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Keeping the Peace (Paul Rieckhoff) |
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Here is a letter written by 1st Lieutenant Paul Rieckhoff to his girlfriend while he was stationed in Baghdad. He gives an interesting account of trials and tribulations of keeping the peace in a small sector of the chaotic city.
I have an interpreter named Esam (eee-sam), 28 yrs old – looks like a tall Charles Manson. Speaks awesome English, French & some Spanish. Seems like an amazing man – hard to trust any of them though. We have to be careful – which is very hard to balance. Esam walks with me on most patrols to tell the people why we are here – to communicate my message – people will follow me as the LT, kids especially, as I move through the neighborhood, like I am Michael Jackson. Really weird. Such a crazy and extreme overload of experiences. Lots of bodies at the hospital; a burned-up one in a trailer that the guys call Ka-Bob. Lots of stray dogs & puppies. Lots of little kids selling everything. Little businessmen.
Very hard to keep my guys in-line, Safe. Gunfire overhead & over the river especially, all day & more so at night. Tracer rounds streak like lightening. I am usually working all the time. I get about 5 hrs of sleep per day at no continuous time. We have 24-hour shifts & patrols every day. I am gassed. Go through gallons of water every day – which gets scarce at times. Rationing food at times. Still no mail. Definitely no phones whatsoever. Mostly don't have much time to eat. Getting very hot. With all my equipment on, I sweat gallons. Find a map of Baghdad and look for the Lebanese Embassy or Saddam Hospital/Medical City – that is where we are & will probably be for a while. We had a minor little firefight on the South Bridge tonight – a vehicle tried to run some of my guys down at a checkpoint so we lit the vehicle up. We find lots of weapons – AK-47's, RPG's, every kind of handgun known to man. Stacks of money (mostly Iraqi) sometimes US (a kid 13 or 14 yrs old w/ $3,600 US the other day!).
We pay the doctors, the teachers in the area. We do. I am like the fucking Mayor of Medical City. Thankfully, lots of the doctors speak English and are helpful. Overall, an incredible experience – making this place safe for the people. They love us for the most part & look at us in awe (sometimes fear). Raising my hand with "flexcuffs" (plastic zip-tie handcuffs) scares the shit out of them. Doctors here are paid $5 per week. Our interpreter gets $4 per week. Little kids sell Pepsi's for whatever we'll give them – we agreed on 2 for $1 – they are little Donald Trumps.
There is also a huge cache of brand new cars in an underground parking lot in our area. Brand new Toyota Land Cruisers, Nissan Maximas – over 150 of them. We have used a forklift to put them all around our perimeter for barrier protection. If people want to send stuff to us – Baby Wipes, foot powder, drink mix/powder(Gatorade, Koolaid, etc.). My sniper has an awesome position on our roof that gives us almost total coverage of our perimeter. It still blows me away sometimes to think that I am really patrolling along the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq, . Also, please tell my dad to send me zip ties. The ones he gets from work. We use them for handcuffs & never have enough. I haven't gotten your new song yet – but am really psyched to hear it. I miss you terribly – almost wish you could be here to see what I see. Maybe one day we'll come back and visit Esam and others. I love you.
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