ALASKA ARMY GUARDSMEN HOME FROM KUWAIT

In mid- October 2007 all the more than 500 soldiers of the 3rd battalion 297th Infantry were back home in Alaska after the successful completion of their 12 month security mission in Northern Kuwait and Southern Iraq. Their return home brought to an end the largest single unit deployment of Alaska Army National Guardsmen since World War II. All Alaskans are very proud of their accomplishment and welcomed them home with gratitude, thankful that they all returned safe and sound.

Home From Kuwait and Final Thoughts

My departure from Kuwait began on the morning of May 30^th when I was picked up at Camp Virginia by the 3/297 battalion public affairs staff, Captain Malcolm Brown and SSG Mac Metcalfe, for the ride to Camp Arifjan. They don’t make the trip to Arifjan very often so we ended up taking a “scenic” route that afforded me an opportunity to see a bit more of the countryside and urban areas of Kuwait than I had on my arrival. One impression I still recall were the miles of high voltage power lines strung out across the desert. They were especially thick as we neared urban areas. Once at Camp Arifjan, I was handed back to the care of Major Russo and SSG Buckley of Third Army Public Affairs. After lunch, my overnight accommodations were arranged. I was in the same tent in the same zone of the camp that I occupied when I first arrived. On my own for the rest of the afternoon and evening, I re-packed my duffle bags and gear case and got to sleep early. I began my long trip home on the 31^st with the arrival of SSG Buckley and Major Russo at 5:30am. We loaded my bags into their van and set off on the hour drive to the Kuwait City International Airport. After a short farewell, I was off on my two day trip home.

I was impressed with the level of security at the airport. There are three separate security checkpoints each with an x-ray machine. Passports are checked five times: once when checking in, again at the immigration station where it is stamped, again at the security checkpoint at the departure area entrance, a fourth time at the departure gate and a fifth time in the departure gate prior to boarding the aircraft.

Since my flight departed in the morning I was able to see more of the landscape than I had coming into the country. The flight path took us north over Iraq but, as on my trip into Kuwait two weeks earlier, I only caught a glimpse of the land below before it hid itself beneath the clouds. It was then that exhaustion overtook me and I sank back into my seat to try to sleep for the duration of the five hour flight to London.

The skies over London were clear enough that I could see the Thames river and the city center flying almost directly over Big Ben, London Bridge, that enormous Ferris wheel and the Tower of London as we approached Heathrow airport. Next was the two hour trek by bus from the plane to Terminal 4, through security to another bus to Terminal 3 and on to a four hour layover for my flight to Chicago. I don’t have much of a memory of the trans-Atlantic journey as I tried to sleep for most of those eight hours. From Chicago it was another five hours to Seattle and a night’s rest in a hotel bed. On June first I completed the final leg of the trip back to Alaska. The Chugach Mountains, Mount Susitna and Cook Inlet were a welcome sight as my plane touched down in Anchorage. The Kuskokwim River was even more of a welcome sight as I landed once again at the Bethel Airport. It felt very good to be home. I thought how much more intense those feeling must be for 3/297 soldiers coming home on leave after months in the Kuwaiti desert to see these same sights and how very welcome these same sights will be when they all come home at the end of a long year’s deployment.

I’ve been home from Kuwait for close to two weeks now. I’m recovered from the jet lag following my twenty-eight hour trip home. I’ve had time to reflect on the experience. Over the two weeks I was at Camp Virginia, I recorded 8 hours of video from which to select footage for my documentary project. I produced and filed four radio stories about 3/297 soldiers and their life and work at Camp Virginia and I published a series of commentaries on my blog. So, from the perspective of my work, it was a successful trip.

Although I haven’t been in the combat zones of Iraq or Afghanistan, my experience in the war zone in Kuwait has clarified my view of the war. My admiration for our service men and women and the sacrifices they make on these deployments has grown since I’ve been able to directly observe their work first hand. The soldiers on the ground are doing their best, often under extreme hardship; working hard to fulfill the missions they’ve been assigned. Many people here at home and around the world question the overall objectives of this war. Many believe that this has been a massive effort of misspent blood and treasure for an unclarified objective. However, in no way do these opinions diminish my respect, admiration and gratitude for the dedicated service and devotion to duty of our military men and women. My experiences in Kuwait embedded with the 3/297 have only served to strengthen these feelings.

This will be my final posting on this blog, at least for the near future. I will continue to follow the deployment of the 3/297 and will add more commentary as information becomes available. The battalion is scheduled to redeploy home to Alaska sometime in October, 2007 and I will be present to record their homecoming.

Thanks to everyone who visited this blog and a special thanks to those to took the time to send comments. Stayed tuned for future developments.

Mike Martz

Memorial Day at Camp Virginia

If there was a Memorial Day ceremony at Camp Virginia, I didn’t hear about it or see it. The holiday was like any other day here. For the Alaskans of Delta and Bravo Companies that meant another day of escort and security duty. The early morning started out like most since I’ve been here, very bright and hot. Later a strong wind suddenly blew oven hot out of the north and just as suddenly stopped. A brown haze ran along the northern horizon. By the time of the afternoon shift change at Bravo Company, clouds of sand were being whipped through the Company area on sharp gusts of wind. As the off duty soldiers headed to their barracks rooms the sand storm erupted. It was as if someone had turned on a switch. The sand laden wind howled. Plastic water bottles, cardboard and bits of paper flew by. Visibility was reduced to almost zero in seconds. The Bravo and Delta Company buildings, just across the road from where I stood disappeared behind a blizzard of brown dust. I stood leaning into the buffeting wind and sand trying to hold my video camera steady to capture some of this desert fury. As I pointed my lens down the road, the humvees of Bravo Company’s area patrol appeared ghost like as they crawled through the swirling clouds of sand. The gunner at his post in the open turret, wrapped in a face mask and goggles against the stinging sand, raised his arms and gave a loud rebel yell as they passed. Security details at Camp Virginia are not canceled due to weather. After more than three hours the storm ended as abruptly as it began. It was followed by thunder, lightening and a smattering of rain later in the evening.

On Memorial Day we remember those countrymen of ours who died defending our nation. It’s also a day for picnics and camping trips; vacations and ball games. This is the first time I’ve been this far away from home on Memorial Day. Now that I’ve experienced a small slice of what daily life can be like for our deployed service men and women, I’ll no longer just honor our war dead and hold a cookout or take a boat ride on Memorial Day. I’ll also remember the sand storm at Camp Virginia, Kuwait.

Change of Command

A change of command ceremony is one with a long tradition in the military dating back to the Napoleonic era. It is the formal transfer of authority for a large military unit, like a battalion or division, from one commander to another. Lt. Colonel Dave Osborn formally assumed command of the 3/297 on Saturday May 26^th and I was able to attend the change of command ceremony marking that event. The ceremony took place at Camp Buehring in a large hanger at the airstrip there. Soldiers from all five of the battalion’s companies were present in formation. There were several generals and other dignitaries in the small audience gathered for the occasion.

The ceremony began with the entrance of the outgoing commander, the incoming commander and an officer representing the overall command, in this case, Third Army. They stood before the formation of soldiers for the posting of the colors. The color guard, consisting of two soldiers with rifles at shoulder arms flanking two flag bearers carrying the U.S. flag and the battalion flag, slowly paraded the colors to the front of the formation. A rendition of the National Anthem followed. After that, the outgoing commander, acting as the host for the event, escorted the new commander on a review of the troops.

When that was completed the formal transfer of command took place. The outgoing and incoming commanders moved to a position facing each other about two feet apart close to the color guard. The Third Army officer then stood slightly back and between them facing the color guard and the formation. The outgoing commander took the battalion flag from the flag bearer. He handed it to the Third Army officer representing the higher command, who in turn handed the flag to the incoming commander. The flag was handed back to the flag bearer and the officers moved to chairs and a podium where each in turn made short remarks on the occasion. The colors were then slowly paraded off to the side of the formation by the color guard and the ceremony was concluded.

It was a simple event yet full of symbolism and tradition. The battalion flag symbolized the soldiers that the new commander now had as his responsibility. The presence of the American flag symbolized the oath all soldiers take to defend the nation, their fellow citizens and the constitution.

Lt. Colonel Osborn is an experienced officer with many years of service in the regular army and the Alaska Army National Guard. He recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan and volunteered to take on the assignment of leading the 3/297 during the final five months of its mission in Kuwait. I’ve met Colonel Osborn on several occasions over the years and know him by reputation. The battalion is in capable hands.

Cold Water Is Hot

All the water at Camp Virginia, like everything else needed to keep this desert outpost functioning, is delivered by truck. There are two kinds of water here: potable water used in the showers, washing machines, sinks and toilets and bottled water for drinking. The potable water is stored in tanks; bottled water can be found all over the camp in a variety of locations. This is the only cold water in the camp as far as I can tell. Just about every building has one or two refrigerated cooler cases of the type used in grocery stores filled with cold water bottles and sports drinks free for the taking. There are pallets positioned around the camp stacked high with cases of half liter and one liter water bottles. Soldiers can take as many cases as they want. The heat softens the plastic and makes the water tepid but after a few hours inside a refrigerator or ice chest they’re ready to drink. Each barracks room, office and duty room has a small refrigerator crammed with chilled water bottles. Soldiers carry small ice chests in their humvees and to their duty stations to keep a ready water supply at hand. Everyone asks if I need water or invites me to help myself at any time.

The potable water, on the other hand, is a different story. At the dining hall all camp personnel are required to wash their hands before eating. Two rows of sinks line the entrance area. The sinks all have fixtures with a single faucet. Some are marked with a blue dot and some with a red dot. I turned on a blue dot faucet thinking it a cold tap and the water felt warm; I let it run a bit and instead of turning cooler the water got warmer. The next time I tried a red dot faucet…warm again. The sinks in the latrines are a single tap…warm water. There are water heaters in the shower rooms. They’re designed to make cold water hot but here it seems they make the hot cold water hotter. It’s the same with the washers in the laundry rooms. They’re commercial models with dial settings for all types of clothes, spin cycles and load sizes. There’s a switch to select a range of water temperatures including warm/cold, warm/warm and cold/cold but in reality the only temperature available is hot…period.

I don’t think the nature of the water supply matters that much to the soldiers. It’s just another idiosyncratic element of camp life. An enormous amount of resources and effort goes into supplying and maintaining all that water, hot or cold, that both sustains life and gives the soldiers on duty here the added benefit of being able to take a shower and wash their clothes. Given the repetitive, difficult and dangerous nature of the work they do in very extreme conditions, I don’t begrudge them a single drop.

On Patrol With 1st Platoon

I had the opportunity to ride along on a perimeter patrol early yesterday evening with soldiers of Bravo Company’s 1^st platoon in a patrol of several humvees. One vehicle was commanded by Sgt. John Simmons of New York City with Spc. James Paul of Kwigillingok and Spc. Curtis Dock of Kipnuk as driver and gunner. My vehicle was commanded by Staff Sgt. Harold Cleveland of Eek with Spc. James Kaiser as driver and Corporal Charles Atseriak of Tuluksak as gunner. We left the company area in the late afternoon. From the gate we turned onto a dirt road that led to a two lane asphalt highway. We sped along the highway with the flat brown desert spreading out to the horizon in all directions. In the distance I could see camels grazing on short stubby grass, the only patches of green visible anywhere in the landscape. Our lead vehicle suddenly slowed down, veered off the highway and out into the desert. As we followed, SSG Cleveland told me they had spotted a sheep herder who had strayed within three kilometers of the Camp Virginia perimeter. It was the patrol’s job to push the herder and his flock back beyond the three kilometer limit. We bounced across the desert two abreast slowing down as we neared the herd. Spc. Kaiser honked his horn several times to prod the sheep into trotting away. The herder, dressed in white and wearing a red head scarf, was leading a donkey. When he approached our humvee, both SSG Cleveland and Spc. Kaiser used hand signals to make it clear to him that he needed to move back beyond three kilometers. We stayed until assured that the herder understood and was moving away then turned our wheels back to the highway to continue our patrol. SSG Cleveland explained that we would stop again soon to monitor highway traffic for a short period of time. After another half hour of driving, we followed Sgt. Simmons’ vehicle as it made a U turn off the highway and onto the desert facing the roadway. We sat close to the edge of the road for about twenty minutes. Traffic was light; only a few cars, pickup trucks and vans with an occasional bus and big rig passed by. The sun was setting as we drove on once again. Along the way I saw hunks of what looked like scrap metal scattered in the desert close to the roadbed. I found out later that this highway was the infamous “Highway of Death” during the first Gulf War in the 1990’s. Hundreds of Iraqi military vehicles were destroyed here as they attempted to flee across the border. Those rusting scraps of metal we passed were the remains of some of those vehicles.

Night comes quickly in the desert. There is no lingering twilight. When the sun set the darkness was complete. A dim glow appeared on the horizon ahead of us slowly spreading in size as we drove on. It finally resolved into a long strip of individual lights that eventually revealed itself to be Ali Al Salem airbase. We followed our lead vehicle’s tail lights as they swung off the road to stop near a Kuwaiti Army checkpoint. We sat there watching fuel trucks, water trucks and assorted military vehicles move through the gate and onto the base. With the end of their shift approaching, the drivers turned our vehicles onto the highway once again for the drive back to Camp Virginia. First stop when we arrived back at camp was the fuel depot to get the fuel tanks topped off. Then we returned to the company area where soldiers from 3^rd platoon were waiting to take over the vehicles and begin their duty shift.

A ride in a humvee is not a pleasure drive. It’s hot, bumpy, dusty and loud. There is no air conditioning. I took this trip in the relative cool of early evening when temperatures were only in the 90’s. I was still soaked with sweat under my armored vest and helmet. I can only imagine the heat soldiers must endure in these vehicles during the 120 plus temperatures of midday.

 

ARF Crew on the road in Kuwait

Observations and Reflections

The sand is the finest I’ve ever seen. It’s light reddish brown in color and easily kicked up into swirling clouds. It’s sent flying by the wind which can blow up without warning and just as quickly diminish; vehicles leave a cloud behind them as they pass by on the gravel roads. It irritates the eyes, coats the skin and get into every corner and crack.

The flags of the countries representing the permanent forces at the camp fly near the command center. The British flag flew at half staff all day.

There is very little vegetation here. The B Company HQ area has a small plot with some dust covered bushes, stiff grasses and even some flowers. I saw a long row of potted plants of some sort lined up on the porch railing of one building I passed on my way to lunch. The most common wildlife is sparrows chirping and flitting all around the buildings. I saw a small lizard scurrying toward the protection of a tent corner. I also saw a small camel spider last night moving with surprising speed across the company assembly area. I was told they can get eight or ten inches across and have a wicked bite. The largest wild animal I’ve seen was a lone pigeon that flew above the barracks area during the hottest part of the day.

The dining facility (DFAC) is not easy to spot at first. During mealtimes, however, the groups of soldiers all heading to the same place make it easy to find. There is a wide variety of food available but it’s the same selections with little variation. All of the workers are “Third Country Nationals” or TCN’s, most appear to be from India.

This is a very noisy place. Generators of all sizes provide all the electricity and they can be heard all over the camp like white noise. There are air conditioners rumbling in every building. There are vehicles on the roads. Most of the outdoor lighting runs on generators so even during the relatively quieter nighttime hours there’s the drone of motors. The noise is ever present.  Quiet, like privacy, is hard to find.

I’ve been here for just under a week and already the days are beginning to blend one into the other as I’ve adjusted my own routine to that of the camp and the soldiers with whom I’m embedded. One day passes much like the one before and the one to follow will most likely be the same. One soldier put it to me this way, “It’s like Monday everyday for us…doing the same old same old every day. Nothing ever changes. It gets pretty boring yet they tell us we’re doing our job.”

Life At Camp Virginia Kuwait

Typical of many remote military bases, Camp Virginia is a mix of tents, metal frame and prefab buildings, supply yards and maintenance sheds spread across several square miles of desert. Military and civilian vehicles of all kinds sit baking in the sun or move slowly along gravel streets named Roanoke or Richmond. The steady drone of the generators that provide all the camp’s electricity fills the air.

The permanent contingent here has soldiers from South Korea and Great Britain, members of the active duty U.S. Army, Navy and Marines and National Guard units from several states including Alaska’s Delta and Bravo companies of the 3/297^th Infantry. Both companies are part of the camp’s security force. Delta soldiers run escort missions. Bravo soldiers work eight hour shifts day and night manning a camp entry point and running perimeter security patrols. The working conditions are hot and dusty. The work, although vitally important, is routine and repetitive.

As members of the permanent camp contingent, the Alaskans live in “hard” barracks instead of tents. Long rows of prefab buildings are divided into ten foot by sixteen foot rooms housing two or three soldiers each. Although small the rooms are comfortable and have sturdy beds, good mattresses, metal closets, small refrigerators and some furniture. The rooms are air conditioned, like all buildings in the camp, to provide a measure of relief from the intense heat. Toilets, showers and laundry facilities are in separate buildings nearby.

The camp’s dining hall offers a varied and plentiful menu. There’s a small library, a USO club, two well equipped gyms, a recreation building with pool tables, ping pong and satellite TV. Internet service and several telephone call centers are also available. Near the center of the camp is an area known as downtown. It’s a cluster of small shops, fast food restaurants, including Subway and McDonalds, a coffee shop and internet café. They border a small gravel covered square filled with tables shaded by an open sided pavilion. It’s a popular hang out.

One only has to look out across the endless expanse of desert surrounding the camp, however, to realize that despite all its amenities, Camp Virginia is not home. Steady winds fill the air with a fine dust that clings to everything and irritates the eyes and nose. The dry heat is intense and relentless. Temperatures, now in the low 100s F, will hit 130 F or higher later on in the summer. For the soldiers of Bravo and Delta companies Alaska seems very far away right now but as the sunset brings an end to another long, hot day in the desert, they know that it’s also bringing them one day closer to home.

First Days in Kuwait

Wednesday May 16, 2007

I arrived in Kuwait just before seven in the morning after a five hour and 40 min flight from London. Taking off from Heathrow airport at 11pm, a British Airways 777 took me southeast across Europe, out over the Black Sea near Kiev and then across Turkey. At sunrise I had a spectacular view of Turkey’s mountainous region but as we turned south to cross Iraq the sky quickly turned overcast as if that country wanted to keep its agony to itself. Breaking through the clouds on the descent into Kuwait City, Kuwait revealed itself in striped shades of tan and brown broken by a river and irrigation canals. Kuwait City sits in the desert on the edge of the Persian Gulf. High-rise apartment blocks and office buildings stand amid neat grids of low, square, flat roofed single dwellings. The highways and streets were full of early morning traffic. I saw several large mosques. When we landed, the gray sky and rain were in contrast to the brilliant, glaring sun and dry, intense heat of my imagination. The temperature was only in the 60’s C (90’s F). The international airport looked new and was immaculately clean and spacious. At seven in the morning it was quiet. The familiar golden arches of a McDonald’s restaurant caught my eye. The sign was in both Arabic and English. There were a few people inside having breakfast. I wondered what would be on the menu. I joined the other non-resident passengers at the immigration desks to obtain a visa. I picked a number from the small machine like the ones used in some deli shops and waited for my turn. The process took about an hour and cost $12.00 US. Following that was the trek to the customs checkpoint where a quick glance at my visa form by the customs agent got me through to the baggage claims area. I experienced a short moment of anxiety that gave way to relief when I saw that all four of my pieces had survived the 12,000 mile journey in tact and together. I loaded them onto a luggage cart with the unsolicited aid of a small uniformed fellow that appeared to be this airport’s equivalent of a Skycap. I quickly discovered that I had his help whether I wanted it or not so, while he pushed the cart, I headed out to the lobby to find my Third Army public affairs escorts Major Rene Russo and Staff Sergeant Kevin Buckley. We made quick introductions and left the air conditioned comfort of the airport lobby for the parking lot. Although only 95F, the dry hot air hit like an open oven door. My helper loaded my gear in the back of Russo and Buckley’s regulation issue white van.

In the vehicle and on the road, I had a tour of the Kuwaiti countryside as Russo and Buckley made a trip to the Ali Al Salim airbase to pickup two soldiers from their unit and their 4 cases of equipment just back from Afghanistan. The country is flat desert with scrub grass and small bushy trees. I saw small birds, including a sparrow, while we were at the airbase. I saw goat herds and several camels as we moved along the highway. Although the airbase was quite a distance from the airport, the drive time was short because the flat terrain and straight highways allow for higher speed limits.

We arrived at Camp Arifjan about 11am. I was given a billet in a tent area for transient personnel, sharing a large tent with one of the soldiers picked up earlier in the morning. After giving me a quick orientation of the area, Russo and Buckley went off on other missions. I sorted my gear and went off in search of the mess hall. What I found first was a row of fast food restaurants in prefab huts. Included in the offers were Subway, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken. I was too hungry to continue looking for the mess hall so settled on KFC instead. I thought it amusing that I had come half way around the world to eat my first KFC meal in at least 10 years. After that it was back to my tent for a shower, change of clothes and some much needed sleep. Later in the evening I walked around the area near the gym, PX and MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) buildings. The MWR has an Internet café, call center where soldiers can make phone calls home, DVD rentals, TV, board games, pool tables and a small library. Outside the gym male and female soldiers were sitting around tables talking or eating. Some were line dancing to country music booming from a CD player. The temperature had cooled somewhat but a hot, dry wind was blowing. I walked back to my tent and went to sleep.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

The wind had increased during the night and a dust storm kicked up in the early hours of the morning. I stepped outside the tent about six am to find the air filled with a fog of light dust. It was like a blizzard back home only hot and brown instead of cold and white. A half hour later SSG Buckley poked his head in the tent to say the roads were now “red” which meant that military traffic was halted due to the low visibility caused by the dust storm. This condition altered my roommate’s plans for his trip to Bahrain and would affect my planned link up with the 3/297. I met Major Russo at seven thirty for breakfast at the mess hall, called a DFAC (for “dining facility”) in military parlance. Then we started the day’s scheduled events. First was a command brief on Third Army. This was in another zone of the base and required a shuttle bus ride since military vehicle transport was halted by the dust storm. Major Russo said I had the dubious distinction, according to the Major, of being the first media person she had to escort around the base by bus. The briefing was given by Colonel Rogers, acting chief of staff for the pubic affairs section. I learned about Third Army’s area of operation which along with Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq includes 25 other countries in the region. Essentially, Third Army is the area support group (ASG) responsible for supporting the training, security and war fighting efforts throughout an area larger than the United States. Everything from water, food and fuel to tanks, ammunitions and soldiers going to Iraq passes through Kuwait first and Camp Arifjan is at the center of this complex operation. This briefing was followed by another at the public affairs office where Major Russo took me through the media ground rules once again. These rules were part of the initial paperwork I completed prior to gaining approval to make the trip to Kuwait to embed with the 3/297. This was a refresher and a reminder of what I can and cannot do as a media professional working with a military unit.
The initial plan was for me to link up with Sergeant Mac Metcalfe and Captain Brown, the public affairs staff for 3/297, who would take me to camp Virginia where I would start my embed period with Bravo company. The dust storm, however, prevented their arrival. So I have another night here at Arifjan while waiting for the visibility to clear and the restriction on military traffic movement to be lifted.

Friday May 18, 2007

There appeared to be some improvement in visibility in the early morning as I walked to the dining hall for breakfast but visibility was still very limited. I was hopeful that at my meeting with Major Russo at 9am the news would be that I could be picked up by the Alaskan Guard contacts. Promptly at 9 Russo arrived, this time in a van, which was a good sign. “Was I packed?”, she asked. I ducked back into the tent to quickly complete that task and we were on our way back to her office and then out through a front gate where we met SSG Buckley in another vehicle with another journalist he brought from the airport. I went with Buckley back to the air base where he turned me over to Capt. Malcolm Brown, public affairs officer for 3/297 and Batac, assistant chaplain and driver. We were on our way to Camp Buehring, the next stop on my trek to join Bravo Company. Buehring is a sprawling array of tents, trailers, parking lots, communication towers and prefab buildings stretched across the desert. It’s the last stop for units before they make their way north to Iraq. Here they do final training, acclimatization and preparation of vehicles and equipment.

Saturday May 19, 2007

This morning at the dining hall I made my first mistake. As I wanted to check out my laptop at the internet café, I brought it with me to breakfast. I got into the building OK but as I was going through the line, I was approached by a senior looking NCO who informed me that I couldn’t stay in the building because no bags of any kind were allowed there. There was a sign on the entry door but I had missed it. So, I had to take my breakfast “to go”. Mac and I returned to his room to eat. After breakfast we returned to the battalion HQ to work out the plan for traveling over to Camp Virginia and my link up with Bravo Company there. We left Buehring about 9am for the approximately 40 minute drive to Camp Virginia. The route ran along a two lane asphalt highway that cut a straight line through the desert. The light brown expanse of sand and rock spread away in all directions. There were no hills, no trees except the occasional scrub bushes and tough, brown, stiff looking grasses. Dust devils swirled alongside the road keeping pace with our battered Jeep Cherokee. We passed several large herds of camels grazing on patches of some type of short grass, the only patches of green anywhere in the landscape.

Although smaller than Buehring, Camp Virginia still fills several square miles of desert with a mix of tents, trailers, supply yards, metal buildings and barracks. It is another transit point for supplies and soldiers heading north to Iraq or on to Afghanistan. It’s not as crowded as Buehring but is still a busy place. The permanent contingent includes soldiers from South Korea, El Salvador and the U.K. as well as both Delta and Bravo Companies of the 3/297 Alaska Army Guard, National Guard units from Kansas and other states and members of the U.S. Army, Navy and Marines. Bravo Company’s duties involve providing camp security, a 24/7 operation. They work eight hour shifts throughout the day and night at camp entry points, towers and on perimeter patrols. The other Alaskan Guard company, Delta, is involved in escort duty.

I had my official “hand off” to 1^st Lt. John Lombrano, the commander of Bravo Company, was shown to my room in the barracks area and then, following lunch, I met with the camp commander, Colonel Robertson. Later in the day I did see several more familiar faces: Fritz Charles from Bethel, Ronnie Friday from Hooper Bay and Andrew Charles from Chevak. I unpacked my gear in the small barrack room I share with Chris Bosco of Chefornak.

The camp offers most of the comforts of home but on a basic level. The barrack rooms are small, about 10 ft. x 16 ft. They are designed to house up to four individuals but most seem to have only two or three. They are comfortable with good mattresses, small refrigerators, a desk and metal closets.

They are air conditioned, as are all the buildings here. Toilets, showers and laundry facilities are in separate buildings close by. In an area known as “downtown” small fast food restaurants like McDonalds, Subway, a pizza parlor share space with a coffee bar, Internet café, ATT phone centers and several shops that all border a gravel commons with tables shaded under an open sided pavilion. There are two well equipped gyms, a library, USO center, Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) center and a chapel that is one of the few buildings not constructed of metal and features stained glass windows. The camp may have the comforts of home but one look out across the endless expanse of desert surrounding the camp makes it abundantly clear that this isn’t home. Persistent winds stir up a fine dust that fills the air, clinging to everything and irritating the eyes and nose. The heat is dry, intense and oppressive like standing in front of an open oven door. Temperatures reach the low 100’s F and as the summer progresses will hit 120F or higher. Alaska is very far away for the soldiers of 3/297. Their work here, although a vital part of the support effort for the war, is routine and repetitive. Now that I’ve had this opportunity to experience these conditions myself, I have a greater appreciation for the sacrifices they’re making to fulfill this call to duty so far from home.

Kuwait City May 16, 2007

Dust Storm Camp Arifjan May 17, 2007

AK and US Flags from Bethel presented to B 3/297 CO

1Lt Lombrano May 19, 2007

Outside Camp Virginia Barracks May 19, 2007

Preparations for Kuwait Embed Nearly Complete

As my departure date, Sunday May 13^th, approaches, I’ve sorted and re-packed my equipment for at least the 10^th time. Squeezed into my 20”X20”X8” wheeled Pelican case are a power transformer/converter to switch 220 current to 110, a small Sony camcorder to supplement and backup my main camera, a satellite phone, 26 videotapes, batteries, a wireless microphone kit and spare microphones, spare audio cables, headphones, a tool kit, camera cleaning supplies, a roll of gaffer’s tape and an assortment of Ziploc bags. My main camera, a Sony Z1 DV/HDV model, is packed in its own soft case that I will hand carry. A roller duffle holds my personal items and a second duffle will carry a sleeping bag and mat, an armored vest and helmet (both required by the Army for all embedded media people) and a hydration back pack to carry water. Rounding out my packing list is a backpack to carry my laptop computer, audio recorder, Ipod, sunglasses, digital camera, cell phone, reading material, notebook and paperwork.

Traveling as a one person crew, I had to strike a balance between keeping the size, weight and number of bags limited to what I can handle on my own with carrying all the equipment I need to achieve my goals of acquiring footage for my documentary project and sending back audio stories for broadcast on KYUK radio and the statewide Alaska Public Radio Network.

I began preparing for this embed trip in November, 2006. Now, after hours of emailing, selecting and testing equipment, doing hazardous environment first aid training, booking airline tickets, dealing with a myriad of small details and a one month postponement imposed on me by the Army, I’m eager to get underway. I look forward to this trip with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. I’m excited to be setting off on a new adventure; anxious because this will be my first trip to the Middle East and to a location considered a war zone.

Armor and helmet

Equipment Case Ready to Go

   Sony Z1 DV/HDV Camcorder