Most Surreal Moment

The most surreal moment of my tour in Iraq occurred relatively early on. The Army is great at communications in general, and setting up communications in particular. I arrived in Baghdad on April 22, 2003. On May 9, we had internet access and Outlook email at our desks in the Convention Center. Before the end of May, ORHA had given us control over 600 MCI cell phones for us to distribute as we saw fit. MCI had already set up a tower and the range of the phones was Greater Baghdad. Our main priority, being a Civil Affairs unit, was to insure that NGO’s operating in the Baghdad area could talk to us and to each other. Secondarily, each member of the IAC (Iraqi Assistance Center – we were renamed this from the HOC early on) had his own phone. Our phones were different from the NGO’s – we had free international calling! Our Director Colonel Edwards called this an “R & R” (Rest and Relaxation) privilege and fended off all comers in this regard. So we were able to call home for free, unlimited.

I had learned from my wife that she and my daughter were traveling from our home in Maryland to visit her parents in upstate New York. She had emailed me her intentions to that effect. I always worry when my family travels without me and asked her to phone me both upon her arrival in New York, then after her return home. She did so when arriving in New York, but on the way home her cell phone was turned off.

I was getting nervous, so I called our next door neighbor Nancy. Well, she couldn’t believe I was calling from downtown Baghdad, so naturally we caught up a little bit. As I was talking to her, an explosion and firefight erupted a few blocks away from me (I was calling from a park bench across from my house). Remember, no Green Zone yet. It was close enough that I ran into our walled courtyard and braced myself against the wall. Then, I plugged one ear with my finger to drown out the noise and proceeded to explain to Nancy the reason why I called: I was worried for my family that I hadn’t heard from them and could she please tell my wife to call me when they got in? After I hung up, I thought to myself, “wow, THAT was strange.”