About treeman's service... (with pics)

"Outed" myself? I ONLY want to set the record straight. You and several others have recently questioned my service. This thread was merely my attempt to establish a baseline of truth. We can move on from here.

I am not going to go into the GWB v Obama region here. You know who I respect. And why if you've actually ever read anything I've posted.

I write well? What, I'm a monkey who all of a sudden surprised you with an articulate grunt, a fortunate jab of the pen?

glynch, your presence in this thread is noted. Leave it at that. I am sure that you will find many opportunities in the future to argue with me - and that is perfectly fine. People like you and I need to disagree. The Republic that you want to destroy depends upon it. It needs to be public if people are to make an informed choice (although I shudder to think that they will be reading posts by treeman and glynch when making such decisions).

Have patience.

 

"Old Tunnel"

When we first arrived in Iraq I was made the S2 (Intel) NCO for our company-sized unit (a Battery, as we were an artillery unit). This was a detainee ops mission, though. Our job was to keep the detainees in their box. Period. Easier said than done.

We arrived to take control over compound 23, a compound that had made international headlines in 2005 when a truck ran over a tunnel stretching over 100 meters collapsed into he tunnel. The tunnel was almost long enough to reach the perimeter.

The detainees did three things to pass the time: 1) plot ways to escape and kill guards, 2) make chai rocks and other weapons for the next riot, and 3) dig. Oh, could those ba$tards dig. The tunnels we found were amazing. At any rate, back to the story...

We knew soon after we got there that they were going to riot. Just to test us. I was acting S2 and I sat in on an interview in which we were told point blank that there was going to be a riot. Our platoon sergeant, a former SF guy who worked for Blackwater when he wasn't working for the US Army, told the Quad Chief that the new guys were from Texas, and we liked shooting people, and that he'd regret it if they rioted...

The day before the riot we found what appeared to be a tunneling attempt. Our commander was very excited that he'd found his first spoil. I, as the S2, went and looked at the previous maps of known tunnels, and concluded that this one was an old tunnel. I went to tell the commander this. Meanwhile, he had moved all of the detainees into the water closet (a separate box full of porta-potties) so the "tunnel" could be excavated. I told him that it was an old tunnel and that the detainees were probably not still tunneling right now. He ignored me and continued to dig. The detainees stayed in the water closet all night, and most of the next day. They were becoming visibly agitated, and I warned the commander that they were probably going to do something. He didn't care. The "tunnel" ultimately led to a caved-in enclosure.

Towards the end of the next day, after being released back into their quad, the AQI detainees rioted. None of us were hurt, 45 or so of them had to go to the hospital. About a week later I got to interview a couple of AQI detainees who wanted to turn. They told me that the tunnel in question was an old collapsed tunnel (the one from 2005), and the detainees rioted because they felt disrespected having to stay in the water closet all night. They were full of it, but they had a point on that.

I wore the name "Old Tunnel" after that. Those who called me that did it fairly affectionately, they were mostly the ones who didn't like the commander. Our commander left alot to be desired.

I maintained the Alternate S2 position until the day I forced the commander to fire me. THAT is a funny story, which I might tell some day here.

 

I suppose I might as well tell it now...

I worked the Alternate S2 and Alternate DMS Controller positions concurrently. The S2 position was the guy who talked to the detainees, read the intel briefs, briefed the unit on current ops and issues, and advised the commander. The DMS Controller was the guy who monitored all radio transmissions and logged every event that took place in the compound into the blotter - the DMS (Detainee Management System), the database sytem that the DoD uses to monitor all detainees in the system worldwide.

Keeping up the blotter was the main job of the DMS Controller. Every event that happened in the compound was logged. Date and time, a **** truck entered the compound to empty porta-potties, food brought into Bravo quad, detainee 123456 extracted to visit hospital, detainee 654321 returned from beautification duty - you get the picture. EVERYTHING was logged.

I never wanted to do it. I enlisted as a forward observer. I didn't want to sit in a desert office trailer sending reports to the Pentagon (every blotter entry was monitored in the Pentagon after Abu Ghraib). I wanted to be out on patrol, breathe the desert air. I was looking for ways to get fired from the office. The commander knew I wanted out and tried to replace me several times, but no one could do the job, so I kept getting pulled back in.

So one night... I got a bit carried away. Every post. Every blotter entry. I managed to sneak the word "nefarious" into it, somehow.

"Tower 3 reports some discolored sand in the southeast quadrant by the wire. May indicate nefarious digging activity."

"Numerous detainees observed praying at 03:35, may indicate nefarious plotting"

"Loud noise emanating from quad B, may be indicative of nefarious activity"

This went on all night. Every couple of minutes I made an entry, and every one included the word "nefarious". It was a long, entertaining night...

Morning came. The commander showed up after a rested night to pick me up for the morning briefing. Every day all of the compound commanders gathered for a brief on the previous night's activities with the post commander. Whe it came our turn.. The post commander laughed at our commander and said WTF is it with this "nefarious" ****? My commander had NO idea what he was talking about - he'd been asleep. Post commander schooled him in a lighthearted way on it - right in front of me. Even I was laughing. His face was so red...

Afterwards I found out two things: that the commander did not know what the word "nefarious" meant. and that I didn't have to worry about the S2/DMS jobs anymore. I was so happy...

I got roped back into the S2 job for the last month of the deployment just to train the S2 in the unit that was replacing us. But outside of that, the deployment in the latter half was stress free. I'd gotten myself fired from a job I didn't want, and the war was effectively over - we didn't get rocketed or have to deal with any riots for the last 2-1/2 months of the deployment.

All true.

 

C'mon man this is glynch after all. Is there really any doubt?

 

Fortunately, you are not on my "I wouldn't have a beer with that cocsuqer" / I wouldn't pi$$ on him if he was on fire" list.