From: Michael Mabee
Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2004 1:45 AM
Subject: 26 March 2004 FRG Update

26 March 2004
FOB Speicher
Tikrit, Iraq

(Warning: portions of this letter are a bit graphic.)

Families:

On 23 March 2004, the 167th Corps Support Group had our TOA Ceremony (Transfer of Authority) and we took control of the mission from the 64th Corps Support Group. The 64th had been running this mission in Northern Iraq since March of last year. The last of the 64th CSG "popped smoke" yesterday and are now enroute back to Kuwait and home (Fort Hood, Texas). We were very sad to see the 64th CSG go, on the one hand because they have been great colleagues and friends to us. On the other hand, we are happy to see them heading home to their families. The 167th CSG now has the ball for about the next year. The ceremony was video taped and we took lots of pictures, so we will try to get pictures back to the FRG at the earliest opportunity. We had the 13th COSCOM Commander and CSM, a General from 1st Infantry Division as well as several other high ranking and distinguished guests. The ceremony was short and sweet, but we felt it went extremely well.

This was also the 167th CSG's international singing debut. We sang the First Infantry Division song and also the Army song. Although we did it with a lot of feeling and enthusiasm, I have advised most of our soldiers not to quit their day jobs. But then again, by the sounds of some of today's music, maybe we could get a recording contract. We're not any worse than a lot of the groups on the radio.

Now the 167th CSG is responsible for support in Northern Iraq, support to the 1st Infantry Division ("Big Red One"), the Stryker Brigade and other elements operating in Northern Iraq. It's a huge responsibility that your soldiers are undertaking. The 167th CSG has swelled to about 3000 troops in three Battalions, living in numerous areas in northern and central Iraq as well as a few in Kuwait. These soldiers are a combination of Active Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard, Active Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve (as well as a few DOD civilians). From our "peacetime trace" HHC 167th, the 323rd Maintenance Company and the 283rd Truck Company are all part of the 167th CSG here in Iraq.

On 22 March 2004 we received another indirect fire attack (that was 2 days in a row), but there was no damage and no injuries. We received a few more rounds tonight (again, no damage or injuries). From what the 64th CSG told me, they would go for long periods (months sometimes) with no activity and then have a spurt of attacks for a few days and then long periods of quiet again. Hopefully, that will hold true and that will be the end of it for a while. I'll be honest with you, I have seen many other FOBs (Forward Operating bases) and LSAs (Logistic Support Areas) here in Iraq over the last few weeks and I would rather be here in FOB Speicher than any of the other places I've been to. Just to be on the safe side, all soldiers at FOB Speicher wear their Kevlar helmets at all times and body armor when they are out side of the company area.

Let's talk about the body armor. This was a big concern of many of the families who read in the press last fall that there was a shortage of body armor and that Reserve and National Guard troops were going without it. All soldiers and airmen in the 167th have been issued the brand new body armor with protective plates. This is the best body armor that the military has ever fielded and it is saving lives in Iraq. Now, ask us if we like wearing it... But we do anyway. We strictly enforce that our soldiers wear it and wear it properly. It is getting hotter and hotter over here as we creep towards summer and the body armor is not air conditioned. (I think that they should have at least hooked a radiator up to it!). With the plates in and a few things attached, the body armor weighs about 18 pounds. Especially when soldiers are "out of the wire" (outside the FOB), they wear this body armor for hours and hours. Sometimes they are only really out of it when they sleep when they are on long missions. On days like this, when you finally take it off, sometimes your chest smells like a foot. But, we make the soldiers wear it because it offers a great deal of protection. It will not, however, protect one from the wrath of their spouse. I asked some ballistics experts and was told that there is truly no protection from that.

The other night was the Grand Opening of "the Victory Inn" which is the same dining facility we have been eating at, but they renamed it when the First Infantry Division moved in. I think it was called the "Provider Inn" before. We had prime rib, king crab legs, fried shrimp and a huge "Big Red One" cake. They changed the rule so that you are now allowed to take your body armor off when you eat. Eating with body armor on is a challenge. If you lean back enough in the chair that you are actually comfortable, you risk dribbling soup all over yourself. If you lean far enough forward that you don't dribble, it's hard to swallow with the SAPI plate (Small arms Protective Insert) pressing into your throat. I've been afraid that if I ever fell out of my chair, I'd be like a turtle on my back, unable to get up. Of course, I'm exaggerating (a little bit).

One thing I haven't talked about yet is an important aspect of our mission that the families and friends can actually help with. The 167th CSG has several villages that we are assisting (we are continuing the great work that the 64th CSG has started). We are helping to build and/or improve schools, get basic supplies to families and attempting to help some very poor communities. I am talking dirt poor. One community has a mud hut for a school.

A few people who deserve special mention is the "S5 Shop" (Civil Affairs). Major Vellere, MSG Tucker and SPC Hernandez are leading up the Group's humanitarian effort. The Colonel and I went with them on 26 March 2004 and we visited several of the local villages. This mission was to distribute water, and personal hygiene items such as soap, toothpaste and shampoo that the people can't get. First of all, of the villages that we visited today, not one has access to clean water. They all have to drink contaminated water from the Tigris River. Water is such a huge problem over here, that it is hard not to be stampeded when we try to distribute it. Something we take for granted in the states - we just turn on the faucet. Over here, water is not taken for granted. The Iraqis just don't have clean water.

The first few villages we visited were actually Bedouin squatters who moved into a destroyed Republican Guard base after the fall of the former regime. A lot of the buildings are partially destroyed. None of the buildings have glass in the windows anymore, no running water and if they have electricity, it is because somebody climbed up the power line and spliced a wire into it and back to their building. You can see that they use plastic bags as insulators in the electrical work. Some of the wires are spliced in the middle and look like they tied cloth around the splice. Many of the children do not have shoes and none have socks. A lot of money has recently been put in the school by the U.S., but you would still be appalled at the conditions. There is no working plumbing (the septic system is broken). The restrooms are "Eastern style" toilets (i.e., a hole in the floor) and feces is just sitting in piles in the stalls on the floor. The classrooms are just wooden desks and a chalk board. People keep breaking in and stealing things (there is presently no electricity because people stole the wiring to sell for the copper). This is one of the better schools in the area.

We stopped at a Bedouin family's tent to deliver some water and hygiene items. They has a two week old baby and let several of us hold the baby and get pictures. I'm not sure how many kids they actually had, but there were about 15 or so swarming our soldiers. The all know the word "mister" (pronounced "mistah!") and some know a few English words (such as "rock on" - I guess the Americans had been there before). Their food is cooked in a hole in the ground inside the tent. They were very nice people and let the soldiers ride their donkey and a camel. When you looked at the contents of the tent, this family was dirt poor. They didn't have much in the way of possessions. But the weird thing was that they had a satellite dish and a TV (run from a small generator, I guess). The TV was on the ground next to the cooking area and they sit on rugs and watch TV in their tent.

At the next stop, a small group of clay huts, there was a young boy (maybe 6) who had broken his left arm 25 days ago. The family had dressed the wound and put the entire arm in a plastic bag (not good). The boy had not been to a hospital and had not seen any type of doctor or medical person. Who knows how long it had been since the dressing had been changed. One of our combat lifesavers (a soldier who receives further emergency medical training) wanted to change the dressing and assess the wound. When he removed the plastic bag and bandage, a large amount of puss spilled on the hood of the Humvee and by the horrible smell, we could tell that the boy had a massive infection. A few of our soldiers got sick when the old dressing came off. The wound was infested with maggots (it was a compound fracture, meaning the when the arm broke, the broken bone had popped through the skin, creating an open wound). The arm was swollen and discolored (probably from the infection) and the boy is unable to move his thumb and appears to be losing feeling in the arm.

Our combat lifesaver did the best he could to clean the wound and put on a splint and sterile dressing, but this boy's needs were far beyond our capabilities. I suspect that gangrene has set in. It is quite possible that even with immediate medical attention, the boy will lose the arm. If he doesn't get to a hospital quickly, he may not survive the infection. I have attached a picture of the boy having his dressing changed by the combat lifesaver (from the 835th CSB - one of our units). I'm holding his right hand so that he wouldn't try to fight us, but he was very stoic and hardly moved while the wound was cleaned and redressed. This boy's plight was very disturbing to many of our soldiers. We wanted to do more, but all we could do was beg the father to take the boy to a doctor. Through the translator, we implored the father to get the boy to a hospital immediately One of the locals who has a car offered to drive the boy to the hospital in Tikrit the next day. I sure hope that the father does this.

One of the villages we stopped at was actually all one family. I understand that the patriarch has ten wives and a hundred kids. And I thought my two nephews were a handful. A hundred kids?? Well, I can attest that I saw scores of kids swarming around our soldiers. But they were moving too fast for me to get an accurate count. Unbelievable.

Our last stop of the day was a larger village and distributing water and supplies was a real challenge. Everybody wanted water and there just wasn't enough to go around. Most of the supplies we secured in the school building so that the village elders can distribute it. But we also wanted to help get some water and supplies out to the people there. Possibly a mistake, but in the end, we were able to safely distribute a lot of water and supplies. We did our best to make sure that we gave water and toothpaste to as many of the young kids as possible.

Was the day uplifting or depressing? Yes. It felt great to be out there helping these destitute people and I think our soldiers felt very good about the work we did. But we all know that we didn't even scratch the surface. The conditions that these children live in are haunting.

The humanitarian mission that the 167th CSG soldiers are doing serves several purposes. One is strictly humanitarian. It is the right thing to do to get schools built for these innocent kids who have nothing to do with the mess that all the adults have made. Many (most) of these kids do not even own any underwear or socks. Another good reason is that the more the Iraqi citizens see that we are helping them, the more they are likely to dime out the bad guys who are setting up IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) on the side of the roads - or the less likely they are to set them up themselves. This would be a great way for people at home to actually help us accomplish our mission here. If the FRG is game to help, here are things that we desperately need for these kids:

Basic school supplies such as:
Notebook paper
Pens, pencils, crayons
Construction Paper & Art supplies
Kids underwear (ages 5- 16)
Socks (black for boys, white for girls)

It is best to concentrate on just these things in big quantities so that we can take care of whole villages at once. (It's much harder to distribute fairly if we have smaller quantities of a lot of items.) Maybe some local businesses can help with shipping stuff over to us?

Let me close this letter for now. I've debated "cleaning it up" but I think it's important that the people at home see some of the things we see. I hope that this is okay with everybody.

"Granite 7"

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