Road Trip - United Nations

(First pic is the remains of the car bomb, next two are the UN building after the bomb attack, last pic is the UN building before the bomb attack)

The UN Headquarters was located in the Canal Hotel in east Baghdad across the Tigris River. It was about a 15 minute drive for us to get there. Being Civil Affairs soldiers, the UN was one of our points of coordination. We would go there every Wednesday starting shortly after we got there. In fact, I went to the UN before we even set up the Iraqi Assistence Center at the Convention Center. They had everything: an in house mapping center that made maps of Iraq, city maps, etc, whatever you needed; full communications capability; all the modern electronics, faxes, etc. But we happily volunteered to go there each week for one reason only: the cafeteria. REAL egg omelets, a regular cafeteria line, and you could buy bottles of hard liquor at the register: “Let’s see, that’s a three egg omelet, roasted tomatoes, home fries, orange juice, and a fifth of Johnny Walker Red.” Since our officers couldn’t be seen purchasing these beverages, we took empty backpacks, money and their orders to fill. We visited the UN in civilian clothes since it was politically incorrect to come in American uniforms. Any why not? We’re only the guys who liberated the damn place! Anyway, it was actually better. The UN run on Wednesday was also my favorite run because we would blaze through town in our open Hummers, fully and heavily armed, and dressed in civilian clothes. I liked getting looks from pedestrians as we pulled up to an intersection and me in my Hawaiian shirt and Dockers underneath full body armor with an M-16 in my lap and pistol in hand. Also, there was a lot of good loot at the UN. The Iraqi Army dumped hundreds of new uniforms in a big pile on the grounds of the hotel. Some of these are now at my house.

There was one time when we went to the UN in uniform. Our British Operations Officer, Lt. Colonel Wellington, had invited the UN High Commissioner for Iraq, Sergio de Mello, to the Convention Center to make some opening remarks at an event. The day before the event he hadn’t heard back from Sergio as to whether or not he would be able to attend. As Sergio was the senior man in Iraq for the UN, it was important to know if he would be attending the event. Wellington came over to my desk and told me to round up seven other guys and take two Hummers over to the UN and ask him personally. No problem. This would be an all NCO run. I rounded up seven other sergeants and we streaked through town, arriving at the UN in about 10 minutes, a personal best. We walked through the front entrance of the UN headquarters. A meeting must have just let out because the place was lined with people. Eight NCO’s in full battle rattle and carrying weapons caused a hush in the crowd. If looks could kill, we would have been murdered a hundred times over that day. Screw’em. I asked at the front desk to see Sergio and was politely directed to his office. He was in a meeting. I knocked on the door and he answered. He was in the middle of a conference. There were people seated at a large conference table. He was one of the nicest people I ever met! He very graciously let me in and we chitchatted for a few minutes. The people at the table were glowering at me too. I don’t know if they were mad at me, or at Sergio for being so kind and attentive to my mission. I tried to get the info I needed and leave because I was clearly disrupting his meeting. But he didn’t care, and I left when he was ready to let me go. He was a Brazilian and had a good opinion of America and our military. Probably the only guy in the building – but the head guy!

The UN was poorly protected from terrorist attacks. Intitially, we offered to post tanks around the perimeter of the hotel. Denied. The UN's own security director - a new friend of ours who came by the IAC daily - submitted a plan for increased defensive measures based on his and our intelligence estimates of the liklihood of attack. Denied.

In August of 2003, the UN building was blown up by terrorists using a car bomb during a meeting. It was on a Tuesday. We went there Wednesdays. We heard later that Sergio was pinned under a heavy beam. It was on his legs and he was dying. A Civil Affairs major not from our unit was the last person to see him alive. He held his hand and before he died he told the Major to tell Kofi Annan NOT to let the UN leave Iraq. They left shortly after. Sergio de Mello was one of the finest men I’ve ever met. God rest his soul. The UN Security Director was relieved of his duties and sent home. His reward for not being taken seriously and worst of all, "siding with the Americans" and being proven right in the end.

Postscript: this was the only time that my wife got mad at me while I was in Iraq. I didn’t contact her until two days after the bombing, primarily because I was on two cell phones simultaneously trying to get the wounded evacuation flights and assisting the relatives of Iraqis who worked there. She knew I traveled to the UN, but didn’t know what day. So for two days she wondered if I was still alive. My bad.