Transcript of Interview with First Sergeant of the 314th Military Police Company; 320th Battalion re: Iraqi Deployment and Operations In-Country

IFIT-35-123 First Sergeant

Q:I

(inaudible) of the 35th Military History Detachment. This

is the 22nd of May, 2003. I'm with First Sergeant

11111. of the 314th MP company, part of the 320th
battalion. First Sergeant, could you please state your
name, spell your last name for me and give me your duty
position here at the unit.

My name isI

314th MP Company.

A:II'm the First Sergeant of the

Q:I

First Sergeant, could you tell me a little about the
original mobilization at home station, what you had to do
in preparation for mobilization and when you actually left
your home station to go to remote site.

A:I
We first got, like, a activation notice. That was probably
right at the end of January, I think. Anyway, what they
did is -- we knew it was coming -- the mobile work was
coming. We had a few days' notice. They put us on five
days AT orders, kind of help get stuff together, get people
called in, and then we got the actual mobilization orders
and we were probably there on mobile orders for an
additional seven days. So we had about two weeks in Irvine
to get everything together and ready to go, which helped us
out. That extra five days really helped us out.

Q: And how many members in the company?

A:I

I have some guys in Basic, in AIT. I had Illipacks, so Olt
slots would have to take (inaudible).

Q:I

And were you able to bring all your vehicles and assets

with you as well?

A:I

Yeah; we brought all our vehicles. MKT was an issue. We
couldn't get MKT together. So we cross leveled one over.
Also I was short some MP's, so they cross leveled some MP's
to me. And I'm still shirt one lieutenant. There are just
not enough officers. We actually came with all our
equipment, as far as vehicles and MKT goes, and
soldiers.

Q:I

And did you headquarters from, I believe, the 63rd RSE, did
they assist you or did you run into any problems as far as
getting anything together with them?

A:I
They did, they sent this master sergeant down. She made a
lot of calls and made a lot of stuff work for us. It's kind
of the stuff, though, that we've already identified as
being short on, you know, life sets and hard-topped
vehicles, stuff that you just don't get in the Reserves,
for some reason, you know? They say, oh, you'll get it,
you'll get it, but you just don't get it. They got on the
phone and they blitzed -- helped us get the soldiers and
helped us get whatever equipment they could from other

014411 2
companies, like tool sets from the maintenance section, and

this new MKT and stuff like that, so -- they did come down
and they did assist -- it's just stuff we should have had
already. Stuff that had been identified as shortages in
the past. Reserves just don't get it.

Q:I

But you were able to acquire all those things, and so you
had everything to meet your (inaudible) and leave your home
station to go to mobile station then?

A:I

Well, we didn't take it all with us. Some of it met up with
us in Bliss (sp?). And our life set, we just picked up here
the other day, and that was on our TiE. Equipment was.kind
of piecemeal. It's still being shipped to us, different
parts of it, you know what I mean? We got the main stuff
to make missions -- soldiers, weapons, equipment, you know,
vehicles, and some maintenance stuff to get us going, and
everything else is still kind of trickling down to us.

So your equipment has been a major issue with the unit that
-- because of your different shortages that --

Q:I

A:I

Yeah, you know, I don't if shortages -- some of the --
repair, like those Humvees, they're not the right Humvees.

We need the hard-topped, not these soft-tops, and that's

like a hindrance, a major hindrance. Because that's stuff

you need for these missions. You know, an MKT, a working

MKT with those new burners on them instead of the old ones.

4 el.
0 3

do all this training, which is good, but they didn't have
the training they needed to do it, and they expected the
companies to bring it. Nobody told the Companies to bring
it. So it kind of -- the UA's, I'm still not really sure
what their lane is. I don't know what they -- I know he
worked a couple equipment issues. I still don't know what
their lane is, to tell you the truth. He's a nice guy. He
seemed to work hard at whatever he was working at.

But you didn't see any major accomplishments to make you

and your troops go through the process easier?

Q:I

A:I

I guess he was -- my understanding is he was working some
M-tel issues of stuff we were short. Then, like, when we
mobbed, when we left there, I kind of think he should have
picked up the ball and taken our stuff down to port to make
sure it got on the train, or on the boat, and that didn't
happen. Kind of like a liaison between us and the people
around Fort Bliss. I'm trying to think because, as far as
tracking, you know, who had what shot records, and all
that, you didn't track any of that, you didn't -- I'm not
sure what their lane is.

(break in tape)

Q:I
First I just want some -- can you tell me, during your
mobilization at Fort Bliss, were you able to get through

6

the different SRP in your Fort protection without any

problems?

A:I

Well, you know, the organization was kind of screwy because
you didn't, especially in that first few days, you didn't
know where you were going or how to get there, and these
bus drivers -- thank God they had some people at Fort Bliss
reporting, to tell the bus drivers where to go. There was
just a lot of lack of information and a lot of -- you go to
these briefings at night. Those briefings were usually
during the time you had to be going through some other
briefings, so if you didn't make it, you were just out of
the loop. We did get through all that process, and I think
a lot of it was because I had some pretty good NCO's that
were there before, and they were able to kind of beat the
system, you know, tell the bus driver where to go. They
knew some MP's and some other people that -- (inaudible)
were there before, so they knew the program. That's what
saved us. That's what got us through that thing pretty
rapidly. The staff over there -- it seems like they'd
identify a problem, identify a solution, but just wouldn't
put it into place. Took a while to kind of get that

program running smooth.

PI 1 ,‘ ,1
1,1 .. -.,z Li
6

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And did you have any issues on getting the equipment for

Q:I

clothing issues or your J-list -- did you have any problems
with those issues?

A:I

The clothing was a major hassle. I still have people
without the proper uniforms. I don't understand why that -

-it seems like they'd get it, and you'd run the people
through, and there was just a constant shortage of DCU's
and PA50 kind of items -- goggles, stuff that we need out
here, goggles were never issued. Field dressings, never
forget them. Not to mention medical bags for the combat
life savers, it just wasn't there. For mobe site, I always
thought they had warehouses full of that stuff. Didn't
have it. The J-suits? Oh, my. Yeah, you couldn't get
those things. My understanding was that while at your home
station, you order a week before you're supposed to leave.
They're supposed to meet up with you at your mobe site. If
you order any sooner than that, then it can get sent to
your home station. Well I waited. Seven days before we

were supposed to mobe, I ordered it. It took them -- the
day we flew, you know, it took them a month and a week to
get it to us, and that's because it went to a storehouse.
The J-suits just were not there. Thank God I had a pretty
good MVC guy that made sure everybody had the right mask
before we left. We did a lot of cross-delivery there at

8

our home station. Stuff like harnesses, you couldn't get

those. Any MVC thing, you could not get there at Fort

Bliss. You couldn't get it.

You were a high profile unit. You were going to be a ETW
or tech MP unit, and so they knew that you had special
requirements and that you had to get all your gear in
place, yet they still weren't able to get you any of those
elements of what you needed before you left.

Q:I

A:I

I know. We left without stuff the guys needed -- goggles,
you know? I tried to get some night vision devices. I
could never get those. I think that's what that UA was
going to work on, and I don't know, he couldn't make that
happen. And then the J-suits. The day we left, I had this
whole shortage of J-suits. There's a warehouse full of
them in Bliss. I don't know why we went through all the
bases and all the stress to try to get that stuff. They had
it over there. I'm not really sure what they were holding
up on it. But like harnesses for your J-- for your MVC
mask, you couldn't get them. Stuff that they need, you
know, sunscreen, foot powder, simple soldier stuff, they
didn't have it. Didn't have it.

Q:I

So were you acquiring this equipment in any other fashion?

A:I

We went out of pocket. Went down to Local Economy, and
bought a whole bunch of gun cleaning stuff, bug repellants.

014418
9

Soldiers had to have it. You know what I mean? A lot of
these soldiers went out on their own and bought goggles.
They're all wearing like Oakley ski glasses, you know? But
the Army wouldn't give them what they had to have, so they
went and bought it because they needed it. (inaudible)
spent a lot of money. Everything was priority ordered
through the Army channels but it still would take forever.
Then, during that time of RSE, this master sergeant,

IIIIIIIII believe is her name. Anyway, like MP was ours,
and (inaudible) -- what happened at home station, before I
left there was an MP told me the (inaudible) that left
prior to us -- they went to Fort Lewis. Well the boneheads
forgot their holsters and their magazines and their
magazine pouches. So they told my Company, give up 50 of
your holsters, magazines, and magazine pouches. I says,
OK, but I'm mobing. I need to get it back. Anyway, I sent
up to Fort Lewis at 382nd. I went out the door there at
the home station, and I didn't have 50 holsters, magazines,
and magazine pouches. No bazaars -- anyway, that master
sergeant, when we were in there, finally made it happen,
but it was a nightmare. Had to go to the range over there,
you know, 111 MP's, and I had like 25 magazines. We had
holsters, we were packing the guns. We were on everything.
Because you know, they didn't have them there at the mobe

0 1 4 I0
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site. You couldn't draw them. Then the RST had to buy it

off the market. They had to do all that civilian
contracting stuff to get it to super troopers. They made
it work, but it was a mess. It could have been a lot
easier. The mobe station, yeah, the range -- they didn't
have ear plugs. No ear plugs. They were in the range and
they got no ear plugs. I don't think that mobe site was
ready for mobilizing. Just equipment wise, they had a lot
of people out there that were trying, good attitudes,
pushing soldiers, but the equipment, the logistics of it,
they didn't have it.

Q:I

After you finished your force protection, were there any
issues after that point -- how much time after that was it
before you actually left?

A:I

First we did that SRP thing, and that was an exercise in
confusion. Nobody really knew where to go to get all that
stuff done. And then we did a force protection. Those

instructors, they tried, and they put on a good show. My

soldiers enjoyed it, but then again, they expected the

units to bring all these training aids -- blanks, blank

adaptors, pyro. Nobody told the units to bring the shit.

So you were out there going -- it could have been so much

better. So they tried to put on a good show. Then we did

the metal training. We did that for about three days.

nI A. "
ti-g-`1014,V .11

you, and sure as shit, soon as we landed, I was standing in
the plane, making sure the Company got out and half of them
were out sitting on the tarmac, a couple of them in a bus,
the other half still on the plane, they got SCUD attack.
So all command and control was kind of broke down, you
know? But they did what they had to do, they closed the
door. Everybody on the plane got their masks on, got down
low. The guys on the tarmac got on the bus, got their
masks on, got their J-suits on, closed all the windows.
The leadership was working, you know? And they, yeah.
They were thinking.

Q:I

So upon landing, all the focus -- instruction and training
that you gave them earlier -- this would have came home in
that this is no AT, as you put it. This is real time.

A:I

See, a lot of these guys thought, yeah, we're going to land
in Kuwait City, and it's far away from Iraq, and this is a
civilian airport. We're flying a civilian plane. Shit,

we're going to get up to the terminal and stroll through
just like we're going back -- on vacation. I says, no,
fellas. This is what couldn't happen --This is worst case
scenario. The only thing was, we landed in the daylight,

so at least we could see each other, you know what I mean?

Yeah, we got SCUD attacked before we even got off the

plane. I got my glasses broken before I even got off the

rtI

"4 ri
16

plane. One of them waitresses jumping all over trying to
find her glasses, too, so. But anyway, it was good. The
soldiers, they did what they were supposed to do and the
leadership worked. I mean, even though we were all spread
out in different parts of the tarmac, in the plane, on the
bus, the NCO's, whoever's near them, made sure they put
their stuff, got where they had to be, and got
accountability of the soldiers. The soldiers were focused,
listening to what they were being told to do.

At that time, you said some of them were in a bus outside,
and some of you were still in the aircraft when they closed
the door. What about the airline crew? What did they do?

Q:I

A:I

They tried to get their -- they had civilian gas masks.
They were putting their stuff on too. And of course they
closed the door. Thank God they didn't try and take it off
again, because we had people on the steps. Last time I saw
that, they started moving the plane, so thank God they
didn't do that. So anyway, but they closed the doors. They
put on their masks, and they just waited until it became
all clear. It came over, I guess, the radios.

OK, so when you got the all clear sign, then you de-mask,
and then you exited the aircraft.

Q:I

A:I

Right. Then we got on the bus and sure enough, there's
another SCUD attack. We sat down. It took us forever just

0 1 4 4 2 G
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to get to the A-pod, or whatever they call it. Yeah, it

was like two or three SCUD attacks, and everybody's sitting
on this bus, hotter than heck, and everybody's looking at
each other like -- but this time, the good thing -- last
time the Patriots would intercept the SCUD low, so you'd
feel the explosion. You could hear it and feel it. This
time, I guess, there was the interception elsewhere,
because you never felt it. So it was a lot more easy, you
know what I mean? It wasn't so nerve-wracking as before.

Q:I

Did you actually hear or see the Patriots going up, being

cut off?

A:I

Last time, yes. This time, no. Here in Kuwait, I didn't
hear any. I know one time, they had, I guess, one of the
SCUDs ran kind of close to Arabdar (sp?), where we were at,
and it rattled those warehouses we were sleeping in. Last
time, yeah, you could actually see them intercepted there,
in Saudi Arabia. That was kind of nerve-wracking.

Q: And the sense of being in your month here, the idea of the
threat of having a gas attack or any kind of a biological
attack, I'm sure that was a very stressful period of time
for your (inaudible).

A:I

Yeah, they got real serious real quick. You know, they

figured it out. You know, you can train them and you can

train them and you can talk about it, but the first time

18

you put it on in a real situation because you think there's

a biological or nuclear attack coming or a chemical attack,
they think -- even if that attack doesn't come, they still
think about it, because they know. They hear the sirens,
they see -- they see workers out there wearing full MVC
stuff, trying to, you know, get inside. They know it's the
real deal. They got very good at putting on those suits.
It's the real deal.

Once you finally arrived at Camp Arifjan, what happened
after that -- what was -- what were your troops doing? Did
you have a mission to start off with as soon as you
arrived?

Q:I

A:I

Yes. Everything we did -- you have to remember, there were
all these SCUD attacks. It would take forever just to get
the mess off, because you know, first thing they drop us
off, and by that time it was dark, and we were in Arifjan,
and they got all these warehouses, and I've got to go meet
a Sergeant Major, and blah blah. Anyway, they said drop

them off in one warehouse, but there was no lights, nobody
knew where -- it was just a big fluster, and you know, the

whole time people are in MVC suits, and masks, and so

anyway, we got inside this one warehouse, and then a buddy

of mine, another NCO came up, said, hey, this other

warehouse has bunks and cots, and it's a couple down. I

19

At that time, how many prisoners were here at that time,
that the British had under their control?

Q:I

A:I

I couldn't tell you. I think right around 4 or 5,000.

What kind of containment area did they have and security

force did they have here at that time?

Q:I

A:I

When I came up with that platoon, I didn't get down there
and look at it, but I assume it's the same as the British
run -- rapidly put up kind of a holding area, rather than a
long term facility. My main concern was just the soldiers,
getting them up here and getting them kind of situated.
But yeah, it was -- I remember that one night I stayed up
here, there were several escapes. Whenever there was an
escape, they'd shoot a flair. I remember seeing several
escapes. They had -- it just seemed, yeah, I wasn't really
sure. It was a lot of confusion up here, everybody moving
around. The EPW's, all I know is they were having a lot of
escapes going on.

And once your main body came up, what did -- what was your
mission, and what exactly did you start doing first?

Q:I

A:I
Well, you know, (inaudible) 11111111(sp?) led that first
platoon up here. He did a real good job, because that
night, or that next day, I guess, they put down, it's
starting to work now, the EPW camp after I left. But he
still went ahead and got most of the tents set up for us,

1401

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01

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in and figure that stuff out. I put some strong NCO's in

there, and some aggressive soldiers, and they got them fed.

The first couple days, it took them 6:00 in the morning to

about 10:00 at night, but they got them fed two meals. It

was -- yeah. Something like that, you don't train on.

Something like that was just a task you have to accomplish.

What was the process, did they just get a serving line to

get the food? What was the process on that, do you recall

that?

Q:I

The whole thing was a process, you know, even getting the

food to them, because they didn't have enough cooks, so I

had to pull my cooks out of the MTT, which raised all sorts

of hell, but I put them down there to cook for these EPW's,

and they have these big tents, and they cook in these big

garbage cans filled with food -- rice and soup and cheese

and all this stuff, but then they give them the tents down

at the camps and have to haul it in the back of these

pickup trucks, and then there, once they got there, they'd

unload it. They'd pick out four or five EPW's to drag it

inside the compound, and they'd kind of put it in a line,

and then they'd get those same four or five EPW's to dish

it out. And my MP's would go in there and they would

control the crowd, have them all sit down and try and make

it fair. Because EPW just wanted fair. They wanted

A:I

0 14 4 V3 27
everybody to be fed the same. They didn't want a weak guy
to get less and strong guys to get more. That was what was
happening when the British were getting it. Guys weren't
getting fed. So that was trying to get that control.
That's what they wanted. That's what the majority of that

pen wanted, and that's what we finally ended getting the
captives. It's all a process.

When they were getting the food, if one person got more or
less than another, did anything occur during that period of
time?

Q:I

A:I
Oh, yeah. First off, they were all trying -- it was weird.

icki) 3
—
Looking at the pen, you have a group of 11111 You have them
all sit down, and you try to get five or ten at a time, and
you try to keep the line in order so everybody wasn't
pushing and shoving, trying to fight their way to the front
of the line. And then we'd check their ID card, their tag,
and then we'd issue them the food and then they'd go back
to their tents to eat it, and we'd have to keep them back
by their tents rather than come back up towards the group.
So it was all about control and making sure, no matter who
you were, you got the same portion of food as everybody
else.

And did anything else go on within the compounds on a daily
basis?

Q:I

A 28

it was brutal. We did have a couple major riots, and one
time I thought they were going to lose the camp. They were
out in the middle aisles, they were outside their pens. I
had all my security around the sides, just trying to
contain it.

So they actually got out of the pens themselves.

Q:I

A:I
Yeah. They had the camp. I thought we were going to lose
the whole camp. I thought they were just -- yeah. It was
a bad day. We did lose the day. They were outside the
pens. We had no control of that camp.

Q:I
How did you get them back in? How did you -- how were you
I

able to stop the rioting?

I Cz) - 3
You know, Sergeant MajorI

and I took about 1111 He started at one end and I started

/9(2-.)-3
at the other end, and just went into each pen and tried to
take over each pen, while other pens were throwing rocks at
us, throwing stakes at us, throwing anything they could
find at us, and that pen fighting us. We shot a couple
guys that day, and we fired a whole lot more rounds, hit
them, got them back in their pens, though. We finally got
some canine down there too, and that kind of calms it, and
then we got every MP that's on this post, I think, and it
must have been -- by the end of the day, there's probably

A:Itook about illof my guys,

LI 4 4 3 9
30

around 500 MP's down there to help us out. They lost the

pen -- they lost the compound that day, I think.

Q:I

During that period of time, you said there were a couple of
shootings. What were the circumstances of that, and what
was the outcome of the two?

A:I

They were all justified. One of my fellows -- they were
swinging a stake at him -- a tent stake, a big one, you
know, a pole with a nail on the end of it. And he shot him
in the arm. And another guy, they were trying to get a
pistol belt, and they thought it was a pistol in it,

(inaudible), anyway, he shot a guy in the leg. Dropped the
pistol belt.

Q:I

So he (inaudible) actually got the pistol belt'?

•I

t

A:I

Yeah, what it was was -- I think it was a 320th soldier,
they were guarding the middle aisle, and for some reason,
they left their pistol belt there when they -- they took
off, because EPW's were all running outside the cage. We
only had perimeter security, the individual pens. They
were out and about, and they took off out of them. When
they took off, they left their pistol belt with the holster
on it, so an EPW was grabbing that, and they shot him,
thinking there was a pistol there inside that holster.

Q:I

Were there any other injuries?

014440
31

A:I

That day? I think one MP broke his arm. Wasn't my guy.

Few people hit with rocks, a few EPW's hit with batons, but
no life-threatening injuries.

Did you get to bring out yourI
of riot control equipment?

Q:Iand your other styles

A:IYeah, we had limited I

because we were using the
British 11111111 the British riot control equipment -- we
didn't have any, so -- then my guys, they got in there.
Before this all happened, the Sergeant Major put his arm

(inaudible) -- with the rules of engagement, you're not
supposed to shoot warning shots. He put his arm around me,
said, you need to fire some warning shots. Fire them,
whatever it takes to get this thing back. So I had my -- I
was with my team. It was about five guys, it was -- all
they had was shields, and they were stuck in the middle of
this pen. I felt for them. They were about ready to run
out of that pen, I tell you. They were just gettingI

O(.1-'22
overwhelmed with people hitting them, hitting those mow
with 2x4's, so I went in there and started shooting my gun
bat) -I
a few times. And we held the line. ThenI

shot one of
them, and we were able to push them back. That was one of
the major pens we were having trouble with.

Q:I

In that particular pen, were there more criminals than
soldiers, or was it, again, just a whole mixture?

:[

4 41' 32

A:I

Just a whole mixture. They had civilian criminals,

civilian soldiers, the officers were right across from
them, and they were starting it off. They started it off
(inaudible) personally, so --

Q:I

What about the following day, did anything occur the

following day?

A:I

That day-- thele was a riot like a day, or two days before
that. Same thing, we went in there, but we didn't shoot
anybody that day. A lot of warning shots. But after we
took control of that pen that day, we got the officers out
of there, sent them over to the new (inaudible), and took
out some of the instigators from the individual pens, put
them --

END OF SIDE

A:I

There you go. I think those EPW's figured it out,
especially when they saw all those MP's at the end of the
day. We beat them. And they knew they were beat, and they
knew they better behave themselves. I think that's when
the camp finally came under order.

Q:I
Were there any fatalities?

A:I

No. One of my guys on perimeter, a few days later -- my

guys were inside feeding, and one of my perimeter guards, I

bring them down to cover the guys inside the fence feeding,

P .4 A r)
1 1 1"-1f. 33

All they had were

A guy came out of the tent, charging him,
one of my MP's, with a 2x4, and one of my guards shot him
in the chest and killed him. That was probably about three
or four days after the big riot.

When that shooting occurred, was there any type of special
procedures that you had to follow when someone is killed
like that?

Q:I

A:I

Yeah, you know. I'm surprised we didn't shoot more. I tell
you what, I told that story (inaudible). We're lucky.
Anyway, yeah. What happens is, of course, they pull them
off duty, and then -- sits in a tent and then CID comes and
interviews him, and they do a 15-6 and it's la, la, you
know. He was justified; he saved a soldier's life. I'm
going to put him in for a Bronze Star. Hopefully, somebody
back at headquarters will figure it out. A second grade
schoolteacher took somebody's life and he had a hard time
dealing with it. But he made the right call. He made the
right call. A good soldier.

How did that soldier feel after that shooting?

Q:I

A:I

He was kind of tore up on it for a few days, and I talked

to him, I had the chaplain talk to him. Some of the other

soldiers talked to him. I think the turning point, though,

when -- (inaudible) 11111111 sp?), he's the guy that almost

C4)

34
got hit by that 2x4 -- and he pulled out a picture of his

wife and his kids, and he told that soldier, hey, this is

my wife and -kids, this is my family. Thank you. I think

that was the turning point. That's when he figured it out,

that he did the right thing. He did what he was trained to
do and had to do.

Was this -- during these couple riots that occurred, was

this also another wakeup call, for all your soldiers,

again, this is real action. This is no playing around.

You have to take the job seriously.

Q:I

Well, here's the thing. You know, you got them guys. You
spin them up at home station, and then you go to the mobe
station. You're ready to go and then we sit around at mobe
station for two weeks, and they go flat on you. Spin them

up again, you get into Arifjan, you're ready to go, and

then we sit around for a couple weeks and go flat on you.

So you know, the emotional ups and downs of a deployment -­
it's hard to keep them peaked for any period of time,

because they start losing jobs, they get bored and they go

flat on you. But during that period, while we were down

there, every day was -- I'm telling you, every day was out

of control. So they were spun up for a good six weeks

while we were down there. Every day they were focused,

ready. They were onl-Ehe point, ready to do what they had

A:I

35

to do.I

I've got some good soldiers, I'll tell you what.

I was worried about putting that one back there that killed
that guy, but I put him back on the point, and I tell you,
I think today he'd make the same decision that he made that
day, take the same shot.

Q:I

During the same period of time -- you said you had your
female soldiers that are also guarding your prisoners -­did they experience anything that was out of the ordinary
with the Iraqis, since they don't treat their women quite
the way the U.S. treats their women?

A:I

Right or wrong, I don't know, but the battalion said they
didn't want women going in and feeding the EPW's. I can
see their reason, but I can tell you, I've got some fine
female soldiers. (inaudible) EPW's, though, they were hard
on them, so they probably made a good call telling me to
keep them out of there. Yeah, they -- the hygiene, first
off, down there. They had one pisser/shitter for boys,
girls, it didn't matter. So just staying down there on

point during a 12-hour shift was hard on them. And then

the EPW's would constantly show them their private parts,

just disrespecting them in our society. They were being

very disrespectful, in a way that would be criminal back in

our states, you know? But my female soldiers -- tip top.

Not a one of them complained. Not a one of them refused to

t.r) /4 ,A a
L.1.j

36

stood up and started trying to slash his wrists with a Coke
can, in the back of the Douce (sp?). I don't know why
there was a Coke can in the back of a Douce (sp?), but
there was, and (inaudible) was trying to slash his neck.
My driver put the -- slammed on the brakes. Female MP
grabbed the guy, slammed him into the back of the wall
there, where the cab is, and subdued him. A lot of these
guys are mental cases or on types of drugs, mental
stability type drugs. There are some criminals, some
murderers, some rapists, some real bad people, and any
moment -- they're not just, you know, EPW's, there's some
bad mix in there. So at any moment -- they've got to stay
alert.

Q:I

So with the mix of some deranged or mentally offset

individuals, or EPW's, are there certain special holding
areas for these individuals?

A:I
Yes. We ran out of the holding areas, though, that was the
bad thing, because we would just take them out for about a
day and then put them back in the pen, because we ran out
of them. Those guys I sent in to feed those EPW's, every
day, had to deal with same jackasses, same mental cases,
same trouble every day. The guys sitting on the fence,
every day, had the same mental guy exposing himself to him
every day. They did have some Conex (sp?) to set out.

514447
38

They filled those up and (inaudible) kind of reserved for

the worst of the worst.

Q:I
Now that the Camp is starting to have less prisoners -- at
one time there was as many as111111Wrisoners, and now, I
believe, we're closer to around IIIIII How have you been
able to keep your soldiers active, and has your mission
changed since you originally arrived?

A:I
Yeah. They -- the Camp we were guarding actually plowed it
down. Kept it going -- I don't -- Echelon's above me. They
finished off that brand new EPW camp after the war was
done, when we were down to about 1111111EPW's, and I don't
know why they did that, but -- the engineers did that, and
we've got a lot of soldier issues on the ground here where
we were living. This was a spearheaded operation and my
soldiers did fine. I'm not complaining about it. But now,
once again, they're going flat on me. You know, the peaks
and valleys, right now. I got about -- they task me with
III" shift and I've got three shifts working up with that
in-processing, but I can see my in shields are taking care
of it with probably about a dozen, because there's just
nobody coming in. So to try and find things for them to
do, I got some MWR runs going on. I've got my ship burning
detail going on. I've got jazzercise in the morning for

014448
39

people that want to come. I've got a weight room set up

with tv's. But they're going flat on me.
(break in tape)

First SergeantI
your soldiers that may have risen to( the occasion, that

maybe excelled during this deployment?

Q:Ican you relAted to any stories of

A:I
Actually, I'm proud of all of them. They all did a good
job. Company Commander on down. Those Army values,
loyalty, number one. They were loyal to each other. I've
got to hand it to Sergeant 11111111.111111.(sp?) . He
figured out this feeding thing. g said here's what you've
got to do. Figure out how to do it, and he did. He put
together these teams, supervised them, got them working.
Sergeant I

Staff Sergeant.", I knew that guy as an
E5, and I was like, eh. I tell you what, though, he really
pulled up his boots and he was pushing soldiers out here
and making stuff happen. Some of these younger -- it's
kind of neat, because some of these younger E6's I had,
when they deployed at Texas, they were E5's. And now
they're teaching those E5's what to do as E6's. The E4's
are now E5's, and they're teaching these guys that haven't
deployed before what to do. All my NCO's have done a real
good job. SpecialistI

(sp?), the guy that actually shot
and killed that EPW, that was a hell of a thing for him to

014449
40

(sp?) wentout and bought a TV and DVD player, and wt
set up a tent so people can watch movies at night. At thel
end of the day, they'lllhold a raffle, and whoever wins it
will get the TV and the.EDVD set, and that way, they'll
recoup the money for what they purchased out of hock. We
brought a weight set with us. We finally got our conex

(sp?) in and we set that up. I had a chess tournament -­one of my specialists sponsored a house-wide chess
tournament, and that was kind of good. One of my females
is a black belt in karate, and she's going to do this jazz
-- or tai bo? Tai bu?

Q:I
Tai bu.

A:I
Yeah. She's going to start that up tomorrow. I think
they've got a little puppy dog in there, and I'm not going
to raise too much hell about that, if they want to raise
that dog. I tell them, fellas, I make them wear their
uniform, and I tell them, they can be proud of what they're
doing. They can be. I've got to get on them every now and
then, but whatever I can do. I built them showers. I
remember the day I got plastic seats for my toilets.
Everybody smiled that day. It's the little things, in this
environment, the little things. That's the spirit of
operation, so everything -- everything's a better day, you
know?

014 4 '3
42

end of the day, they look back and say, wow, I'm doing what
I'm supposed to be doing. This is what I joined for. This
is what I'm supposed to be doing. They're going to be
proud of this. A couple years after they get home, they're
going to be very proud of what they've done. It's good
stuff.

12(01)-k
Q: I thank you, First Sergeant wow for your interview. I'd like to keep the dialogue open with you so that as time goes on, I could, perhaps, re-interview you for additional information as to what your company has done and your accomplishments. Is that OK with you?
A:I
Sure.

Q:I
Thank you. This ends this interview on the 22nd of May,
2003.

END OF INTERVIEW
END OF TAPE

0. 14455
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DOD-018066