Publication:Chattanooga Times Free Press
Date:Thursday, February 10, 2005
Section:Front Page; Page:1

DISPATCH Iraq

‘20-miles-per-hour town’

By Edward Lee Pitts Military Affairs

FORWARD OPERATING BASE BERNSTEIN, Iraq — This home away from home for the 278 th Regimental Combat Team’s 2 nd Squadron has a lot of wide-open spaces, and that is just the way the soldiers like it. Called a "20-miles-per-hour town" by its vice mayor, Staff Sgt. Stacy Duignan, Bernstein’s appeal is its vastness and slower pace, soldiers said.

"Most of the squadron are country guys, and being spread out suits them bet ter than being on top of each other like city folk," said Capt. Rob Mathis, 32, of Newport, Tenn.

At 15 square miles, Bernstein is big enough to fit inside its perimeter both Forward Operating Base Cobra and Camp Caldwell, the two other bases occupied by 278 th squadrons.

But commander Lt. Col. Frank McCauley said his squadron is forced to defend the largest area with the smallest amount of troops — fewer than 1,000 — making base security one of his top priorities and most difficult challenges.

Soldiers here agree Bernstein’s most distinctive features are its concrete bunkers and reinforced steel hangars left over from when it was an air base for former dictator Saddam Hussein’s military. The base includes a crum- bling air traffic control tower and a single paved runway that soldiers now use as a road. Damage from attacks by U.S. troops during the first Persian Gulf War is visible on some of the 23 bunkers and eight hangars scattered throughout the base.

The Iraqi army abandoned the base after the first Gulf War. At the time, the surrounding skies were restricted to air traffic to protect the area’s Kurdish residents who were persecuted by the former regime, according to Sgt. John Scarborough, 30, of Chattanooga.

"You can’t really have an air base in a no-fly zone," he said.

When the Iraqi military left, local Iraqis came in and ransacked much of the base. They took tools, wiring, plumbing and the ceramic tiles once found on the floors and walls of certain rooms, Mr. Scarborough said.

CRAMPED LIVING QUARTERS

Despite the looters and battle damage, 2 nd Squadron soldiers are proud of the creative uses they have engineered from the relics of a defeated Iraqi military. The concrete bunkers, which look like gray Egyptian pyramids with their tops chopped off, have been converted into offices and living space. One bunker housing elements of the squadron’s E Troop contains four rooms each holding up to 12 soldiers.

The soldiers have little privacy, which they maintain by using plywood walls and hanging shower curtains. About 40 soldiers in each bunker must share a single bathroom with four toilets and three sinks.

Inside a concrete air hangar reinforced with steel, soldiers with the 190 th Engineer Company spent about a week constructing a two-story home for 28.

"Everybody was piled up on top of each other, so we built two floors," said Sgt. Andy McClanahan, 34, of Morristown, Tenn.

The labyrinth of plywood walls separating rooms above, beside and below one another looks like an indoor clubhouse. In one living space, measuring about 8 feet by 12 feet, four soldiers must share wooden desks, shelves and a color television set. Entire Containerized Housing Units, or CHUs, have been placed inside other larger air hangars. With up to 17 such units stacked one in front of the other in two parallel rows, the enclosed space with its arched roof seems like a sound stage for a television series about military life.

To rid themselves of a pesky pigeon population that litters one hangar’s floor with droppings, a 278 th wife shipped a fake owl that now is perched atop the hangar. But the cooing of the pigeons makes the hangar sound like a bird sanctuary.

"The Tennessee owl dummy doesn’t scare the Iraqi pigeons," said 1 st Sgt. Jim Judkins, 53. "They just thought it was a big pigeon."

Despite the cramped living conditions inside the bunkers and air hangars, soldiers say the concrete roofs make them feel safe from mortar rounds and other attacks, which have not happened since the 278th took over the base in the middle of December.

The 2 nd Squadron is not the only military unit housed here. A brigade of about 300 Iraqi army soldiers occupies a portion of Bernstein.

Training these soldiers is one of the 2 nd Squadron’s primary missions, according to Lt. Col. McCauley. Eventually the Iraqi government plans to house an entire Iraqi army division here. Soldiers drive around the spread-out base on paved roads that now have names such as Smoky Mountain Lane and Volunteer Boulevard.

ISOLATION WELCOME

Soldiers at Bernstein are shivering from cold temperatures and daily rains this past week that have caked vehicles, soldiers, weapons and buildings in mud. Pea-sized hail fell Tuesday, and snow dusted the camp Wednesday.

With the desert winter’s rains, Bernstein sports patches of sage grass that eventually will dry up, turn brown and blow across the desert like tumbleweeds in the summer, according to Staff Sgt. Duignan, 38, of Seymour, Tenn. The base is about eight miles from the city of Tuz, which has a population of nearly 90,000 and is the largest city under the 2 nd Squadron’s sector.

Located in a valley between two mountain ranges, the area surrounding Bernstein is flat with barley fields that grow in the spring and whose leftovers each fall bring in sheep and shepherds.

The sprawling base and surrounding flatlands do not give the soldiers many entertainment options.

"There is not much to do here but do your job, watch movies and sleep," said Spc. James Carroll, 23, of Cleveland, Tenn., who is a paralegal with 2 nd Squadron.

While the base’s military store is crammed inside a tent and its mess hall serves just two hot meals a day, Bernstein does offer three Iraqi-run shops. Freedom Shopping and Freedom Restaurant, owned by two brothers, sells $3 chicken-and-beef kabob plates. Ayad Jihd Hassan, a store manager, said he goes to Baghdad every 10 days to pick up items, and he gladly takes special orders.

"We are here to first serve the U.S. soldier and second to make some money," said Mr. Hassan, a Kurd. "I know these soldiers made Iraq free."

The stores offer pirated DVD movies, knock-off luxury watches and ornate rugs.

Instead of Milky Ways, the store sells Metro bars made in Turkey and, rather than Nestle Crunch bars, it offers a version called Khaled, made in Iraq.

"The shops give us the flavor of being in the Middle East," said Spc. Chris Ladd, 28, of South Pittsburg, Tenn.

The base has about 33 computers and eight phones for soldiers to e-mail or call home.

Bernstein even has enough room for a driving range, where any shot longer than 210 yards will send a golf ball over the perimeter barriers.

The 2 nd Squadron primarily includes soldiers from the Tennessee cities of Kingsport, Newport, Rogersville, Morristown, Erwin and Greeneville.

Soldiers here said they are the end of the supply line with nothing much beyond them but Iran. Their isolation is highlighted by the fact they must burn their own garbage, sending up a continual plume of black smoke in one corner of the base.

Still, soldiers such as Sgt. David Gosnell said they don’t mind the lack of luxuries as long as it is quiet and top officers leave them alone.

"We don’t have a coffee shop or a big chow hall or a Burger King or a Pizza Hut," said Sgt. Gosnell, 45, of Greeneville, listing off the luxuries found at other bases in Iraq and Kuwait. "But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s calm here."

E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - Scouts with the 278th Regimental Combat Team’s 2 nd Squadron conduct a briefing this week at Forward Operating Base Bernstein’s runway in Iraq.

U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - Air hangars from former dictator Saddam Hussein’s air force now are used as living quarters and offices by the 278 th Regimental Combat Team’s 2nd Squadron. Story Copyright to Chattanooga Times Free press