QBLOG#15- Dreams

Q-Blog #15 Dreams

Dreams

Sometimes...
Days pass....thru the night.
I look in my dreams
for that shining light.

All my instincts ...
Catch me when I fall
in my dreams...
As I reach out from
the inside...

To stop myself from falling...
In my dream
of the day...
That I dreamt of
the night

That I found that shining light.
In my dream..
Of dreams.
In the night.

26 July 2003, Starbucks, Dallas, TX
Robert Quintana


Days quickly pass into nights here in Iraq. No day is different from the next, and yet, they move quickly. There has been a 100% increase in VBIED’s (Vehicle Born Improvised Explosive Device) over last month. That statistic was brought to home to me this morning as I was walking out of the DFAC. There was a group of soldiers in front of me. As part of the military uniform requirement, the pant part must go inside the boot. I looked down at their boots because I saw writing on the top of the boot near the calf. The writing was blood type and last name with last four digits of, I assume, their SS#. There is no other reason for this than to insure that if a leg is blown off in an attack, it can be easily identified with the dog tags on the person’s body. It could help save a leg, or a life.

We rarely have mortar attacks these days. The insurgents seem to be focusing on disrupting Iraqi civilian life. We have heard that military convoys remain targets as do some installations in northern Iraq. Taji, Mosul, Fallujah continue to have mortar attacks and are now under watch for chemical bombs. We have been alerted that it may be extended to the Baghdad area. The heat is rising on many fronts and we are trying to best prepare for it. Life does go on as best it can.

Last week I had the privilege of visiting one of our Imprest Funds at a LOG base site. An Imprest Fund is basically a mini PX run by the military in areas that are too small to support a full blown PX. Most of these sites are in more dangerous areas. The one I visited was right outside the gates of Camp Liberty. I was being kidded by several of my colleagues because when I was first asked about visiting this site, the image of mortars and constant firing of guns entered my mind. You are not able to enter one of these places without a “shooter”. That is, someone carrying a weapon. Three of us went. Rick Mora the General Manager, myself, and our military liaison, LTC Cobb, our shooter. It was an interesting adventure. The wall is right there. It surrounds you and you see it every direction you look. Tents are everywhere. Tanks, and Hummvees and cargo trucks are parked every which way. There is a different feeling here. It is not tense, but it is not relaxed. We walked in to the tent that held the Imprest site. It also held the gym, phone center, recreation center, and internet café. Soldiers were busy working out, communicating on the phone or PC or were just hanging out reading a paper back book or newspaper. In here, the atmosphere was very relaxed. The AAFES Imprest site was run by a soldier. The PX had very limited hours. Walking inside it reminded me of a mom and pop store back I frequented when I was a kid. Romero’s was the mom and pop store. It carried a little bit of everything, but mostly snacks. That is what this little store reminded me of. In many ways this little PX is an oasis in the desert of this camp that sits on the perimeter of danger. It is a place to get a candy bar and a soda and escape from the reality just outside these walls, outside this tent.

In our staff meeting today we learned that 27 people were killed in Iraq yesterday. Most of these were killed in the Baghdad area. Three were American soldiers. There are approximately 400 incidents a day in Iraq. An incident can be as little as a small arms attack or as big as a car bomb. Eight car bombs went off yesterday in the area surrounding the capital city. The writing on top of the boots came back to me. A constant reminder that this war is near and touches us...and it is not at all close to being over, and more will die. A pair of boots with a name, a number and blood type will be lost.

Mornings at the gym and the DFAC eating breakfast are still quiet times for me. I continue to see these young men and women working out or eating breakfast on their way in or out to patrols in the city. Baghdad. Pictures of traffic stopped and Hummvee’s in the median come to mind. I see young soldiers with their rifles out preparing to fire a shot if they feel they must. I can see the city in my mind as if I were in the Black Hawk and know where the dangerous areas are just by looking. I imagine how a VBIED went off last week and created a huge plume of black smoke and shook our trailers. The BLIMPS we have on the perimeter walls searching for electronic signals indicating IED’s and their transmission back to radar hill and on to the Howitzer’s; these are constant reminders of a war not yet won.

Yet, we are seeing a more mature environment. Our stores are managing inventories better. We opened a Seattle’s Best Coffee house and Cinnabon this week to the delight of the soldiers. AAFES in conjunction with MWR is showing movies for free in front of the PX 3 nights a week. We provide an escape from this war; from this environment, for the soldiers and for ourselves. It is not the merchandise or the food that the soldiers want. It is the feeling that they are not here. They are back in the U.S. some where. Some where, other than here at war. And so we dream dreams in the day and the night, of places we want to be and of people we yearn to see. We dream these dreams to stop ourselves from falling….down. We see the light and we find comfort and are able to spend another day here in Iraq.


Blessings and peace.

Robert