The Iraq War and Occupation: Page # A Struggle For Democracy Christopher Kegel Captain Christopher Kegel was a platoon leader with the 8th Cavalry of the Ist Cavalry Division as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. During his deployment, he was transferred to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, where he became the Battalion $1 personnel officer Could you state your name and rank in the army? My name is Captain Christopher Kegel. I was a platoon leader in B Co. for the Ist Battalion, 3D US Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard. Currently I am the regimental public affairs officer. What conflicts did you participate in? L was in part of Operation Iragi Freedom From October of 2006 to December of 2007. I went to Iraq with 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, Ist Cavalry Division. What branch of the military were you in? I'm with the US Army. I’m on active duty, so this is my full time job 24/7. When and why did you join the service? joined ROTC my freshman year of college which would have been August, 2001. I stayed through my entire college career, then got my commission in May, 2005. I applied for and received an ROTC scholarship to have ROTC pay for my college. What kind of prewar training did you receive? Everything, we not only went to every range possible from 9 mm, to M16, M4, M203 grenades, machine gun fining, as well as Bradley fighting vehicle ranges and tank ranges. Prior to going to Iraq my unit went to Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Polk, Louisiana for thirty days, and basically trained force on force with people playing Iraqi insurgents and Iraqi civilians and interacting with them. What was an average day in the military like? There is no average day. Every day is different. There’s not a single day that’s the same. While we're at garri- son it could range from 3-4 meetings a day to having nothing to do and sitting around doing maintenance on vehicles and weapons or attending classes and training. In Iraq there's not a single day that is the same. One day you could be doing patrols for 15 hours out of the day. the next day you are just sitting in your room or doing mission preparation, and the next day you're in a fire fight so there’s never a single day that is the same: How was diversity accepted in your unit? Explain that one. Like racial diversity or men and women how was that accepted? Well, there are no women in the infantry so there are no women issues, There are women here and there in the support units. For the most part there were no women with us. As far as that goes we just didn’t have any women so we didn’t have to deal with that, not that that’s a bad thing. As far as diversity, there is a big mix of everyone.Page # The Iraq War and Occupation: A Struggle For Democracy Were you deployed during your service? Out of my 4 years active duty I was deployed 15 months to Iraq and my former unit just went back again, When were you deployed and what did you do at your duty station? Iwas deployed from October of 2006 to December of 2007. We were at a base named Patrol Base Paliwoda by the city of Balad, Iraq, about 50 or 60 mifes northwest of Baghdad. We basically did patrols in our area to decrease the presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq. How many years have you been a part of the military prior to your deployment? I was on active duty from May of *05 to October of "06 so right around 16 months. Then I went to Iraq and came . ; Bae ble scenario we could think “We trained for every possi- What kind of preparations did you make prior to your of, We were very well pre- deployment? Myself? Big preparations prior to leaving for me were getting the proper power of attorney straight. I had my mom as my power of attorney so she could handle all my finances while I was gone. Just getting everything squared away on the home front-where I was going to keep my truck, make sure my apartment was straight, furniture, housing. I spent a lot of money on buying equipment, uniforms and stuff prior to leaving so T had enough gear and to make sure I would never run out. The Army pretty much squares you away before you leave, They make sure that we get all the necessary shots, all our finances are straight, our paper work is straight, our wills, our life insurance policies, emergency contact information; all that's squared away. pared for. ‘going into it. What training did you receive in preparation for the mission? In preparation for our mission we knew we were going fo be doing a lot of street patrols. We worked in coor- dination with the Iraqi army, the Iraqi police, doing joint patrols with them. We practiced a lot of “react to con- tact” drills, So when we were going to get into fire fights, reacting in a timely matter and quickly getting enough fire power down range was a big one-fire superiority. Reucting to IEDs was another one. We got hit with quite a few of those. CASEVAC was a big one, evacuating casualties off the battlefield, Pretty much our training was based on us, whatever we wanted to train for, We trained for every possible scenario we could think of. We were very well prepared going into it, How did that training differ from normal training? Normal training once we got back from Iraq, going to ranges, work- ing on tactical stuff here and there. The more focused war training is a lot more intense. Certain aspects of either marksmanship or tacti- cal training, clearing rooms, stuff like that. The difference is in preparation for war you are always training for combat. Once you know you're going and the time keeps getting shorter and shorter to me it becomes more focused and a lot more intense. At your duty station what was your life like? Lt. Kegel in Baghdad. Now, when you say duty station you mean Iraq? Life was easy esi, serie 2010 DE. Eres Ane School RiosPage # The Iraq War and Occupation: A Struggle For Democracy because, for the most part, we had a set schedule. For my company, we were on a company sized FOB, which stands for forward operating base. One week we would be on FOB security and we'd be manning the guard towers, manning the front gate. The next week we would be on QRF, quick reaction force, so if anything hap- pened out in sector where our company or anybody needed a hand we could get out there quickly and provide the necessary firepower and manpower. Then the next week we would be running patrols. They could be any- where from going out at 6 in the morning to noon coming in for lunch and going back out for another 6 or 7 hours patrolling around our area of operations. So like I said, days were never the same. When we could get down time we would take it. Guys would sleep, do what- ever they wanted to do; call home, get on the internet, but once it was time to conduct a mission it was game "The hardest thing was on. So that was on a given day. . . a probably being away from What was the hardest thing about being over in Iraq? ‘The hardest thing was probably being away from family fa milly. aed because we would always go on commo (communica- tions) black outs. For some reason the phones wouldn’t work, internet wasn’t working, and you just couldn't get ahold of anybody. Hardest thing was it’s always in the back of your mind that something bad is going to happen and you won't get home alive, so it’s... the hardest thing would probably be being away from family, Once you're there you don’t really think about what could happen during your mission you just do your job. Did you see combat while you were there? Yes, we got in our first firefight in the first week we were in Iraq. We were going through an open field and snipers pinned us down, That was our first litte taste of getting shot at. It was pretty crazy to actually know and realize that someone was actually shooting at you, So that was our first little taste, and pretty much every time we went out we would get shot at least once or twice. You get so accustomed to it that it’s no big shock anymore. After awhile your reaction is so engrained you don’t even think about it you just do it. So, yeah, we saw quite a bit of combat from small arms fire to IEDs to RPGs to everything. Did you interact with the locals and if so, are there any memorable moments? ‘We interacted with the locals every day. The Iraqi people are pretty amazing people. They are still pulling carts with donkeys and living in mud huts, with maybe having an hour of electricity a day, no running water. So seeing that and seeing how they live kind of humbles you alittle bit, makes you glad for what you have. The Iraqi kids are cute as hell. They're, sorry, they're camera whores. I ‘mean every time they see you they say "Aww, take my pic- ture!" The Iraqi kids are awesome. They would usually light- en the situation up, My guys would go and play soccer with them and stuff like that. ‘They wanted us there but at the same time they wanted us to leave. I don’t really have any memorable moments with the Iraqis. For the most part they were good people though. How long did you serve over there? T was there for just under 15 months. We were in country worked with his platoon: Ks, Chaser vit re Sooo PableinsPage # The Iraq War and Occupation: A Struggle for Democracy about 4 months when we found out that we were going to be extended past our year mark so at that point it ‘was like, ok whatever, we'll ust stay here as long as they need us. We were lucky in the fact that we didn’t have to stay 18 months. ‘The current war is an urban war. What is meant by urban war? How does today’s fighting style vary from the past? Urban warfare is much harder than your conventional warfare. t's basically guerilla warfare right now, In urban warfare it’s on the enemy's terrain. They know all the back alleys and the back doors and the houses, they know everything, With the insurgents, we're not fighting ‘an army. We are not fighting any militia or anything. It’s all civilians. They can shoot at you from one alley, run to the next alley, dump their weapons, and walk right down the street and you'll never know that that’s the guy that ‘was just shooting at you. In that sense, urban warfare is much harder. If it’s a 4 or 5 story building and they shoot - 4 2 at you from a window you have no idea what window it Of; anything, 1 all civil- came from, In the woods, you can pretty much narrow nae down where the firing is coming from. In the urban set- ° ting it helps but it also hinders us at the same time. We can maneuver pretty well, but like I said the insurgents aren't wearing body armor of carrying the amount of equipment we have so they can move a Jot faster. They are some of the fastest people I have ever seen run in sandals. Also, I was with armored cavalry. We had M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and we can move a lot faster on the streets than they can run, but then we can't get down some of the back alleys to get to them, to put quality fire down on them, So urban warfare can be very difficult terrain, “With the insurgents we're not fighting.an army. We are not fighting any militia How does today’s fighting style vary from warfare in the past? ‘That's a tough one. I don’t know. I guess now it’s a lot more decentralized. My commander would just say “I want you to go here” and I could basically do what I wanted (o do. I would go out, do whatever I wanted to do, patrol, go to this house, talk to these people, move down the street to this area, patrol this orchard, It didn’t matter, I was a platoon leader in Iraq so as far as fighting style it was a little more decentralized than in the past but at the same time it was pretty similar. As far as wars in the past, there are lessons leamed from every conflict, What we learned in Vietnam we are applying now, based on the guerilla warfare aspect. What effects did new technology at the time have on your experi- ence? Some of the technology includes the raven, the predator and the hunter. They are all UAVS which are unmanned aerial vehicles. They helped us tremendously, the insurgents can’t hear them, we can get eyes through the thermals, infrared. We can get eyes on how many people they have, where they are hiding before we ever get close to the location. That helped us tremendously in the fact that some of them, like the predator and the hunter, are armed as well. If we need to put fire down on them the predator and hunter Kegel with his gunner in the wrret of their Bradley Fighting Vehicle. ica, Chron {2010 DE, Bors Ara Ses PosPage # The Iraq War and Occupation: A Struggle For Democracy can destroy the enemy before we even get there. Also, the use of forward air controllers, fast movers, jets, F16s, A10s, British tornadoes and what not. We can call them in, like with the use of our radios we can talk to anybody, Being on the ground, I know I’ve coordinated, talked to F16s trying to get eyes on the enemy further down range than we were. Calling in helicopters, we always had Apaches with us or Kiowas that could put firepower down if we needed them too. Technology is definitely an advantage. What was your opinion on this technology? Tloved it. Technology helps but it also hinders at times. A lot of times you were thinking ‘yes we got technology’ then we would use it and it would be helpful but at the a hike 3 . 2, same time it was a hindrance. Sometimes we were wait “While yourre in Iraq you're ing for it and we couildn’t move because there was a he Hh problem with it or we couldn’t do some things because it Here, you can never really ‘was down for mechanical issues or whatever. So it's helpful but at the same time it can hinder some of your operations get away from the stress.” What kind of stress did you endure while deployed? As far as stress goes, it’s always stressful when you get ina firefight, It doesn't matter how many times you do it, it’s always a stressful situation, When there are bul- lets flying or IEDs going off your stress level is always going to be heightened. Losing soldiers is one of the toughest and most stressful parts that we had, We lost eight in my battalion. In my platoon alone, I lost one. Losing soldiers is probably the most stressful situation, As far as other stressful situations ROEs (rules of engagement) brings a lot of stress on you. Just like the situation like I was telling you before, They would shoot at you, run to an alley, drop their weapon, and walk down the road and you couldn't do anything about Fire fights, loss of soldiers, stuff like that, How does that differ from everyday stress as a soldie In all honesty, when we were in garrison or when we are at home at our posts doing our day-to-day operations there really is no stress. There’s no reason you should be stressed out unless you are working on high-level stuff because you can go home every day. You can go home and just relax, watch V,, chill, or whatever. While you're in Iraq you're there, you can never really get away from your stress. That's why we let the guys do whatever they wanted for the most part on their downtime-call home, talk on the internet, They had gaming systems, We had XBOX 360s, Play-stations, TV’s and stuff. We let them just chill, relieve their stress, let off steam. In Irag, it was a Jot more difficult (o relieve your stress, Here at home there are a lot more things and ways for you to get away from the stresses of your job, whether it be family, TV, internet, and other hobbies. So what kind of equipment did you have while at your duty sta- tion in Iraq? When you say equipment what do you mean? Like kevlar hel- mets, weapons? The day to day soldier had an advanced combat helmet. Ok, we'll go from head down, then the body armor. We Abrams tank providing support had Point Blank body armor with neck guard, groin protector, and during a foot patrol.Page # The Iraq War and Occupation: A Struggle For Democracy throat guard, As infantry soldiers we wore the side sapi which is aE sapi plate covering the side of the ribcage. Other soldiers would wear shoulder daps, and side daps, which is just a kevlar layer that protects you from the outside of the shoulder to the underarm. The chain of command told the soldiers what they had to ‘wear with their body armor, When it came to the rack or the load bearing equipment it was up to the indi ual soldier to decide what they wore. When I say rack system I mean where they put their canteens, canteen pouches, mag pouches, grenade pouches, radio pouches, camelback, drop pouches. It was soldier preference where they had all their pouches. You can’t tell them where to put their gear. It’s got to be where it is most comfortable and where they can get at it easily. From the bottom, kneepads are required now; it was soldier prefer- ence when I was there, You could wear them but you did- n't have to. [never wore them. After that it was just your ACUs, your boots, etc, Most guys carried an M4 carbine with either an M68 optic or EOTech or ACOG and then either a PEC2 or PEC4 laser which is just a ground pointing laser that can point to a target and can be seen under NVDs, Night Vision Devic switch, Wherever your laser pointed, that’s where you shot and that is where the bullet would go. Other guys had sure-fire flashlights so if you did enter a building you could shine that light. Each soldier carried at least 8 mag- ines, 30 rounds per magazine, so the average soldier would be carrying 240 rounds. You could carry more, but there was no less than 8 mags per man, We usually carry 3-4 smoke grenades per team leader, squad leader, We would carry flares. We would have a camel-back, at least a 3 quart camelback of water, full at all times. You had to have eye protection, whether it was clear lenses, amber lenses, or shaded lenses. It didn't matter but there had to be some kind of eyepro, ballistic eye pro. Squad leader and above carried a radio or PRC 148, a small radio that could reach out quite a distance. For me, I could talk to my Bradley Fighting Vehicles and my gunner and the Bradleys could then talk to the company. If you are a team leader you would carry a M203 grenade launcher, attached to your M4 carbine and you would carry at least a dozen rounds with that. I knew team leaders that would carry 60 rounds of grenades to shoot in a firefight and they would go through them all in a firefight. That's just the average soldier. That does not cover what soldiers would put in their other pouches that were attached to their vest. Another huge piece of equipment that we carried was the IFAK. Which is the Improvised First Aid Kit. Every soldier car~ ried it on them, That way every soldier could conduct buddy aid and first aid if necessary. The platoon medic was always around for more advanced care, Is that detailed enough for you? “When it came to the rack or the load bearing equip- ment it was up to the indi~ vidual soldier to decide what they wore.” What personal items were you allowed to take along with you? As far as personal items you could bring your Ipod, computer, I mean any of that stuff. Any personal items you could bring. You could not bring personally owned firearms like handguns. Those ‘were not allowed. If you did manage to get it into the country you didn’t get it out. Also, you could bring knives; you could bring pocket knives, fighting knives, stuff like that, they had no problem with that, Other than that it’s pretty open, You can bring a lot of Kegel and a squad leader on foot patrol, stuff over there and if you have any questions on it it’s usually Abrams tank in back of photo. commander's preference. If your commander doesn’t want you to exut Cmsomae ‘52010 B..Errest Ars Sahl MbieonsPage # The Irag War and Occupation: A Struggle For Democracy bring, it then you don’t bring it. What specifically did you take? I took my computer, an external hard drive, I brought a DVD player, IPod, speakers. I brought a K-BAR, a fighting knife, I brought a trench knife that my father gave to me, other than that nothing else besides military ‘gear, You can get a lot more stuff over in the country now. I bought a Playstation and 'T-V, once we were at our patrol base. You can get most things over there now so you don’t have to take it back and forth. What did you miss most from back home? Home cooking; food in Iraq was good but atthe same fee 5 tine vas table [mised heme cooking. mised ut“ N/85ed home cooking: | the day-to-day stuff, being able to do what T wanted to ; . do, not having to carry a weapon around all day. I missed missed H just the day-to-day being able to walk out of my house and not having to tuff” worry about a mortar falling on top of me or a bomb Sturn, going off, I missed driving my truck most. In Iraq I always had drivers so I didn't have to drive anywhere. Just the novelties and stuff that you take for granted here at home. [actually missed filling my truck up with 25, driving and having to fill it up with gas, Its weird, [ know. From one of the other interviews I did he said that they had Taco Bell and like... In our company patrol base we had nothing. We just had our chow hall that was it. If you went to the bigger FOB like LSA Anaconda which was where I was headquartered, there was the main PX, then you had an embroidery shop, Green Bean coffee, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Popeye’s. On the other side of the FOB they had Subway, Pizza Hut, I mean they had everything over there. If you wanted it you could get it and if you wanted {o get fal you could get fat. With the firefights how was their technology compared to ours? Their technology is pretty primitive. They are using AK47s, which are fine weapons, can put a lot of rounds down range real quick and you can drag it through mud and it will still work. As far as that goes there are more AKs in that country than you could shake a stick at. They don’t have a hard time getting them. Every house is allowed to have 1 AK. Their making of IEDs was also primitive at times. I mean they started taking little 20 ounce Mountain Dew type plastic bottles and filling them with gasoline and then putting them in the TEDs so when the IED went off gasoline would spread everywhere and burn. They used it as an accelerant, and they made homemade explo- sives, We found where the Iragis would use tree trunks as kniffe han- dles. They would just shove the metal into a tree trunk then wrap it with wire, burn it to harden it, Their RPGs were usually old and so degraded that they would hit our Bradleys and impact walls and not even blow up. They are good fighters, they adapt to what we're doing, and they learn our techniques. At times they were pretty effective, but their technology limited them. They'd think that they could penetrate our Bradley armor with AK rounds and they would stand there and . —— shoot at the vehicle, We would eliminate an enemy but at the same time Bradley Fighting Vehicle in the they think they can hide from our imagery and they can’t. They think if early morning fog on the shore of they just lay in a ditch we can't see them with our infrared and our heat the Tigris Rivi Kec, oso [62010 DC. Err Are School beensPage # The Iraq War and Occupation: A Struggle For Democracy signature capabilities. Technology limited them but the same time they were effective at times. About how many tines a day was your station mortared? We got mortared I’d say two times a week. It wasn’t an everyday occurrence and they were usually horrible with their aim, So we usually didn’t worry about it. A couple of times a grenade came over the wall and a rocket would come zinging into the compound. They were never effective, no one ever got injured. We're thankful for that, A lot of times we would watch the mortar rounds impact the town that were right across the street from our FOBs. We would provide counter fire and shoot mortars right back at them, What did you do on your free time? “They are all memorable After a mission my platoon sergeant and I would debrief with the commander, fill out some paperwork if neces- sary, and find out when our next mission was if the com- mander had something else he wanted us to do. We lived together so we'd go back to our room, drop our kit, take our boots off, and relax. We had acquited a satellite, put ‘on (op of our container house unit and we would just sit there watching satellite TV. We'd watch movies, mini- series, and we would just relax. It was a good time. Also in our free time we worked out almost every day. We had a gym too. moments because | (got to spend...time with some of the best guys. evel Are there any memorable moments that you would like to share from over there? Memorable moments... I’m trying to think of one that sticks out. As far as memorable moments they ate all memorable moments because I got to spend some time with some of the best guys I have ever met in my life. I would go to war with them any day. There isn’t one memorable moment that sticks out. I mean T had a good time over there. I would go back in a heartbeat How did you feel after you returned home? It was culture shock again. Coming back, on my ride home, my parents can attest to this, they came to pick me up from the airport and every hole I saw T thought there was going to be an IED in it, The dark was always a little iffy too, coming home you would walk outside in the dark and I’m always thinking there is going to be someone around a corner, Once home I was always wondering where my weapon was because we carried it 24/7. You never went anywhere without your ‘weapon. At times I would be looking around for my weapon and asking myself’ why isn’t my weapon here? Other than that though, it was just nice to be home It took a little time getting used to having all my stuff again, and being able to do what I want What kind of reception did you get when you came back? Tt was Ist Cavalry returning us home, We marched on to the parade field and all the families were sitting there in the stands, then we were released and our par- Kegel standing in the back ents and families met us out on the parade field. So that was pretty nice. They of his Bradley at gave us a nice little welcome home. LSA Anaconda enero ‘©2010 Drs Are Seo PublelensPage # The Iraq War and Occupation: A Struggle For Democracy What lessons did you learn from your experience in the war? ‘What lessons did I learn? I learned that you can’t take the enemy for granted because we need to learn and adapt to their kind of fighting. They do the same for us. They know our TTPs, they know the way we conduct business, they know our standard operating procedures, they know how our equipment works, they pretty much know everything. They have intelligence just as much as we do, You always need to be learning and adapting. What did serving your country mean to you while on active duty? bs 2 Like I said, I am on active duty all day every day. Tove “The media is very skewed, the Army. [ would give my life for the country I love. So . J serving on duty in Iraq was very honorable to me. From ey biased. They only the day the war started I wanted fo get over there and do 7 i my part, If T hadn’t been able to go over to Iraq and do show the bad stuff that is my job I would have been upset, because it was a great . » learning experience for me as a leader. I think without it go T would be less effective, if that makes sense. Serving in Irag was very honorable for me and like I said I am pre- pared to give my life for my country, Is war like it is in Hollywood? Hell no. Hollywood makes war seem glamorous and exciting. In Hollywood, you can watch a guy fire a weapon for 2 minutes straight and never reload, Where every round they shoot is effective, it hits the enemy, kills the enemy, that sort of thing. What they don’t show is the fact that you could shoot an Iragi 2,3,4 times and they would continue to run at you like there's nothing wrong with them. They don’t show that you can shoot 40, 30 rounds at somebody and you'll never hit them. Were there big explosions? Yes, but is it to the magnitude of Hollywood? No. Not everything goes boom like Hollywood does with a huge fireball, Is there a message for people today that you have about the war? Message about the war... The message I would say is it's not as bad as the media projects. The media is very skewed, very biased. They only show the bad stuff that is going on. We really are doing very good work over, there, The Iraqi army is taking over. They (the media) don’t ever report that we set up a free medical clinic and now all the people have free medical care, or that we are giving books, pens, and now the kids actually have stuff to use at school, They don’t show us giving gas; they don’t show us giving food, water, and giving med- ical care. T guess people just need to support the troops; it’s not our fault that we are over there. For everyone to get down on the soldiers and criticize us for doing our jobs is pretty harsh, So for them to get all down and upset with us and not supporting the troops, all they are doing is hurting us. You're not hurting anybody else. guess I am just asking people to support, I’m not asking people to support the leadership, but at least support the troops on the ground, We are out trying to keep America safe and people take that for granted. When our occupation leaves the Middle East what state do you feel the Middle East will be in? It’s going to be an uphill battle for the Iraqis. It’s not going to change over night. We do need to leave and let the Iraqis fend for themselves. We can’t hold their hand anymore. There's going to be a power struggle and we just need to let it happen, It’s been happening for their entire history. So they have to deal with the power struggle on their own,Page # The Iraq War and Occupation: A Struggle For Democracy What will this mean for the US with their power struggle over in the Middle East? ‘We'll always have a hand in it I’m sure. As far as the US we have learned a lot from this conflict about what our strengths are, and what our weaknesses are and how to fight an insurgent type of warfare and developing counter insurgeney. The politics in the Middle East is always tough. I’m sure we will always send people over there and I don’t mean soldiers but ambassadors and other officials to help control the situations. Do you feel there should have been something done differently in the current conflict? I’m not really one to say what we should have done differently, Like I said, I just do my job. I mean that’s why the generals get paid a whole heck of a lot more than I do to make those decisions, They are going off what they know and what their intel nce tells them and we go down there and we carry out what they tell us to do, So if something could have been done differently it should, We are just doing what we do and we try to do it the best we can, After returning from Iraq, Kegel became the Executive Officer for C Co., 3-8 CAV. He then was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Regiment “The Old Guard”, Kegel was assigned to B Co, Ist Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment as a Platoon leader of the Escort Platoon, and was then assigned to HHC of Ist Battalion to be the Battalion S2 (Intelligence Officer), before being moved to HHC Regiment to act as the Regimental $2 and Public Affairs Officer. Interviewed by Lizzie Narlock eon, Cussrmiae ‘2010 DC. Err Are Sobol Pbieons