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Tag: military/Archives

2010-01-22

Memorial

A fallen soldier’s tribute at Fort Richardson AK, documented by my friend, photojournalist Scott Favorite:

“Memorial”

2009-12-29

Iraq: 5 dead, 17 wounded

December 26, 2009

Tuz, Iraq

5 dead, 17 wounded

The IED explosion happened in the morning, 1200yards from where I was walking to get a breakfast falafel at the police station. The boom was deep, not like fireworks from the sky, but a percussion from the ground, the earth wounded for a moment, insulted. I could not control an ‘oof’ as air was punched lightly out of me.  Gunfire followed, the Iraqi Police firing into the air to disperse crowds and let them know they’re there — security?

Iraqi police and American MP’s had been up all night in preparation for a Shiite Pilgrimage called Ashura. Boom. Not allowed to be practiced under Saddam, the devout whip and cut themselves in observance, faces covered in blood, white shirts crimson with the owner’s blood, of the very devout, when things go right.

The explosion was near a Mosque on the route.  I had walked that route at 3am with soldiers, either we missed it or it was planted after us, I like to think it was planted after we passed, can take only 1.3min to place, Iraqi police are known to sleep at their posts.  Some of the devout are now dead in a deep disruption of earth, air and peace; many are covered in blood, not by their own hands, maybe not their own blood.

The devout bleed, the devout weep.

Back at the station, wearing my armor because I still want to get breakfast, Iraqi Police, knowing I’m there to take photos, “Want photo?” one asks, making a contorted dead face, “go hospital, many photo,” he is smiling, I don’t know why.

I’m sorry, I wish I had seen the bomb on our patrol, it was near a bridge, it was dark, I remember the bridge, I feared walking under it, bridges are where bad things happen, I didn’t look for bombs, it’s not my job, I don’t know what to look for, I am not trained, I was told to stay near walls, or in the middle of the patrol of soldiers, if the patrol leader holds his hand down in a certain way we were to get on one knee, I did not look for things out of place, I concentrated on not stepping in sewage water seeping from canals, I did not use a flashlight because I didn’t want to be seen by a sniper, instead I fiddled with my recorder, I increased the ISO of my camera, I did not look at the side of the road unless an angry stray dog was threatening, the soldier near me aiming his pistol at it just in case, they protect me, I did not see a bomb, I wish I did, I’m sorry, I’m here to observe but It was dark, I did not see, it may not have been there yet.

I’m so sorry.

Soldier in Iraq, photo by Jake Warga

2009-12-24

Iraq: Christmas Eve

December 24, 2009
Christmas eve in a Muslim land.

Embedded with the Chaplin… yes, sounds strange to me too.

Here he is walking to service:

Two schools:  Christmas on the battlefield is best ignored, or fully embraced. Our convoy of MRAPs (Mine Resistant something something’s) and HMMWVs (HighMobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle… aka: Humvees) drove from base to a joint forces outpost to deliver cheer — in this case a large plasma TV for Xbox tournaments. They were glad to see the Chaplin, he came with some promised bibles, they were very happy to see the TV (Tele-vision).  Two frozen turkeys started thawing as well.

“Shotgun Santa” (1:31 mp3):

Santa with shotgun defending his gifts. He's serious.

Wandering around base I found Santa with a shotgun defending a stash of presents sent from the states by organizations and school children who would pee just seeing this Clause.  Everyone was peeing themselves laughing, I recorded him: “Merry Christmas Mother F…”  He does the gun loading move for the F part.  I too get stockings in the spirit of the season for there were far more stockings than troops in this section.

I miss my Grandmother, inside is what she used to get me for Christmas — everything from the pharmacy:

  • Road and Track magazine
  • Deodorant
  • Tin of tobacco chew
  • Toothbrushes and paste
  • Sox
  • Handy wipes
  • Detergent
  • Q-tips

Oh, how silly I thought.  Then I picked-out the toothpaste because I was low.  Then the tissues because the desert/pollution sinuses I’ve gone through so many packs already.  I keep a pack of handy wipes because they’re so handy and I’m running out, the dust, oh the dust.  Sox sure I’m on my feet most of the day.  Lastly, I started reading an article in Road and Track about GPS navigators.

A card was at the bottom, drawn by a child, for a class project, tree penned in green, time was spent, an American flag, not colored within the lines, and a penciled letter cut and glued:

Thank You so much for serving for our country and keeping us safe. I appreciate you trying to keep everyone in America safe. Have a great Christmas. I hope you get to have a little celebration of Christmas. May we have peace on earth. From: Julia, Franklyn Elementary.


No, seriously

The other stocking of gifts I gave to an interpreter smoking outside his CHU (Container Housing Unit), just down from mine.  In the spirit of giving.

“Merry Christ…” I started. “A gift” I ended.  He was very happy, and so was I in the spirit of giving.

More Flickr pix.

2009-12-23

Iraq: Palace Plasma

Tikrit, Iraq

Woke up in a palace today, stared-up at huge golden chandeliers dangling from the ornate ceiling of a former palace. Mahmoon Palace or “Birthday” palace. Where Saddam’s birthday was celebrated. Less glamorous at eye-level: I lay on a dusty cot, and my neighbor in a public storage-like plywood cubicles was playing Alvin and the chipmunks Christmas. They had little warning that a reporter was coming, they were told I wanted to cover Christmas stories, I came to the Middle East to avoid it.

The famous balcony, where Saddam fired off his famous gun.

Troops posing outside the Palace bandstand Saddam from Palace Balcony
Troops posing outside the Palace bandstand

It’s kind of sad the disrepair here.

Large plasma TV, Xbox, PS2’s, internet terminals. Soldiers play war games, up to 4 at a time, executing their training in play. Boredom is the greatest threat here, complacency is its danger. They are very good warriors, I rarely see their screens turn red with electronic blood.

“People of Wal-Mart” website went viral in the banquet room, for that’s what this huge room was, ultimate of class and luxury, marble marble everywhere. We gathered around to look at the website: “Aw, no way!”s and “Shit, is that a dude? Fuck that!”s and “Hell no!”s, everywhere. One of those came from my lips.

Nice soldier, Joe, likes metal, from California as well. He tells others “man, we grew-up an hour from each other” but light-years. He turned 21 the day before, old enough at last but not a drop to drink. I asked him why he joined: “The health benefits, my wife is on expensive anti-seizure meds.”  He loves to talk about weapons–a grenade launcher, I forget the caliber, is his favorite. Weapons weapons everywhere. Not guns, weapons. He pretended to defend me as I got a haircut. Has a 6mo old daughter, took her to Disneyland recently. Old enough.

It takes a while for soldiers to open-up to reporters. I know what they’ve been told about us, but I’m not supposed to know, so I won’t say. I needed an opening. A horror movie was thrown on late last night, a break from the gory video games to just gore. The man who I call dad in my life, his name came up, director of photography “hey, that’s my dad” I said. One mouth fell open. I said I too used to work on horror movies, more looks my way. I was in at last.

It’s “hum-vee” not “hummer”. The former is driven, the latter drives.

Comforts of home. It’s not REAL mountain-dew, it’s called “squiggly-dew” because it’s in Arabic and, the greatest complaint: it uses real sugar cane instead of high-fructose corn syrup. The Sergeant showed me the stash of a yummy caned coffee drink for us old-timers. Pallets of bottled water water everywhere. Tap water comes from the Tigris, never open your mouth while showering, don’t taste history.

Text, audio, images © 2009 Jake Warga.

2009-12-21

Iraq: Life Support Area

In Baghdad, in the belly of a Stryker[“Iraq: Christmas 2009“: observations, images and sounds from Iraq, Christmas 2009, a series of posts by Jake Warga.]

Oh the things I’ve seen.
I shall never complain about long lay-overs again.
I have flown in a C-17 transport.
I shall never complain again of uncomfortable seats again.
I have ridden in the belly of a Stryker.

What do you get when you stick a public radio guy with a Fox TV crew in the back of a Black Hawk for a multiple re-fuel hop up to Northern Iraq?

A bumpy ride.

I saw an injured dove in Baghdad trying to be nursed back to health on a blast wall away from cats.  It had a saucer of water and feed, don’t know who put it there.  I saw a dead dove come evening.

I got a serious cold sleeping in a 20-man tent during a thunder storm, closest I’ve come to being attacked.

I am now with these 3rd Infantry Division.

3rd Infantry Division shoulder sleeve insignia
3rd Infantry Division
shoulder sleeve insignia

I have yet to meet someone who wants to be here.  I have met some wonderful people.

For lunch the other day I had crab legs, the desert bar is endless, burger king is everywhere. Where else in Arabia can I eat bacon and watch Fox TV on flat screens throughout a mess hall?

Ugandans hired by KBR guard entrances to buildings on bases, the Peruvians have the evening shift. They look at my passport, I don’t think they know what they’re looking for.

A papier-mâché Mount Rushmore and Statue of Liberty are in the DFAC (Dining FACility). Pakistanis do the dishes.  You’re not allowed to bring bags into facilities or wear a hat, but you are required to have a weapon. I am unarmed.  I know now the difference between an M16 rifle and an M4 Carbine.  Both are 5.56 Caliber, I don’t know what that means but I was given a pamphlet.

The military is run by acronyms. I’m staying in an LSA (Life Support Area).

It’s almost encouraged to have a bad hair cut, in this I feel at home.

I go next to JCC in Tikrit with PSD (Joint Coordination Center…Personal Security Detail), I feel important, I may be a fool.  I spend Christmas Embedded with the Chaplin…why not.  Here’s what soldiers want for Christmas (4:07):

Black hawk gunner
Black hawk gunner

Dust goes to one lung, trash burns go to the other.

Met a soldier young enough to be my daughter, I become a grandfather when she tells me about her 5yo back home.  Everyone dresses the same, it’s confusing, uniformity, conformity, camouflaged in green in a land where there is only brown.

With love from the war on terror. Pictures at Flickr.

Jake

Keffiyeh (men's head wear), on mannikin, for sale in Dubai
Keffiyeh for sale in Dubai

Text, audio, images © 2009 Jake Warga.

2009-12-20

Iraq: From Dubai

In Baghdad, in the belly of a Stryker[“Iraq: Christmas 2009“: observations, images and sounds from Iraq, Christmas 2009, a series of posts by Jake Warga.]

Last night I flew in a C-17 military transport.

Today I rode through the red-zone of Baghdad in the belly of a blast-proof stryker.

Tonight I fly in a helicoptor to Northern Iraq, possibly in a Blackhawk.

A ride in a bullet proof suburban.

I hope I don’t get a fuel bill for my transportation.

I’m eating in dining halls where you can’t bring bags or wear hats, but you are REQUIRED to have a weapon (I have only my wit).

Had crab legs for lunch, lean times.

Got a cold sleeping in a tent last night in a thunder storm.

I can hear prayer to call, earlier I heard gunfire, but I’m surrounded by concrete walls… just like in Israel.

I’m learning that the success of a soldier is not measured in bravery, but patience.

Dune bashing in Dubai, Arabs in SUV riding in desert

More photos from Dubai. Above: Dune bashing in the desert. Below: View from my hotel, Dubai Marina Area.

View from hotel at night, the lights and buildings of Dubai Marina Area

Text, audio, images © 2009 Jake Warga.

2009-12-17

Fling A Ding

From Trent Harris’ video travel webisode series Fling A Ding series:
FLINGADING #8: You step, you die

As a child soldier in Cambodia’s notorious Khmer Rouge army Aki Ra laid many landmines. He now clears these deadly bombs with a stick and a pocketknife, more than 10,000 to date. It is very dangerous. No one pays him to do it. Aki is the real deal.

Trent Harris: Echocave | YouTube | HV

2009-12-07

Holy Land Tour

Jake Warga takes us on a personal tour through the Holy Land, looking at how the conflict started and what it’s like today between Jerusalem and Bethlehem… between birth and re-birth. (Also a PRX radio story.):

Holy Land Tour from Jake Warga

2009-11-11

Swords to Plowshares

Photo of Matt McCueWhile in Iraq, former U.S. Army Sergeant Matthew McCue witnessed the power and peace-making potential of agriculture. When he returned to the States he worked with the Farmer-Veteran Coalition, and now works at the French Garden Farm near Sebastopol. Says McCue: “I still want to make the world a better place. I think i can do more good with a shovel than with an M-16.” McCue worked with the Farmer-Veteran Coalition and the French Garden Farm in Sebastopol CA, This story was originally produced for the SpeakeasyDC Storycast.

Aired on PRI Hear & Now; by producer Alix Blair, “Swords to Plowshares” (0:00 mp3):

2009-11-08

Afghan Friends = Future Foes?

As America mulls our Afghan options, let’s also look for patterns in our past overseas interventions: We staged coups for the Shah of Iran and South Vietnamese generals. Panama’s Noriega cashed CIA checks for decades. In the 1980s we sent Saddam $40 billion — making Iraq the third-largest recipient of $US’s. More…

2009-10-21

MaJones- Burma

A Scott Carrier (2006) article in Mother Jones, “Rock the Junta; In Burma, a band of heavy metal Christians speaks of liberty between the lines”:

Burma is a forgotten country. You might have a hard time finding it on a map, and it may not even be called Burma on the map you’re looking at. It might be called Myanmar, as that’s the official name for it now. It’s an extremely fucked-up place, the size of Texas, located between Thailand and India, south of China. For the past 44 years, it’s been cut off from the rest of the world by a junta of xenophobic and superstitious generals calling themselves the State Peace and Development Council. Others call them mendacious assholes and hungry ghosts.

2009-07-01

HV063- Lincoln Monument

Abraham Lincoln photo, 1846 or 1847Hearing Voices from NPR®
063 Lincoln Monument: A Civil War
Host: Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2011-06-29 (Originally: 2009-07-01)

“Lincoln Monument” (52:00 mp3):

For Lincoln’s birthday bicentennial year and Independence Day, Old Abe, the Civil War, and its still-present aftermath:

The United States Marine Band recorded a “Lincoln Centennial” on February 12 1909 (from A Lincoln Portrait).

Abe’s 1860 presidential campaign song was “Lincoln and Liberty;” it’s sung for us by Dan Zanes (ex-Del Fuegos, off Parades And Panoramas: 25 Songs Collected By Carl Sandburg For The American Songbag).

“I Heard Lincoln That Day,” says Gettysburg eyewitness Walter Rathvon, in archival audio recorded on Lincoln’s birthday 1938 by WRUL radio, Boston. Set to an instrumental “Lincoln’s Triumph (a Funeral March),” part of the Lincoln Shuffle (by Bryce Dessner, guitarist for The National and Clogs, composed for the great bicentennial site 21st Century Abe, used with their re-mixing blessings).

NPR recreates the “Gettysburg Address,” with the words of John Dos Passos read by Noah Adams, and Lincoln’s speech read by Lars Hoel; produced by Bob Malesky for NPR’s The Sunday Show. More…

2009-05-20

Jennie’s Secret

Jennie Hodgers or Albert Cashier? The story of a Civil War veteran is the new Transom Show: Jennie’s Secret. This her-history of a women in a man’s world, produced by Linda Paul with Jay Allison, spans half the 19th Century.

2009-05-20

HV059- War Memorial

Photo of Lance Corporal Baronowski in VietnamHearing Voices from NPR®
059 War Memorial: Return to Vietnam
Host: Alex Chadwick of Interviews 50 Cents
Airs week of: 2011-05-25 (Originally: 2009-05-20)

“War Memorial” (52:00 mp3):

For Memorial Day, two stories recorded in Vietnam, one after the war, and one during:

In 1966, a young Lance Corporal carried a reel-to reel tape recorder with him into Vietnam. He made tapes of his friends, of life in fighting holes, of combat; and he continued to record until, two months later, when he was killed in action. Friend and fellow marine, Tim Duffie, remembers him in “The Vietnam Tapes of Michael A. Baronowski,” produced by Jay Allison and Christina Egloff for Lost & Found Sound. NPR: story | response | credits/links; American RadioWorks: transcript; Lance Cpl Baronowski: Memorial.

Host Alex Chadwick first went to Southeast Asia was as a soldier in the Sixties. Two decades later, he made a “Return to Vietnam” as a journalist, on the anniversary of the Tet offensive, to find what had and hadn’t changed since the war (producer: Art Silverman, engineer: Flawn Williams).

2009-02-04

HV049- Palestinian Dreaming

Village in Palestine, cover of book: The Lemon TreeHearing Voices from NPR®
049 Palestinian Dreaming: Arabs and Jews
Host: Sandy Tolan of Homelands Productions
Airs week of: 2010-06-09 (Originally: 2009-02-04)

“Palestinian Dreaming” (52:00 mp3):

Israel, Palestine, and the Holy Land:

“Waking Up” (2007 / 12:39) Joe Frank

A nightmare in a city split by three religions, as dreamt by an Jewish soldier, an Arab bomber, and a Mississippi minister; from Joe Frank‘s hour Time’s Arrow. [Music: Air “Alone in Kyoto” Talkie Walkie (2004)].

“The Lemon Tree” (1998 / 38:24) Homelands Productions

Growing a tree and understanding on the property of the same family home, in the same family homeland, shared by an Israeli and an Palestinian family; from Sandy Tolan of Homelands Productions. [Music: Dorothy Wang.]

2009-01-28

HV048- Juarez, Mexico

Mexican military on Juarez streetsHearing Voices from NPR®
048 Juárez, Mexico: City on the Border
Host: Scott Carrier of Hearing Voices
Airs week of: 2010-04-28 (Originally: 2009-01-28)

“Juarez, Mexico” (52:00 mp3):

We go to a war zone, just to our south:

“Cuidad Juárez” (52:00) Scott Carrier

Four years of reports on life in the Mexican border-town of Ciudad Juárez, with poverty and corruption, with daily drug-cartel murders and military violence. Told by photographer/Juarez resident Julián Cardona, author Charles Bowden, and host Scott Carrier.