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Soldiers find Camp Victory conditions rather cozy

By Chris Tomlinson
Associated Press

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — Looking at row after row of white prefabs and desert-colored military vehicles on the northern edge of Baghdad International Airport, one can’t help but feel a sense of permanence at the U.S. military’s new home in Iraq.
The troops who fought their way into Baghdad last year slept in bombed out palaces, or on the streets next to their armored vehicles. Their thousands of replacements from the 1st Cavalry Division are moving into air-conditioned quarters, some larger than what they had back home.

“We’re living large,” said Maj. Jeffery Collins a newcomer from Ottumwa, Iowa, standing in the relentless Iraqi sun outside his new headquarters building.

Combat rations are now eaten only on patrol. Most soldiers eat three meals a day in huge mess halls supplied by Dallas-based Kellogg, Brown & Root and staffed by Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Filipino workers.

With hamburgers, fried chicken and onion rings available every night, soldiers at Camp Victory actually worry about gaining weight.

“We knew we’d be here for a year. We knew it would be a marathon, not a sprint,” Lt. Col. Tim Vuono said.

Besides better facilities, at least 80 percent of soldiers will get a two-week trip out of Iraq for two weeks for rest and relaxation and maybe even a trip home.

The military has set up shopping centers and even a Burger King at the airport, where about a dozen military and aid flights come and go each day. The same is happening at the other major bases around Iraq, including the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad, where the Coalition Provisional Authority is headquartered.

About a quarter of U.S. forces in Iraq live in the Baghdad area. The Army is building bases to consolidate troop presence throughout Iraq so that it can restore more land to Iraqi control.

Where soldiers still live in former Iraqi buildings, their ingenuity shines through. Scavenged furniture, plywood walls and clear plastic windows create a hunting cabin atmosphere.

Soldiers from the 1st Armored Division, based in the Green Zone, have converted Saddam Hussein’s bombed out Sajuda Palace into a brigade headquarters.

When soldiers captured it on April 7, 2003, the hallways were full of rubble and broken glass. At least two cruise missiles had hit the building, collapsing the swimming pool on the top floor of the four-story building and flooding the basement. Everything was covered in a thick gray coat of cement dust.

Soldiers cleared out the shattered glass and plaster in the relatively undamaged rooms and polished the marble floors. The basement was drained and became a mess hall. The walls sealing off rooms beyond repair are festooned with Christmas cards sent by American schoolchildren.

The elaborate plaster detailing has been cleaned so that the pastel pink and blue undertones now stand out. A 12-foot-high chandelier in the cupola at the palace’s entrance has been joined by a 15-foot-wide American flag.

The traditional Arab architecture is adorned with the coats of arms from the brigade’s subordinate battalions. A Cadillac that belonged to one of Saddam’s sons is parked out front with a custom license plate bearing the 1st Armored Division’s motto: “Strike Hard.”

Whether in a palace or the massive Camp Victory trailer park, soldiers arriving in recent weeks say they’re pleasantly surprised to have a roof over their heads and hot meals every day.

“This is definitely better than I thought it would be. I thought we’d be living in tents for the whole year,” said 2nd Lt. Peter Balke of Milwaukee, Wis.

Camp Victory, which covers hundreds of acres, makes an inviting target. One attack hit the mess hall, wounding three soldiers, but most of the rockets and mortars fired over the wall fall harmlessly in open fields.

Vuono has three of his 155-mm Paladin howitzers on duty 24 hours a day and a counter-fire radar system scanning the horizon. The radar can locate the source of hostile fire and the howitzers can return fire within minutes.

“We’ve already fired a few rounds for practice, so they know we’re here,” Vuono said.


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