Date Published: January 8, 2005

By WILLIAM D. JESSI

I haven't written a column for the past few weeks. Please forgive me. I have been tied up for the past few weeks making sure that our i's are dotted and our t's are crossed. If ever there is a time to do things correctly, it is now.

I have been lost in my thoughts and the sadness of the departure of my wife and children back to Tennessee.

They made final preparations and left with a quick goodbye. It was painful nevertheless, as many of you probably know.

My thoughts have been a jumble with rosters of men, vehicles, equipment, connexes and emotions scattered like children's toys across a kindergarten floor. If I didn't have my first sergeant, my platoon sergeants and section sergeants, I would be quite mad by now. They really drive this train anyway. I really cannot praise them enough for their long hours, professionalism, and most importantly, their compassion for their men. We are quite fortunate to have them.

The war in Iraq will be a bit more familiar to you now. Previously, if you did not have a loved one involved it was ... a faceless event 8,000 miles and two continents away. The war has a face now. It is more real to you and me. We have loved ones very close to harm.

Iraq is very real to our Family of One.

We left Mississippi for our flight over and stopped briefly in Europe. Germany has not changed much. It is still cold. I was swept back to a time in my life when I was one and 20 as the poem goes. Old friends' faces crowded my thoughts, and I wondered what had happened in their lives. I wondered if any of them had made this same trip to Southwest Asia over the past year or two. Carefree times in the fatherland were pleasantly recalled and quickly dismissed when we climbed back on the big bird. I bought a few cards to send home.

The plane dropped low into Kuwait City, and we experienced some turbulence. I don't know about the other guys, but when we dropped into RPG range I got a twist in my gut and a bit of a nervous lump in my throat at every wave of turbulence that dropped us lower toward the ground. I wondered if the men thought of that too.

Kuwait City seems a city of perpetual smog and sand. It was at least the few times that I was there. It also seems a very busy city that is experiencing growing pains. I was amazed at how trashy the roads and highways were. I saw a sign on a bus that read, "Keep the bus clean. Throw trash out window." I then came to appreciate the "Keep America Beautiful" campaign back home. There were heaps of trash and garbage everywhere along the roads.

There was an array of tires and abandoned vehicles everywhere I looked. Apparently they just abandon the vehicles where they break, and no one retrieves them. I saw the mess and later saw a sign that read in English and Arabic, "Keep Kuwait Beautiful." I don't think that simple ideas work unless a majority of people support and enact laws to enforce them.

We took a convoy down to Port Doha to retrieve some of our vehicles off the ship. I expected to see some foolish drivers. There were several, but no more than I had seen in Germany years earlier. We were almost cut off a time or two, and I saw one bonehead driving the wrong way down the interstate. That is something else we need to be thankful for ... driver's education (thank you Coach Gilbert) and police empowered to keep the highways as safe as possible (thank you police officers and Congress). This guy passed several officers, and not one bothered to stop him.

He continued on southward. He probably made his entire journey on the wrong side of the highway. One stretch of highway was called Highway 40. I found that interesting.

We delivered our first Southwest Asia convoy with no major incidents, but we weren't in Iraq yet. It was good practice.

We continued our training with convoy live fire. The training was absolutely the best we had received since mobilization. The trainers were former regular Army soldiers with boots on ground time in Iraq. They set up an 11 kilometer course with good and bad guy targets all along the route. I found it very difficult to hit a target at the speeds that we were using.

They also helped us set up more efficient ways of handling and managing the convoys that we would be conducting while in country. Their ideas were quite simple but very effective and up to date. We adopted many of their tactics, techniques and procedures as standard operating procedures. We also received the most up-to-date tactics of the anti-Iraqi forces and the criminal elements in Iraq. The bad guys are smart, to say the least.

We continued to prepare for our convoy into Iraq. There was an issue that came up about steel that apparently made the headlines back home. I will keep the details of that scenario to myself for the time being.

Nuff said for the time being.

Next time - First and longest convoy yet.

Highlander 6, out.

Editor's note: Capt. William D. Jessie is the commanding officer of Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, Second Squadron, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment (2/278 ACR), which is based at the Kingsport National Guard Armory. The unit has been deployed to Iraq as part of the 278th Regimental Combat Team.

Copyright 2004, Kingsport Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved

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