Part 3: Venturing ‘outside the wire’ in Baghdad

Moving forward, then backward
Deierlein did witness some encouraging signs of progress in Sadr City. Shortly after he arrived, he attended the opening of a gleaming new health clinic. He also saw 27 compact water units turned on that were capable of providing 405,000 liters of fresh water every day.

The trash problem even started to improve in Sadr City while Deierlein was there, in part because the Mahdi Army kept violence in check for a time, making it safe enough for garbage collectors to travel the streets and do their jobs.

In late June 2006, Deierlein met with vendors and talked with locals in one of Sadr City’s sprawling open-air markets. The market was teeming with life and abundance — rows of colorful fruits; sodas stacked up in impressive towers; live goats being slaughtered to provide fresh meat for customers. Deierlein felt upbeat after his conversations with people at the market went well.

A few days later, on July 1, 2006, a suicide car bombing in that very market killed more than 60 people. The scene was horrific — pools of blood in the street, people running and screaming in chaos. Deierlein was appalled to see how many women and children died in the bombing. And as the month progressed, senselessness continued to reign: More suicide bombings claimed even more lives at crowded outdoor markets in Deierlein’s assigned neighborhood.

At the same time, Army bureaucracy slowed even seemingly simple tasks. In July Deierlein found hundreds of displaced Shiite families huddled in Sadr City with nowhere to live. He rushed to secure blankets and other supplies for them, but was told again and again to fill out a spreadsheet, or a form, or a report — paperwork the Army insists is necessary to document transactions of goods paid for by taxpayers.

The level of paperwork in such a dire situation seemed excessive to Deierlein, and so did all the waiting around. He lost his temper with higher-ranking colonels and majors, adding a “sir” to the end of his outbursts but yelling regardless. After all, what did he have to lose? He didn’t have a military career ahead of him, and he wanted to get his hands on provisions that he knew the military had. It was hard to get them, though, because no one seemed to know how. He wrote about the experience in one of his e-mail updates home:

“I felt like I was in a bad ‘Who’s on First’ skit while trying to find out who actually could help me get food, clothes and shelter for 2,000 homeless I had found in Sadr. … I even got in trouble for e-mailing the Division Officer in charge of Humanitarian Aid.  It is in his job description and part of his title on his business card and even he didn’t know how to actually (get) access to the goods. That is what happens when you have 100 percent turnover in an organization every 12 months for three years.”

After this incident, Deierlein added blankets to the list of items he requested from his friends and family back in the States.

His e-mail recipients didn’t disappoint, and their habit of forwarding Deierlein’s messages along to other people they knew served as a force multiplier. The little grassroots charity started providing stacks of boxes filled with supplies for Iraqi children and families, and Deierlein and his fellow soldiers were glad to distribute them. It was something they could control.

Making plans
By August 2006, Deierlein was getting excited about his two-week mid-tour vacation break, which was coming up in October. He couldn’t wait to see his wife, Hiwot. He was in fantastic shape — doing 86 sit-ups in two minutes and completing 4-mile runs in well under 30 minutes — and he had signed up to run a 10-mile race on Oct. 8. He also planned to get in a round of golf.

Deierlein absolutely loved motivational quotes. As he often did in his monthly updates, he closed his Aug. 28 e-mail message with one:

ATTITUDE
By Charles Swindoll

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. … The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. ... We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. ... I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.

MORE FROM CHARITY BEGINS AT WAR

Charity Begins at War Section Front

Part 1: From executive suite to Baghdad Journal: Called back to active duty — ‘No joke’ Day 2: Minimal training for a huge task Journal: Readying for ‘very dangerous job’ Part 3: Venturing ‘outside the wire’ Journal: ‘ThunderCat6’ arrives in Baghdad Part 4: It all comes back to garbage Journal: Goodbye Baghdad; hello bed rest Part 5: Charitable spirit survives Journal: A new foundation Charity Begins at War Section Front   Add Charity Begins at War headlines to your news reader: