Letter to the Editor

From the front -- Fire for effect

Thursday, August 19, 2004

A mortar round strikes our firm base.

Thankfully the training we are receiving is not only relevant, but realistic. Training and rehearsals are invaluable. Al Qeada planned and rehearsed for September 11th for a year and a half prior.

They understood the value of practice and so do we. We are training in an abandoned housing section of March Air Force Base. The windows and doors of the houses are broken in. Grafitti covers many of the walls, and the streets are lined with trash. Water and electricity have long been disconnected.

This is our home for a short time, and this area models fairly accurately a one square kilometer district of the town of Habbaniya in Iraq, between Fallujah and Ramadi. Our firm base is a collection of six close buildings.

Watchtowers and fences have been built, and concertina wire protects the perimeter. Outside the firm base a few hundred role players are living here as Iraqi locals. Most wear the traditional white man-dresses and checkered headscarves.

All of the locals have been assigned roles. Some are sympathetic to us and will give us information if we work with them. Many are neutral and sway with public opinion. One day they will cheer us; the next they will form an angry mob at our gates. A few are appointed insurgents and attack us every chance they get.

Today my squad is assigned as the QRF, the quick reaction force. Whenever a patrol needs extra firepower or needs casualties evacuated, we are there on the spot. Another squad is standing post guarding the base. They are short-handed right now and will have to stand 10 hours on post, 2 hours off for the next 24 hours.

While on QRF, I stand by in the Command Operations Center. The room is a beehive. Six radios blare traffic from battalion tack, company tack, and patrols. There are fewer radio operators than radios.

One wall is covered in laminated maps, on which the patrols positions are continuously updated. Orders are being given and Marines run back and forth. It's during one of my rests that we begin taking the mortar fire. It's 2 a.m. and I don't even take time to put on my sweat-soaked utilities.

On top of my PT shorts I throw on my flack jacket, Kevlar helmet, grab my rifle and go see where we are taking fire from. The insurgents set up real mortar tubes somewhere in town with blank charges. They then radio to an instructor where the mortars are aimed. A few seconds after the blank charges go off, one of the instructors randomly drops other blank charges in our firm base to signal the impacts, then assigns injuries.

All week long the insurgents have been harassing us -- sniper fire, roadside bombs, RPG's, and now mortar attacks -- all are common threats in country. Right now our mortar fire is coming from 200m to our north, and we happen to have a patrol in the area. We may catch a few more insurgents yet tonight. We're ready. No one can know exactly what the days will hand to us when we reach theater, but we are ready.

-- Sgt. Jeff Tidyman has been activated with the U.S. Marine Corps and has agreed to share occasional columns on his experience. A reservist with a Des Moines, Iowa, unit, he is the son of Larry and Carla Tidyman of Benkelman and a civil engineer in civilian life.

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