 |
| Navistar - Fletch, Seth and Me |
Getting out of Iraq may be more challenging than getting in
American commanders say one of the gravest threats to the 46,000 troops here is that they could become easy targets for insurgents when they begin their final withdrawal this summer and head for the border along a 160-mile stretch of road cutting through the desert into Kuwait. (NY Times)
For the last of the OIF Mohicans, MSR Tampa is the Road Home
I’ve driven up and down MSR Tampa a few times. It is the main supply route that runs from our bases in Kuwait up through Baghdad and on to points north. You drive from Ali Al Salim up to Navistar where you wait for your convoy to get assembled. Once the convoy is all formed up, you cross the Iraqi border and head north.
Drive through Safwan, past shabby dwellings so close to the road you could reach out and touch the scowling faces as you drive by. Pass by Basra and on up to Ali Base, the Ziggurats and Ur. A few more hours and you're in Baghdad.
It was a dangerous road when I drove it various times back in 2005. Much of my job was doing comm projects to improve security. Units in trouble often could not make radio contact for backup or a dustoff, which is a very scary situation. Just Google MSR Tampa and you'll read the stories and see the pictures and video memories of our troops who have fought and lost buddies on that road.
Fortunately for me, I have no harrowing tales to tell, and I was surprised at the discipline of the gunners. We were all armed, but most of us are drivers or passengers helping the driver spot trouble and navigate. The convoys had security people whose only job was to look out for trouble. My first trip, south of Ali, an old Chevy Impala came screaming out of the barren fields and noisily bounced onto the convoy route. I thought for sure he was a bomber, but no, he was just another crazy Iraqi driver, clueless to how lucky he was we have disciplined soldiers.
On another trip, we got the usual cars getting too close, despite signs in Arabic telling them to stay back. All of a sudden, an impatient little Toyota crosses the hardscrabble median between the divided highway and goes screaming the wrong way in the opposite lane just to pass us. Meanwhile, oncoming cars heading in the right direction are parting like the Red Sea to let him through. I guess this was routine for them.
Anyway, I pray we can get our guys out of there safely, and I also pray the Iraqis have learned something and that they can make a go of what we fought to give them.
