Jim Spiri in Iraq

Around the ages of 12 and 13-
years-old, we would ride our bikes with all our gear
on our backs and cruise up Hwy 85 to the north and
spend days on end camping, rafting, shooting, cooking
out and all kinds of things that kids in the west did
in those days. It was a great childhood. I remember
vividly dreaming of rivers to visit all around the
world. Today, along the banks of the Tigris River in
the land called Iraq, I once again saw a river that
was beautiful, in spite of war.

It was a long day today. I'm tired, dirty, and a bit
worn out, but it feels good. I was in Sgt. DeCarlo's
vic with his crew, DeLeon, Wallace and Fernandez
again. We would begin before sunrise today and head
west of the city. I never know where we are headed
because I've given up trying to figure out a map.
It's just not necessary for me as long as I'm in the
right vehicle. I like having a "chauffeur" of sorts
who can deal with all the directions. We were out
somewhere that looks a lot like the moon and I began
to wonder if those folks that say we never landed on
the moon might be right. There were lots of goats and
a few Bedouin types.

To get their required eating about nine pounds of dust
for the roads were all primitive. After we finished
there we headed back towards the city and
came near the area we had been earlier in the week. As
we rolled up and down a few rises in the terrain, we
began to take fire. I looked out my window on the
left and saw three muzzle flashes in plain sight. I
listened and watched as Fernandez, the gunner in our
vic, returned fire. We were still a ways off and it
took some time to maneuver around the sight that the
fire was coming from.

Once we got there, we exited the vehicles. There was
an intense search of the area and I tagged along with
DeCarlo. Wherever he goes, I go. That's the rule. It
is one rule I have never broken. Nor do I intend to.
As we searched the structures one by one, carefully,
in coordinated military fashion, we came up empty
handed. In the time it took us to maneuver into
position on the area that the fire came from, the
wiley enemy had simply vanished. I've seen this
happen before and once one sees the area, it is
understandable imagine. It's not like the enemy has a
big neon sign saying, "here I am". This time, he got
away. But, he and his cohorts will be found one day,
sooner or later.

Later on the same day, we mounted back up and headed
out west of Mosul. We would be working in
coordination with Alpha Company and others. It took
quite some time to get out there. Driving along the
way I found myself kicking back and taking in the
sights. We came upon an area that had a giant cement
factory off to the side out in what looked like the
middle of nowhere. It was perhaps the largest cement
making plant I'd ever seen. There were lots of big
trucks lined up dropping things off and picking
material up. It was a big operation. A little
further down the road there were some huge houses
under construction. Of course, lots of cement. The
houses were rather nice looking from my vantage point
and I determined that somebody in Iraq is wealthy.
These houses were nice! And there were many of them.

We passed by a dam that was either incomplete or under
construction. I could not tell. There was no obvious
sign of any one working on it, and I guess it may have
been a project that got halted somewhere along the
line. I may be wrong, but I just don't know at this
point. As we proceeded further the river on my right
side came into view. It was a gorgeous site to see.
Especially in a desert. Most of what I have seen of
the Tigris has not been clean, but here, at least from
my angle, it looked enticing. I immediately thought
of rafting it. There were no real rapids, but the
water was moving swiftly and I could see myself in my
two man canoe-raft, taking a trip down the Tigris with
my wife. She has made me promise to take her rafting
once we return stateside. It is a promise I intend to
keep.
Today whetted my appetite for river rafting once
again.

From this point on I decided that no matter what the
rest of the day brought, I would consider this day, my
one and only "tourist" day since coming to Iraq in
2004. I was thoroughly enjoying the view. It is why
I've included some of the photos I did, to convey just
a little, what it looks like. Remember, it was quite
hot again today, we were all tired and dusty, and I
was a heartbeat away from stripping down to my
birthday suit and taking a plunge. I did not end up
doing such a thing, but, it surely crossed my mind as
I schemed all the while what it would take to do it.

We were on high ground, above the river banks when the
humvees all parked in strategic fashion. We exited
the vehicles and walked down a fair ways through some
rough terrain. Once I stepped outside, I was eager to
go downhill as fast as I could. I immediately snapped
a few photos and made my way down to the rivers edge
where the Lt. Col. already was and others with him.
On the way down the hill I came across a site that was
right out of some scene in a book James Michner could
have written.

In front of me there was a heard of sheep, maybe a
hundered or so. There was a young boy who was the
sheppard, shirtless and carrying a stick. There were
a couple dogs around. And there was the Tigris River
in the immediate background. It was a nice place,
perfect for a camp-out. Oddly enough, the bad guys
have the same sort of thinking. I guess even
terrorists know a good place to take a dip too.

We came upon many males that all looked not like the
local population just up the hill. For up on the hill
just above us, were very meager looking adobe and
concrete shacks with people inhabiting them that
looked rather worn and weathered. The Iraqi Army was
with us, and in joing coordination questioning began.
Tests were done, and it was determined that a half
dozen or so of these folks would be taking a trip
"downtown" into Mosul with the Iraqi Army.

What happens in Iraq time and time again, is when the
heat is on towards the bad guys in the cities, they
move to the countryside. And vice versa. Keeping in
the face of the enemy, as is the practice here in the
Mosul area, is the only way a war of attrition on the
bad guys is going to be successful.

As the processing of the suspects continued for some
time, I meandered over to the banks of the river.
There, three Iraqi Army guys came over and washed
their faces in the river. One of them even filled up
his bottle for water. I was not going to do that.
Rinsing off yes, drinking the river water, No. I
picked up a rock and tried skimming across the water
and failed the first time. But after the initial try,
and getting my footing right with all my flak gear and
kevlar on, it came back to me. For a few moments, me
and DeCarlo and the Iraqi Army soldiers all through
rocks skimming across the waters of the Tigris. I
flashed back to when my boys were little and we camped
on many a river and spent hours doing exactly the same
thing. Maybe I even was standing in a place where
Abraham might have done the very same thing as he
wandered around this same area thousands of years ago.
This tourist day, was turning out fun. I needed such
a day. Then, I looked up and saw the Kiowa OH58's
buzzing the river bottom swooping up in steep banking
turns. I thought back to when my son had told me
about flying in the Pakistan-Afghanistan mountains in
his CH47 helicopter. It was another site to see.

After we finished with the area near the banks of the
Tigris, we headed back uphill and searched some of the
homes, or shacks as they are. The people were poor
looking. There always is at least a dozen or so folks
under one roof. From their vantage point, they have a
million dollar view, but their places are unbelievably
run down or worse. It is such a contrast to what it
could be. Looking over across the river a mile or so
away, there are small villages that look nice from a
distance. On the side we were on, it was not so nice,
but had a beauty to it. But the river was view of the
day.

We meandered on for a while and eventually exited the
area. It took us some time to get back to the main
road. As we headed back towards Mosul, I found myself
nodding out in the back seat. I had been tired now.
I'd had an interesting day. I came to the closer we
got to Mosul. We made our way back through a part of
town I had not been before. We crossed a bridge over
the same Tigris River I had just been to an hour
earlier. It did not look the same, but through the
mired up scenery of the city, I could imagine what it
looked like before it was so populated. It was
probably nice.

As I looked out the small window in the back seat of
the up armored humvee, I saw hundreds of cars on the
side of the road waiting in long lines to buy gasoline
from vendors on the side of the road who sell it by
the plastic bottle full. I saw crowds of people going
about their routines. I leaned left and right as we
passed through still more concrete barriers put up to
stop suicide bomb attacks. Although I had just been
to a nice place, we had detained some suspected
insurgents. Now I was back in the city of Mosul where
I know there are insurgents because they had shot at
us earlier in the day nearby.

But in the war zone today, even on a mission, I found
solace in the flowing of the river Tigris. It is an
old river and is spoken of in Genesis. I skipped
stones on this river like a young boy today. It was a
good day, even though some had tried to kill us.

I wonder what Fred, Gregg and Scott would have thought
about today.

This is Iraq.

Jim Spiri
jimspiri@yahoo.com