A letter from local doctor serving in Iraq

Published 10:06 am Saturday, April 26, 2008

By Dr. Roger Ludwig

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Roger Ludwig, aka “Mota” to his fellow 123rd Redhawks, is a physician and senior aviation medical examiner at The Doctors Clinic in Poulsbo, member of the Poulsbo Rotary Club, American Legion and a part of the 142nd Fighter Wing, 142nd Medical Group and 123rd Redhawk Fighter Squadron of the Oregon Air National Guard.

He was called to duty in November to serve as a flight surgeon at Camp Sather, the Air National Guard’s Emergency Medical Station located at Baghdad International Airport. He sent this letter Dec. 18 to share with the community. Because of its length and the space limitations, it has been slightly edited.)

Hello to all my friends and family,

I figured it was about time for an update, I have been here a little over a month now, time is moving fast and yet it seems like I have been here forever. I really feel for our Army and Marine soldiers that are here 12-15 months… god bless ‘em. First off, how things are going over here in the desert? I don’t know if you care for an opinion, but here is a knowledgeable one.

The number one concern on most Americans’ minds? Security and success in the Baghdad area …

The answer to those concerns is that things are amazingly quiet around here.

We have had multiple alarm conditions but they have all been false alarms. We have a phalanx radar-guided gun system just outside of the clinic. They are scattered around all the bases here to give us a protective shield from incoming rockets. They are automated but manned fulltime. They trigger most alarms automatically and they will go off at the slightest hint of a threat. Everyone hits the deck and jumps for cover when the alarm goes off.

This happened during Thanksgiving meal, scared the bejeesus out of us. We laid there on the floor under the tables thinking to ourselves what idiots we were for gathering in a building that would certainly be ground target #1 for insurgents on Thanksgiving – the dining hall. It all turned out well and after a few minutes we got the all clear, no attack occurred, but it certainly ruined the meal. I left as soon as possible before I got to eat much turkey, lost my stomach for it. Good thing that my wife Michele’s family made Thanksgiving for me just before I left for Iraq, Thanks!

The best news is that we have not had a single mortar or rocket attack into the compound since I have been here. Sort of anti-climatic, but you will get no gripes from me. That is a major situation change as three to four months ago, those attacks were frequent. We carry our weapons whenever we are outside of the clinic. It is a wise precaution while walking around the base like to go to the gym, the D-FAC (dining facility) or anywhere else.

As an officer, I wear a shoulder holster with my 9mm Baretta, but we don’t wear our body armor or helmets unless we are traveling between bases, which are all connected by gates and security checkpoints. We never leave unsecured areas like the Army patrols do. I have a photo of the sign leading to “Route Irish” which is the famously dangerous road between the airfield and downtown Baghdad. Even that road has been quiet, but I have no cause to be on it so I still stay away. I took a trip to the U.S. Embassy Annex which is here near the airfield; we wore our body armor until we got into the compound… now that was some serious security in that place. It is housed in Saddam Hussein’s private airfield palace of unbelievable opulence.

The surge in Baghdad proper has really worked. All the criticism from the political naysayers needs to be readdressed because the surge has been extremely effective. Being here and getting to talk with Iraqi civilians, U.S. Delta Forces, Iraqi Special Forces and U.S. Air Force OSI guys, etc., you get a good feel for what is really happening in the area. As a doc, they all come through here for various levels of care, and I get to talk with them extensively about the changing climate in Iraq. The surge has provided so much extra security for the people of Baghdad that the markets are back up and running, restaurants are open, people are eating at their sidewalk cafes and smoking their hookah pipes at the roadside shops.

The local people are saying that they feel so much safer now, and that they truly believe the U.S. will actually stay long enough to see this through. With that reassurance, they are changing their own city for the better. Now they are turning in the bad guys which they define as anyone new to their neighborhood, known insurgents or anyone with suspicious activity. That new Intel gets handed to our special ops or OSI or Iraqi Special Forces and the bad guys are cleared out.

All along, it has been all about security and safety for the Iraqi civilians. They wouldn’t help because they knew they would be targeted and that nobody was there to protect them. These people simply needed to know that we would protect them and their families if they assisted with identifying the troublemakers.

There is certainly a whole lot more optimism here than there was back home. The hope of this turning out well for the people of Iraq. And I don’t mean optimism from the U.S. military stationed here – I mean from the local Iraqi’s themselves.

The ethnic disputes are still going on, and that has been the majority of the fighting in recent weeks, but the Iraqi Special Forces are starting to get a handle on that, too, and removing the leaders and instigators of that violence. Violence continues in various parts of the country; a vast majority of the trauma that I saw at Balad hospital were civilians.

The economics are back in full swing here, and that is keeping the people occupied and busy. They are focusing on getting their lives back in order and not worrying about how they will feed their families or whether their home was about to be taken over by insurgents. The police force has been quite corrupt and infiltrated by insurgents. They have continued to try and stir up ethnic violence, but even those problems are improving as the instigators are rooted out of the police forces.

The IEDs that are so lethal to our convoys and armored vehicles are Iranian in design. It is horrific what those things do to our soldiers. The front of the explosive is a copper plate, when the IED goes off it literally melts the copper and shoots melted pieces of it in the direction of the blast. It is so potent that it melts and rips through even our heavily-armored vehicles and just shreds whatever is in the line of fire. We just medevac’d an Iraqi interpreter that had both of his legs severed by one of those things. That same explosion killed another Iraqi and wounded one of our soldiers. This is nothing new; these things have been killing our guys for many months. Thank goodness that rather than trying to defeat these IEDs (which are getting more and more sophisticated), we are defeating the people that are setting them by supporting the local Iraqi’s.

That is the answer to winning this insurgency. The Iranians that are being sent over the border into Iraq are special forces and as of late are getting their arsses kicked. The Iraqi’s have had enough of the Iranian interference and are killing and reporting Iranian incursions. None of this is classified, but I haven’t been reading much about it in the American news yet, it is trickling home through the soldiers families and friends, much like this note.

So, enough of my diatribe about where things are in the ground war over here, but I know many of you have been asking for my view of things, so that is why I spent so much time talking about it.

More good new is that the EMEDS clinic has been quiet. I am the Chief of Medical Services here. The duties keep me busy, but most of our time is directed at patient care. Most of the clinic trauma rolls in at night, and even that has been minimal. We are mostly seeing injuries and illnesses from our troops in and around the bases performing their regular duties. We have had some very interesting cases and medevacs but the airfield and Sather Air Base has become one of the safest places in the region. I haven’t had a chance to do any flying yet, staying too busy in the clinic. I might get in a few Blackhawk flights and I have been approved to fly some C-130 Hercules transport missions with the newly formed Iraqi Air Force. They were recently given three Hercs to start flying. The missions include mixed Iraqi and U.S. crews and are typically for transporting VIPs, supplies or medevac.

Life here on base is somewhat of a replay of the movie “Ground Hog Day” for those of you that have seen it. Every day is like a repeat of the day before and it never seems to change much. We try to stay entertained with sports and activities. We have had a few good USO shows. I got to meet some great golfers, Tom Watson and Peter Lehman. We had a funny stand up comedy routine by Carlos Mencina that still has me laughing. Santa was here the other day, Redskin cheerleaders, stuff like that.

Christmas will be quiet here in Iraq. I will of course be working in the EMEDS and hopefully it will be mellow enough for most of the crew to have some quiet time to themselves and be able to enjoy a nice meal.

Looking forward to getting back to a normal life; I am now halfway done. This has been a rewarding experience, I really feel like I have contributed to my country and its brave fighting men and women. God bless you all and keep the faith.