From: Michael Mabee
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 4:28 PM
Subject: Greetings from FOB Speicher

12 March 2004

167th CSG Families,

We all arrived safe and sound with no injuries to our new home, Forward
Operating Base (FOB) Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. It was a long (2 1/2 day)
journey and we were all exhausted.

We left Camp Virginia, Kuwait in the early afternoon and slept in a camp
on the Kuwait-Iraq border. They had a mess hall, Subway sandwich shop,
coffee shop and a pizza joint right on the base, so most of the soldiers
walked over and got something to eat. We slept on, in or next to the
trucks. Soldiers can generally make themselves comfortable. The best
places to sleep in/on a HMMWV are in the center platform between the
seats, or for the canvas roofed models, right on the roof. In each
truck, the driver got the first choice of where to sleep (you want your
driver to get a good night's sleep!) and for the "gun trucks" (trucks
with a machine gun mounted on them) the gunner got second choice (you
also want your gunner to get a good night's sleep!) The rest of us just
slept where we could. I personally opted to sleep on the hood of the
HMMWV - it's not too bad if you use the sleeping mat to smooth out the
bumps. Actually, the nights were cool and clear, perfect for sleeping
outdoors.

We crossed the border the next morning. Well, it was so early that some
might argue that it wasn't quite morning yet. Anyway, I felt sorry for
the people in my truck (PFC Mavroudis - Driver, SGT Frechette - M-16,
and SGT Scanlon - SAW Gunner). It's not pleasant to ride with a Command
Sergeant Major who has not had his coffee before entering a war zone!

The first day in southern Iraq was a tough drive. The enemy activity is
not as frequent as in other areas, but the roads were horrible. There
was a large stretch of road (about 2 hours worth) that were the dustiest
sand and gravel roads I have ever seen. The dust at times got so thick
that you could only see a few feet in front of the vehicle and just had
to follow the tracks of the vehicles in front of you.

To add to this, there were convoys of civilian trucks in the mix and
they were passing on the left, on the right, on the left again. After
getting through this stretch of road without incident (our drivers did a
great job), I feel that the unit should be certified to drive in Boston.
We all wore dust masks and goggles. The gunners on the back of the
trucks had it particularly bad with all the dust, but not one of them
complained. Our SAW gunners are very professional and I don't think that
any unit in the army has better.

The terrain and area we had covered in southern Iraq had swamps, desert
and is generally a very poor and mostly agricultural section of Iraq.
The people we saw seemed to be mostly subsistence farmers, sheep
herders. Many lived in mud brick "houses" which appeared to have no
electricity or plumbing. I did occasionally see a satellite dish on some
of the "nicer" homes. We saw a lot of children. They would run to the
road and wave to us as we passed. This is a predominantly Shiite area

Oh, I forgot to mention the temperature. In the morning you are cold (we
travel with the windows down and our weapons pointed out the window) so
the heat literally goes out the window and the trucks are very chilly.
Not a problem, because we have all this nifty cold weather gear that the
Army has issued us, so we were able to dress for it. However, when the
sun comes up and it starts to get warm, your kind of stuck with what
you're wearing until the next stop which could be several hours. It's
just not possible to take the stuff off while your traveling when you
have you body armor and all your gear over top of your cold weather
stuff (and are looking out the windows every minute for signs of
trouble). So, the temperature was cold, then hot.

We made a fuel stop and drove on to a CSC (Convoy Support Center - the
military has an acronym for everything). A CSC is like a big truck stop
except that it's surrounded by barbed wire, machine guns and concrete
barriers. A nice safe place to spend the night. We topped off the trucks
with fuel, pulled them into a line (so that we could just drive out the
next morning) and they had a decent mess hall. There was also a group of
Iraqi vendors right outside the gate, so the soldiers got to test out
their bartering skills. The most popular items were the old Iraqi money
(with Saddam's mug on the bills) and the camel rides. One of the Iraqi
locals had brought his camel (a very ornery beast who complained quite a
bit). The camel's name was also "Saddam", which I thought was kind of
funny. For 4 dollars you got to ride the camel and get pictures.
According to the gate guards, the Iraqi had come with the camel and was
supposed to supply his services for 4 days, but he was doing so w
ell with all the convoys coming through that he had stayed for several
weeks now. The camel was a cash cow for him. We got to bed early. It had
been an exhausting day.

We slept on or in or next to the trucks again that night. I took the
hood again and it wasn't too bad. (Again, we give the drivers and
gunners the first choice of sleeping area).

We woke up the next morning (I was in a better mood because they had a
coffee tent, so we all got coffee, hot chocolate and snacks before we
left) and we again pulled out very early. We immediately had to stop due
to a radio problem and when we stop for any reason, we pull security in
all directions. While we were getting the radio problem resolved, we
heard some gunfire. It sounded like a burst from an automatic rifle. I
do not believe that it was directed at us. It definitely made people
nervous, but we reacted the way we were trained to react (i.e., hit the
dirt). Okay, now we were really awake.

You have to remember that Iraq is a country where the sound of automatic
weapons fire is common. Sort of like Chicago in the 20's or New York
City in the 70's. People fire weapons at weddings, parties, or upon
hearing good news. We never did find out what this short burst was
about. But we also didn't hang around the area much longer and we got on
the road.

We were halted by the MPs for several hours because an IED (Improvised
Explosive Device) was found on the road ahead of us. We had to pull
security around the convoy and the highway was blocked off in both
directions. The Iraqi civilians tried to get around the roadblock by
driving down dirt roads and you would see the same vehicles trying
several different dirt roads on both sides of the convoy to get by, but
the MPs did a great job of keeping all vehicles, civilian and military,
off the highway until the experts got there and blew the IED up. We were
then able to safely proceed towards our next obstacle: The drivers in
and around Baghdad. Now the traffic got crazy.

For those of you who have driven in Central America or some other
countries, you may appreciate that in some countries, the traffic laws
tend to be a little looser. Well, there appear to be no traffic laws in
Iraq. People cross the median and drive the wrong way down the oncoming
lane. People drive fast. Some drive slow (or their old junk vehicles
can't drive the same speed or are overloaded). Our drivers definitely
earned their money on this trip and after Baghdad, they should all be
certified to drive in Manhattan. It was very stressful keeping the
convoy together in the midst of complete traffic anarchy.

After we got through Baghdad, we drove north to Tikrit passing through
several villages and towns. Once again, we heard some gunfire, but we
think that it was a rifle range of some type and there is no indication
that it was directed at us.

We made two more quick stops to put fuel in two of the vehicles which
were running low (probably due to the extra weight of a trailer and all
the sandbags) and we arrived with all our vehicles and personnel safe
and sound at FOB Speicher.

One other bit of information to put out on the APO address. We are
adding one line to it. Any mail sent without the line will still get
here with no problem, but on future letters/packages use this address:

Rank Name
167th CSG
OIF II, FOB Speicher
APO AE 09393

Take care and I'll try to write again in a week or so.

"Granite 7"

Michael Mabee
Command Sergeant Major
167th Corps Support Group
Tikrit, Iraq