War Stories (15 page)

      
Washington, DC

      
Monday, 17 March 2003

      
2000 Hours Local

It is three in the morning here in Iraq, and as President George Bush appears on the tiny screen, dozens of Marines are gathered around our satellite audio-video transceiver to hear their commander in chief address the American people. When he says that the time has come for Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq and gives them a deadline of forty-eight hours to do so, a few heads nod in agreement, but nobody says a word. There is a similar reaction when he says, “Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing.” And again when he adds, “The tyrant will soon be gone.”

Without naming them, President Bush castigates the leaders of France, Germany, Russia, and China for their stubborn opposition to his new resolution for UN authorization to use force to disarm and topple Hussein and accomplish a regime change for Iraq. The United States, Britain, and Spain withdrew the proposal before it came to a vote, since France had said it would veto the resolution even if all other voting nations approved it.

When the president says, “These governments share our assessment of the danger but not our resolve to meet it,” and “The United Nations has not lived up to its responsibilities, so we will rise to ours,” there are more nods from the hushed crowd. No one in this little gathering objects to his claim that “the Iraqi regime has used diplomacy to gain time and advantage” and that “diplomacy can't go on forever in the face of a global threat.”

When President Bush encourages the Iraqi people with the promise “The day of your liberation is near,” I watch as several of
those who will have to make good on this commitment simply pat the back of the Marine nearest them.

As he closes with his customary “May God continue to bless America,” he looks grim. So do the Marines who have just heard him speak. Without so much as a word, the crowd breaks up and the Marines go back to their duties or to sleep.

The sword has been readied. The steel has been honed. The blade is drawn.

   
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM SIT REP #8

      
HMM-268 Forward Operating Base

      
Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait

      
Tuesday, 18 March 2003

      
0930 Hours Local

Today, more than 200,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines, joined by a coalition of international partners, are poised to begin what they believe is the next campaign in the war on terrorism. Some here have taken to calling it the Baghdad Urban Renewal Project.

According to what we have heard on our satellite videophone, at this very minute the Iraqi Parliament, in an emergency meeting, is considering the ultimatum given them last night by President Bush. Everyone here expects the Iraqis to reject it.

Many of these young Americans are taking time today to write home. They understand that their spouses, family members, and friends are concerned for their safety. They know, because of our satellite feed, that back in the United States there are unfounded reports that the troops here are unprepared and ill equipped for the mission that lies ahead. A bevy of “experts,” including former generals and admirals, have been adding fuel to this fire by saying that our chemical protective suits don't work, and that there are not enough
troops, the right weapons, or enough equipment to take on Saddam's 480,000-man military.

At 0800 this morning Lt. Col. Jerry Driscoll summoned all the pilots in the squadron to a meeting in the ready room and assigned missions for the opening of hostilities. Most here believe that the order could come down at any moment after the president's forty-eight-hour deadline for Saddam's departure expires. On “Go-Day” or “Game Day,” as it is variously called here, HMM-268 will be the lead air element carrying British Royal Marine Commandos into the attack on Al Faw Peninsula. The squadron will also be conducting inserts and extracts of reconnaissance units well inside Iraq and cas-evac missions—the evacuation of casualties from fire-swept “hot” landing zones.

Driscoll tells his pilots to check over their survival gear and get some rest in the hours ahead. And then he adds that there will be fewer than the usual number of flights today so that the maintenance crews can check the birds over for any last-minute mechanical, hydraulic, electronic, or ordnance problems. The Red Dragon “wrench turners” and crew chiefs have been working around the clock, in fair weather and foul, looking after these aging birds. Today they will at least have sunshine, though it is likely to get very hot. The desert sun can make bubbles on the flight line tarmac and turn the skin of an aircraft into a griddle that will sear exposed flesh that touches it.

None of the combat-experienced Marines from Gulf War I, the Balkans, or Afghanistan have told me they wanted another war. But now that we've got one, these are the people we want to fight in it. Most of the Marines I am with have been here for two months or more. They have participated almost daily and nightly using some of the most sophisticated equipment and weaponry the world has ever seen. They are smart, fit, and ready.

These Marines are well trained; they know their jobs, and are prepared to do them—even when the worst begins to happen around them. That can-do attitude prevails with the pilots who are flying the planes and the troops who are getting on and off them. It's evident in every crew chief, every .50-caliber gunner, and each of the mechanics and technicians who keep these airplanes flying. It is an extraordinary sense of teamwork that has gotten them this far and for which the Marine Corps is famous. There is no airplane that launches without a complete check from the mechanics who maintain them day and night.

To ensure that a wounded soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine gets the fastest and finest medical attention necessary, all four services are participating in a remarkable experiment that is the brainchild of a Navy chief. When a trooper is wounded badly enough to require evacuation, he will be picked up by a Marine CH-46 specially configured with nine or more litters. The twin .50-caliber machine guns mounted port and starboard and the stand-up headroom inside the “fighting frogs” make them ideal for this purpose. Every cas-evac bird has aboard two medical corpsmen. Thirty-six of the best corpsmen have been pulled from throughout the U.S. Navy and assigned to what's called the “I-MEF Cas-Evac Unit.” They are all emergency medical specialists and experts on treating shock and trauma. Their motto: “We Bring You Home.” One volunteer for this special unit had to be flown to Kuwait from Antarctica!

As soon as the wounded are aboard a CH-46, they will be treated for shock and blood loss by the two Navy corpsmen, while the bird sprints to a U.S. Army shock-trauma hospital. Instead of being twenty to thirty miles from the battle area, these small field hospital tents—staffed by Army doctors, nurses, and medics ready for immediate, lifesaving surgery—will be positioned just five or six miles from the front lines. Once the wounded are stabilized, they will be flown back to Kuwait on an Army H-60 Black Hawk or aboard a Marine C-130. The
plan is to have these large four-engined C-130s land on captured airfields, highways, or even the desert floor.

When they arrive in Kuwait, the wounded will be rushed into a U.S. Air Force expeditionary hospital for further treatment. If advanced surgery is needed, the casualty will be loaded on an Air Force C-9 Nightingale for transport to one of several large hospitals in Germany.

At the conclusion of Lt. Col. Driscoll's briefing, the Squadron S-2 informed the pilots that yesterday U.S. Central Command had dropped nearly two million leaflets over military and civilian sites in nearly twenty locations across Iraq. That brings the total number of leaflets dropped to more than twelve million so far this year. The goal of these leaflet drops is to protect civilian lives and deter the Iraqi military from fighting back once hostilities begin. Yesterday's leaflet drop stressed that coalition forces do not wish to harm innocent Iraqis. One message informed Iraqi citizens that they could be the victims if Saddam Hussein uses chemical weapons. Another message encouraged the Iraqi military officers to refrain from using weapons of mass destruction, and others told Iraqi troops how to surrender safely.

One of the Cobra pilots from Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 267 who will be accompanying the CH-46s made the observation that surrender would be the best way for an Iraqi soldier to save his life because “if he points a gun at me, he's dead.”

   
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM SIT REP #9

      
HMM-268 Forward Operating Base

      
Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait

      
Wednesday, 19 March 2003

      
2300 Hours Local

The president's deadline for Saddam and his sons to depart Iraq expires in five hours. Apparently, from what little news we are receiving,
the Iraqi Parliament never bothered to seriously debate the U.S. ultimatum. They probably knew that their dictator and commander in chief wanted them to reject it. So they did.

A few hours ago, the Parliament of the United Kingdom, by a vote of 412 to 149, approved the use of military force to disarm Iraq and oust its leader. An antiwar amendment said to reflect British public sentiment against hostilities in Iraq was defeated.

Saddam Hussein had been given ten days to comply and to turn over his weapons of mass destruction, but he hasn't. Coalition aircraft continue dropping information leaflets into Iraq stating that war could start at any time.