39th unit’s patrols put GIs, Iraqis face to face
Daily tours of town add personal touch
By Amy Schlesing (Contact)
MAKASIB, Iraq - Children surrounded the soldiers, barraging them with questions in broken English as the group walked through the market and visited with shopkeepers.
“What is your name?” one 8-year-old boy with green eyes asked, adding, “They call me Tutu.”
He offered to fetch the soldiers drinks, introduced his little brother, asked if any of the soldiers had babies and finally - after all the other kids had asked - he queried whether any of the soldiers had chocolate.
The request for chocolate is something you can bank on in Iraq. It is a sure bet.
This relatively relaxed foot patrol through Makasib was a regular day for Alpha Company, 1st Battalion of Arkansas’ 39th Infantry Brigade. These soldiers walk the streets and drive on narrow dirt roads in the surrounding countryside day and night.
Lt. Dominic Nettles of Camden believes patrols like this make a difference. It gives the soldiers a chance to mingle with residents.
“It lets them know we’re here to protect them,” Nettles said as he turned to climb back into his humvee at the edge of town. “A lot of guys like to shop, too.”
The day before, Nettles shopped for a blender in this market. One store wanted $50; he walked across the street and made a deal for $22.
The daily walks and interaction with Iraqis are a big part of Alpha Company’s job, but its mission is a rarity compared with that of the rest of the brigade.
Alpha Company is the only unit in the 3,000-strong 39th Brigade that is assigned a swath of Iraq to protect. The rest of the brigade guards military bases and dignitaries and protects supply convoys.
“We get a lot of combat visitors,” said Alpha Company 1st Sgt. Michael Ingram.
Almost every day someone from the battalion or brigade headquarters tags along on a patrol. It’s their only opportunity to interact with Iraqis and get a taste of the country.
Some want to play with the children.
Some need to chase away the demons of the last deployment when the brigade patrolled neighborhoods like Haifa Street and Adhamiyah - areas long plagued by violence.
Some tag along just to see what lies beyond the camp’s walls.
Fortunately, the 12 square miles patrolled by Alpha Company haven’t been volatile for some time.
Residents of the small town of Makasib are used to seeing Americans on their streets. The farmers who work the fields of wheat and the vineyards surrounding the town that butts up against Camp Slayer’s wall are also used to living among military guns.
This slice of land with its mud-and-brick houses, lush farms and friendly Sunni residents, is valuable real estate in a time of war. It lies beneath the final approach for the airplanes landing at Baghdad International Airport, which is used by military and commercial aircraft.
Alpha Company’s mission is to help guard a section of the complex that surrounds the airport and patrol the area where aircraft are most vulnerable to insurgent attacks.
This vulnerability is nothing new. Platforms that once held anti-aircraft guns and fighting positions for tanks - used by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s army to protect the airport and the dictator’s primary residence nearby - still dot the countryside around Makasib.
Reconstruction and building strong ties with the community are the main military focus in this area now. Alpha Company’s mission is to keep an eye on the area’s needs while keeping violence at bay through regular patrols. The two concepts have worked well together in Sunni areas like this, where providing services to residents has proven to reduce violence.
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars have been funneled into the area in recent years to build and train local security forces, fund business grants, build facilities and improve basic city services.
The results are visible throughout the area. Members of the local militia - a group called the Sons of Iraq - stand guard at checkpoints. They search vehicles owned by nonresidents that pass through the area and report suspicious activity to the soldiers. In exchange, U.S. forces pay each militia member $300 per month.
The soldiers stop by at least one checkpoint each day to visit with the men who work there.
On Tuesday, Staff Sgt. Mike Fountain of Prescott stopped his patrol at a checkpoint tucked into the curve of a road.
“Do you have any trouble with people taking you seriously?” Fountain asked the checkpoint’s shift supervisor.
“We are all related, we come from the same tribe around here,” a militia member named Magid said. “There are no people from outside so we have no trouble.”
And he quickly explained that all strangers who pass his checkpoint are searched.
Magid told Fountain that he has started deducting $50 from each militia member’s pay if the militia member skips a shift.
“If we don’t deduct from them, they’ll keep being absent,” he said.
Magid served in the Iraq army for 25 years. Most of the men at the checkpoint were in the army before the war.
He asked for weapons and said it wasn’t right that they had to use their personal firearms at the checkpoint. They asked for water - which their sheik is responsible for providing - and other equipment.
Fountain wrote down all the complaints and promised to take them to his commander. He looked at Spc. Sabrina Queen, the translator, and said, “Tell them to keep up the good work, and I’ll be back again.”
These sorts of surveys are part of the daily routine for Alpha Company.
The patrol continued, moving up the dirt road toward Makasib.
Street crews in bright orange vests - mostly consisting of teen-aged boys - wander through Makasib. They sweep and remove trash from the streets and wash away any sewage for 15,000 Iraqi dinars a day - the equivalent of $10.
“I need a watch,” one boy said Monday, leaning on his shovel. “So I can tell when my work is over.”
He said he works on the road crew because there is nothing else to do.
Then he offered advice to the soldiers through an interpreter.
“If you give shoes to us, don’t give them to somebody to distribute,” he said. “Bring them here to the market and give them in each person’s hand. The schoolteachers took them for themselves last time.”
A soldier jotted down the tip in his notebook.
A new shopping center stands out beside the soccer field on the edge of town where nice brick homes turn to rundown shacks and mud huts. The previous unit that patrolled this area funded the construction of the shopping center, but it has not taken off. It is several blocks from a thriving outdoor market that lines the city’s main street.
Col. Kendall Penn, brigade commander, joined the patrol Tuesday to check on the new market. He’d heard it was struggling. He walked into the empty building and looked at the handful of stores barely stocked with wares. Everything was closed.
“How’s business?” he asked.
“Slow,” said the one shopkeeper in residence. “Not many people come down here.”
The soldiers headed toward the main market, and, as usual, a rush of kids gathered around.
The soldiers shook hands, waved and greeted people as they slowly walked through town. The walk took only a few minutes. Makasib is a small village.
“Yeah,” Fountain said. “This is a pretty nice area.”
This article was published Thursday, May 8, 2008.
Front Section, Pages 1, 10 on 05/08/2008
