A Seabee’s Firsthand Account of Life in Iraq

[thedrifter]

Part One
'The Straight Scoop'
A Seabee’s Firsthand Account of Life in Iraq

Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a recent letter to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica now shares his views with you.

Dear Post 45,

I caught wind of and read the recent news articles being circulated back there in the states. I figured I could clarify some things for you.

As usual the news media has blown some things way out of proportion. The countryside is getting more safe by the day despite all the attacks you are hearing about. Imagine every shooting incident or robbery committed in LA or Portland being blown way out of proportion.

This is a country where most of the Saddam Hussein thugs are being chased around like scared rabbits by coalition forces. It is literally open season on them! We hunt them down like animals.

There were about a million soldiers in the Iraqi army at the beginning of hostilities and most of them took off before we attacked. There are some that were very loyal to Saddam that are trying to sneak around and take potshots at us. We are cleaning them up pretty fast.

There are also thugs from other countries running around, like Iran and Syria. Well, the Iraqis hate these thugs as much as we do. So the Iraqi people are hunting them down too! I can honestly say 98% of the population of Iraq love us and they do not want us to leave...ever! They say as long as we are here they feel safe.

What is going on with the countries infrastructure?

Everything is going well!

The railroad is running again! The railroad has not run since 1991.In the city of Hillah, the power stays on 24 hours a day and it has more power than prior to the war. Some Iraqis are worried about getting too much food from the coalition because they don't have enough room in their homes to store it.

The markets are open. The Seabees have rebuilt all of the schools and put in furniture and chalkboards. The kids used to sit on the floor! Now they have nice desks to sit at. Commerce is running. New money is being printed. The Iraqi Dinar has stabilized and is now increasing in value.


Most of the Iraqi men want to buy Chevy pickups (I told them a Dodge Ram with a Cummins Diesel is better Ha Ha). They pretty much want any vehicle made by General Motors. The highways and bridges are being repaired.

In the Universities, the girls have tossed their deshakas (long black dresses with head and face coverings) and are now wearing western style clothes and even some are wearing short sleeves. The favorite drink is Pepsi, followed by Coke. They want us to bring them any and everything American. Any item made in America or that is from America is worth money over here.

The newspapers and television paint a picture of doom and gloom and that we are having major problems over here. That is just not the case. The Iraqis have a saying about the situation over here "Every day is better than the day before".

Life is flowing back in to this country and it is fun to watch and I am so glad I got to watch it happen. Some days watching the Iraqi people is like watching the faces of little kids on Christmas Day! Many of them are walking around in a daze wondering what to do with their freedom.

They are starting businesses everywhere. They want to build shopping malls and factories, they want McDonalds and Jack in the Box and Pizza Hut. Of course anything American Fast Food, because of the stories the troops are telling them.

We give them our old newspapers and magazines that you have been sending us and they are absolutely flabbergasted when they read them! They want us to keep bringing them. They read every single page even the advertisements over and over! This would be a good time for media to get their magazines going over here because the Iraqis just love them.

So in short you see I will give you the straight scoop and keep you informed of what is up over here. I will sign off for now and send this along. Thanks again to all of you for your support. My mailing address has changed. The older one is no longer working. I will tell you the new one as soon as we get it.

Senior Chief Art Messer
22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie
U. S. Navy Seabees
"With Compassion For Others, We Build, We Fight, For Peace With Freedom"

http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/aug2003/a080703c.html

Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

[thedrifter]

Part Two
'The Straight Scoop'
A Seabee’s Firsthand Account of Life in Al Kut, Iraq

Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a series of letters he sent this spring to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica now shares his views with you.

Dear American Legion.

Things as usual are going very well. Of course we have the now and again problems but they are subsiding. We have been in Al Kut on the Tigris River for the last two weeks. Prior to that we spent the majority of the War near An Nasiriyah on the Euphrates River.

Up here we're doing humanitarian and base infrastructure work. One of the neat jobs were doing is fixing up a 1912 British cemetery. You see, there was this huge battle here during British colonization. It used to be British custom to bury their war dead on the battle field. All the British troops that lost their lives were buried at this cemetery. If any of you out there are history buffs, I would like to find out more about the story if you have more info.

To make a long story short, the Saddam regime let the cemetery go. It's grown over with weeds and trash was being dumped there. So the British government wanted us to fix it up since this cemetery is in the Task Force Tarawa Area of Operations. Task Force Charlie is in direct support of Task Force Tarawa and soon to be back in support of First Marine Division also.

Our convoy to Al Kut was quite interesting. Over the roads that the seabees of Task Force Charlie repaired and resurfaced, we came up through South Central Iraq. There were small farms everywhere along with hundreds and hundreds of camels. As we approached Baghdad the sand and desolation faded into farmland, grass, river bottom swamps and date farms. I love dates by the way, however; I don't think they are in season this time of year. I will ask a farmer before I get back.

After moving out of our camp below the Euphrates, we moved up to a place on the Euphrates River that is pretty much a seabee-built giant truck stop and bridge park. This place is where the logistical convoy trains stop for fuel, rest, and repairs while hauling stuff north and storage area for maybe Johnson Bridge assemblies.

The seabees are putting bridges over all the key river crossings in Southern Iraq. This Truck Stop Davisville is named for the World War II seabee base in Davisville, Rhode Island. Just like a truck stop back home it has everything. A place to get fuel, a place where you can eat, of course you sleep on your truck and just like back home all the truckers have weapons and there is an occasional sniper about lurking near the freeway. Oh yeah, if you want a hot shower you can get it there too. After stopping for the night at Davisville Truck Stop/Bridge Park we moved on towards Al Kut, moving through the town of An Numaniyah.

Our camp on the Euphrates is right on the river so we can use water purification units to get water. When we passed through An Numaniyah there were crowds lining the streets cheering and waving and throwing flowers saying "God Bless America!", "God Bless U.S. Troops!" and "America We Love You!" They were also calling Saddam a few things and one was "Saddam is a Dog!"


I have since found out the worst thing you can call a Middle Eastern person is a dog! The second worst thing you can do to insult them is make fun of their mustache. So when I talk to Iraqis I avoid discussing dogs and mustaches! You have to commend these Iraqi people. They are a very proud people, who love their country dearly. Despite all the years of poverty and repression that the Saddam regime put them through, they still hold their head high and their spirit is remains un-broken. True to Babylonian style. I truly hope for a long and lasting peace for these people.

Passing through Al Kut there were more interesting things. Iraqis selling cigarettes and whiskey. A lot of us wanted to liberate the Iraqis of their wares but were under orders not to buy from them. Hundreds and Hundreds of kids lined the roads asking us for candy and MRE's (Pre packaged Meals Ready to Eat that replaced the old "C Rats"). These kids were not starving though they just took a liking to G.I. food and the candy we always throw out. Just being kids I guess.

I saw a boy about 9 or 10 years old in a green field of Milo on the outskirts of a village near Al Kut. He was herding cattle and those cattle were minding him well and he kept a very good eye on those cows, too. Everyone in the convoy was impressed!

We happened to be stopped by the field the boy was grazing his cattle in. I made eye contact with him and he watched me. I was standing with my hand near my pocket. Right as everyone was loaded up on the convoy and getting ready to pull out, I reached in my pocket and pulled out an unopened bag of Skittles and kind of pitched out to where he could see them. Of course he had eagle eyes on them and after we pulled away he finally left those cows to pick up that bag of candy!

I guess I'm just a softy. I took a picture of him as we pulled away and he gave me the victory sign. As we pulled out of site, he was staring at that candy and he put it in his pocket without opening it. We figured he was going to share it with his brothers and sisters or he was supposed to ask his parents prior to eating any. We stopped again later and I had to go digging through my pack to find some of my Charms candy to give to some more kids. Like I say, I'm a big fluff!

Task Force Tarawa captured 3 Surface to Air (SAM) Rocket Launchers intact. A Marine removed the cap from one of the missile launch tubes and there was a live missile in there! I took a picture of it. The launchers were French built, tires made in Russia, spare parts made in Germany and new parts lying inside manufactured by Siemens Corp of Norway or somewhere like that. Task Force Tarawa also captured numerous Anti Aircraft Artillery (AAA/Triple A) pieces intact and in good working order. Of course I took pictures; I hope you will be able to see them soon.

This is all I have for now. Take Care and I will write more soon. All is well here.

Senior Chief Art Messer
U. S. Navy Seabees
" With Compassion for Others, We Build We Fight, for Peace with Freedom!"
22nd Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force

"FOR GOD AND COUNTRY!"

http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/aug2003/a081803i.html

Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

[thedrifter]

Part Three
'The Straight Scoop'
A Seabee’s Firsthand Account of Life in Al Kut, Iraq

http://www.defendamerica.mil/images/photos/aug2003/articles/ai082003b1.jpg

Senior Chief Art Messer outside his tent at Camp Viper near the ancient city of Ur, Iraq.

Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a series of letters he sent this spring to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica now shares his letters with you.

Dear Post 45,

I have more information on the British cemetery we cleaned up in Al Kut. We had a ceremony today to mark the end of the cleanup and honor the dead. It was broadcast live on the BBC and the 1st U.K. Division General was the guest speaker. The story is going to be picked up by CNN also and replayed on the BBC The story of the cemetery goes like this:

British Campaign for Mesopotamia
1914-1918

In April 1915, the Indian Expeditionary Force "D", which had landed at Fao (I believe this is the Faw Peninsula) the previous November, began its advance inland with the intention to clear Turkish forces out of south-west Iraq. Amara was occupied in early June and the advance continued along the line of the Euphrates to Nasiriyah, and along the Tigris to Kut, which was taken on 29 September. The advance to Baghdad was resumed on 1 November, but was brought to a standstill against the strong Turkish defenses at Ctesiphon on 22-24 November.

By 3 December, the force comprised chiefly of the 6th (Poona) Division of the Indian Army, was back in its entrenched camp at Kut, where they were besieged by Turkish forces. The 6th Division suffered heavy casualties in desperate but unsuccessful attempts to reach the town and raise the seige in January, March and April.cThe garrison was forced to capitulate on 29 April 1916 and nearly 12,000 men were taken prisoner, many of whom died in captivity.

The town was reoccupied by Commonwealth forces in February 1917 and at the end of June it became an administrative railway and hospital center. The Kut War Cemetery was made by the 6th (Poona) Division between October 1915 and May 1916 and was increased in size when dead were brought in from other sites after the Armistice.

The cemetery now contains 420 First World War casualties.

It was a beautiful ceremony and I wised I had more file space to send you a picture of the cross the Seabees made for it using old photographs of the cross and cemetery. I sincerely hope you enjoyed the story as much as I liked telling it.

Art

http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/aug2003/a082003b.html

Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

[thedrifter]

Part Four
'The Straight Scoop'
A Seabee’s Firsthand Account of Life in Iraq

Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a series of letters he sent this spring to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica now shares his letters with you.

Dear Post 45,

Hi, how have you all been? I'm doing fine. Sure have moved up in the world since last time I had a chance to write.

We moved from a base in Al Kut on the Tigris River to one of Saddam's former palaces on the Euphrates River. A section of the River (Shatt Al Hillah Canal) runs right through the palace grounds. The ancient Babylon ruins and King Nebuchadnezzar's (however you spell it) old palace are on the palace grounds.

In fact, Saddam supposedly built this palace we're staying in on the site of the old king's palace. Standing on top of the palace you can see for miles around. To the southwest I cannot see the end of the date grove. As far as the eye can see in all directions are date groves.

The palace is huge and sits on top of a huge man made hill. There are three man made hills just like in ancient Babylon and the palace sits atop the largest one. Saddam Hussien was trying to rebuild the Babylon and in the section he had re-built, he put his name on many of the bricks just like ol' Nebuchadnezzar did.

The palace has huge great rooms halls and bedrooms. Gold trim and marble everywhere. The view from any one of the rooms around the outside edges of the palace is stunning. This place has marble fireplaces 60 feet high!

Last night we had hamburgers, hot dogs and steaks grilled out on theveranda just off a huge dining room. We use the dining room as our chow hall. I have to admit its the fanciest chow hall I have ever eaten in.

To give you an idea of how big the dining room is, one of the Marine Expeditionary Force battalions, Task Force Charlie Command Element, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 15's Air Detachment and Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4's Seabee Engineering Recon Team can all eat comfortably in the dining room at once! I chose to eat out on the veranda along the Euphrates River.

The palace grounds are covered with gardens and trees of all sorts. This place could be Busch Gardens. There are so many flowers and jasmines blooming that the whole place smells really good, almost an intoxicating fragrance in some places.

Like I said, from the top of the palace you can get a good view of the ancient Babylon ruins. The ruins has a famous granite sculpture of a lion with a human's body. It is still here because it was too large to move.

Most of the ruins were unearthed by Nazi Germany in the 1930's. They say most of the artifacts are in museums in Germany and France.

It is hard to say how much of ancient Babylon was destroyed when the mountain was rebuilt for this palace. This palace was spared in the Gulf War and in this War due to being in such close proximity to the Babylon ruins.

There is large amphitheater next to the ruins that I would say seats about 10 to 15 thousand. The Marine Corps Third Marine Air Wing played a concert in there last night that was pretty entertaining. A group of them made up a really good Dixie Land band. Of course they had some songs dedicated to the person who provided us the amphitheater. Not too sure Saddam would have liked the songs.

They started off the concert with Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be an American" It was sure a moving moment to be setting there in that place listening to American Patriotic songs.

This place has been a nice change of pace from sleeping in the sand out on the desert in a pop-up tent! Still, I would rather be on the Deschutes with a fine fly rod any day of the week!

Bye for now and thank you all again for all the great cookies and stuff you sent.

Art Messer
Senior Chief, U. S. Navy Seabees
22nd Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie APO AE
09855

"With Compassion for Others, We Build, We Fight, for Peace With Freedom"

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY!


http://www.defendamerica.mil/images/photos/aug2003/articles/ai082003b1.jpg

Senior Chief Art Messer outside his tent at Camp Viper near the ancient city of Ur, Iraq.

http://www.defendamerica.mil/images/photos/aug2003/articles/ai082203d1.jpg

Senior Chief Messer scratches a cheetah' s head at the Baghdad Zoo.


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

[thedrifter]

Part Five
'The Straight Scoop'
A Seabee’s Firsthand Account of Life in Iraq

Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a series of letters he sent this spring to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica now shares his letters with you.

Dear Post 45,

It has been awhile since I have updated you. Besides my normal work I have been working with the Babylon Ruins Civil Authority Team.

Shortly after hostilities began, some looters came into the ruins and museum and trashed the place. They say it was because one of the old directors was Baath Party and everything in the museum that this old director had touched was destroyed.

Mainly I think it was a bunch of thugs run amuck during the anarchy.

What had to be done as soon as the Marines secured the area was get into the museum and take out whatever fixtures they could for safe keeping. Then shortly after this, the looters made another attempt to loot the place but could not because the Marines had taken all of the stuff out and the Marine security forces were Johnny on the Spot when this happened.

To keep this from happening, again a Marine platoon camped out next to the Ishtar Gate and the two entrances to the museum were sealed off with block. This all happened in the very early days of the war. Now we are ready to replace the door and repair the damage to the museum.

This area around Babylon has many of the famous ancient Mesopotamian ruins besides Babylon. There are still many artifacts just below the surface of earth all around the different sites.

When the Marines were not present the looters were in the other ruins around Babylon with picks and shovels digging up these items to sell on the black market. Now the Marines have put a stop to all this and are training a new Iraqi police force to patrol with them and to eventually take the reins when we leave.

During the Saddam Regime, the archaeological staff here was never permitted to correspond with scholars outside of Iraq. All of their phone calls and mail were screened. What I am doing now is trying to contact archaeological institutions around the world and give them the names of the staff members so that they may correspond with other archaeological scholars around the world.

We hope in this way we can open the door to the rest of the world for them, as well as the rest of the world being able to find out the latest info on Babylon and what occurred here during the time of Saddam.One thing that happened is that Saddam tried to rebuild the city of Babylon. The reconstruction destroyed and jeopardized many of the ancient ruins. The palace that I sent you a picture of was built right in the middle of ancient Babylon! A lot of important parts of the city were bulldozed into a mound to build the palace on. No telling what information was lost during that.

Another thing Saddam did was create a private lake and refill the old Euphrates river bed, When he did this much of the old ancient city was buried under water! Here is one that 'takes the cake.' You know how you see pictures of professional archaeologists carefully digging with paint brushes and dental instruments? Well, Saddam's people were digging with backhoes, excavators and loaders!

The professional archaeologists here on the staff were given desk jobs and made to stay out of the way! Saddam just wanted to hurry up and find loot to put on the black market or to decorate one of his palaces.


So how are things going here otherwise? As well as can be expected I suppose. We're still in some hostile country but each day that goes by the countryside becomes more tame.

We have rebuilt and re furnished many of the schools. Most of the original power is back on. In fact Hillah has more electric power now than it has ever had! When we first got toAl Kut the city was pretty dark at night. By the time we left, almost all of the city power had been restored.

There are still some radicals out there that start feeling lucky and decide they want to take on a heavy fortified armored convoy what they get in return is a wall of lead coming at them. That quells that friskiness pretty quick plus this technique usually decreases the amount of bad guys.

I sat out on the steps of the veranda behind the main dining room tonight and watched the fish jumping after dragonflies and mosquitoes as the sun went down. I was wising I had brought a travel rod with me on this trip. Because here we would be able to fish and time we want. The number on my Iraqi fishing license is M9 and Beretta printed it!

Saddam had this section of the river and the nearby lakes stocked with fish and him and his buddies were the only ones allowed to fish in them. So the locals think it is pretty neat to fish around here. Some of them are using a Dupont Spinner. This gets the quick reaction of the Marine Security force!

There are some nice channel catfish in the river as well as Chub. They say the chub here is really good to eat. I'm thinking anything besides camel and goat is good to eat.

It still bothers me to see the Iraqis drinking straight out of the river. Even their drinking water is cloudy. I told the staff at the museum that one of the things that we will do here in Iraq is work on getting them clean drinking water. They said this would make them very happy.

I'm sure the fishing is getting pretty good there right about now. I wish I were there with you all. Maybe I will get a chance to come up in September? When does the fishing season close? Good luck to everyone in the hunting tag drawings.

Take Care...Art

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY!


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

[thedrifter]

Part Six
'The Straight Scoop'
A Seabee’s Firsthand Account of Life in Iraq

Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a series of five letters he sent this spring to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica has now published the Post 45 letters and now shares one final letter Messer sent to his wife.

Hi,

Finally get a quick chance to say something. Write something or whatever. I sent you some correspondence from the (Iraqi)archaeologists to UCLA. Boy oh boy, I kind of like being the go between. I don't know anything about the stuff but I like linking the two worlds together. It's fun.

Got alot of work done today on my day off. Took pictures of the Babylon staff to send to UCLA, and of the small access door being installed on the museum.

I made an assessment of the museum for reconstruction and started the list for it that will be the basis of the contract. I also did this with a police sub station near the main gate.

We looked over the main power feed into the palace grounds and seen what was needed to re-energize it. I told the contractors the order of precedence for re-construction of the public restroom facility for visitors of the Babylon Ruins Visitor Center.

I had a meeting ... where we outlined the draw down and static water level test for a water well we found on the grounds. Then we drew out a schematic of the water treatment plant that we are going to hook up to the water well. Then we started to develop a bill of materials that will be used to bring the plant to life.

The last thing I did before lunch was go over the preliminary drawings for the new sewer system we are going to install using some of the existing palace system and form that we started a bill of materials list. ... Then on to the water distribution system that will hook into the water treatment plant we are hooking to the water well. In between all this I had a meeting with the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian assistance, talked with the tour guides and archaeologists and met some folks from the British Embassy.

The last thing I did was walk around the museum once our access door was installed and helped Dr. Merriam take notes for a report she is giving to the Civil Affairs Team. Now I'm going to go eat supper, take in a show and a nap before my watch begins at midnight:-)

In a nut shell, that is how my days go. And that is what I did today in Babylon, Iraq.

Can't wait to get home!

And then.......get in a load of fly fishing!....Me


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

[thedrifter]

Part Seven
'The Straight Scoop'
A Seabee’s Firsthand Account of Life in Iraq

Senior Chief Art Messer, a Navy Seabee serving with 22 Naval Construction Regiment (Forward) Task Force Charlie in southern Iraq, shared his perspective on post-war life in Iraq in a series of letters he sent this spring to American Legion Post 45. With Messer’s permission, DefendAmerica now presents one final letter dated Aug. 19, written just prior to his return to the United States.

Dear Post 45,

This will be my last letter I write to you from the Iraq theater of operations. I was informed I will finally be going home in less than a week. I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for taking care of us over here and giving us so much support. As I reflect back on our gravest and most trying times out on the Iraqi desert battlefields; your packages to us with comfort items from home made life a whole lot more comfortable out there. You should have seen the look on those troops' faces when they saw those care packages! We are truly grateful. Thank you!

I need to update you on what is actually happening on the ground in Iraq. This is the straight scoop as I see it from over here. My information comes from the Iraqis themselves, whom I have made friends with over the months. U.S. forces over here have made many new Iraqi friends. The bottom line is that Iraqis do not trust easily for reasons I do not have to explain. They simply believe by actions and not by words. They are amazed at the honesty and integrity of U.S. and Coalition forces. For instance they find it incredible that they can leave items unattended around our troops and they are not stolen. They see U.S. troops for what they truly are, sons and daughters of Liberty, Freedom and Truth. Only the enemy fears coalition troops. The First Marine Division has a motto of "No Worse Enemy and No Better Friend" Those Marines live by that motto. The peaceful Iraqi population knows that they can count on us for safety and comfort.

I would like to share a story about one Iraqi woman who has held out hope during the trying period leading up to the war and how she and her friends and family view the coalition forces. In the days leading up to hostilities she and her family would listen to a short wave they had hidden inside their home. They would break out the radio at night and leave the volume turned way down and listen to Radio Free America and the BBC.

Of course rumors were flying around like crazy among the Iraqi population in the weeks prior to the start of the war. One rumor was what day the coalition would attack. The Iraqis told me they were praying the United States and Britain would attack and come save them. They were holding out all hope!

Anyway they had guessed March 1st would be the day. Then when the U.N. started stalling they got worried that maybe the Saddam Regime would not be unseated. The woman had gone out on a limb and told her whole family that March 1st or 5th would be the day the war would start. She said she had heard this from another friend. When those days came and went, her husband told her "I thought your friend said the war would start?" They became very worried because so many days passed, while they held their breath, between March 5th and the 20th.

A big relief came and they knew help was on the way when they heard on their radio that the coalition forces launched the attack. They could hear the bombs and artillery crashing and thundering all around their city. With tears of joy streaming down her face as she told me the story, she said one day she heard helicopters overhead and that was their sign that the Saddam Army was defeated.

She said the United States Marines were sent to save them like angels from heaven by Allah. She said it was the happiest day of her life to see United States Marines rolling into town! Her whole neighborhood was celebrating and cheering for joy and thanking Allah for sending the angels to save them!

When my Iraqi friends sat in a circle and told me this story my eyes welled up with tears. I was glad I had my sunglasses on. This story gripped my heart. I was so proud of the United States, our coalition friends and the cause of Liberty.

What is happening now that you don't hear on the news is this. The bad guys are cut off from getting help and they continue to be herded up. Most of them have lost their will to fight because they see that the Iraqi people are actually free and loving it and the coalition is the one responsible for freedom and happiness! How can you fight that?

The Iraqis know who is causing the problems and they are eager to help root them out. In fact the Iraqis have started neighborhood watch programs. The enemy is in a very dire situation, they are being hunted by coalition forces as well as by the Iraqi populace.

The towns I saw a month ago with raw sewage running in the streets and between the buildings are now showing marked signs of improvement! I went through some towns a few days ago and the sewage was drained away and drying up. There were piles of new bricks, sand and mortar between many of the buildings being used for new construction. I saw new construction and building upgrades everywhere! I saw power lines being repaired and new utility lines being installed everywhere. I saw many Iraqis working and living and getting back to a normal life.

One thing I did see that was still the same, that was the Iraqis coming out to give a cheerful greeting to our convoy, give us the thumbs up and tell us "America We Love You!" After all these months this has not changed. They wave to us from clear across a field. Both arms held up high with thumbs up and large bright smiles. I wish all of you could see this but I can only describe it the best I can. I saw shops in the markets packed with goods and thriving. Best of all I saw lots of smiling faces when we drove by.

The Iraqis now have satellite TV. In fact, satellites are one of the hottest selling things over here. The Iraqis are concerned with what they see on the news also. So they tell me, 'Please, make sure the American people know that we are glad you are here and that the Americans are our friends.' (They also say) 'That things are much better than before and that the Iraqi people are much more happy now.' So, for them, I'm passing on to you what they want you to know.

Universities, schools, hospitals and public utilities continue to be rebuilt. Power plants continue to be repaired and enhanced. I see more and more new vehicles on the highways and the Iraqis are eager waiting to buy those American made automobiles! Lots and lots of Iraqis are getting back to work and a normal life, with freedom and without fear of oppression.

That is the latest on what is happening over here. I hope to see all of you soon. Take Care.

Senior Chief Art Messer 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Engineering Group (MEG) U. S. Navy Seabees

"With Compassion for Others, We Build, We Fight, For Peace with Freedom"

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY!

http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/aug2003/a082903a.html

Sempers,

Roger
:marine: