LIFE IN IRAQ

By: April E Sirovina, Public Relations Chairman

On a windy, rainy afternoon this past March, four of Americas “heroes” sat around the cluttered table in a maintenance shop on their military base in Milwaukee, discussing the experiences they had while serving with the 440^th Airlift Wing in Iraq.  Recently returned from a four month tour, they gave a unique perspective of what military personnel face each day in Iraq.

The View from the North: KIRKUK

MSGT Herman Kremkau, a 26-year veteran, spent 4 years in the Air Force and later joined the Reserves. He is also a retired detective from the Milwaukee Police Department. When his Unit is demobilized, MSGT Kremkau will be retiring from the Reserves.  He was joined for this interview by MSGT Michael Johnson. Johnson is a 19-year veteran and native of Illinois. When he is not on duty with his Reserve Unit, he is a supervisor for an aerospace company test lab.  MSGT Johnson has at least one more year left of active service.  Both of these men were stationed in Kirkuk in the Northern part of Iraq

            The area where these 2 men were stationed was a former Iraqi Air Base.  After the fall of the regime, the locals had stripped the base of what they could before it had been taken over by the U.S.  Being the second group to arrive in this area, it was their job to build up the former Iraqi Air Base. 

MSGT Johnson, being the superintendent, had the main job of maintaining and running the power plant and also working on the aircraft barriers for the runway.  “We were the first base in Iraq to have the barriers certified, and the first base in Iraq to actually catch a fighter that had an emergency, and save the pilot along with the aircraft”, praises Johnson. 

While in Kirkuk, MSGT Kremkau helped to maintain air conditioning and heating for the tents and refrigeration units for the “chow hall”.  Just how high did the temperature go?  In August, Kremkau remembers seeing a digital thermometer reading 134 degrees in the sun, and 126 degrees in the shade during the day.  At night, he says that the temperature dropped to a “comfortable” 110 degrees.  “When 110 degrees feels comfortable, Wisconsin summers don’t look so bad anymore.  At least in Wisconsin, you can take off your shirt and relax”, commented Kremkau.  To prevent bad cases of sunburn, they were not allowed to go without a long sleeved shirt on, making it that much harder to deal with the temperatures.

            The high temperatures weren’t the only things that made it difficult to adjust to life in Iraq.  With no rain the clay-like sand in Northern Iraq, turned to a consistency of talcum powder, creating an extremely dusty environment.  “The dust was everywhere, especially in your eyes. At night when trying to clean up, you couldn’t get it off, and that was the hardest part”, says Kremkau.  Showering was another issue.  When they arrived, all the water lines were above ground, making it difficult to get cool water to rinse off with.  Imagine being out in 134 degree sunshine all day and having to shower in hot water at night.  Also, showers were limited to no more than 3 minutes, due to a limited supply of water.

With any job like this there are unique situations.  Besides the overwhelming heat and sand everywhere, each week they had to take malaria pills.  They didn’t have lockers to secure their gear in, just a set of bunk beds in most cases.  Gear occupied the top bunks, the Service personnel the bottom.  Conditions have improved a lot since they arrived there, but life was primitive for awhile. 

Being in the same tent, Kremkau and Johnson were able to share communications sent from back home.  “Email was a blessing. We would go as long as five days without getting regular mail sometimes.  We could get email daily.  Without email communication, it would have been terrible.  Towards the end we were able to get satellite TV installed, so some of the personnel were able to watch Packers games too”, commented Kremkau. 

            Starting the day off by 6 a.m. everyday, and many times enduring bad food, or living off of MRE’s, didn’t stop them.  For the first two months, they worked 16 hour days, 7 days a week, with no off days.  “The days weren’t bad.  They went by fast, but we didn’t know what day it was.  We knew the date, but not the day of the week”, notes Kremkau. 

            Keeping the base heating and cooling systems working got easier as the summer months ended.  After a while they had fewer calls for air conditioning, and were volunteering for convoy duty, driving heavy equipment, or whatever they were needed for. 

Venturing off base wasn’t advised, since they weren’t always sure of the people around them.  Military personnel usually left base only to get supplies from stores in town. Also by this point, their working days were getting shorter.  Working 12 hour days, 10 days in a row, then having one day off, where in the previous two months they only had two days off.  On those days off, they were able to utilize a swimming pool on base, which they got operational again, and were treated to a barbeque.    

Another thing to be noted about Iraq in general is that they still prescribe to a “cast system” where you either have money or you don’t.  Since Saddam Hussein took over in 1986, these people have not had any education or hospitals.  Once he took over, you were either with him and got money, or you were not.  MSGT Kremkau noted how some did have money and drove cars, but others barely had a house to live in.  By the time they left though, things were improving.  By using money that was captured, the people were getting power and water back and even getting jobs.

Comparing Kirkuk to the size of Milwaukee, they noted how there were buildings of all sizes, good areas and bad areas, shown by the types of living conditions in each area.  A four lane expressway with daily traffic ran right past the base. 

            When asked how the people of Iraq behaved toward them and the U.S. military personnel in general, their consensus was that the people were happy that they were there.  The few that didn’t, no matter how small in number (approximately 5%), made it bad for everyone.  However, the children affected everyone the most; Kremkau smiles. “They just loved to be around us, be it touching us or following us around and talking to us, or just getting a picture taken with us”.  

Locals that were allowed on base to do odd jobs had to be escorted constantly but were very polite and very glad to be there.  But don’t forget about the few who didn’t want them there.  Daily, they would hear ground fire.  Everyone said that it startled them at first, but after a while they just kept working.  The only time anyone was concerned was when they heard U.S. guns firing back.  Kremkau and Johnson noted that they did have to take cover in bunkers seven times due to RPG (rocket propelled grenades) attacks.  The night before they left to come home, they came under attack during one of the worst sand storms ever, but were thankfully still able to take off and come home again.  Before coming home however, their group, along with other active groups from Hawaii, achieved more in building up the base than was anticipated.

Living in the Capitol: BAGHDAD

            MSGT Mark Tranel and TSGT Steve Larson were stationed in Baghdad.  They had many of the same duties their comrades in Kirkuk did.  Tranel, a 22 year veteran from the Platteville area where he owns a farm, spent 4 years active in the Air Force and is now in the Reserves.  He plans on staying in the Reserves for at least 2 more years.  Larson, a Wisconsin native, will be in a few more years.  Their Unit also provided the heating and cooling for many of the smaller camps around the Baghdad airport. 

It was of course very hot in Baghdad, with daytime temperatures sometimes as high as 137 degrees.  Larson and Tranel observed an electrical box that reached over 160 degrees, causing breakers to blow up, and things to melt.  Even things made for high voltage and high temperature were no match for this intense heat.  Larson noted that when he was working on top of generators that he would have to bring along cardboard to sit on because the metal was so hot, it would burn right through clothes.  Starting out the day at 6 a.m. the temperatures were around 60 degrees, but it didn’t last long.  By 9 a.m. it was already 100 degrees.  Baghdad was actually hotter, and it hadn’t rained in three years when they arrived.  It did rain eventually before they left; “maybe 20 drops”, laughed Larson.  The first three months there, they saw beautiful blue skies and no clouds. 

Baghdad was the hub for all traffic.  The main Red Cross Hospital was set up near them.  Casualties were flown through on the way to Germany.  Even though they were in the capitol they also had problem with the food supplies, and living on MRE’s a lot of the time.  When they did have real food, a lot of the time it was chicken, and it wasn’t always good.  Larson added, “Cooking for that many people in a small kitchen is tough, it was either over done or under done but it was understandable with the conditions”. 

            There were many unique experiences for these men.  Perhaps one the more interesting parts of their job in Baghdad was taking care of the morgue, and freezing the bodies of Saddam Hussein’s two sons. They were also able to tour 2 of the 3 palaces that were secured inside their perimeter.  They noted that there was definitely a lot of money in the regime.  One palace was all solid marble, 4 and 5 stories tall, with huge columns 4 feet in diameter.  They toured the Victory Palace that was built after the war with Iran, where Saddam had his own personal terminal “that was unbelievable”.  Not to mention the special zoo-like area he had built for his children, complete with waterfalls and smaller “kid size” doorways. 

The few locals they dealt with were contractors who brought in refrigeration coolant supplies that could not be flown over.  At least dealing with locals wasn’t too much of a problem, since most of them spoke fairly good English.  By that time, local people were getting to work again.  The ones working on base would get paid one U.S. dollar per day, and supervisors got six U.S. dollars per day.  One U.S. dollar is equivalent to 560 of their denar.  Being able to provide them with jobs gave them a chance to live again.  By the time these men left, they could barely see a home that didn’t have a satellite dish on it.  The people there now have technology and know what is going on in the rest of the world.  Before the regime fell, they weren’t allowed to see anything outside of Saddam’s control. 

MSGT Tranel says that in Baghdad it was closer to 10 – 15% of the population that was not in favor of the coalition soldiers being there.  Again going off base was not something that was encouraged.  MSGT Tranel was only off base twice, and said it was very uncomfortable.  “Never volunteer to go anywhere you didn’t have to”, quipped Tranel.  “It was really a learning experience!”

Just about every night there was some small gunfire around them, just as in Kirkuk, but they weren’t too worried about it.  Some nights were worse then others though, especially since they didn’t have bunkers to hide in.  They had to find a table, their cots or anything else they could to stay under.  At present time however, the base is getting bunkers. 

Back Home:

How rough is all this on their families?  These men all had wives and children waiting for them back home. “Security measures make telephone conversations difficult because there was an echo that sometimes was 3 to 4 seconds.  Most of the kids aren’t quite old enough to understand that, so it was tough.  I tried to call at odd times just to talk to my wife when they weren’t around, so that’s where email helped a lot”, said Larson.   Each soldier was authorized two 15 minute calls per week, and there were only 4 phones on base for over 2,000 people, making it difficult to call home.  Having email was again a wonderful thing to have so that communication between families was still available. 

While they were overseas, others from the Reservist Unit that were not activated volunteered to help out the families of those overseas by setting up a “call line”.  If something needed fixing, the family was able to call and get help from someone from the Unit, instead of struggling alone.  Never underestimate the power of a military family network.  They take care of their own. 

Dedicated American Heroes:     

MSGT’s Kremkau, Johnson, Tranel and TSGT Larson agree that Iraq may not have been the best environment; but they went there willingly and did what they had to do.  During the day they did their job.  At night relaxed and tried to read or just sleep.  No one forced them to join the Air Force, the draft is long gone.  They willingly signed up, knowing that they could be sent overseas to work in a situation like this.  Will they be sent back to Iraq?  More than likely later this year or early next year.  Do they mind returning?  Not at all!  They believe in what they are doing.  Overall, that is the message they want everyone to take away from this interview.  The morale of the soldiers serving in Iraq remains high.  They are not walking around complaining that they shouldn’t be there.  There is always a positive outlook on what they were doing.  The hope of these four heroes is that after reading this, you understand more of what it is like in Iraq, and believe as they do that they indeed are serving a good purpose over there. 

Special thanks to MSGT Mark Tranel for arranging this interview, and to MSGT Herman Kremkau, MSGT Mike Johnson, and TSGT Steve Larson for taking the time to sit and chat about their experience in Iraq.