FOB Shield

December 17, 2007

Well, I finally made it. I got into to my new home yesterday afternoon. I am at Camp Shield, or more specifically…FOB Shields. (Forwards Operational Base). It’s a camp run by the army but mostly contractors live here. We are right next to Sadre City in the Rasafa district of Baghdad. The Ministry of the Interior building looms large over our camp. There are about 2000 men and woman living here within the secure walls. Like I said, it’s mostly contractors doing security work, or work at the Embassy, or International Police, or us 30 or so corrections people, but the army runs operations out of here too. The prison is right across the street, but we still have to suit up in full armor and weapons and then ride in armored suburbans to travel the 10 minutes because we technically go “outside the wire.” I went over today for the first time but didn’t go all the way in because I had to do some training at the “Academy”. I use that term loosely because…well, you’ll have to wait and see some pics before I try to describe the prison and the “academy”. Remember, I am in a 3^rd world country…’nuff said.

So I have to say a bit about the ride over here from Baghdad International Airport. First understand that “BIAP”, (pronounced here as BY-OP), is now a HUGE US military base as well as still used as an international airport for the Iraqi’s. I stayed the night at another FOB there called “Camp Klecker”. (There are tons of FOBS all over the theatre…Camp Stryker, Victory, War Horse, Shield, etc. The military runs operations out of them. You get the picture.) Anyway, while at Klecker for a night I stayed in “The Hilton”. See the picture and enough will be said. So the next day when it’s time to come to my permanent base, Shield, we have to get a ride over. So you’d think the army does all the escorts around here right? Wrong…they have what’s called PSD’s, or Personal Security Details that gives rides and escorts all over the theatre. I guess the army can’t do everything and the place isn’t secure enough with IED’s still blowing up to let just anyone drive around. So these PSD’s are private companies like Blackwater, and Dynacorp, which was who gave us a ride. Now I say “ride”…but there’s no doubt that we were being escorted by some bad dudes who know how to do this kind of thing and take it VERY seriously, and are VERY good at what they do. I’m talking straight E TICKET here. So 4 vehicles, or should I say virtual domestic tanks, pull up to get us. They were whacked out suburbans armored to the hilt and 2 guys per vehicle ready to rock and roll. The 4^th vehicle was the “gun truck”, which had a driver and a guy sitting in the very rear manning a 50 caliber machine gun pointed out the back, (rear hatch wide open rolling down the road!) You seeing the picture I’m painting? These guys were bad-ass and I was happy as hell they were giving me a ride rather than taking me for one…ya know what I mean!? All seriousness though…these guys were great. They are very professional. They treat all rides like freaking’ dignitaries and protect just the same. George W. wouldn’t get any better protection than I did. Way cool.

So we roll out of BIAP and onto the streets of Baghdad. Our first major stop was at the Green Zone to drop off another guy in our convoy. I’ll tell you it was very cool to see all the places we only hear about on the news. I saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the giant crossed swords, The mosque, the US Embassy, Sadam’s old palace, etc. It was as upper crusty as one can get in this country. But once we dropped our guy and was rolling again out of the Green Zone and on our way to FOB Shield it was like we stepped back in time 200 years. We went through a part of Baghdad that was truly pure fiction. I’ve been to Mexico and Tijuana, but this made that look like Beverly Hills. I can’t even describe the squaller and poverty and the amount of people sprawled everywhere in the streets. (Iraq’s walk in the middle of the road like they own it. It’s weird…we can drive right up to them and they have no clue they are about to be run over. Weird…) We had to drive on the wrong side of the road at 100 mph several times so we wouldn’t get stuck in the daily Baghdad traffic…that was all over the damn road going in every 360 degree direction. Truly surreal. But we made it to Shield without incident. I thanked the PSD guys profusely when we got there, but they had the attitude of, “Hey, no problem…just doing our job.” Yeah…if you call running 4 vehicles through the middle of downtown Wild Wild West just “a job!”

-Jim Franks