Driving Colonel Abramson

Toward the end our time in Iraq, around December 2003, Colonel Edwards wanted me to put together a mission to go to the airport and pick up a good friend of his, a Colonel Abramson. I think they were boyhood friends. He had that deep southern drawl from Mississippi. So we had our two SUV’s, one with four people in it, and mine had three. We would be four when we picked up Abramson. Picking up/dropping off people at the airport was our most common mission towards the end of our tour. The first person we picked up was a British reinforcement, a Major Hastings. He was coming up from Kuwait. It was shortly after we ourselves had arrived in Baghdad. The airport back then was still somewhat disorganized. You drove around and asked Air Force guys wherever you saw them where you would go pick up someone who just landed, supplying all the details that you had. We found Hastings standing by a pallet that had all his gear. He was carrying his weapon. We identified ourselves and asked him if he had any ammo for his weapon. He said yes. I said, “lock and load sir”. In that typical British officer way, he displayed a nanosecond of fear, followed by strong resolve. He responded “right” and locked and loaded and we were on our way. The best pickup was Major Remi Borowski, Polish Army. He spoke very good English. He had the new AK-74 assault rifle already locked and loaded. As we left the airport, he asked somewhat hopefully, “safeties on or off?” We said “on” and he was noticeably disappointed. East Europeans. I love ‘em! Just off the plane from Poland and ready to shoot some insurgents.

This trip was Colonel Abramson. By this time the airport resembled anything you’d find stateside. The Air Force had as usual done their job brilliantly. The pickup went without a hitch and we were headed back. It was getting dark. As we approached the entrance we normally took into the Green Zone, the guards stopped us and told us that we couldn’t enter. It seemed that the car ahead of us was a car bomb! The alert guards figured it out, arrested the driver. They were waiting for EOD to show up. What to do? Well, all seven of us knew other ways to get into the Green Zone from where we were. We were all NCO’s. I led out back to the airport road and hung a right to a road paralleling the amusement park. The amusement park was now part of the Green Zone. In Saddam’s time it was actually quite a nice park. There was at least one way that I knew of to sneak into the Green Zone through the park. No dice. The 1st Armored Division (whose nickname was “Old Ironsides”) had put up jersey barriers and we couldn’t get through. In fact, the 1st Armored put up so many jersey barriers that we nicknamed them, “Old Jersey Barrier”. We made up a fake unit patch digitally that used that motto. It was now dark. Keith said he knew another way in so he took the lead. Now we’re in downtown Baghdad at night. Being in SUV’s really paid off as at dusk they were not noticeable to the average Iraqi. The street lights came on and lights from shops were flooding the streets. We normally rode with windows down and rifles sticking out. During daylight, this provided a menacing posture and was very effective. At night, though, it would give us away. I had Kenny call Keith to pull weapons in and roll up the windows. Time to blend in. By this time, Abramson was getting a little nervous. He was in the passenger seat beside me. What do you expect? Just in from the Kuwait, never been in a combat zone, with a bunch of total strangers, and can’t get into the Green Zone? Welcome to the party, pal! But he was with seven NCO’s who had been there for eight months and were doing this kind of stuff every day. Keith led us around to an entrance just up from the street from the Al Rasheed. That one was closed to! This was getting interesting. We had two more entrances to try. After that, we were hosed. So we proceeded on eastward and came to the next entrance, which came just after a several blocks of by Iraqi standards are very nice apartment high rises. This entrance was open. So we drove in, parked the SUV’s and headed in for a brew. We made a great impression on Colonel Abramson. He sang our praises to Colonel Edwards and offered us room and board any time we visited his outfit down in Kuwait. Never had the chance to take him up on it, but gratitude is always nice. Wonder where he lives in Mississippi? If he has a beach front house in Biloxi……….

Finally, though not related to this specific blog post, below is a video done by some guys that were able to mount a camera on their hummer. This offers a very good view of a typical drive in dowtown Baghdad....