We Remember

Today is a day that will not soon be forgotten by Americans. I thought a lot about what was the right thing to post today, I saw many different political position pieces that I considered reposting here in relation to 9/11 and what we should have done or what we currently should be doing in regards to terrorism and Iraq. There's also plenty of news about who is suing whom for what. But the reality is that none of that will bring back the fallen and none of that will make up for the sacrifice. So instead, today I have decided to share with you my experience from the events of that day.

It was early in California about 6am; so early in fact that I had not gotten up yet to get ready for work when I got a phone call. "Are you watching the news!? I was listening to the radio and they said the World Trade Center was hit by a plane." I immediately turned on the TV just in time to see a plane fly into the south tower. It was the second tower to be hit. I could hardly believe my eyes. I kept thinking this was some bad joke like in 1938 when Orson Welles pulled his "War of the Worlds" stunt. It seemed surreal to me. This could not be the same place that I had meetings in just a few years earlier. I continued to watch in horror as the events of the morning unfolded and the two towers collapsed. I was in a state of shock. I finally got to work and the office was eerily silent. Our morning meetings were cancelled and instead we spent time in a conference room around the television listening to the news. I kept wondering how many of my former classmates from Boston worked in the World Trade Center and if there was anyone that I knew that had been killed. It turned out, that none of my close friends were in the towers that day. My friend Kevin; however, was not so lucky.

His close friend and former MBA school roommate, Mike Pescherine, worked on the 89th floor of 2 World Trade Center. He had called and left a message for his pregnant wife, Lynn, when the first plane struck the north tower. That was the last that anyone heard from him.

Days later the COO of our company who was a Muslim, extended an offering to anyone in the company who wanted to attend a memorial service held at his mosque. About a dozen of us went to what turned out to be a very nice inter-faith memorial. It was good to be a part of something healing.

Looking back on that, it just seems that it is so incomprehensible to us that something like that would happen to us in our own country. And yet, the reality is that atrocities like these happen every day all over the world. It is sad when one group or another commits these types of acts supposedly in the name of some religion. Whether you are religious or not, we all know the basic laws of human kindness and decency. And no religion, Eastern or Western, upholds tyranny and destruction.

So on this day, I would like to remember all those that we have lost in the 9/11 tragedy and all those that we have lost in this war. And I would like to thank those who have the courage to stand up for their convictions and what they believe is right, and those who sacrifice so much, so that we may enjoy the priviledges that we do. I would also like to look toward the future where I hope for peace and recovery. We are rebuilding our tower and I hope we can equally heal the scar that these tragedies have left in our hearts.

2nd BCT settles into Iraqi home

In today's Stars & Stripes:

2nd BCT settles into Iraqi home
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, September 11, 2004

CAMP RAMADI, Iraq — The volatile Sunni Muslim city of Ramadi will be in the 2nd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team’s area of operations during a yearlong deployment to Iraq.

The brigade, known as the Strike Force, deployed to the Middle East from bases in South Korea last month and Saturday officially assumes responsibility for the area from the 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Riley, Kan. The area comes under command of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, responsible for Al Anbar province, west of Baghdad.

Al Anbar province includes Ramadi, the even more violent nearby town of Fallujah and the long desert border with Syria to the west. Other key towns in the province are the border towns of Al Qaim, Hit and Al Asad.

The main Strike Force base in Iraq is Camp Ramadi, but soldiers from the brigade combat team will operate out of several other installations in and around Ramadi, officials said.

Al Anbar experienced violent flare-ups in April and June that resulted in firefights involving Marines in Ramadi and Fallujah. A truce was negotiated in Fallujah after the intervention of a group of former Iraqi army officers, but critics say it amounted to handing the city over to insurgents using it as a base for strikes against coalition forces.

The Associated Press reported this week that U.S. land forces commander Army Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz said assaults on Ramadi and Fallujah, as well as Baghdad’s Sadr City suburb are likely in the next four months as the Iraqi election in January draws near.

Ramadi is one of the most dangerous places in Iraq to work. The 1st ID has sustained more than 500 casualties, including 50 fatalities, during its deployment, officials said. But people living in the smaller villages and in the desert are perceived as friendly by U.S. troops.

Al Anbar encompasses a variety of environments, from harsh, dry desert conditions to moist, fertile farmland near the Euphrates River and the massive lakes Habbaniyah and Thar-Thar. Marines patrol the waterways in small boats and search islands for weapons caches, officials said.

The lakes are tourist attractions for Iraqis, who swim and catch fish in them. But soldiers are not allowed to swim, especially in the Euphrates, which has a strong undertow, officials said.

The standard of living for Iraqis living in Ramadi appears to be good compared with other parts of the country. The city has electricity, running water, police and fire departments, hospitals and an ambulance service, schools and markets.

A significant increase in vehicles on the streets over the past year is evidence of increasing economic activity, soldiers said. The 1st ID has been involved in numerous civil affairs projects, most notably repairing Ramadi’s water system, which was inoperative when the unit arrived, officials said.

Agriculture is a major industry in Al Anbar Province, with many families breeding sheep or goats for their own sustenance. In downtown Ramadi, sheep are slaughtered in the streets and markets sell a variety of produce including melons, fruits such as dates, pomegranates.

The bases that Strike Force occupies vary from a featureless moonscape to the relatively pleasant palm groves at Camp Ramadi. Soldiers there eat the sugary dates that drop from the trees.

Summer temperatures in Al Anbar reach 115 degrees, cooler than the scorching temperatures of up to 138 degrees that Strike Force soldiers saw in Kuwait, where they stopped en route from South Korea.

Late October is the rainy season in the province when persistent, annoying drizzle turns Camp Ramadi, which is affected by groundwater from the Euphrates, into a mud pit, 1st ID soldiers said. In winter, the mercury drops to near freezing, making for some chilly patrols and observation posts.

But many local children do not seem to notice, wearing shorts and T-shirts year-round, the soldiers said.

Camp Ramadi, a former Iraqi army garrison, includes barracks buildings, five Morale Welfare and Recreation facilities, gymnasiums for each battalion stationed there, a post exchange, several basketball and volleyball courts, a soccer field, two softball fields and a horseshoe pit.

All four services work there — Marines, Army, Air Force observers and Navy Seabees. The most visible landmarks near Camp Ramadi are the tall smokestacks of a glass factory that has provided glass ashtrays for some soldiers at the camp.

The base gets rocketed or mortared two to three times a week but the insurgents’ accuracy is low. So far, only one mortar has done major damage, landing among a group of Seabees and killing six personnel a few months ago.

After two weeks of living at Camp Ramadi, Capt. Charles Romero, 37, of Fresno, Calif., is settling into his new home.

“The area reminds me a bit of the Southern Californian desert. It’s a little hotter, but it doesn’t really bother me,” said Romero, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company. “It’s better than the humidity of South Korea.”

Sgt. Jaimee Torres, 24, of Puerto Rico and a 2nd Forward Support Battalion soldier who is living at a camp dubbed TQ, said arriving at the base was a sort of homecoming. He served there on one of two previous Iraq tours, he said.

There have many improvements at the camp, including provision of MWR facilities for every company based there, more air conditioning and better force protection, he said.

“Small-arms fire doesn’t really happen. It’s much safer than Fallujah,” he said, having served a tour there with the 82nd Airborne.

Torres said he has spent three of the last four years deployed: two previous tours to Iraq, one to Afghanistan and one to South Korea.

Lt. Col. Mike Cabrey, commander of the 1st ID’s 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, said a year in Al Anbar Province goes by quickly.

“Measure each day by doing something that makes your own life better here,” he said. “The same attention to detail that causes you to be focused on everything you do should be the same the last day as the first day. Nothing is routine. It is serious business every time you go out.”

Anyway

Friends, Family & Rory:

I found this today on another site and thought it was appropriate.

Anyway

People are often unreasonable, illogical,and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

Not much news

No too many update's from Rory's area, but there has been plenty of other news about other areas of Iraq.

I emailed "Stars & Stripes" newspaper and they sent me a digital file of the article that Rory is in. (They misspelled his last name--oh well.) I've add the cover photo to the first post below (scroll down).

In general Army news, there are plans to break up Halliburton Co.'s contract to provide support services for U.S. troops in Iraq -- valued at up to $13 billion -- and open up the work to competitive bids, a newspaper reported Tuesday, citing an internal Army memorandum. Houston-based Halliburton, whose chief executive from 1995 to 2000 was Vice President Dick Cheney, has been buffeted for months by accusations of overcharging on the contract, under which KBR provides services such as dining, housing, laundry and transportation. (Click here for the full story.)

Camp Life

Rory has safely made it to his camp and is now settling into a routine. The troops work in shifts patrolling and do other ops and then have some time off to get personal chores done like laundry,phone calls etc. They are living in older Army barracks, but thankfully the units that arrived before them were able to make many improvements. The barracks do have air conditioning and private shower stalls.

The heat tends to be pretty bad at this time of the year in Iraq. So doing whatever they can to stay cool is key. The mess hall is new and the food is provide by an outside contracted service along with the standard military issue MREs (meal ready to eat).

Motor fire is a pretty constant occurrence at this camp and the troops have to be prepared to return fire at all times. However the bigger threat comes from IEDs (improvised explosive devices) that are hidden along roadsides and patrol routes in the city as traps.

They do have a PX store at this camp with a limited amount of items available for purchase and also free access to the Internet, but time is limited to 15 minute increments, and lines are usually long. So Rory many times many not be able to reply to your emails, but he does read and appreciate them!

Below are some images of Rory's camp. They are images that were shot by earlier units that were there, so they do not depict his exact living quarters, but they do give you an idea of what the area is like.



The Barracks



Mail Call




The Mess Hall





The PX Store



Some of Rory's New Best Friends



Rory says the Iraqi children are very impoverished