Dispatches from the front in Iraq

’Fobbits’ hold down the forts with pride
By Edward Lee Pitts
Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press
June 18 — A mostly friendly rivalry has developed here between 278th Regimental Combat Team soldiers primarily assigned to “front line,” or off-the-base, duties and support troops limited to tasks inside each of the regiment’s three camps.

The troops who spend long days “outside the wire” on combat and peacekeeping missions in simmering Humvees and heavy body armor taunt their counterparts inside the bases by calling them “fobbits.”

The name comes from combining the military abbreviation for a Forward Operating Base, or FOB, with the short, pointy-eared Hobbits from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

'You might be a fobbit if ... '
No one in the regiment can claim original authorship of the term fobbits. Soldiers with the 30th Brigade Combat Team out of North Carolina, who preceded the 278th in Iraq, handed down the expression to their successors. The North Carolina soldiers arrived here in early 2004, about the time “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” the final movie installment of the trilogy, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Mention the word fobbit among the 278th’s nearly 3,000 troops and reactions range from wide grins to eyes flashing with anger.

Second Squadron Spc. Adam Shelton, of Greeneville, Tenn., who as a scout spends the bulk of his time away from Forward Operating Base Bernstein, proudly displayed a four-page list of “You might be a fobbit if ... “ jokes he penned.

His favorites had his scout bunkmates laughing as he read some of them out loud: If you think leaving “the wire” might be a fun adventure, you might be a fobbit, and if the second time you’ll be off the FOB is on leave, you might be a fobbit.

Outside, raids and minefields
Shelton, 25, failed to see the irony in the fact that he wrote the jokes while he pulled guard duty one night. But when pressed about his fobbit feelings, he admitted, “we wouldn’t be able to do our job without them.”

Fellow 2nd Squadron Scout Sgt. Tim Lyman, 32, of Bulls Gap, Tenn., said “if you have time to think about who’s a fobbit, you are closer to a fobbit yourself than not.”

About 40 percent of the regiment’s troops work outside the bases, while 60 percent work mostly inside the bases, according to the personnel office.

The soldiers who must train the Iraqi army, go out on raids, navigate the area’s many minefields and hunt bombmakers said they have reason to get a little worked up when they return “home” and compare their jobs to other soldiers.

Inside, shuffling papers
Some base troops work eight-hour shifts checking identifications at the Internet and phone rooms, clicking a counter as soldiers enter the mess hall or shuffling papers. Others spend their days building wooden sheds or installing satellite television in the rooms of paying “subscribers.”

Staff Sgt. Scott Stout, 28, of Rutledge, Tenn., said those who rarely leave the base often get worked up over events that regular patrol “veterans” don’t even flinch at anymore.

“Those of us who go out every day get a kick out of it,” Stout said.

Lyman said the fobbits who “sweat the small stuff” usually enjoy creating rules such as time limits on showers and how far pant seams can come down on a soldier’s boots.

But Capt. William Jessie, who leads the headquarters troop for 2nd Squadron, said support troops are there to ensure everything needed to fight a war gets where it belongs. He called nicknames such as “fobbits” disrespectful.

No glory in stock room work
“Everybody is over here, and everybody’s sacrificed,” said Jessie, of Claiborne County, Tenn. “A soldier is a soldier. Somebody has to haul the beans and the bullets.”

In fact, Lt. Col. Jeff Archer, commander of the regiment’s Support Squadron, said missions don’t happen without food, ammunition, fuel and maintenance.

Capt. Rhonda Jones, a commander of regiment troops who provide combat support by maintaining a supply room Wal-Mart would be proud of, said the jokes materialize because there isn’t a lot of glory in office or stock room work.

“On TV commercials you don’t see anybody filing paperwork or using a wrench,” said Jones, 38, of Sparta, Tenn. “You see all the war stuff. But ’bang bang’ stuff doesn’t happen without us. If we suddenly shut down for four or five hours, I guarantee you the entire regiment will know about it.”

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