Posted on 01/25/2005 9:46:23 PM PST by Smarti Pants
Embed-Edd: Evening Update, 1/24 Posted By: Edd_Hendee
Editor's Note: KSEV morning talkshow host Edd Hendee is spending two weeks embedded with Marine units in Iraq. LoneStarTimes.com will provide immediate coverage of his journey whenever updates drop into our email box. To read earlier segments, click here.
Monday Jan 24
The winter weather in Iraq is constantly changing. In 6 days I had seen sunny warm days, cold nights, hard rain, fog, wind, low clouds, and misty rain.
So a sandstorm was the next step I guess. The trip from Al Asad to Haditha Dam to link up with the 1/23 Marines from Southeast Texas normally takes an hour or so – but the limited visibility of 100 yards in sand and dust made it a 2 hour trip. The sandstorm is like a brownish orange fog. You can begin to see the difficulty in operating equipment in this country with dust, sand, heat, and cold as the normal operating environment.
Capt. Jay Hauk of the 507th Air Evac had told me that their Blackhawks would be washed down from top to bottom before leaving country – yet when they got back to Ft. Hood the maintenance team would remove an average of 40-50# of additional sand from every crack and crevice of the aircraft. Today I can see how that happens.
The convoy worked its way north on a two lane deteriorating black top road through the faceless landscape. No trees, no grass, not much to look at but sand, dirt, dust, and rock.
Occasionally we would pass a small herd of sheep which made us all wonder what they were eating out here. Apparently you can raise sheep on sand & dust.
Convoy vehicles travel about 200 yds apart with the vehicle commanders of each humvee and truck in constant radio conversation regarding cars and other threats they pass. The threat of suicide vehicle attacks now demands that all Iraqi traffic pull off the road and stop movement when a convoy is in their area. Sgt. Cain is our vehicle commander and is constantly warning his gunner of threat areas he has learned on his many trips on this road.
I was due to come on the radio at 1600 Iraq time (7 am Houston) but the delayed schedule meant I would be in the Humvee at that time out in the middle of nowhere. I rigged up a magnetic external antenna to the Iridium Sat Phone and did an hour of talk radio from a Humvee traveling the roads of Iraq. Technology is amazing.
The 1/23 Marines are stationed inside the Haditha Dam complex. This is a secure base for sure – the gigantic Haditha reservoir to the north, the Euphrates River to the south, and blockade gates east and west. The constant roar and vibration of huge electric generating turbines turning in the dam is our background “music”. How ironic to be in the desert with nothing growing in this proximity yet millions of gallons of water are pouring through the dam turbines in a constant roar.
Hospital Corpsman Larry Cox of Pasadena told me that Saddam had dried up all the wetlands and stopped irrigation in this area to control the people. It will take a generation of Iraqi people to get this country back on its feet. The abject poverty of this area is a haunting reminder that Sadam poured all of the country’s oil revenue into palaces and military arms while he starved his people to control them.
Where is Michael Moore to see all of this? His movie portraying Iraq as a peaceful happy country was pure liberal fantasy. Take all the pictures of poverty you have seen on news reports and double them – and that’s just a start. That poverty exists in one of the most richly blessed countries of natural resources.
Tonight I met Lt. Col. Stevens (CO of the 1/23) and Sgt. Major Miller. After I gave him the greetings from Mayor Bill White and a DVD of family greetings for his troops, I had a moment to show them the field engineered Humvee armor system that Gunnery Sergeant Hockeli had put together over in Al Qaim. Lt. Col. Miller said immediately that they needed that program right here for his Marines. He was heartened to hear that it had been provided by private funds and expedited to his fellow marines at the 1/7.
Lt. Col. Stevens has over 100 humvees to cover an area of operations the size of Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts combined. Only 6 of his humvees are fully armored and the threat of landmines means his men are constantly at risk.
I asked him again if he wanted to look at the 1/7 first before we put this package together – he emphatically stated that he wanted to start this immediately. I can’t think of anything better for us to work on than to protect our Marines. I’ll put a list of needed equipment together tomorrow and email it to Houston – within a week it will be here and the Marines can modify their Humvees to protect these fine young men.
(Editors Note: We are working with Edd to figure if and how we need public help in getting this equipment to our Marines in Iraq. For now, drop us a line and let us know how you might be able to contribute-- when we have a plan of action, we will let you know what it is.)
Lt. Col. Stevens and Sgt. Major Miller asked if they could see a few pictures of Cpl. Casey Owens. “It’s him!” they exclaimed when I showed the first picture of Casey with our family. They had been sent the photo of Cpl. Casey Owens saluting his Commander in Chief at the inauguration but they had no idea of who the young Marine was. The picture of Casey in his Marine uniform saluting from a wheel chair with his double amputation has gone world wide.
Following the meeting I called Tony Essalih in Cong. Culberson’s office to ask him to help me take the armor plating program to the Pentagon. Tony was all over it because it’s the right thing to do.
Later this evening I called home on the Sat phone. My heart jumped to hear my wife’s voice from the other side of the world. Family is everything – and a phone call is a treasured moment. How do we take a quiet evening at home – dinner, a movie and the comfort of our own home for granted? I miss them all – but I’ve only been gone a week. These Marines left Houston in June 2004. I don’t know how they make it work.
I’m in the phone/internet area now to send this journal. It’s 0345 here – and there is a waiting list of men to get on the internet and phones to home because it’s early evening back in the States.
A Marine is to my right talking to his youngest daughter – telling her that he’ll be home soon and asking her to tell him all about her dance class. They exchange “I love you!” and he talked to his other daughter – a typical long distance dad to young daughter exchange and the promise to be home in a few weeks…soon.
Then he spends a few minutes with his wife as they make a long distance deployment marriage work. They can overcome every challenge of this harsh land and tactics of their enemy. But the separation of them from their family is the toughest part of it all.
Now his wife asked him how his day way – he responds “OK –but we had some casualties come in – land mine encounter.”
Now I know why God put me here.
Bump for Edd Hendee. A class A gentleman!
I know this is old, but I just ran across it and put it all together. Ed was there when my son was medevaced along with Jon Bowling on 1/26/05.
\http://lonestartimes.com/2005/12/15/as-iraqis-vote-lst-honors-those-who-paid-the-price-cpl-jonathan-bowling-remembered/
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