Publication:Chattanooga Times Free Press
Date:Sunday, February 27, 2005
Section:Front Page; Page:1

DISPATCH Iraq

By Edward Lee Pitts Military Affairs

CAMP CALDWELL, Iraq — Standing guard more than 2,200 feet above sea level is not where members of the 278 th Regimental Com bat Team thought they’d wind up while serving in the deserts of Iraq.

But rotating groups of Tennessee National Guard soldiers are spending time on a mountaintop in the Northeastern portion of the country.

"It’s a getaway mountain retreat up here," said Sgt. Gary Carey, 43, of Gordonsville, Tenn. "Every time I come up here, the view seems to change. With all the turmoil going on in this country, this is a peaceful place." At what they call their mountain hideaway, soldiers oversee an important link in the regiment’s ability to communicate.

Called a RETRANS site, short for retransmission, the mountain post serves as a relay signal station between the regiment’s units. The station is nearly halfway between Camp Caldwell, site of the regiment’s headquarters, and Forward Operating Base Cobra, home of 3 rd Squadron.

The 278 th’s North Carolina National Guard predecessors here called the location Magic Mountain, but 278 th officers have renamed it Mount LeConte, in honor of one of the highest mountains in Tennessee. Though less than a third as tall as Tennessee’s 6,595-foot Mount LeConte, the desert mountain is the highest peak on a range overlooking the Iranian border.

Sgt. James Chambers, 33, of Clarksville, Tenn., said his team’s job is to provide security for the site where the secured FM-capable radio signal bounces from its point of origination to its intended destination. The sol- diers on the team, who spend one week here working 12-hour shifts, walk the perimeter at night to make sure no one tries to climb the mountain to disrupt the link between the two bases. "It’s fairly simple," said Sgt. Chambers, "and it’s kind of a rest to be at one place for a while. You can see the snow-capped mountains. It is breathtaking on a good, clear day."

Those out on patrol usually are aided each night by an adopted guard dog named Tennessee by the 278 th soldiers. She prowls the base’s perimeter and checks on the soldiers manning the guard tower each night.

Gun emplacements are positioned on the cliffs overlooking waves of mountains and valleys in all directions. But the soldiers are not too concerned about threats because many approaches to the mountain would require climbers to scale steep heights. To the east, the mountain drops toward Iran, which is 25 miles away past the villages and sheep herders that dot the valley.

CABIN ON THE MOUNTAIN

The concrete guard tower above the road leading to the base is warmed against frequent gusts of biting wind with a heater powered by an extension cord run from the camp’s main cabin. This plywood cabin, which the soldiers call "the shack," contributes to the camp’s pastoral feel and doubles as sleeping quarters and entertainment room.

In their free time, Sgt. Chambers said, the soldiers in this secluded post watch "movies, movies, movies."

Inside the cabin, men sit at a kitchen table facing a tiny television that plays 24 hours a day, or they sleep in one of eight wooden bunk beds. The top bunks, according to the soldiers, are too wobbly to use.

Showers — taken inside a homemade wooden stall — are a luxury here, allowed every other day because each unit arrives with a limited amount of water. Inside the small kitchen, Spc. Richard Bailey, of Joelton, Tenn., served as the cook on a recent rotation. He said he had to prepare two hot meals a day and be on security standby.

The units on rotation here must use a wooden outhouse and then burn their waste by setting fire to the steel drums placed under the outhouse. Soldiers unanimously agreed this task is the worst job on the mountain.

The actual signal station is little more than a camper mounted onto the back of a Humvee with large antennas jutting from its roof. There is enough room inside the radio truck for two soldiers who oversee a space filled with dials and computer panels. The radio controllers, who call themselves the "Ma Bell of the Army," monitor the strength of the signal 24 hours a day.

The station doubles the range of radio communications for the regiment by picking up a signal near its limit and strengthening it for farther distances, according to Capt. Reid Brock, signal officer for the regiment’s 1 st Squadron. But most soldiers are not interested in the mechanics of how this works, he said.

"Radio communications is like water," he said. "When you turn on the water, you don’t care where it came from; all you want is the water."

SECOND RETRANSMISSION SITE

The 278 th’s Iraqi version of Mount LeConte is not the regiment’s only retransmission site. Those guarding the site connecting Camp Caldwell from Forward Operating Base Bernstein, the home of the regiment’s 2 nd Squadron, must live on a mud hill just 900 feet above sea level. Its surroundings are not as idyllic as Mount LeConte.

Gigantic rectangular concrete barriers form a tight protective square around the plywood shack housing this retransmission station. Inside soldiers must squeeze into a space they say has a few leaks but stays warm. These soldiers fend for themselves at meal times, depending largely on pre-packaged military meals or frozen pizzas cooked in the building’s one microwave or toaster oven.

"It’s like a little efficiency apartment," said Sgt. Harold Nau, 43, of Kingsport, Tenn. "You live, eat and sleep all in one room."

The soldiers here live on coffee, with a pot always boiling, and they spend a great deal of time writing home because conditions usually are too messy to spend much time outdoors.

"If heavy fog sets in here, it gets muddy," said Sgt. Kelly Warren, 33 of Morristown, Tenn.

Soldiers can take what they call "Marine baths" by boiling a pot of water, but most soldiers just wait it out until returning to Bernstein, according to Spc. Blake Rampy, 30, of Morristown, Tenn. While the solders here work in three- to five-day shifts, the radio operators must stay on the hill up to 30 days at a time. Baby wipes are a must.

But Sgt. Steven McBride, 46, of Memphis, and Sgt. Terry Powers, 41, of Jasper, Tenn., both agreed they do not mind the monthlong shifts. They say getting out of Camp Caldwell for the convoys to and from the site is better than being locked inside the main base.

"You get to see the real Iraq," said Sgt. McBride, who added the hilltop site is quiet and away from rules and regulations common on a larger base.

E-mail Lee Pitts at lpitts@timesfreepress.com

U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - Soldiers with the 278 th Regimental Combat Team stand in the kitchen of the retransmission site from which they relay radio signals between the regiment’s bases.

U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika - Soldiers with the 278 th Regimental Combat Team drive toward the communications relay station they man on an Iraqi mountain they have dubbed Mount LeConte.

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