, in addition to one in my rifle which makes about 210 rifle bullets in total. Next to the rifle ammo is an extra pistol magazine. All the way on the far left I have a canteen case which we don’t use for water because of several reasons: we don’t have much room to carry water, the water will heat up to quickly, we drink huge amounts at a time, and our vehicles are never far away and we can grab bottles off them! So in my canteen case I carry a few small toys for the kids that I see when I walk, a backup battery for my platoon radio, and my night vision goggles. On my upper left chest I have a special cutting instrument which is a hook-like device and can cut through most things, I also have clip on my chest that is secured on my back which my rifle locks into and hangs off my left chest. On my right chest I have the platoon radio which enables me to communicate with my squad leaders and our vehicles, thus facilitating maneuvers. Now that I have taken over the platoon, on my back I carry the company radio with a hand-mike on my left chest, which enables me to communicate with our various bases and any units which may be attached to us. You will notice in the newer pictures the 2-sets of radio antennas, which will probably give me a brain tumor in the near future...hah! In most cases the platoon leader never carries the company radio; he has a RTO (radio telephone operator) to do it for him. Our platoon has so few men due to injuries and men being transferred to other task on base, it is better that I carry it rather than take a soldier from a squad that is already hurting for personnel. Thus, all the equipment I carry while patrolling weights about 75lbs or 35kg for you metric folks. And our sustainment equipment such as food, water, ponchos, weapons cleaning kits, sleeping bags, extra socks etc. we leave in our “assault packs” (fancy backpacks!) on our Stryker vehicles.

You all also might be wondering what the political situation is like over here at this time. Our surge has been underway for nearly a year now and many think that it has been working. To understand this insurgency and gauge its results, you must look at those we pursue as fluid. As if we dumped a glass of water on the table….as we tried to contain it with our hands, it would keep leaking out of little openings. We have done a good job of establishing a stronger Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police during the lag in violence. Mao Zedong once said something on the lines of, “the nail that sticks up gets struck down.” The insurgency in this country realizes they will be easily struck down if they rise up during this massive troop surge. I feel they are beginning to rise again, and will continue to rise up in the upcoming months as they are well aware our troop surge is coming to an end. Mao also said that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”, and unfortunately those groups fighting for power in this country are hardened by this ideology.

-Blake

Next Letter from Blake:

For those of you that might have seen one the news there was a large vehicle borne suicide attack in Baquabh today. After we returned to the base I checked my e-mail and the 1st news headline on the Yahoo search engine was about the bombing in Baqubah, impressive how fast they get the news out!

My Platoon is still on the PRT detail, in which we escort the State Department guys to their meetings. The bombing took place about 400 meters from my location with 2/3’s of my platoon and about 30 meters from the rest of my men. Luckily my platoon members close to the blast were in the government building next to the street the bomb went off, and they all escaped unscathed! Unfortunately, 17 civilians were killed instantly and over 20 wounded with some who probably won’t make it through the night. It was consoling to me that the squad of men located at the sight immediately sprung into action. The soldier who led the effort is one of the roughest and most unlikely guys who I would imagine doing what he did. Without hesitation for his safety (most attacks are followed by a second attack to hit the people helping the wounded when their guard is down), the Sergeant led the squad into the chaos, and he immediately began giving first aid to a little Iraqi girl. Bellow is the debrief I had to type up for record of what happened.

On 15 April 2008, 3rd Platoon Bravo Co, 1-38 In Bn, was on the PRT escort mission. At approximately 1120hours there was a loud explosion which was immediately rumored to be a Vbeid east of the Blue Dome on the South Side of Route Vanessa on the south east corner of the Government Center. I moved to the roof of Blue Dome with myself and 4-dismounts, with 3-Strykers in the parking lot, and a security detail at the Government Center; on the roof we observed erratic gunfire throughout the area immediately following the explosion. Within the first 5 minutes of the explosion there was already a massive response effort on the part of the Iraqi’s taking place. Ambulances had already begun taking away the injured and there was a strong security presence on behalf of the Iraqi’s.

The 3-Strykers at the Blue Dome responded to the explosion site to insure there were no US casualties and reconfirm our visual that the Government Center was not targeted. The squad tasked for security of the PRT at the Government Center secured the PRT members and placed them in the bomb shelter on the US side and then responded outside and rendered medical aid to the victims of the explosion. They rendered aid to an Iraqi child, an Iraqi Women, and 2 Iraqi Police officer’s until their efforts were no longer needed. The security element at the Blue Dome returned to providing security for the PRT. After determining that the threat was lessened for the PRT members at the Blue Dome and confirming that all 3rd Platoon personnel were secured, I briefed the PRT on the situation and they temporarily returned to their meetings before we deemed that it would be best to return the PRT to the FOB for the remainder of the day.

2Lt. Blake Safko
3rd Plt. PL, Bravo Co, 1-38 In Bn

I still can’t get a grasp on what makes some of these people tick to think deliberately attacking civilians is justified? Maybe it’s there version of “total war” which is my only reasonable explanation, but “total war” against their own people?? I am just not sure.

Take care!
-blake