Saturday, November 19, 2005

Radio Relay Point 3

at Radio Relay Point 3, Iraq
135 miles south of Baghdad
November 10, 2005
with Charlie Co, 142nd Infantry, Texas National Guard

Soldiers here with Charlie Company have spent 11 months at this small base, called a radio relay point or RP  It lies next to the busy north-south main supply route, with plenty of traffic pushing past on the highway half a mile away.  This place is less than an acre, and holds only enough men to man the radios and patrol the area around the RP.
For the men who live here there is plenty to keep them busy.  There is guard duty, radio duty, and patrols which the soldiers run out of here three or more times a day, both day and night.
Most soldiers in Iraq never get off their base.  On a large base like Anaconda in Balad, or even Victory in Baghdad which surrounds Baghdad Airport, the majority of soldiers never go outside the wire.  Except for their two-week leave midway through their year-long deployment, those soldiers are, in effect, in prison.  
On larger bases life is not easy, since there are attacks by mortars or rockets in many areas, and the soldiers live in trailers, four to a trailer, and the work hours are long.  But on a large base there are comforts, such as a huge supply of varied food served four times a day, not to mention ping pong and movies and PXs.  Despite that many soldiers feel imprisoned on their large base for their year in country.
Soldiers at RPs have a situation both similar and completely different.  Instead of 20,000 soldiers there might be a minute fraction of that;  instead of covering 10 square miles or more, their base covers an acre;  and of course the idea of a PX is laughable.
But it turns out most of the soldiers who have been here on RP3 for 11 months prefer these small bases to the standard-size ones.  Sounds incredible - more work, fewer amenities, less space.  
But the soldiers here get off base regularly, on patrol and an occasional trip to their local large base, a transport hub called Scania.  And though they have a limited exposure to people outside their unit, that cuts both ways, because personality clashes are tempered by the absolute necessity of getting along.  And when it comes down to it, most people in a unit would often hang together anyway.
Soldiers here make their own breakfast, lunch and dinner, preparing it from frozen and boxed supplies given to them back at Scania.
What could easily be considered to be a narrowing of horizons - cutting their view down to the acre area inside their wire, behind the razor wire and fortifications that ring their compound - life here is in fact the opposite.  The number of patrols these men have to do ends up opening up their daily routine. Whereas many people on a  larger base go to the PX for variety, out here there is an enforced variety of scenery dictated by the need for near-constant patrolling in local Iraqi villages and towns.
No, it�s not as relaxing as being on a large base.  But, for most soldiers (and this is not true for all) this enforced rigor is, well, invigorating.  They prefer the RPs to bases like Scania.  That's the reason a small number of men can spend 11 months on a base the size of an acre, and end up liking it, while for other soldiers a year inside 40 square miles still feels like being in prison.
These guys at RP3 should know - they�ve been here long enough to get the full flavor of it, and they'll be going home at the end of their tour in the next couple of weeks.