| **NOTE** This is something I wrote while deployed to Iraq, after posting it then I was asked to remove it from the internet due to some of the actions being described in this short piece. Its been awhile now and most of my unit has left the army or gone to another duty station so I shall once again post it, please take it in as you would a good book and not that of a sped read Sunday sports score in the paper. One last thing is take this with a grain of salt, any questions, comments, bitches, gripes or complains can be made in the form of a comment below. ******** 4 Hours of guard with a solider in a tower It’s July 2008 something or another and I am back on guard. This tower has come to grow on me and I find myself liking the peace and quiet. It now has a cooler stocked full of cold drinks, A better ladder than that old rusted metal one that was barely tacked to the side of the tower. I was even able to get one of the sergeants to make a rule that everyone going on to a shift has to take a bag of ice to keep the cooler stocked. This time around on shift I plan on building a set of shelves to put some of the junk that has turned into a pile of dust and ammo cans under the bench. Some of the sandbags that were used to make the openings in the windows smaller have fallen under disrepair and are stacked in a semi-neat pile with some wood left over from the bench. As far as other supplies go I think I am running a little low. I have one match left, a few cigarettes, four or five bags of Reese’s pieces, two cold bottles of waters and some warm ones as well as a few cans of Rip IT. I can only hope that on this four hour shift I only have one nic fit and no more I don’t know where I would find anymore matches. There is a tricon shipping container below my tower and the last shift is loading ammo from the roof into it. Among the ammo is .50cal for a browning, 40mm linked grenades for a MK19, 7.62mm for a 240B machine gun and 5.56mm linked for a 249SAW machine gun. All in all we have enough manpower and ammo to takeover a small city and hold it for some time. Only problem is we never use any of it, some see this as good and some see it as bad. For instance on a patrol, firing a warning shot at a car coming at you fast could send you to jail. Then again not firing that same shot might indirectly kill one of the soldiers following behind you. I want to say 80%(give or take) of the soldiers here are afraid to fire that warning shot for fear they might go to jail for wounding or killing the driver. Why would you teach someone something then tell them they can’t use what they have learned? What if that person on patrol isn’t sure if he should fire that shot? If he does and he is wrong he worries about jail, if he doesn’t he worries about killing his friend. Well it’s been about an hour on guard so far and I still haven’t done anything about that shelf… The cook stopped by and smoked a cigarette with me. He had a lighter so my match is saved for another use. After talking for awhile I noticed he would not stand up, I first saw it when he went to toss something in the trash. He leaned from a crouch and stretched his arm out to reach the trash bag instead of getting up. I guess I saw it as kind of funny at first then remember the first few times I pulled guard I had no idea what to expect. Then there is the difference in our MOS(job). Mine is infantry, while his is support. All of us here pulling guard have become complacent. And that meeting with the cook just went to reinforce that fact. When I get up into the tower I no longer place my weapon into red status with a round in the chamber waiting only for my thumb and forefinger to release it. Instead it is left on green with no magazine and set leaning against the wall. On a hook next to it is my Mollie vest with my Night Vision Goggles(NVGs) secure in their pouch along with my first aid kit, ear plugs and seven 30 round magazines. My camelback is placed on the bench next to me. It all comes off for that little bit of added comfort. This way I can enjoy my RipIT or whatever I might be drinking without those 40+ pounds of gear weighing down my shoulders. Again the sun is setting and I find myself getting lost in my thoughts of home. It’s been seven months of this, save for 18 days I got sent home for leave in April. As I sit here watching the sun set I try to remember what it was like back home. I can only remember bit and pieces of the little things that now mean so much, even with that refresher. I am afraid I have forgotten what my wife’s hand feels like holding mine or that emotion you get being around the one you love. These simple things that were so common once are almost forgotten. These things hurt and make the time spent here move even slower. I put myself here, knowing full well what a combat MOS was and what I was getting myself into. I did it to see this conflict from another side, another set of eyes, to see how people I didn’t grow up around saw the war. I joined to completely understand this thing I have fought for years and still to this day protest. I am 22 years old and believe that I am mature enough to handle some of these things. But some of the people I am here with are still young, in my notes I put children, but these men are no longer children, some have been forced to grow up before they were ready. These men are 18, 19 and 20. But getting shot at is no big deal because they have the invincible mentality that is further enforced by basic training, only with common sense programmed into them as a combat MOS. I have with me my camera, a Nikon D70 that I have had for a while now. I have seen many things through it but nothing has ever come close to the things I see with it now. It’s starting to get dark, the sun is gone and I lost my train of thought when a checkpoint about a 1/4 of a mile away started firing into the air. I reached over and causally picked up my ACH (helmet) and put it on. As I looked out of the window about 30 feet off the ground I could hear bullets whizzing in the sky above my tower. More gun fire from the check point. Fucking IPs (Iraqi police), I thought as their convoy passed through one of their checkpoints. As they drive through their check points most of the IPs will fire into the air for no reason at all. And in return the people on the ground will echo with shots from their own weapons. From a guard tower a ¼ mile away this can sound like a mini firefight / drive-by. Well with my being in the air so close to them I am surprised that not more than a few bullets have impacted the side of this tower. Even though the sun is gone it’s still over 100 degrees and I am drenched in sweat and grime from not taking a shower in a few days because we are out of water again. The cook stopped by again, this time not coming up, and called up asking how I was doing and if I needed anything. I laughed when I heard the nickname he used, “combat camera” and so has become my nickname here in Iraq. There are so many stories to tell here, of people’s lives, not only American but Iraqi as well. About the lives they lead before all this and about the lives they must lead now. About a country that has been torn down and rebuilt over and over to suit the needs of someone its people will never come to know. About things bigger than you or I, maybe a few of the stories I write will be read about taken to heart, all I can hope for is that one of my stories will make a difference in the way you live your life. My name is Christopher Landis and I am a US soldier currently deployed to Iraq. I am against this conflict but not the people I serve next to. |
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4 Hours of guard with a solider in a tower
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- Current Residence: Ewa Beach, Hawaii
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