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Back in Baghdad, five years later

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Amanda Callahan
  • 447th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  "My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger," said President George W. Bush March 19, 2003.

Those words echoed through many homes that night as many Americans tuned in to hear the president address the nation to explain that American forces had begun the fight for Iraqi independence.

Some Airmen and Soldiers serving at Sather Air Base now didn't get to hear and see the president; they were already on their way to Baghdad or other areas of Iraq.

The Army's 3rd Infantry Division is credited with toppling Saddam Hussein's regime, but there were many military assets that supported the dictator's removal, including air-power assets, Air Force support agencies, and coalition forces. Some servicemembers at Sather AB relive their experiences on each return to Baghdad, they said.

"I was part of a forward logistics element that supported the 3rd Infantry Division," recalled Army Sgt. Charles Cook, who is currently deployed as part of the Army's Arrival Departure Air Control Group at Sather AB. "Our mission was to refuel supply trucks and make whatever repairs we could. We made repairs on anything rolling -- tracks, wheeled, whatever came there and was in our area, when somebody said, 'Hey there's a truck down that way,' we'd snatch it and fix so we could get going again."

Sergeant Cook and his team had a goal to get into Baghdad. During that uncertain time, he was far from the only one traveling through a desolate desert, not knowing what the future may bring. There were more servicemembers preparing to advance as Sergeant Cook and his team made their way through the sandy terrain.

"Originally, our mission was to set up a bare base three miles from the Iraqi border," said Staff Sgt. Charles Neighoff, a member of the 447th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron. "We were briefed on the initial attack. They told us the president had announced that the war had begun, and that a missile was fired into Baghdad at the Baath Party house, which I actually got to see this time. That's all we were initially briefed on."

After the initial push forward, Sergeant Neighoff's role changed from bare base security operations.

"I was part of the contingency that went to what used to be Talil AB, which is now Ali Base," he said. "We took that over from the 3rd Infantry Division until the 820th got on the ground."

Sergeant Neighoff described what "taking over" a base entailed, and it was no easy feat.

"We took food, water, air conditioners, vehicle parts, additional Humvees ... anything that was needed for the push," he said, about the convoy through Iraq. "A lot of stuff went to Ali for the set up of the base there -- CE (civil engineer) equipment to patch up the runways, stuff like that."

Each member crossing the Iraq/Kuwait border has his own memory of the day, hour, even minute, he came into the country that used to be ruled by the "Butcher of Baghdad."

Tech. Sgt. Joey Lujano, currently deployed as a member of the Coalition Air Force Training Team at New Al Muthanna Iraqi Air Base, cited his border-crossing experience.

"We locked and loaded and got ready to roll out," he said. "It's all flat, dry desert, nothing to look at; very ugly, very hot. Then we hit the demilitarized zone. There was a long barbed-wire fence as far as you could see. There was a large dirt mound in front of that, a huge deep trench on the back side of that for as far as you could see, then you went to the Iraqi side. They had similar barriers in both directions along the border. It was still ugly, once again a large dirt berm that big earth movers had pushed," Sergeant Lujano said, "But once you crossed that, it was all this farm land the Iraqis were irrigating and growing tomatoes in -- lots of tomatoes everywhere -- kids running around. It was night and day," he said.

Without the convoys that Sergeant Neighoff, Sergeant Cook and many more were a part of, other vital units may have never been successful in their missions.

Sergeant Lujano was a member of one of those vital units in 2003.

"We were attached to JCMAT team -- a joint collection team that the Army pretty much runs these days," the sergeant said. "What we did was go out to the fields and pick up foreign assets. Our job was to come into country and find bad guy's missiles, guns, tanks, mines -- you name it."

Sergeant Lujano was called into Iraq about a week and a half after the war kicked off. "That's when the generals were starting to allow the "hunting" units like us to come over and start tagging things for intelligence," he said.

While Sergeant Lujano and his team were hunting for weapons caches, other servicemembers were making missions out of molehills.

"I was part of TALCE, the tanker airlift control element," said Master Sgt. Jesus Huerta, who is currently deployed in the 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron out of Balad AB, Iraq. He and his team were the command and control function for all aircraft transitioning through Baghdad, he said.

"All we had was this building," he said, which is now referred to as the "Glass House," the 447th Air Expeditionary Group's headquarters. "We used the front of this building and the taxiway. The runways were unusable because of bomb damage. This building was the heart of the entire operation here in Baghdad."

"It was organized chaos, but it worked," said Sergeant Huerta, about being a part of a new, hectic and invaluable operation. "It was an orchestra of events that would happen when a plane came in," he said about the feverish operations tempo. 

"It was like wow! It was the ultimate for me, going into the heart of Iraq, to take over the hub, the international airport," he said. "I felt a tremendous amount of pride; it was almost overwhelming -- what we were getting ready to go do. I knew it was extremely important, the strategic location of the airport, getting the airport established to a point it could operate as an international airport. We were literally right at the tip of the spear. I was very honored to be a part of that team."

On one of those planes coming in to the "tip of the spear" was Staff Sgt. Ryan Oliver, an explosive ordinance disposal technician now deployed to Sather AB as part of the 447th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron.

He recalled departing the plane and seeing the Glass House, but that wasn't the most memorable site.

"I looked around and saw 'Saddam International Airport.' I knew this would be in my daughter's history book in a few years," he said.

The Soldiers that were among the first to enter the country had other memories to share.

"Pulling guard on the way from Kuwait to Takrit," Sergeant Phaedra Fry with the ADACG said. "A vehicle broke down on the side of the road. Pulling guard made it real. The people came up to us, attempting to communicate -- it was interesting."

For others, it was the children that remain in their mind's eye.

"One of my best memories about Iraq the first time was that we used to take a three truck convoy and roll into Baghdad to pick up huge blocks of ice for the Soldiers," Sergeant Cook said. "There was this little kid, like 7 or 8; he'd come play soccer with us. He was cool. I've got a picture of him with camouflage under his eyes, looking up at me, at home."

Sergeant Cook has another memory involving a child from that time in '03. His third child was born. He teared up as he told about his wife giving birth March 29, but not finding out until April 14, due to the lack of communication back to the states.

"We were building a tent, and my first sergeant walks up and says '(Sergeant) Cook -- did you call home,'" he recalled. "I said, 'Top, I'm building a tent, no I haven't called home.'" The first sergeant told him his wife 'had that baby.' "I got to go into the Tactical Operations Control Center and the company executive officer was next to use the phone. The first sergeant walked in and said 'Hey sir, (Sergeant) Cook needs to use the phone; his wife had a baby. He doesn't have a phone card, so he's going to use yours, ok?' So, he handed me his phone card and I got on the phone. I got to call home, found out she was good. That was my third -- my baby girl," he said with tears in his eyes.

The uncertainty of the times plays in the minds of many servicemembers that came through Iraq.

"We went through this place called Navistar, I think it's Basra, and once you hit the Iraqi side, it was just a swarm of ants on you," Sergeant Gannon said. "The people were all over the place, and they were trying to get on your truck. You didn't know what to look at, you didn't know what to look for ... I think that was the biggest fear, especially as a new NCO, was 'what do you do?' Basically, all we were reacting on was gut instinct."

He was far from the only one unsure of how to react.

"It's very tense when you have to point a weapon at somebody," Sergeant Neighoff said. "We had vehicles try to pass us or try to come at us, not to try to do anything bad, but to try to sell stuff, get food, get water, but you have to point a weapon in their direction to get them to back off because you don't know what's going on. We were constantly on edge."

Even with frayed nerves, there was hope.

Sergeant Gannon went on to tell of his arrival to another Iraqi city. "Once we got to another town, we had to stop and get out, and the people there kind of came around the truck. We felt a little nervous at first, but we started talking to them, and one of the guys came up. We all were just standing around talking -- we were still pulling security of course -- but, the people were real nice, and he said 'thank you so much, Saddam had my whole family killed. I'm the only one left.' The little kids were there playing, and it made you feel good -- like we were doing the right thing."

"I was very fortunate," Sergeant Cook said. "The whole time that I ran gun trucks and did anything outside the wire, I legitimately took fire twice. I never once had to return fire. I was very fortunate."

Many of the Airmen and Soldiers found it difficult to compare then to now, due to the changing mission and the changing environment.

"This (the Glass House), the tower and the terminal are the only recognizable things," said Sergeant Huerta.

"It's hard to describe this place now from what it was then because my of my mission -- it's two completely different missions," Sergeant Cook said. "That road over in front of the airport, I was on that road, geez, too many times to remember. I never came over on this side though, well, I might have, I don't even know -- it's so different, so built up, I may have come on this side and not even know it now."

The improvements in training are noticed by the OIF veterans, as well.

"I can say that is one big change -- the training and the knowledge that we have now compared to then is leaps and bounds better," Sergeant Gannon said. "We didn't have any formal training like we do nowadays."

In addition to the physical environment changing in those five years, the primary objective of OIF has changed in that time as well.

"This time, I'm working directly with Iraqis. This time, there's more insight to where the country's going. Then, there was nothing but questions -- what's going to happen, where is this going," said Sergeant Lujano, who works with 12 members of the Iraqi air force in his shop at New Al Muthanna. "Some are wealthier than others, some of them are very dirt poor, but they all want the same things as you and me. They want good schools for their kids, they want the power to be on all day long, they want hospitals, they want structure and probably most importantly at this point, they want security."

In his position at CAFT-T, Sergeant Lujano can see the hopes of the Iraqis he works side-by-side with, he said.

"I see Iraqis actually visualizing their future, the kind of future they have a role in, where as before, they were more or less participating in something they had no control in. It's a new muscle that they have, and they're trying to exercise it," he said. 

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