Sep/090
Beyond death tolls and politics
AMANDA PALLESCHI
Of the Patriot-News
There's air conditioning at the base camp in Taji, Iraq, but it's so hot outside, it feels like someone poured a bucket of sand over your head and then stuck it in an oven. There's wireless Internet access, but the connection is spotty.
It's safer in Taji now than when the war began in 2003, safer than last year and the year before that. But the threat of homemade bombs still looms near Taji. And the members of the Pennsylvania National Guard's 56th Stryker Brigade are still very much in harm's way.
If you listen to Hummelstown native Dan Shakal talk about his experiences documenting life on the base in Taji, following the 56th Stryker Brigade -- the only Stryker brigade in the National Guard or Army Reserve -- you begin to understand: There are many paradoxes in the life of an American soldier in 2009's Iraq that casualty tallies and promises from politicians can't quite capture.
Shakal spends his days following the unit around Taji and nine surrounding support bases. The day-to-day life he sees now is much different from the life he saw on previous freelance trips, in 2003 and 2004. Missions used to involve weapons sweeps and metal detectors. Nighttime meant hearing mortar fire and suicide bombers in the distance.
Now, gunfire noise is occasional, and missions are grant ceremonies for small business owners, and political discussions with clergy members.
"It used to be: Just kick down a door and go in and throw people outside and search the house," Shakal said in an interview from a Guard satellite phone.
"Now, you pretty much go in, real quiet, knock on the door and ask politely if you can look inside."
Still, Shakal said, the threat of injury looms large for the Stryker unit, as does the soldiers expected return date in September.
"Even though they are not shooting mortars and rockets, improvised explosive devices are everywhere. They are a huge threat," Shakal said.
"A lot of the unit members just want to go," he said. "They are so close to the end. They don't want to get hurt. They just want to leave and let the Iraqi army take care of their country."
Since the 4,000-member brigade deployed in January, it's had two deaths and at least 26 injuries. While the soldiers Shakal meets seem as eager to complete their mission as they are to return to the States, the Iraqis he meets seem equally torn: "Most of them don't like us being here, but they are also afraid of us leaving," he said.
Shakal said he does this "just for fun" -- because he thinks "no one covers these guys enough."
He talks politics and plays basketball with the troops to pass the time, with a camera at the ready. He's having fun, despite the spotty Internet and the crippling heat and the threat of homemade bombs detonating beneath his boots, he said.
There are free concerts on the base, and the soldiers can use the Internet to make phone calls to people back home.
"Pretty much any way you could do stuff back home, you could do it here," Shakal said.
INFOBOX:
THE PHOTOGRAPHER Freelance photographer Daniel Shakal has been documenting the lives of the members of the 56th Stryker Brigade fromTaji, Iraq, since June 16. When the Iraq war began in 2003, Shakal bought a plane ticket to Istanbul, Turkey, and took cabs from there to Kurdistan and northern Iraq. He had no set assignment, just a desire to document the war.
"I just started meeting people and living in different hotels. I thought these guys deserved more coverage," he said. " I pay for everything myself, but it works out for me. I just do this for fun." He returned to Iraq in 2004 and was embedded with a field artillery unit. His work has previously appeared in Stuff magazine.
THE HERO: In June, 1st Lt. Reed Preece, right, received the Bronze Star with valor. Preece, 25, of Gettysburg, assisted other wounded soldiers after a Stryker vehicle was hit by an armor-piercing bomb. Preece was the last one out of the Stryker truck, and his efforts helped capture the bomb's triggerman, according to a report in the newspaper Stars and Stripes.
Two other members of Stryker Brigade received Purple Hearts: Pfc. Mitchell Baldwin, 19, of Chambersburg, and Pfc.Brian Miller of Carlisle. Both were treated atWalter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for their injuries.
THE FALLEN: Two Stryker Brigade soldiers have been killed in Iraq: Chad Edmundson, 20, of Williamsburg, above left, was fatally wounded by a bomb while he was on walking patrol in May. The bomb wounded three other soldiers and 16 civilians.Staff Sgt. Mark C. Baum, 32, of Quakertown, Bucks County, was fatally shot Feb. 21 in Mushada while helping his unit deal with a roadside bomb.
THE BLOGGER: Capt . Ed Shank of Harrisburg, a former high school teacher, interviews an Iraqi sheik in Taji. Shank was there to see how the people in the village were doing, and he handed out toys to children. Shank blogs at PennLive.com: blog.pennlive.com/iraq
THE REPORTER: WITFFM reporter Scott Detrow, 24, arrived in Taji on July 18 to embed with the 56th Stryker Brigade. He will return to the States Aug. 3. He blogs at www.witf.org/news/impact- of-war. His next report will air on Monday onWITF's " Morning Edition," 5-9 a. m. on 89.5 or 93.3 FM.
