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(U//FOUO) Camp Virginia to Camp Victory: In Kuwait
FROM:
IA Intern
Run Date: 12/04/2003
(U//FOUO) Prior to my NIST deployment, I had often heard that
the best opportunity for personal growth and self-discovery can
only be found when we are completely removed from our comfort
zone and forced to operate in an environment vastly different from
the one in which we live. I was able to live this adage first-hand
during my 90-day tour in Kuwait and Iraq at the beginning of
Operation Iraqi Freedom, which turned out to be one of the most
rewarding experiences of my life.
(U//FOUO) We left Ft. Meade around midnight on March 19, and a
small convoy of trucks and SUVs carried my team and our
equipment down to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Dressed in
desert cammies and carrying gear and supplies, we boarded a C17 full of ammunition that would be used in the impending war. As
we prepared for our flight across the Atlantic we were told that the
US had fired its first missiles at a bunker where Saddam Hussein
and some of his regime's high-ranking officials were believed to be
meeting. As we approached the airfield at Camp Doha, Kuwait, I
heard many unfamiliar phrases, such as "full battle rattle",
"combat landing", and "MOPP 4", but the other members of my
team were all in the military and were more than willing to help me
assemble all my gear and prepare for whatever may await us as
we landed in the war zone.
(U//FOUO) Not an hour after we set foot on the ground we were
greeted by the haunting cry of air raid sirens, signaling the launch
of an Iraqi SCUD missile in our direction. This process was
repeated several times that day, and each time I pulled the gas
mask out of the pouch around my waist and fumbled to properly
secure it over my face as I ran to the nearest bunker. I admit that
the question, "What did I get myself into?" crossed my mind
several times as we drove through the middle of the Kuwaiti desert
to a tent village known as Camp Virginia, which would be our home
for the next six weeks. I laid wide-awake in my sleeping bag that
first night, a little excited and more than a little scared, knowing
that a war was beginning just on the other side of the border.
(U//FOUO) In the subsequent days and weeks, the incoming
missile alerts became less frequent as the SCUDs were shot out of
the air by the PATRIOTS that surrounded our camp, and their
launchers were destroyed by air strikes. As life returned to relative
normalcy, I was able to concentrate on the analysis that I was
there to do. Camp Virginia served as a staging ground for troops
moving back and forth across the Iraqi border, and also housed
the field headquarters of the US Army's V Corps, which was in
charge of all army combat divisions operating in the Iraqi theater.
These were the troops we were there to support, and we provided
crucial, actionable intelligence that helped them to identify targets
and ensure the safety of their forces. We worked 12-16 hour days,
7 days a week, partly because the mission demanded it and partly
because there was nothing else to do in the middle of the desert.
SERIES:
(U//FOUO) IA Interns
Abroad
1. Coming Soon: IA
Interns Abroad
2. 3 1/2 Months in
Qatar: Supporting
CENTCOM
3. 3 1/2 Months in
Qatar: Outside of
Work
4. Deployed to
Afghanistan
5. Camp Virginia to
Camp Victory: In
Kuwait
6. Camp Virginia to
Camp Victory: Into
Baghdad
7. NISTing in Kabul and
Baghdad - Part One
8. NISTing in Kabul and
Baghdad - Part Two
9. Working at Prince
Sultan Air Base, SA
10. Deployment
Sketches - Part 1
11. Deployment
Sketches - Part 2
12. Dispatch from CSG
Baghdad
(U//FOUO) There was a chow tent that served two hot meals a day,
as well as a small gym and a large-screen TV that showed the
news, but most of our time outside of work was spent trying to get
some sleep. We did our laundry by hand in plastic bins, and
complained about the occasional sandstorm, our lack of air
conditioning, and having to use porta-johns and take showers in a
trailer (if we were lucky to have enough water). Life in Camp
Virginia was rough by western standards, but it was luxury
compared to the conditions we would later endure in Baghdad.
(U//FOUO) Watch for the second and final part of this article, Camp
Virginia to Camp Victory: Into Baghdad
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108