News Article
By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
03-21-2005
Capt. Rob Mathis, a Tennessee Army National Guard officer from Newport who is serving in Iraq with the 278th Regimental Combat Team's 2nd Squadron, has sent to The Greeneville Sun a report on the activities there of National Guardsmen from Greeneville.
Capt. Mathis noted in an electronic mail that he is serving with "many of the boys from Greeneville" (soldiers formerly assigned to the 278th's Greeneville-based Troop G) at Forward Operating Base Bernstein in northeastern Iraq.
"Most of the G-Troopers have been reorganized into the squadron's scout platoon and are doing a great job," Mathis wrote.
He is currently serving with the 2nd Squadron's Headquarters and Headquarters Troop (HHT).
"I was in the Newport unit (Troop E ) until right before we deployed to Iraq," he wrote. "I was moved to (2nd) Squadron headquarters after being promoted to captain.
"Most of the Greeneville and Newport boys know each other well as the two troops are sister units, and we all trained together quite a bit. Most of the Greeneville boys are here at (FOB) Bernstein. A few of them are now at Camp Caldwell with the regimental headquarters."
Mathis noted that he told a few of the Greeneville Guardsmen about sending photos to the Greeneville Sun.
"They are very excited about it," he noted.
"This will be great for the soldiers as well as their families back home. Thank you so much for your support."
Tuz Vividly Described
Capt. Mathis also forwarded a section of his personal journal that recorded his memories of Dec. 9, 2004, a day shortly after the 278th RCT�s soldiers arrived in northern Iraq.
"It rained for a little while last night," the journal entry began. "It was a light rain and didn't last long. The temperature here is a little cooler than it was in Kuwait when we left there. The highs are around 60, and the lows are around 30.
"I went on my first patrol to the city of Tuz today. Tuz is a city of around 90,000 people situated about 120 miles north of Baghdad.
"Tuz is on the border of three different ethnic areas. It used to be almost all Kurdish, but it is now about 50 percent Kurdish, 30 percent Arab, and 20 percent Turkish. �The patrol was an amazing experience. A few members of my unit accompanied a platoon from the North Carolina unit we are replacing here at FOB Bernstein.
"The main purpose of the meeting was to meet with the town�s leadership about the upcoming election. We went along to meet the city officials and to begin our familiarization with the area in general.
"The meeting was held at the Iraqi police station in the center of town. Most of the folks from my unit were given a tour of the building while the gathering was going on, due to the limited seating in the conference room.
"We went to the roof of the building and got a great view of Tuz as well as some great pictures of the city.
"Our visit to this town really made it sink in to us that we are indeed in a foreign country. As the city laid out in a panoramic view before us, we felt as though we were watching a movie instead of actually living this experience.
"The scene that met our eyes was straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. The houses were all packed very close together and were the color of sandy mud. A little splash of color could be seen every so often among them in the form of a brightly colored flag or an ornate Persian rug hung over the side of a garden wall or balcony rail to air out.
"Tall palm trees dotted the landscape. In one part of town, to the south of us, there was a very green area that was full of palm trees and plants of other varieties. It reminded me of how Central Park is so green while being surrounded on all sides by a sprawling city."
Mountains Described
"To our northeast, there was the tall ridge line of a local mountain range. The mountains were the same shade of brown as the buildings in Tuz and were bare of any vegetation. They resembled the mountains in the desert areas of Nevada and Southern California.
"I thought about how naked they looked compared to our own Smoky Mountains; especially when the Smokies are covered in their green blanket of trees of the summer or the patchwork-quilt of turning leaves of the fall.
"As we continued to observe the city from our perch on the police station, we saw the town's people coming and going while they conducted their daily business.
"The whole thing gave us a very adventurous and exotic feeling. Then, at around noon, the call to prayer was broadcast over the entire town through loudspeakers in the minarets of the mosques.
"The effect of the sound as it echoed through the streets and alleyways gave it an almost ghostly quality. This last touch completed the scene, making it feel even more like a movie.
"After the meeting was over, we conducted a mounted patrol through the city. There were a lot of stray dogs running all over. Once, our progress was impeded by a wandering donkey in the middle of the street.
"The market section of town was a beehive of activity. If it weren�t for the cars lining the streets, it would have looked like a scene from a marketplace in biblical times.
"The thing that struck me the most during our mounted patrol was the people; the children in particular.
"The people in Tuz are very friendly, especially the children. The kids all run from their homes to wave at us and give us the thumbs up. They react to the sound of a HUMVEE in the same way as American children react to the sound of an ice cream truck.
"The children here are beautiful. I was surprised by the variety of eye colors, hair colors, and skin tones. I saw many children with blonde hair and blue or green eyes.
"There are even some with red hair in the Kurdish part of town. The nicer residential areas look like some neighborhoods that I have visited in the Los Angeles area, except that these have more narrow streets, donkey carts, and animals hung up and butchered in the open air by the sidewalk.
"While at the police station, I was able to try some Iraqi tea, called "chai" in Arabic (pronounced like pie). They drink their tea warm and even sweeter than we do in Tennessee, naturally, I liked it very much. I also tried some of the local bread. It was superb."
"Before retiring for the evening to update my journal and go to bed, I sat outside by the bonfire next to my bunker with Capt. Mark Lenhart and some of our new friends from the outgoing unit (1st Battalion of the 120th Infantry Regiment from the North Carolina National Guard) and smoked a Cuban cigar that had been purchased in advance for the purpose of celebrating the successful completion of my first patrol and wondered what new experiences the coming year would have in store."
Photo by SSG Russell Lee Klika - Special to the Sun - Sgt. Bruce Martin, of Greeneville, (shown facing camera at left) holds his M-4 carbine at the ready as two other unidentified members of the 278th Regimental Combat Team search a pickup truck along a dirt road in northern Iraq last month. Sgt. Martin and other National Guard 'scouts' formerly assigned to the 278th's Greeneville-based Troop G now are serving with the 2nd Squadron Headquarters and Headquarters Troop in northern Iraq.
Story Copyright to The Greeneville Sun