Division Street

It's Baghdad or bust with AV Guard

By DENNIS ANDERSON
Valley Press Editor

In this case, the editorial writer is rolling across the desert after the major shooting is over to tell the story of our local National Guard as they go out to heal the wounded and feed the hungry.

Weeks ago, before the war, it became apparent that this newspaper could send a journalist to cover "Operation Iraqi Freedom" as a reporter embedded with a combat unit. Because I'd done an overseas hitch as a Cold War grunt, the opportunity, or the "slot" as they say in military lingo, passed to me. And I was thrilled. And remain thrilled.

During the past extraordinary month, the might of the American military harnessed in the mission of ending one of the world's most loathsome tyrannies has been the dominant subject in the world. A world which looked on, yes, sometimes with shock, but mostly with awe.

I spent the majority of that month at a leafy, green, deceptively pastoral enclave called Camp Roberts, or "Camp Bob," to those who know it, love it and hate it all at the same time.

The barracks at "Camp Bob" are Pearl Harbor vintage and would be familiar to anyone who served in the Army when movies like "From Here to Eternity" or "No Time for Sergeants" filled the local Bijou in the days before the cineplex reigned; "See Here, Private Hargrove" was actually filmed there.

In other words, "Camp Bob" is a military museum, a post originally intended for five years' service during World War II, when a half million "Willies" and "Joes" passed through en route to beating Tojo and Hitler. Thousands more passed through on their way to the Korean War.

Most recently, Camp Bob has been the waiting room to hell for the National Guard troops from the Antelope Valley, Sacramento, Riverside and other parts of California. These are the stalwart troopers tasked for the next stage of "Operation Iraqi Freedom," the feeding-not-fighting (unless it's really necessary) stage.

"Why send them at all? Didn't we already win the war?" I am frequently asked.

The answer is, They have to go. It's still a very messy world neighborhood out there.

A little over a month ago, I believed my job as an "embedded journalist" would be to get on a "big iron bird" with these wonderful guys and follow them into the cauldron of war.

Instead, we trained. And trained. And trained. Nuclear-chemical-biological training took priority. After the 507th Maintenance Company got waxed and Jessica Lynch and Shoshana Johnson were taken POW after a wrong turn, map reading and GPS and compass work took on new urgency. Finally, handling of EPWs, or enemy prisoners of war - an exercise in active, practical paranoia.

The mission of the Antelope Valley troops assigned to 1498th Transport (The Big Awesome Truck Company) is a big one. If the war to vanquish Saddam and his thugs had gone differently, the mission of the AV Guard troops would have changed drastically.

In the old traditions of "symmetrical warfare," our tanks would have battled Iraqi tanks, like the campaigns of field marshals Bernard Law Montgomery and "Desert Fox" Erwin Rommel in North Africa 60 years ago.

The troops of the local Guard unit are "tank retrievers." They have a heavy equipment transporter truck, a 50-ton monster with 48 wheels, that can carry an M-1 Abrams tank to the battle front. The truck, with a heavily armed crew, also can go out on the battlefield and bring a battle-damaged tank and its evacuated crew home to safety, and shoot their way in and out while doing it. That is what makes our local warriors The Big Awesome Truck Company.

But the modern age is an age of "asymmetrical warfare." One example of asymmetrical warfare is the al-Qaida terrorists who used jetliners to topple the World Trade Center and blast a fiery hole in the Pentagon on 9-11. The terrorists used a low-tech hijacking to achieve a globally reprehensible massacre that they mistook for a high-tech victory.

Of course, they screwed up. What Osama bin Laden and his creepy crew did was in reality to sow the teeth of the dragon that is now devouring them. They feathered the eagle's wings and sharpened its talons.

That is why Iraqis, free for the first time in their own nation and lifetimes, are discovering the jubilation of tearing down a tyrant's statue. World Trade Center II was not victory, but the beginning of the end for the loathsome legions gathered under Osama's and Saddam's banners.

What's that got to do with the mission of the National Guard, with its contingent of statewide troops, about a third of whom come from our own Antelope Valley?

The Antelope Valley troops of the National Guard form the "second wave" into Iraq, joining such units as the 1st Armored Division ("Spearhead") and the 4th Infantry Division (the "Ivy Division"). Those units are moving through Kuwait now, driving the 300 miles of bad road to Baghdad to replace the battle-tested and weary troops of Audie Murphy's 3rd Infantry Division and the Marine Corps units that have performed so splendidly.

The Marines and 3rd Infantry, along with the jet aces of our Air Force and Navy carrier aviation task forces, have operated at surge for the past four weeks, disproving the TV weenie generals who said not enough troops had been committed.

Thank God we will never have to worry about Wesley Clark as president. Ex-president Bill Clinton's favorite pet general can go be president of Turner Network TV or some other harmless outlet.

While the Marines and 3rd Infantry prepare to rest, retool and refit, the California National Guard is sending its pride, its "jewel in the crown," the 1498th Transport, made up of troops from across California, many of them from our hometowns of Lancaster, Palmdale, California City, Quartz Hill and so forth.

This unit will take its fleet of nearly 100 "big awesome trucks," and it will deliver what is needed to heal a stricken, war-torn nation. The country of Iraq is liberated, but not settled.

It is remarkable that President George W. Bush, who campaigned as someone opposed to the U.S. as "world policeman," has grown to understand that we are our brother's keeper. And it took the jetliners of 9-11 to make us all realize that if we do not pull together to defend liberty, we will not continue to enjoy the fruits of liberty. The toxic protesters of the "Hollyweird" crowd are liberty freeloaders, living on pilfered fruit.

When the Cal Guard ships over to Iraq pretty soon, I will go with them. Probably as the "last embedded reporter," if not the oldest. Ted Koppel is older. Much older, I like to think. But I am not in the company of spring chickens. Many of our Guard troops are AARP eligible. They are lean, mean and seasoned like an old hickory that Andy Jackson would have wielded.

Some people call our Guard company the "Marine Corps Retirement Home" because it has so many leathernecks who joined the Guard rather than end their military service. There are also infantry grunts, paratroopers, a couple of Rangers and lots of great soldiers, old and young, men and women, Catholic, Buddhist, Protestant and Muslim. Great company to be in.

For my own realization, when people say to me, "Hey, by the time you get there the war will be over," I respond, "That's fine, and a good thing. War is bad."

My own dawning realization was that an enormous global media machine with mostly great reporters like David Bloom and Christiane Amanpour went and got the story of the war. But there is only one "great suburban newspaper," the Antelope Valley Press, out there to cover the story of our local heroes, the people from our neighborhood with the guts and glory to go out and save the world on short notice with their mortgages at risk.

The mission I decided to accept is to get the story of our guys, the guys a certain Airborne Ranger by the name of Maj. Patrick Frey referred to as "you wonderful knuckleheads who I've come to love."

As an older reporter who's not trying for the "oldest and boldest" trophy, I came to realize what every good journalist should be aware of on every story. The story is not about the reporter. The story is the story.

So, still on the bus, still "Bound for Baghdad or Bust," still waiting for a "tail number" on a "big iron bird," still ready to go. To go and find the story that concerns our community, our guys, our G.I. Joes and Janes, the splendid soldiers of "The Big Awesome Truck Company."