Tobiasly’s Blog

Hi everyone! We just got a computer lab with internet access at our new location, so I’ll hopefully be able to keep in touch again.

We are at Camp Kalsu, which is a Forward Operating Base south of Baghdad. Conditions here are better than they were last time we were in Iraq, but not nowhere near as nice as in Kuwait. Yes, it’s true, we have no Subway or Pizza Inn! However, the Burger King at Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) is now the third-largest-grossing BK in the world! We had someone bring the platoon back a sackful of Whoppers a few days ago, so that was quite a treat!

We have showers here, but the heating elements are pretty finicky, and the weather is getting downright cold, so those are hit and miss. The tents aren’t too bad.. we have 24/7 electricity, and A/C (although we probably won’t need it anymore). We had a couple phones, but a few days ago a new phone and computer lab was put in. The internet access is *very* fast, so hopefully I can keep up on email now!

This place is muddier than I thought was ever possible in the desert, which gets to be a real pain whenever it rains. The rainy season lasts until December, I think, so hopefully we won’t have too much more.

I won’t lie to anyone.. things are a little dangerous up here; more so than at Tallil anyway. I won’t get into too many specifics, but at least we’re only here for a couple months. A lot of the locals are pretty nice to us (especially when they have something to sell), but there are also quite a few who give us some pretty nasty looks. For the most part, they understand why we have to be here for a while longer, but I’m sure everyone will be happy on both sides when we can turn this country back over to the Iraqis.

Well, have a happy Thanksgiving everyone; I’m still catching up on my backlog of email, so sorry if I don’t get a chance to write a personal reply right now to everyone who’s written! And thanks for the care packages; mail has been getting here pretty quickly these days. Talk to you all soon!

Well, this is probably the last you’ll hear from me for a while; I’ll be sure to send some more stories and pictures everyone’s way when I can, but until then, have a happy holidays everyone!

Well, we just got word today that we are being sent back into Iraq. This is in accordance with the DoD’s new 365-days-in-theater policy for National Guard troops. We thought that we might be spared from extension, but it turns out that wasn’t the case.

We have not been given a definite timeframe for how long we’ll be here, but since we got here in early February it stands to follow that we will be home by then. We are being told that we will begin the process of returning home in the late December - early January timeframe.

We do not know exactly where we will be going. It will probably be somewhere just south of Baghdad. We will not be leaving Kuwait until early to mid November, so I will still be in touch up until then.

That’s really all the information I have right now. I’ll let everyone know if I find out anything else that I can pass on.

The National Guard Bureau has put together a video of our sister battalion, the “Nightfighters” (1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry). You can download the video here (You must have RealPlayer installed to view the video). This file is over 9MB in size.

My company was attached to the 1/293rd while we were in Iraq (we arrived on ground there a few days after they did). You will hear them refer to the “Ammo Supply Point” or “ASP” several times in the video; this is the position that my platoon took over once we arrived.

The latter portion of the video shows them conducting force protection operations back in Kuwait at Camp Arifjan; while they are at a different camp than we are, we both are now doing essentially the same jobs at these two camps.

Someone just showed me a great article on a scientific poll recently conducted in Iraq by Zogby International and the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, two well-respected polling organizations.

Among the findings (emphasis mine):

• Iraqis are optimistic. Seven out of 10 say they expect their country and their personal lives will be better five years from now. On both fronts, 32 percent say things will become much better.
• Five out of 10 said democracy is Western and won’t work in Iraq. One in 10 wasn’t sure. And four out of 10 said democracy can work in Iraq. People age 18-29 are much more rosy about democracy than other Iraqis, and women are significantly more positive than men.
• Asked to name one country they would most like Iraq to model its new government on from five possibilities — neighboring, Baathist Syria; neighbor and Islamic monarchy Saudi Arabia; neighbor and Islamist republic Iran; Arab lodestar Egypt; or the U.S. — the most popular model by far was the U.S. The U.S. was preferred as a model by 37 percent of Iraqis selecting from those five — more than Syria, Iran and Egypt put together.
• Asked whether Iraq should have an Islamic government, or instead let all people practice their own religion. Only 33 percent want an Islamic government; a solid 60 percent say no.
• 57 percent of Iraqis with an opinion have an unfavorable view of Osama bin Laden, with 41 percent of those saying it is a very unfavorable view.

All of this is very interesting, especially given the U.S. media’s insistence on portraying our presence in Iraq as a quagmire where we will continue to face guerilla attacks and an increasingly hostile populace who simply want us to leave. I would think that a poll such as this would be rather newsworthy, but I could not find any reference to this poll on any of the major news organizations’ websites.

The media love to play up the negative incidents in the “Sunni Triangle”, where resistance to us is fiercest and loyalty to Saddam is strongest (as the article states, “10,000 schools being rehabbed isn’t news; one school blowing up is a weeklong feeding frenzy”). This poll now shows us that this is a rather skewed perception of the country as a whole.

You may have read in the news that National Guard and Reserve units in Iraq and surrounding regions will have their deployments extended so that they are in country for one year, as opposed to having train-up and outprocessing included in that year.

While nothing is ever certain in the military, all indications are that this will not affect our battalion. We are still on track for returning in November.

This also makes sense because our battalion is an infantry battalion. The news articles state that this new order was issued due to the critical special-skills duties that the National Guard and Reserve components provide. While these special-skills units (such as engineers, civil affaris, etc.) are brought in and out as needed, infantry units are deployed on a more fixed rotation schedule.

The Department of Defense recently issued a rotation schedule for infantry units being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The plan is for active-duty units to serve one-year rotations, augmented with 6-month deployments of National Guard Separate Infantry Brigades (SIB). My brigade, the 76th Infantry Brigade, is once such SIB.

So again, while nothing is ever certain, we have no reason right now to believe that we will be extended. We are still on track to be relieved of our current mission soon, and begin preparations for returning home.

I have attached a letter that our battalion commander, LTC Gentry, recently sent to the soldiers’ families.
Read the rest of this entry »

Well, rip another page off the calendar! It’s now pretty definite that we’ll be heading home in early- to mid-November. At least they installed another generator near us, so power outages on the air conditioning units are now a thing of the past.

I’ve installed some new photo gallery software to make posting pictures easier, but it’s hard to find time to work on organizing them. The Germany album is almost finished though, so go ahead and check it out at http://www.tobiasly.com/gallery/albums.php.

Well, I just got back in last night from my 6 days of R&R leave to Germany. Needless to say, it sure flew by pretty quickly.

Elizabeth took lots of pictures, so I’ll get those up soon (after I sort through and polish them a bit). Rather than try to describe a lot about the trip here, I’ll just be sure to put lots of descriptive captions on the pictures.

Tonight, I’m taking off for a week of leave in Frankfurt, Germany! Elizabeth flew over yesterday; she’s staying with some friends and will be meeting me at the airport when I arrive.

Just the thought of actually being with her for a whole week is rather mind-boggling right now. Not to mention a real bed, food, shower, and bathroom!

I’m just hoping that this week-long respite doesn’t make it even more unbearable once I have to come back to the desert, but I think another two months shouldn’t be too bad.

Today our company was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge for our participation in the combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This is a rather prestigious award that is highly regarded throughout the U.S. armed forces.

This award is especially significant for us since my battalion (1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry) and our sister Indiana National Guard battalion (1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry) are the first two National Guard battalions to receive this award since World War II, when it was created.

It’s hard to describe to anyone not in the military how much of an honor it is to receive this award. We left our wives, families and loved ones for who knows how long; endured living conditions that few will experience in their lives; and put our lives on the line for a little decoration to put on our chest. I would have thought it was pretty silly myself just a few years ago, I’m sure.