1st. Lt. Stephanie Melton - August 22, 27 and 30, 2009
1LT Stephanie Melton
551 MP CO
FOB Prosperity
APO AE 09348
August 22, 2009
We moved from Kuwait to Iraq yesterday. It was a mess!!!So the first thing that set us up for failure was that we had a day flight. We have to fly with our full "battle rattle" on with is our IOTV(body armor that you tried on in the office), ACH (the helmet), M4 rifle, M9 pistol in a thigh holster, and full assault pack (the little ACU bag I had). The weight sucks but the real problem is that it insulates your body and raises your core body temperature. It was 117 degrees yesterday so our core temperature was already high. It started off that when they picked up my platoon from Buehering, Kuwait, the bus they put us on had broken air conditioning. So we rode the entire hour in our battle rattle with no AC. Then when we got to Ali Al Saled, the airport we flew out of, they stuck us in a tent with minimal AC. Even though the guys dropped their gear, we couldn't get cooled down enough.
Following that they had us gear back up and go stand in direct sunlight for half an hour at noon......kinda hot. When they were moving us to the bird once again we were on a bus with faulty AC. They loaded us with all our gear on our laps so no one could move or loosen their armor. We got out to the tarmac and they made us sit and wait on the buses for the C17 to be through with its flight checks. We were sweltering. My first guy who "went down" was Blalock, a private. He was delerious and passing out. We had to pull the medical release tab on his IOTV that breaks the armor apart so we could lift him out and pass him over people to the door. The medic on our bus met him there and he stripped all his clothes off while I doused him with warm water, cold water can send the body into shock if too much is applied. We got him conscious and an IV in him and he was recovering. Then someone went down int he other bus and our medic had to go help him. Then another of mine was going down so I pulled all my guys off the bus.
Even though we were in sunlight the breeze helped some since we were so sweaty. Finally they had us load up on the bird. The C17 is an Air Force cargo plane. When they carry passengers they lock in airplane seats on pallets in the floor of the plane. They are reeally small and close together so once we loaded the guys in the center couldn't get any air. The AC in a C17 is part of the engine so they can't start the AC until they've started the engines for takeoff and it normally doesn't work until they are in the air. I kept passing around bottles of cold water but myself and a female SGT Miller had to fill them from a cooler so it took time. Finally once we got everyone in and settled....they made us get back off!! They said they still had checks to get through and it was too hot in the bird. That was a huge mistake on their part.
As soon as we got them moving and out of the bird they started going down one after the other. When we were standing on the tarmac behind the bird 4 more went down. We had to roll two out in ambulances because their core temperatures were 103-104. The ridiculous thing was that it was my platoon out helping the ones that went down, the other two platoons didn't even take care of their guys. One of the PSGs had the nerve to say they were faking it because they didn't want to go to Iraq....their temperature was over 103 degrees! Not a good leader. The Soldiers who fell out have recovered without incident and will follow us in today or tomorrow.
No lie I was pretty darn hot. And I threw up on the plane, lol. Sometimes I get airsick so our medic usually saves me some dramamine but he had to go with the fallen Soldiers so he wasn't there to give me the pill. About 30 mins into the flight I hurled up a bellyful of water, lol, into an IV bag! I felt alot better after I got rid of all the water sloshing around. We have a meeting with the Brigade Commander this morning then they're giving us the rest of the day to rehydrate and rest which my guys really need.
August 27, 2009
Been pretty busy last two days or so. We're prepping all our equipment so that we can make the trip to Prosperity on Sunday. Its a very short trup, only about 15 mins outside the wire. We did convoy training today and worked on getting all our communication (radios) up and running. We also use these computer like systems called FBCB2s that kinda work like a complex GPS. They have alot of features that are helpful while travelign or if your radios go down.
It gets so hot here, yesterday it was 120 but I almost didn't notice, lol. Now that we've acclimated a bit you're just like 'yeah it's hot but its always hot.' You just stop thinking about it. I've never drank so much bottled water in all my life! Obviously we can't drink the water here, even filtered. The microbes would be so different from what we're used to that we'd all have...ahem, digestive issues ;) Some of Soldiers have anyway though because some of the food doesn't get brought past a certain temperature or has sat out too long. I'm sure it will happen to me at least once or twice but I've been lucky so far. I'm already getting ridiculous tan lines, lol. My hands are brown but my arms are getting paler and paler. The line starts at the base of my neck and I'm only tan up to eyes because we wear sunglasses all the time. From the bottom of my eyes up to my forehead is all pale, lol, I look ridiculous!
August 30, 2009
I'm finally here! We got to Camp Prosperity this morning and it was a hell of a day. Mix of both good and bad. The trip here was short, only 22 mins, but very taxing. Alot of the little guys (what I call my privates) were all ramped up about their first time out of the wire. Baghdad is a strange mix of urban and ghetto farm. There is trash EVERYWHERE. No one even thinks to clean it up. Once we got to Prosperity though, wow!
The entire camp is based on the grounds of the Al Salam Palace, one of Sadam's biggest and most elaborate. It's amazing to see. The architecture is overwhelming with such detail to attention in the wall mosaics. In the begining of the war though in an attempt to either kill or flush out Sadam, they dropped 7 JDAM missiles on the palace. One hit dead center on the domed roof and the damage is extensive. Some of the others hit the walls and left huge craters. It's almost like looking at the ruins of a lost city, so grand and exotic yet so depleted. The grounds surrounding the palace have of ocurse been turned into CHUs, dining facilites(DFAC), the PX and other things but you can still see the remnants of how cultured the landscape was. There is a manmade reflective lake at the front entrance to the palace that reflects the remnants of the domed roof. There are sidewalks around the palace placed in patterns and you can still see the stone outlines of the flower beds. There are rows and rows of date trees(palm trees!) interspersed with locust trees and some kind of willow tree.
I walk around like a tourist, lol, just staring at the palace and walking under the trees left in the landscaping. I was so curious about how the palace would have looked when it was new that I looked up images online. It truly would have been a beautiful thing to see, this is the first time since I've been here that I've regretted anything the U.S. has done here. It just seems such a shame to destroy something so enthralling. Tomorrow we get to go inside because once we get our offices....they're going to be in the palace! I can't wait to take pictures. It still has the marble floors and fancy moldings. I literally laughed outloud when I walked into the PX. They converted some of the outlying building into the PX and DFAC. They were guesthouses and party houses a few hundred yards from the palace. Well they didn't change much because when I walked into the PX and looked up...there were 3 crystal chandeliers still hanging down the middle of the ceiling! LOL. I'm standing in the aisle with body wash looking up at a gold and crystal chandelier. It was so surreal. I'm going to take LOTS more pictures so you all can see what I'm seeing.
The picture here is of a ceiling mosaic in the palace.
Peace,
Stephen Melton
