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OPINION & EDITORIAL

Final day in Iraq

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by A soldier's journey

Monday, November 27, 2006

Note from the desk of the opinion editors:

It is easy for us to forget the sacrifices American soldiers serving abroad make to represent our country. In a charged partisan climate in which the actions of civilian commanders are scrutinized and used as fodder in mudslinging campaigns, we can overlook the thousands of ordinary Americans making us proud in extraordinary conditions.

This is the 11th part of a series that will appear Mondays where we will publish the journal of Liz O'Herrin, a UW student who kept record of her experiences in Iraq and has decided to share them with the readers of The Badger Herald. We present this journal in hopes that you can gain insight to a small piece of the Iraq experience for American servicemen and women.

JUNE 21

Today was a big, big, big day. I found out I am leaving a day earlier than I thought — today is my last day that I have to come in to work. I am thoroughly unnerved by this. I am not ready to say goodbye. I am not ready to adjust that fast, I want my extra day. I don't feel mentally prepared.

At the last minute at work today, an EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) trip comes up. I got to go — it was awesome. We tested out different ways of blowing up mortars that the insurgents make IEDs out of. The coolest part was the gun vault that they let us mess around in. I don't even like guns, I can even say that I hate them, but this vault was pretty insane. The walls are lined with AK-47s, various Russian- and Chinese-made weapons. All confiscated by U.S. special forces. Republican guard pistols, inlaid with gold and inscribed with Arabic. Then we played with sweet $150,000 robots that they use to disable IEDs. Heard stories about donkeys and dogs getting stuffed with explosives. EOD teams go outside the wire every day to disarm stuff. These guys disarm live bombs every single day, yet they are so laidback and chilled out. I can't reconcile this.

I rush back to the shop and get to say goodbyes to almost everyone. There were a few I didn't get to say goodbye to, which sucked.

My chin is bruised up and split open, it looks like a huge mutant zit. I have it because we had an incoming at 11:30 pm last night, when we were sound asleep. I can't believe my instincts — I was on the ground before the giant voice spoke the dreaded words: "INCOMING. INCOMING. INCOMING." I was pretty proud of myself, I just flew right out of bed onto the ground before I even woke up, I think. The boom shook our whole room. It was close.

I shivered on the ground, wearing only my underwear and Kevlar, for a minute or two. Screw it. I took off my gear and climbed back into bed under the covers.

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Anonymous (November 27, 2006 @ 9:31am):

Wow, our soldiers get to play with guns and robots in a vault! That does make me so proud!

Anonymous (November 27, 2006 @ 10:54am):

Well, maybe it won't be so bad (for woman anyway) if the other side wins after all:

The Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar, the oldest and most highly respected institution in Sunni Islam; and the Grand Mufti of Egypt have released an official fatwa declaring the practice of female circumcision (also called female genital mutilation or female genital cutting) un-Islamic. The decision was made at a conference hosted in Egypt and attended by Muslim clergy from around the world.

Anonymous (November 27, 2006 @ 1:15pm):

Great series.

I've been opposed to the war in Iraq from the begining, but I greatly respect the bravery and sense of duty of those of you who are over there helping people.

And I apologize for the comments of some of my "peers". They can't seem to find time away from their low-brow cheap shots at "the man" to appreciate what you've shared with us, but they're just kids.

Thanks.

Anonymous (November 27, 2006 @ 1:40pm):

Restoring the expectation of order in Iraq will take some kind of large-scale psychological shock. The Iraqi elections were expected to offer that shock, but they didn't. The return of Saddam Hussein--a man every Iraqi knows, and whom many of them fear--would do the trick.
The disadvantages of reinstalling Hussein are obvious, but consider some of the upside. He would not allow the country to be dominated by Iran, which is the United States' major regional enemy, a sponsor of terrorism, and an instigator of warfare between Lebanon and Israel. Hussein was extremely difficult to deal with before the war, in large part because he apparently believed that he could defeat any U.S. invasion if it came to that. Now he knows he can't. And he'd probably be amenable because his alternative is death by hanging.

Anonymous (November 28, 2006 @ 12:15am):

Thank you for publishing your insights and sharing your views with all of us. It really helps to hear another soldier's perspective while in Iraq-- I feel closer to mine when I read your entries.

Thanks again.