Part 4: In the end, it all comes back to garbage

Unfortunately, as more foreign fighters enter the city, more (very) well-trained snipers are out and about with devastating effect.
— Excerpt from an e-mail update written by Tom Deierlein on Oct. 20, 2006

Laura T. Coffey Contributing editor • E-mail

Collecting garbage is one of the most dangerous jobs in Baghdad.

Nearly 500 garbage collectors have been killed since the Iraq war began. Many are young. Some are just teenagers.

They don’t empty garbage cans. Instead, they shovel loose trash and debris into garbage trucks. All the unbundled, discarded refuse wreaks havoc on Baghdad’s sewage system, clogging pipes and creating putrid pools of raw sewage on the streets, even in more affluent neighborhoods.

Garbage was one of the most vexing problems facing Capt. Tom Deierlein and his fellow soldiers.

In Adhamiya — a neighborhood that recently made headlines when a U.S. military brigade began building a 3-mile-long concrete wall around it — garbage workers faced such great danger that many wouldn’t go there at all. They could be shot by extremists for uncovering roadside bombs hidden in the piles of garbage, or simply for receiving their paychecks from U.S.-led forces.

“Garbage was six or seven feet high in some places,” recalled Capt. Drew Corbin, Deierlein’s friend. “It was as if New York had gone on strike.”

The rotting waste presented enormous dangers not just for Iraqi trash collectors and for local residents exposed to the risk of disease, but for U.S. troops. Corbin said many of his unit’s civil affairs missions in Baghdad were connected in some way to the city’s garbage problem.

“If we didn’t pick up the garbage, then al-Qaida would put explosives in the garbage to kill us,” he said. “And if the streets are full of trash, the Iraqi people are going to be upset and blame us. … Everything is linked.”

To get control of the situation in the city’s most volatile areas, U.S. and Iraqi forces began conducting an operation called “Together Forward” in the summer of 2006. In an e-mail message to his friends and family, Deierlein wrote that the effort made him “SO HAPPY.”

Tom’s Journal Shot while ‘minding my own business’ “BAM!! I heard a loud explosion and was thrown backward onto the ground.”

“The basic goal was to seal off and rapidly clean up some of the worst hotspots in Baghdad. The 172nd Stryker Brigade would cordon off (seal off) an entire district of Baghdad for two weeks or so and search house by house and building by building to clean out weapons and bad guys. Then we Civil Affairs guys would follow up and work with local government on some rapid/quick-impact projects, medium-term development projects and of course long-term projects like economic development. The main thing was to re-establish security and then turn it over to Iraqi forces to continue enforcement of rule of law. … We had also hired about a dozen contractors to clean up the trash and debris in the streets while we tried to get the local civil servants to fix and restart their trash service. This was a main effort in the new Battle for Baghdad.”

U.S. troops swarmed Adhamiya as part of this operation. They also distributed food bags and water in early September 2006 to poor Sunni families in the area.

Under fire
On Sept. 9, just days after the humanitarian-aid mission in the area, Corbin got word that garbage collectors who dared to enter Adhamiya had come under gunfire. Two workers fled on foot and ran to the local District Council offices, where they found Corbin and frantically asked for help. They left their garbage truck, a bullet-ridden car and their shovels behind when they ran off. 

Courtesy of Drew Corbin This photo, taken moments before a sniper shot Tom Deierlein, shows a car damaged in the attack on garbage collectors in Adhamiya on Sept. 9, 2006. Deierlein is standing with his back to the camera in the far left corner of the frame.

Corbin organized a patrol of more than a dozen soldiers to head out to the scene, collect the abandoned equipment and gather information about the shooters. Deierlein went along in one of the four Humvees to help out.

They didn’t realize they were traveling straight to an especially dangerous street in Adhamiya — a thoroughfare with a heavy al-Qaida presence, Corbin later learned from an intelligence officer. When they arrived, no one would talk to them about the shooting. No one smiled. No children ran up to say hello to the soldiers.

Moments later, Corbin heard a gunshot, followed by a scream. He turned to see Deierlein lying in the street, clutching his weapon, not moving.

A firefighter from Austin, Texas, Corbin knew he had to stay clear-headed. He ordered everyone to toss smoke canisters to obscure the area from the sniper’s view.

“Pop smoke!” he yelled out. “Everyone, pop smoke!”

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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: