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Dragon Soup- a milblog

Dragon Soup Blog: Get yourself connected

by

Major Kirk

Major Kirk Luedeke

[Ed. note: It’s been a while, but we are pleased to welcome our milblogger, Major Kirk, back to the pages of GraniteGrok. See his prior dispatches from Iraq here…]

I just reached a small personal milestone- my 180th day home since the 4th Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division- Task Force Dragon- redeployed to Fort Riley from the Rashid District in Southern Baghdad. Life has been great for me, but hit me the other day that I really didn’t have a lot of visibility on what’s been going on in the old Iraqi neighborhoods since we departed in April.

It took a recent 60 Minutes segment by Lesley Stahl on CBS about the March and April battle for Sadr City- one that occurred out of our sector, but happened while we were still in Baghdad and in the process of handing over responsibility for Rashid to our counterparts- the 1st “Raider” Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division. The story is extremely well done and if you haven’t seen it, take a look (I’ve posted the link below).

The segment brought back a lot of memories for me. We saw some spillover in attacks directed at us by renegade Shia special groups criminals as a result of the fighting to our east across the Tigris. In fact, on the very night he arrived by Chinook helicopter my public affairs counterpart was standing next to my desk when a 107mm rocket screamed over the FOB Falcon wall and landed close to our brigade headquarters building. It exploded, violently spraying the structure with lethal shrapnel, shattering windows and shaking the foundation. Nobody was killed that night and there were only a few minor injuries, but the attack served as a wakeup call for all of us- we were short but our tour wasn’t over.

“Wasted away again in Mortaritaville,” I later deadpanned to my fellow PAO Dave (no, I wasn’t calm and collected enough to do it in the heat of the moment), and unfortunately for us, there would be other attacks to come at Falcon. A few days later, we would even get trapped in the Green Zone for several hours, compliments of some of the mortar and rocket attacks from Sadr City which forced the U.S. to take the action depicted on 60 Minutes.

When we left Iraq in late April, the battle had already started to move away from our collective consciousness, so seeing that story some six months later reminded me about how disconnected I’ve become from the events and life that I spent 430 days experiencing in 2007-08.

Being there, I was immersed in a never-ending news cycle. Even if my focus was on monitoring the various events and stories coming out of our area or Iraq/Afghanistan, I had a steady pulse on news from around the world as well. Never in my life have I felt more connected than I did in my job while deployed to Iraq.

So, fast forward to October 2008;

 

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Dragon Soup: We’re Going Home!

by

Major Kirk

Major Kirk Luedeke

I’ve looked forward to this moment for a long time- the final Dragon Soup entry written while deployed to Iraq. I’ve enjoyed sending the occasional word from Baghdad, but after 14 months here, it is time for the Soldiers of Task Force Dragon to return home to Fort Riley, Kansas.

I decided to take a moment to post a summary of what our brigade accomplished as the second “surge” brigade. This by no means covers all of it, and I know that I’m probably leaving out some key contributions and events somewhere along the way.

So, read on and I ask you to think about the fact that we are just one of 10 brigades in Baghdad alone who contributed to Iraq’s stability and security during the surge. There are thousands of Soldiers just like ours who went out into the streets and neighborhoods and made a lasting contribution to the populace.

Dragon Brigade

Operational Summary.

The Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division performed with extraordinary heroism and gallantry and distinguished themselves while defeating Anti-Coalition Forces and providing security to the citizens of Baghdad.  Initially tasked to reduce the rampant sectarian violence by fifty percent, the Dragon Brigade reduced instances of murder, direct and indirect fire and improvised explosive device attacks by a whopping ninety-two percent from early 2007 levels by the end of February 2008. Although enemy attacks spiked again in March as a result of increased activity by special groups criminals, the 155 total attacks which occurred for the month were still well below the total of 928 for May 07.

The Brigade destroyed 15 of twenty known insurgent cells operating in its operational environment.  Its operations resulted in the capture of 1,739 members of Anti-Coalition Forces with 1,341 ACF members (77% of those captured) sent to long term confinement. It succeeded in dismantling the ACF leadership structure by detaining 181 Named Targets, with 69 of those being brigade and battalion High Value Individuals.  The brigade captured 855 small arms and machine guns; 34 mortars w/ 1,541 rounds of ammunition; 58 rocket launchers and rail systems w/ 323 rounds of ammunition and 3,919 lbs of military and home made explosives. The hard won improvement in the security situation allowed the brigade to provide essential services, facilitate economic growth and allowed the reconciliation process to flourish. 

The Brigade propelled this growth by completing 246 essential services projects worth $48.1 million.  When the brigade left Iraq it was managing an additional 90 projects worth $55.5 and facilitating 123 planned projects valued at $55.7 million.  To foster small businesses the brigade distributed 1,421 micro-grants valued at $3.9 million dollars to stimulate the local businesses.  It grew the number of markets in its operational environment to 35 containing 4,627 shops.  The capacity of the strategic Doura Market was increased from only 30 functioning shops to 651. 

The Brigade led the way in the reconciliation process by establishing the foremost Sons of Iraq programs in Baghdad.  By leveraging numerous contacts with key tribal sheikhs and local leaders the brigade recruited 8,574 Sons of Iraq and employed them with 53 contracts worth $9.8 million.  The Sons of Iraq program contributed to reconciliation by employing military age males to provide security in local areas.  These SoIs were groomed for eventual transition to the Iraqi Security Forces, in civic works programs or for vocational training.  The brigade also facilitated the establishment of eight neighborhood reconciliation committees that signed six reconciliation agreements pledging bridge sectarian differences and to provide Iraqi solutions to Iraqi problems.

 

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Must See TV: Dr. Muoyad on “Nightline”

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Dr. Muoyad, Col. Gibbs with a homemade Iraqi-style pizza. Recall that in a prior post, GraniteGrok’s milblogger, Maj Kirk, wrote of Dr. Muoyad, who he calls a "true Iraqi patriot": Muoyad, a member of the sizeable Sunni Jubori clan,  is a cardiologist by trade, a medical doctor who once successfully treated one of Saddam Hussein’s sons (Uday) … Read more

Dragon Soup: Dr. Muoyad- True Iraqi patriot & other “Soup Bones” and Observations from the front

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Dr. Muoad, Col Gibbs

Dr. Muoyad, Col. Gibbs with a homemade Iraqi-style pizza. It’s topped with chicken, and Dr. Muoyad hopes to open Dora’s first-ever pizzeria (to go along with a thriving hamburger joint) on Airplane Road in the next 30 days.

If you’ve closely followed the events in Iraq since the troop surge in 2007, then you’ve no doubt heard the term ‘counterinsurgency’ or the military acronym ‘COIN’ and how our forces have adapted to the complex and challenging environment in Iraq by applying the various COIN principles.

Getting to know the local leaders is critical to success here; finding out who the real men of influence, the neighborhood power brokers and getting them on board has been an essential element of Task Force Dragon’s ability to get past the dark days of early and mid-2007 when we averaged more than 30 attacks per day against our Soldiers and were in the fight of our lives (as of the 13th of Feb., we’ve not had 30 attacks total for the month yet).

While every neighborhood in the Rashid Security District is distinct and different, one common denominator is that the local tribal and religious leaders have a major say as to whether progress will take root there by how actively they work with our troops and the various elements of the local and national-level Government of Iraq (GoI) functionaries to improve quality of life.

Dr. Muoyad Muslah Hamid al-Jubori is one such leader who has stepped from the shadows of the fear and intimidation campaigns that al Qaeda waged in the predominantly Sunni neighborhoods which comprise Dora, on the eastern side of Highway 8, nestled along the banks of the Tigris River as it snakes it way southward and east through Baghdad’s warrens of buildings and homes.

Muoyad, a member of the sizeable Sunni Jubori clan,  is a cardiologist by trade, a medical doctor who once successfully treated one of Saddam Hussein’s sons (Uday) for a gunshot wound during one of the several attempts made on the eldest Hussein’s life before he was killed by U.S. forces in July 2003.

He has lived in Dora for much of his life, and while it took us awhile to discover Muoyad’s influence and abilities as a uniter, not a divider of his people, he has become a symbol of the progress being made in his neighborhood.

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Dragon Soup: Front page of USA Today reports: 75% of Baghdad Secure

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Colonel Ricky Gibbs, commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
Colonel Ricky Gibbs, commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, talks to Iraqi children in the Masafee neighborhood of East Rashid, Baghdad during a recent visit there. (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Kirk Luedeke, 4IBCT Public Affairs)

 
Kudos to USA Today reporter Jim Michaels, whose front page story in the Jan. 18-20 edition of the paper reports that 75% of Baghdad’s neighborhoods are secure as opposed to just 8% exactly one year earlier.
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This is an important story because it quantifies the progress that has been gaining momentum in mainstream media reporting since General David Petraeus issued his Iraq War progress report to the House and Senate back in September.
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My boss, Colonel Ricky Gibbs, commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division stationed here in Southern Baghdad, was interviewed for the story and I sat in on the telephonic interview he conducted with Michaels. Here are some points that didn’t make the final cut in the story, but provide further context for Michaels’ fair and accurate reporting:

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Oh Come All Ye Faithful

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BAGHDAD – An altar boy eagerly rings a bell to celebrate Christmas at the conclusion of mass held at the St. John’s Chaldean Church in Doura. After receiving the sacrament, the congregation’s children were treated to a visit by Santa Claus. (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Kirk Luedeke, 4IBCT, 1ID) Words cannot express how I … Read more

Dragon Soup– Baghdad’s Christians: An island in the sea of Islam (Part 3 of 3)

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Baghdad Christmas
PHOTO (by author): Christmas trees are alight just outside the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division Tactical Operations Center (TOC) on Forward Operating Base Falcon, Baghdad in 2007.
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[Blogger’s note to the readers]
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It is Christmas Eve here in Baghdad as I write this.
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Tomorrow, I will go to Christmas mass at the St. John’s Church in Dora. What could be more perfect than sharing in the celebration of Christ’s birth in the middle of what was once a war-torn neighborhood? A place overrun with fanatics who would shoot a person dead on the street because she didn’t have on a hijjab, the traditional head covering worn by Muslim women?
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This is the final installment of my series on Christians in Baghdad. As you look back on the work as a whole, understand that this is just a snapshot of what I have personally seen and experienced in one part of Baghdad. The situation in Dora and the Rashid District is not a template that can be applied to Christians everywhere else in Iraq. But in reading these dispatches, I hope that you can at least come to appreciate that like many Iraqis, be they Sunni, Shia or Kurd- the Christians have done their share of suffering in this war. Yet at the same time, this year, more than any other, is a time for celebration and hope.
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This is why I can feel God’s presence here, at this most holy of times for our faith, as we witness firsthand Christians returning to neighborhoods they had fled in terror, and their Muslim neighbors reaching out to embrace them. If that is not a sign of the Lord at work, then I don’t know what is.
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-Major Kirk
Forward Operating Base Falcon
Baghdad
Dec. 24, 2007

A light shines in the darkness

They came from all over Baghdad to see Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni conduct mass at the St. John’s Chaldean Church in Dora Nov. 15.
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Christian families came not only from the immediate neighborhoods in southern Baghdad, but from other locales after having left their homes because of the Al Qaeda and other Muslim extremists groups’ threats and intimidation.
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Dragon Soup– Baghdad’s Christians: An island in the sea of Islam (Part 2 of 3)

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Major Kirk here- back with the second part of my series on Christians in south Baghdad. (Part 1 here) The truth is- I can’t tell the story in just two parts, so here is the penultimate chapter in my tale, with the final installment to come before you open presents on Christmas morning.
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Luedeke in Baghdad Church
The author standing in Baghdad Church

L.A. Times and sleight-of-hand reporting

The L. A. Times correspondent arrived several days after the invitation and we immediately got her out on the ground with the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment’s Destroyer Company, led by Idaho native Capt. Andy Koontz and 1st Sgt. Todd Hood, a fellow Boston Red Sox fan from Andover, Conn. The Destroyers are the “weapons” company of the light infantry battalion out of Fort Carson, Colo., and they were responsible for securing the largest neighborhood of Christians in southern Baghdad.
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We first took the reporter to the Mara Shmuni Church, an Assyrian Catholic Church in north Dora. The church’s doors were not open, but she spoke to the guards. They were candid and honest with her. None of them were from the same neighborhood the church was located in, but they spoke openly about how many Christians from their neighborhood of South Dora (Saha and Mechanix) had been driven out by Shiite and Sunni extremists. The also told her that the priests of the Mara Shmuni Church had left Baghdad for a bigger and more secure congregation and Church community in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
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We next went to Muhalla 808, which is said to have the largest concentrated population of Christians in Baghdad. What immediately stood out to me about the neighborhood was the high blast walls surrounding the area and limiting the access points, but even more important was that unlike some areas of Baghdad, these streets were clean and free of trash and debris. It was a sign of the kind of neighborhood that was not only at peace from a lot of the fighting taking place just several streets to the south- southwest, but that its citizens had a measure of pride in their muhalla (neighborhood).
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Capt. Koontz took us to a house owned by a Christian family. We went inside and met with the residents, a middle aged woman and her elderly father. They were a fascinating pair- both were Assyrian Christians who spoke fluent English, and the father had been a clerk in the British Army during the Second World War. 
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Dragon Soup– Baghdad’s Christians: An island in the sea of Islam (Part 1 of 2)

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Major Kirk here with another edition of Dragon Soup…
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COP Blackfoot
Babel Pontifical College (seminary) which became Coalition Outpost Amanche in March ’07 but is now known as COP Blackfoot
Christmastime in the Granite State…I don’t know about you, but some of the happiest times of my life have been spent celebrating the holidays in New Hampshire. I can’t help but miss the snow-covered forests and mountains, ice skating and playing hockey on the frozen ponds, and of course, all of the sights, sounds and smells of the Holiday Season back home (mmm…egg nog!). Try as we might here at Forward Operating Base Falcon, no matter how many decorations we put up, or gift boxes we receive from family, friends and the so many great citizens who support the troops, it just isn’t quite right.
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Thinking about Christmas got me thinking about religion and the origin of this important holiday in our culture, and I figured that now was a great time to talk to you about those Iraqi people who share in the Christian faith, and what the past, present and a possible future holds for them as this nation tries to recover from a devastating war that approaches its fifth year in spring.

Christians of Iraq

As you know, millions of Christians all over our great nation and in countries around the world are gathering together to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It would probably come as a surprise to many Americans that even in the Middle East and here in Baghdad that there are Christian families preparing to do the same, even though Iraq is still caught in the grip of war.
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I was pretty ignorant of the plight of Iraq’s Christians until my unit got to Baghdad earlier this year. My first experience of knowing about Christians living here came when one of our battalions, the 1-4 CAV, moved into an abandoned seminary in our area, where they set up a coalition outpost in late March.
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Dragon Soup— Check this out…

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MRAP vehicle going through the paces . All- This link opens up to the USA Today feature on the new MRAP vehicle- my recent PAO project here in Baghdad. Although I’m not in any of the stories, features or video, I worked closely with reporter and photographer to make all of the footage taken in … Read more

Dragon Soup– A Blog of War

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Major Kirk
This is the author at the Crossed Sabers monument in downtown Baghdad. Just about every Soldier who comes here wants to have their picture taken at the site where Saddam Hussein used to watch his military forces conduct martial parades.
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My name is Major Kirk Luedeke, and I’m blogging with my fellow Granite Staters, from Forward Operating Base Falcon in Southern Baghdad.
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This is the first of what I hope will be a regular companion piece to Doug’s and Skip’s terrific blog. The blogosphere continues to expand and explode, and it is a distinct honor that granitegrok.com has asked me to become a contributor to this forum. I hope that you will all come away with a better understanding of what is happening in our little slice of Iraqi paradise when all is said and done.
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As a U.S. Army brigade Public Affairs Officer, I will state up front and for the record that the content of this blog will consist of facts, observations and personal opinions based on firsthand experiences here. I am in no way speaking for the Army or the U.S. government. I welcome anyone who has questions or wants to engage in additional discourse to contact me via email at kirkaluedeke(at)yahoo(dot)com.
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Although not born in New Hampshire, I spent my formative years growing up in Hudson, where I graduated from high school in 1990. I can’t claim the state as my birthright, but I will always consider myself a son of the Granite State. I love New Hampshire and it is my dream to one day return and settle permanently when my military career is over.
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I’m currently assigned to the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, the “Dragon Brigade,” out of Fort Riley, Kansas. I’m on my second tour of duty at Riley, which is just west of Manhattan, Ks. or “the Little Apple” as the locals call it. I met my wife during my first stint at Riley in the mid-90’s, and thought that returning there would be good for my family should I be deployed to the Middle East again. It turned out to be the right call, and we’re fortunate that her mom is right there in Manhattan- it helps alleviate some of the stresses associated with long deployments.
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Announcing “Dragon Soup”– GraniteGrok welcomes milblogger to the fold!

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Major Kirk
Major Kirk Luedeke
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Skip and I are honored to be able to offer ‘Grok readers a very special addition to our team of contributors: Major Kirk Luedeke. Regular readers might recall that we posted a letter he had written to his mother in which he reported on some of the good news happening on the ground in and around Baghdad. That is because he is, in fact, there right now, helping the US win the new world war against radical Islam. After we published the piece, and an exchange of emails, "Major Kirk", a Public Affairs Officer in the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division– The Dragon Brigade, currently on active duty in Baghdad, Iraq, has agreed to do some Blogging for us, or, as it is called, "MilBlogging."
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Starting tomorrow, the first of his reports straight from the battlezone will appear. We have left the subject matter entirely up to the Major, and asked him to write at HIS convenience, given the importance of his daily mission. That being said, we encourage all of our readers to feel free to either email us with questions or topics that you might like Major Kirk to write about or simply drop them in the "comments" area– we are sure he will try to accomodate as much as possible.
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I know I speak for everybody hanging out here at the ‘Grok when I thank the Major for offering to share his thoughts with us, and above all, for his service in our armed forces….

WELCOME ABOARD, MAJOR LUEDEKE!!

Check out Major Kirk’s bio. As you can see, he is the real deal. It is reassuring to know that our Nation has such fine people defending us:

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