Just received another update from J, my friend and college roommmate who was recently deployed to Iraq as a medic with the National Guard. She's agreed to let me post her letters home to chronicle the transformation of a mother serving in a war zone.

The last batch of letters I posted from her described her first glimpse of Baghdad from a helicopter, moving into dismal barracks, and learning the Iraqi dialect of Arabic. Identifying details have been removed; there was no other editing.

May 16, 2008

Hello All,

     Ok, I could tell by the numerous emails of harassment, that I am due for a few updates. 

     So if any of you have been watching the news, you know that Sadr City is not the place to be right now.  There was supposed to be this big attack happening there, but obviously Mr. Sadr caught wind of it and is now trying to call a cease fire.  Civilians are leaving the area because they have been told that unless they are prepared to fight, it would be safer for them to leave.  We had safety points set up for them at some of the local stadiums, but not many people came to them. The US wound up not doing as massive as a strike as we thought we were going to have to do.  A lot of the militia surrendered without much of a fight, but with roughly 30,000 militia men, that still leaves thousands left.  They are expecting this big push to remove the bad guys to take a couple of months.  Things have been a little quieter, but if the news tells you that Sadr’s men are obeying the cease fire, they are not. 

     Mother’s Day was a kind of a bummer for me.  However, the chow hall had everything decorated with things about mothers, 2 giant cakes, and they handed out a flower to each female, so that was kind of nice. Weather has been nice here, mid 90’s.

     May 12: Our mechanics in the motor pool called in what they thought to be morse code coming from the Ministry of Interior (MOI) building.  So everyone was all riled up and went to check it out.  It turned out to be a fluorescent light that was flickering because it was almost burnt out.  We all got a good laugh at that and the guys didn’t live that one down for a few days.  The MOI is a really tall big building that is only a few hundred meters from us.  It is known to be infiltrated with JAM members (militia bad guys).  So you never know if they are watching you from there or calling in positions for mortars.  FUN FACT:  The MOI building was originally built by Saddam to be utilized as a luxury hotel when he thought the Olympics would be held in Iraq. 

     May 13^th: A mortar hit about 100 meters from our FOB today and that’s the closest they have hit in a really long time.  So we had to run and put all our gear on.  Then about an hour later we heard a huge boom which shook our buildings.  We get a call from the mortar pool that a mortar landed in the FOB about 75 meters from our mechanics.  Luckily no one was standing close enough to get injured, but still felt shrapnel hit them.  It hit a cement barrier so that took most of the impact.  A truck that was close had shrapnel holes all the way into the engine block.  We were all a little shook up after that because a round has never landed in the FOB for years.  So maybe it was morse code after all!! It wasn’t, but it’s obvious that people in the MOI building could have easily directed it where to go.

     May 16^th: Went on my first mission today.  I was pretty nervous.  There was a big dust storm so that kept the heat down.  We were at a traffic control point where the Iraqi Army (IA) is supposed to be searching vehicles going into Sadr City to insure no weapons are being taken in.  I’m supposed to just stay in the vehicle, but you get really sore just sitting there for 8 hours so I stayed in for about an hour and then decided to stay out for the rest of the time since it wasn’t too hot out.  We are just supposed to be watching to make sure the IA’s do there job, but like me, most of the guys were getting a little stir crazy so they were out there searching too.  We had search dogs with us, so that was a little more reassuring and also interesting to see them work.  It was fun getting to wave at people passing by.  Almost all were receptive to us and smiled and waved back, or initiated the greeting themselves.  The little kids are great, such big smiles and so happy to get a wave back.  If the cars we pulled over had children in them, we would pass out candy.  This of course was a big hit.  There was a group of boys (roughly 6-13 yrs) over by the apartment building next to us.  They saw we had candy so came to see if they could get some too.  They also asked for “pepsi cola” and “balls”.  It was fun to interact with them even though we really couldn’t understand each other.  There was one boy in particular that wanted to be upfront and try talking the most.  He even said in English “tell me stories”, which I thought was funny because he wouldn’t be able to understand what I told him.  But I wonder where he learned that phrase.  They were also helping me to learn how to count in Arabic.  They thought that was quite amusing.  Some would call me “mister” and I had to explain to them that the men were misters and that I was miss or madam.  They asked my name and then a few kept saying “I love you” It was so cute.  What little charmers they were. 

     The children are so beautiful here with their big dark brown eyes, dark hair and skin, and long thick black eyelashes that most women would die for.  What made the eyelashes stand out even more that day was the dust storm.  All of their eyelashes were highlighted with light brown dust.  It’s like back home in the winter when the ice starts forming on your eyelashes. 

     Another thing that was great to see was how the women acted when they saw a female soldier.  Women and men in this country are not supposed to look at or talk to eachother unless they are related or married, so most women riding by would quickly glance our way and then look away or give what looked like a death stare.  It took them a few seconds to realize that I was a female, but then their icy glares turned into bright eyes and smiles.  I would see them saying something to the female beside them or nudging them and then that female would look and smile and wave, too.  I’m sure they don’t see many female soldiers in this area because it is mostly ran by infantry and military police.  Very few females accompany those types of units. 

     What happened next was an amazing finish to a very rewarding day.  We were getting ready to pack up because our shift was almost done and I was standing up on the sidewalk which put me eye level with most of the bigger vehicles and buses.  Traffic stopped momentarily and it just so happened that the bus that stopped right by me had several women and children in it.  Closest to me was a little girl around 3 or 4 whose eyes lit up and whose smile brightened the area.  She looked at me, waved and then kissed the window.  All the women in the bus got a chuckle out of that.  My heart felt so good at that moment.  For a few brief seconds, I was taken away from the war zone in which I stood.  I blew her a kiss back and the bus drove off.  We got back into our armored vehicles, fully geared, constantly scanning, weapons loaded, our gunner ready to shoot when needed, and snapped back into reality.

Love

j