thedrifter
06-26-07, 06:51 AM
Iraq Journal: The 226th was here
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
By MIKE MARSHALL
Press-Register Editor
AL ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq -- Nobody's going to make a movie about the 226th.
The 226th Area Support Group is responsible for taking care of front-line soldiers and pilots, the ones kicking in doors, flying supersonic jets or rolling down the roads looking for roadside bombs.
The 133 members of the 226th play host to 12,000 soldiers from every branch of the service, ensuring that they get good food, clean water and a cool place to rest.
Mostly, Marines are garrisoned inside this vast compound, the primary redoubt against the insurgency in Iraq's western Anbar Province.
But this sea of dry dust has also become the U.S. Navy's busiest airfield in the world.
Now that soldiers of the 226th are just a month away from heading for home, they are beginning to compile what they have achieved in their 11 months here, what difference they have made.
They rattle off some blockbuster numbers:
On average, 17,000 soldiers, aviators, contractors and civilian laborers have been housed by the 226th each day. During their time here, soldiers of the 226th have added 7,400 trailers so that no one on the base has to live in a tent.
They supervise for four mess halls serving 24,000 meals each day.
They have kept over 800 diesel-powered generators thrumming.
Since they got here, they have produced 614 million gallons of water from three reservoirs, one treatment plant, five wells and six water treatment platforms.
They created a fourth reservoir, called Lake Alabama.
They have operated a transit system of more than 110 buses criss-crossing an area larger than Los Angeles International Airport.
There's no doubt the 226th was here. They accomplished most of this with laptops, clipboards and ballpoint pens.
They determine the base's "life support" needs, then negotiate contracts with the 70 different civilian companies that work on the base, the biggest being KBR. They also oversee the contractors' work to make sure those companies perform.
No, there'll be no movie, but the setting is suitably exotic.
An inviting date palm grove stretches along one side of the base. Within it is a small oasis where Abraham bathed while journeying from Ur to Haran.
The airbase is split by a riverbed, called a wadi, bone-dry except during the rainy season. Winter floods have carved gorges that offer topographical relief seldom found in board-flat Iraq.
Then there's what soldiers of the 226th call "The Palm," a single tree in the center of the maze of trailers where they sleep.
The Palm is wound with Christmas lights that twinkle merrily even on warm summer evenings. Plastic flowers and a pink flamingo adorn the little mound of earth at its base. Arrayed around The Palm are a half-dozen grills and smokers, some dusty camp chairs and a pair of picnic tables where the Alabama boys unwind over barbecue, trading enough War Eagle and Crimson Tide jabs to gag a camel.
Some evenings they watch movies projected on the side of the white trailers. Some evenings they hold a Bible study group.
You hear the soldiers say "Meet you at The Palm" a lot around here.
Though the 226th is home-based in Mobile, the Guard drew soldiers from armories all over the state for this deployment. Almost all volunteered.
Here are just a few of them from South Alabama:
Spc. Chris Downing, 30, and Sgt. Major James Hood, 54, work in a cramped trailer supervising the bus service at Al Asad. They bonded three years earlier in Baghdad, making more than 150 combat missions in Humvees with an Alabama National Guard MP battalion.
Downing now sometimes calls Hood "Pop."
"When we left Baghdad I told Sergeant Hood that if he ever came back, I wanted to come back with him, and here I am," said Downing. "Even though we're not doing a glorious or glamorous job, we've been moving a small city worth of people safely here every day. I feel good about that."
Hood is equally proud, and grateful for their current duty.
"Some of the younger guys in the unit want to get out there and into the fight, but I thank God that Chris doesn't go out anymore," he said. "I don't have to worry about having to call Mrs. Downing with any bad news."
Downing was overweight when he arrived at Al Asad. With Hood's encouragement, he has lost more than 100 pounds. He also quit smoking cigarettes, and now gently harasses Hood about giving up the smokes.
Downing lives in Mobile with his wife, Carissa, and their three children, Hannah, 10, Parker, 8, and Chris Jr., who just turned 1. He works as a mechanic at Gulf Coast Truck & Equipment.
Hood is a full-time member of the Guard, serving as a maintenance inspector. His wife, Deborah, is district manager of the Social Security office in Mobile. They live in Daphne and have two grown daughters who live in Montana.
Master Sgt. Gary Lindsey, 51, of Orange Beach, spent 25 years as a member of the Alabama National Guard's Special Forces units, including a deployment in Afghanistan. He now sometimes struggles with his more serene duty with the 226th.
"The Marines based here are about my kids' age, out there putting their lives on the line, and I find myself wishing I could be out there with them, protecting them," he said. "That's made it harder on me, but a lot easier on my wife.
"I could still do Special Forces work, but I wouldn't be at my sharpest. You feel better that you're safe, but you feel guilty that you're not out there."
Lindsey works full-time for the Guard, and his wife, Cheryl, is a wedding planner in Orange Beach. He has three grown children.
Pvt. Dezerrick Shamburger, 22, of Mobile, said he was a kid who needed to become a man, and now he has.
Shamburger volunteered to come over to Iraq as soon as he finished his basic training. He has been here since April.
"People have been telling me since I was 19, you've got to grow up," he said. "They heaped a lot of responsibility on me when I got here, and I've grown up."
He plans to pursue a career in medicine at the University of South Alabama.
Col. David White is the 53-year-old commander of the 226th, a trim, no-nonsense martinet. He signs off all of his e-mails with this stark phrase: "The effective range of an excuse is zero."
His chest swells as he described the accomplishments of his staff:
"What we're all about is the 19-, 20-, 21-year-old soldier," he said. "We're the ones that make sure he's got what he needs when he goes outside the wire and he's got what he wants when he returns, be that to unwind and play video games, enjoy some good chow or have a good air-conditioned place to sleep."
"When we got here, we tried to anticipate what this base needed to be a better, bigger base -- whether we're here, or the Iraqi Army," he said. "We've set the Iraqi Army up for success."
This is White's second deployment with the 226th. An executive with International Paper Co., he now works in Texarkana, Texas, but he and his wife hope to return to Mobile someday.
Spc. Gary Peacock, 42, of Daphne, is an example of how the Guard benefits from the life experience of its older citizen-soldiers. Peacock mothballed his electrical contracting business to volunteer for duty in Iraq.
One hot day some old wiring failed, putting $130,000 worth of frozen steaks in jeopardy. Peacock offered to bring his skills to bear on the problem. He single-handedly ran a main power line to the freezer units and reset the electrical system before the meat spoiled.
That may not seem like high drama, but it has made him something of a folk hero among the soldiers of the 226th.
They like their steak.
The 226th should be heading back to Alabama in early August.
Ellie
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
By MIKE MARSHALL
Press-Register Editor
AL ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq -- Nobody's going to make a movie about the 226th.
The 226th Area Support Group is responsible for taking care of front-line soldiers and pilots, the ones kicking in doors, flying supersonic jets or rolling down the roads looking for roadside bombs.
The 133 members of the 226th play host to 12,000 soldiers from every branch of the service, ensuring that they get good food, clean water and a cool place to rest.
Mostly, Marines are garrisoned inside this vast compound, the primary redoubt against the insurgency in Iraq's western Anbar Province.
But this sea of dry dust has also become the U.S. Navy's busiest airfield in the world.
Now that soldiers of the 226th are just a month away from heading for home, they are beginning to compile what they have achieved in their 11 months here, what difference they have made.
They rattle off some blockbuster numbers:
On average, 17,000 soldiers, aviators, contractors and civilian laborers have been housed by the 226th each day. During their time here, soldiers of the 226th have added 7,400 trailers so that no one on the base has to live in a tent.
They supervise for four mess halls serving 24,000 meals each day.
They have kept over 800 diesel-powered generators thrumming.
Since they got here, they have produced 614 million gallons of water from three reservoirs, one treatment plant, five wells and six water treatment platforms.
They created a fourth reservoir, called Lake Alabama.
They have operated a transit system of more than 110 buses criss-crossing an area larger than Los Angeles International Airport.
There's no doubt the 226th was here. They accomplished most of this with laptops, clipboards and ballpoint pens.
They determine the base's "life support" needs, then negotiate contracts with the 70 different civilian companies that work on the base, the biggest being KBR. They also oversee the contractors' work to make sure those companies perform.
No, there'll be no movie, but the setting is suitably exotic.
An inviting date palm grove stretches along one side of the base. Within it is a small oasis where Abraham bathed while journeying from Ur to Haran.
The airbase is split by a riverbed, called a wadi, bone-dry except during the rainy season. Winter floods have carved gorges that offer topographical relief seldom found in board-flat Iraq.
Then there's what soldiers of the 226th call "The Palm," a single tree in the center of the maze of trailers where they sleep.
The Palm is wound with Christmas lights that twinkle merrily even on warm summer evenings. Plastic flowers and a pink flamingo adorn the little mound of earth at its base. Arrayed around The Palm are a half-dozen grills and smokers, some dusty camp chairs and a pair of picnic tables where the Alabama boys unwind over barbecue, trading enough War Eagle and Crimson Tide jabs to gag a camel.
Some evenings they watch movies projected on the side of the white trailers. Some evenings they hold a Bible study group.
You hear the soldiers say "Meet you at The Palm" a lot around here.
Though the 226th is home-based in Mobile, the Guard drew soldiers from armories all over the state for this deployment. Almost all volunteered.
Here are just a few of them from South Alabama:
Spc. Chris Downing, 30, and Sgt. Major James Hood, 54, work in a cramped trailer supervising the bus service at Al Asad. They bonded three years earlier in Baghdad, making more than 150 combat missions in Humvees with an Alabama National Guard MP battalion.
Downing now sometimes calls Hood "Pop."
"When we left Baghdad I told Sergeant Hood that if he ever came back, I wanted to come back with him, and here I am," said Downing. "Even though we're not doing a glorious or glamorous job, we've been moving a small city worth of people safely here every day. I feel good about that."
Hood is equally proud, and grateful for their current duty.
"Some of the younger guys in the unit want to get out there and into the fight, but I thank God that Chris doesn't go out anymore," he said. "I don't have to worry about having to call Mrs. Downing with any bad news."
Downing was overweight when he arrived at Al Asad. With Hood's encouragement, he has lost more than 100 pounds. He also quit smoking cigarettes, and now gently harasses Hood about giving up the smokes.
Downing lives in Mobile with his wife, Carissa, and their three children, Hannah, 10, Parker, 8, and Chris Jr., who just turned 1. He works as a mechanic at Gulf Coast Truck & Equipment.
Hood is a full-time member of the Guard, serving as a maintenance inspector. His wife, Deborah, is district manager of the Social Security office in Mobile. They live in Daphne and have two grown daughters who live in Montana.
Master Sgt. Gary Lindsey, 51, of Orange Beach, spent 25 years as a member of the Alabama National Guard's Special Forces units, including a deployment in Afghanistan. He now sometimes struggles with his more serene duty with the 226th.
"The Marines based here are about my kids' age, out there putting their lives on the line, and I find myself wishing I could be out there with them, protecting them," he said. "That's made it harder on me, but a lot easier on my wife.
"I could still do Special Forces work, but I wouldn't be at my sharpest. You feel better that you're safe, but you feel guilty that you're not out there."
Lindsey works full-time for the Guard, and his wife, Cheryl, is a wedding planner in Orange Beach. He has three grown children.
Pvt. Dezerrick Shamburger, 22, of Mobile, said he was a kid who needed to become a man, and now he has.
Shamburger volunteered to come over to Iraq as soon as he finished his basic training. He has been here since April.
"People have been telling me since I was 19, you've got to grow up," he said. "They heaped a lot of responsibility on me when I got here, and I've grown up."
He plans to pursue a career in medicine at the University of South Alabama.
Col. David White is the 53-year-old commander of the 226th, a trim, no-nonsense martinet. He signs off all of his e-mails with this stark phrase: "The effective range of an excuse is zero."
His chest swells as he described the accomplishments of his staff:
"What we're all about is the 19-, 20-, 21-year-old soldier," he said. "We're the ones that make sure he's got what he needs when he goes outside the wire and he's got what he wants when he returns, be that to unwind and play video games, enjoy some good chow or have a good air-conditioned place to sleep."
"When we got here, we tried to anticipate what this base needed to be a better, bigger base -- whether we're here, or the Iraqi Army," he said. "We've set the Iraqi Army up for success."
This is White's second deployment with the 226th. An executive with International Paper Co., he now works in Texarkana, Texas, but he and his wife hope to return to Mobile someday.
Spc. Gary Peacock, 42, of Daphne, is an example of how the Guard benefits from the life experience of its older citizen-soldiers. Peacock mothballed his electrical contracting business to volunteer for duty in Iraq.
One hot day some old wiring failed, putting $130,000 worth of frozen steaks in jeopardy. Peacock offered to bring his skills to bear on the problem. He single-handedly ran a main power line to the freezer units and reset the electrical system before the meat spoiled.
That may not seem like high drama, but it has made him something of a folk hero among the soldiers of the 226th.
They like their steak.
The 226th should be heading back to Alabama in early August.
Ellie