[Chat] Labor Day has just passed - 4 months or less left

[william.schlegel at us.army.mil]

Greetings once again from the Palace,

It does not seem as thought a month has passed, but it has.  One would think that time should be dragging, but it actually seems to fly at times.  Perhaps the lack of variety makes that happen. It is now almost midnight on Friday, September 5th.  I finished choir rehearsal a little while ago and just got off the phone with my girlfriend, Susan, who is home taking care of my house and cats.  I am lucky in the fact that I can call home with relative ease through an 800-operator or through the morale call system at Ft. Meade.

People often ask what I do and whether I am in harms way.  The simple answer is, I read and analyze intelligence reports - as many as 120 a day and I work in well-protected, airconditioned spaces. Many soldiers over here are not that lucky - plus they are getting shot at or attacked by IEDs - Improvised Explosive Devices - that often kill or maim.  We average 5-6 such attacks every day throughout the country.  Of course the latest ploy is the car bomb - three now since the beginning of August.  We expect more, just do not know where.  This is a much tougher game than when we were fighting the old armed forces - they rolled over quickly.  The fight now is very dangerous and frought with unknowns.  In my position I get to know almost everything that is happening, provided the front-line units report it to us.  I supervise a team of analysts who take this information and turn it into actionable intelligence - that leading to targets.  My job in a nutshell.

The reports I review contain information gathered from the units in the field and from other government agencies.  Sometimes they contain pictures.  One this past week showed the aftermath of a bombing where an Iraqi man was blown into several pieces by the bomb he was carrying.  Pretty gruesome, but real.  It is still not clear whether he intended to blow himself up or simply made a bad judgement when set the detonator.  Some of these people are not real smart, but they are creative.  Some of the bombs we have found use garage-door openers and electronic car-door openers as remote control devices.  We have whole teams of soldiers who specialize in analyzing IEDs. 
 
The new governing council - 25 of the most respected men and women our government could find - is now taking steps to bring stability to Iraq.  They will not be able to do this without our help, but there are ample signs that together things are improving.  Many problems stem from the lack of infrastructure improvements over the past 20 years and the uncontrollable actions of the looters and smugglers that prevail in some areas ( they like stealing oil, gasoline, and copper wire).  We also have a huge counterfeiting problem - millons of dinars are being printed by people who have access to "real" paper and authentic plates.  To counteract this, the government will be exchanging the old dinars for new ones in October.  One US dollar is worth about 1300 dinars.  It is not uncommon for people in business to carry millions of dinars with them from place to place - checking accounts are not used right now.

In my opinion things may get worse, especially if we cannot enable the Iraqis to take control of their own country, before the extremists take the upper hand.  Yesterday's car bomb (8/19) is just the second, but probably not the last.  These perps just do not realize how much damage they are doing to this country, which has great potential and a GREAT history.  I hope to come back here as a tourist in 10 years. If you are truly interested in learning more about the underlying politics over here, I recommend the websites listed at the end of this letter.

Other than that, I work about 14 hours a day ( includes meal times) and get to bed around midnight, get up by 7:30 and need to be on the footpath to work by 8:40 - a mile by foot each way.  I finally had a chance to weigh myself last week and the news was not quite as good as I had hoped - only a 10-pound loss.  I am now cutting back on my meals, despite the improved selection and quantity. Tonight (8/20) we had T-bone steaks, which were VERY tender.  Chicken is still the mainstay along with rice and mushy carrots.  Occassionally we have crisp green beans, but more often kidney beans or Brussels sprouts.  Cauliflower made an appearance this past week, which is a favorite of mine.  Vanilla and strawberry ice cream is served nightly, but I prefer the bread pudding or flan, which appears once or twice a week.  I sure wish they had chocolate syrup for the ice cream.

One of my daily highlights now is feeding the large goose which is part of the flock of fowl inhabiting the pond near the dining facility.  The goose loves cucumbers and lettuce.  After dinner, I take a dish with both items piled up and sit it down about 15 feet from the goose.  The goose then will run to the bowl, sometimes with its wings spread, honking like crazy.  It eats the cuke slices whole and leaves none for any of the ducks.  Sometimes I can pet the goose while it is eating, but it does not seem to like that too much.  I have not had so much fun with a goose since feeding 4-week old brownies (made with Tastycake cocoa) to ducks and geese throughout Germany and England - Beth and Linda will remember that story.

As part of the Labor Day weekend (we had no holiday, though), there was an Arabic Bazaar at the large palace.  Unfortunately it was very hot and i sweated profusely the whole time i was in shopping.  I found some great books about Iraq and several historic sites.  The books were pretty old, but still very informative.  I also purchased Sadaam's book celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1968 revolt when the Ba'ath party took over.  There are several good pictures of Saddam and lots of positive statements about Iraq.  It may prove a good collectible someday.  I also bought some Cuban cigars, though a bit on the dry side, and some Iraqi stamps and money.  Come October, these old bills will no longer circulate.  I am hoping for another bazaar before I leave, though I do not know where I will put the stuff I am buying.

After sitting in the audience for the talent show over the July 4th weekend, I decided to be prepared for the next one.  Turned out that it was scheduled for Friday, 8/29, and the audition was only two weeks prior.  I had sort of been reviewing some pieces from my past performances at my voice teacher's recitals, but I did not prepare in earnest until after learning about the audition. I decided to sing Di Provence from La Traviata and certainly did well enough with the music to look at, having learned the notes well enough to sing without accompaniment. The obstacle was that the talent show director wanted me to memorize the words - a tough assignment on my 14 hour work schedule.  I carried that music everywhere and sang to my self to and from work, checking my pitches occasionally with my pitch pipe.   I thought i had the words down cold, but once on stage, dspite not being nervous, I still forgot many of the words.  Nonetheless, the crowd seemed to enjoy the piece.  I gav


e it another shot two nights later, at work, for the many of my co-workers who were unable to hear me on the 29th.  Once again I forgot many words, but I guess my volume and lack of hesitiation made up for my mistakes.  There were no Italians in the crowd, thank goodness.  I intend to try another piece for the next show, which might be at the end of October - I may even wear a mask!!

I am still singing on Sunday mornings with a small choir at the Catholic service and may also join a small barbershop group - time permitting.  On 9/1, I sing the Malotte "Lord's Prayer" at a memorial service for one of our soldiers killed by an IED explosion the week before.  I did not know the person, but was honored to be asked to sing.  I did very well, having music thanks to Jim Harp from my home church, St. Mark's Lutheran.

A friend of mine has designed a website where you can find pictures and other items of interest regarding my tour over here.  The address is:
http://home.earthlink.net/~wbsphotos/    I also recommend my HQ website at http://www.vcorps.army.mil/www/default.htm.    For those who want the British perspective on the war you might browse here:  http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1015729,00.html
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1028396,00.html

One more site: http://www.hqusareur.army.mil/htmlinks/Press_Releases/2003/Aug2003/12Aug2003-02.htm

Well, that is all for now.   It now looks like I might be home by the week before Christmas, though I will not hold my breath.  We are scheduled to leave here around 19 November for our 3-week transition back through Kuwait. More on that next issue, I hope.

Please forward this to other people who might enjoy reading it.

>From the Palace,

Brad

CW4 Schlegel, William                                       william.schlegel at us.army.mil
V CORPS Main, A Co/325th MI BN
APO, AE 09302-1382  

PS: My only needs at this point are macadamia nuts or cashews and beef jerky - Oberto or Pacific gold and Sunsweet dried plums.   Also Snyder's Sourdough hard pretzels!  No more drink mix or tuna.  Also do not send any packages after October 1st!!  Always send me an e-mail before sending just in case I have last minute changes to what I need .  I sincerely apprecaite all of you who have sent me things over the past months - it has made my life a lot more special.