Lt. Kennedy's Answers

These questions were compiled from all of eighth grade.

1. What kind of food do they serve in the cafeteria?
I honestly have to say the food is almost better here than it was in my university dining hall, and I don’t even have to pay for it! Every night there is the main meal and a short order line where you can get burgers and fries and things. But in addition to that there are sandwich bars, pizza bars, stir fry bars, and my personal favorite, the curry bar, based on the night. There are coolers full of Gatorade and other drinks that you can take as many as you want for the day.

2. When you go out do you have to carry a weapon?
Yes. Every soldier is required to carry some form of a firearm at all times except when you are going conduct physical fitness, to take a shower or use the restroom. This is one to ensure the soldier maintains accountability for the weapon, as well as for protection reasons. Some carry M4’s, others M16’s and others carry handguns.

3. What do you miss about Maine other than your family?
Dairy Corner chocolate dipped soft serve ice cream. I might even miss the ice cream more than my family…but don’t tell them I said that. (Just kidding Mom)

4. What’s living like for soldiers who don’t get an air conditioned trailer? Do you have the trailer all to yourself?
I got very lucky and happen to be on a larger base that has been here for quite a while so I get to live in a trailer. I do have a roommate who is another Lieutenant that works in the same intelligence shop that I do. Due to the surge of soldiers into Baghdad this past summer, there are a lot of soldiers that are currently living in air conditioned tents. They are surrounded by cement barriers to provide them with added security, but they are generally regular tents with hard standing floors that can fit up to 30 people. I believe they have regular mattresses, but they may sleep on regular green army cots. Other soldiers are located on what are called JCOP’s (Joint Company Outposts I believe is what that stands for), that are located in downtown Baghdad. These are much much smaller bases, and usually are basically fortified ex-police stations or the like. It is very difficult to live in these areas and it is usually done on a rotational basis, with soldiers staying at the JCOP for a few days and then coming back to the larger bases for a few days.

5. What do you do in your spare time?
In the week and a half that I have been here, I have played football, read a few books, and watched some movies that people brought from home. I just watched Chuck and Larry with some of my soldiers-

6. What is your daily routine like?
Right now I’m not in a fully established routine as we are still completing the handover process with the unit that has be in this area for the past 15 months. Usually I’ve been waking up about 6AM, doing physical fitness and then I go to work about 0830 and work until about 8PM doing research on my area and the major groups operating within it, and setting up my soldiers for the time when they go to work for the front line units in a few weeks.

7. Do you get to watch the World Series? Go Red Sox! Do you like the Red Sox?
I got to watch a few innings on the tv’s in the gym and dining facility in the morning (we are 8 hours ahead of you guys). The good sport in me has to say, “good game Boston”- however I am a New York Yankee’s fan and this post season just did not get my stamp of approval. The good news is that we are now tied again for first place, so game on!

8. How do you do routine things like getting clothes washed?
Things are quite different here in terms of taking showers, washing clothes, etc. There are only two authorized uniforms here, one is our physical fitness uniform and the other is our regular Army Combat Uniform (or ACU’s- our new camouflage)- so even if I go to get into bed in the great pair of civilian shorts that I stole from my little brother before I left, I have to change so that I can go to the trailer with the showers and toilets. The only way to get laundry done is to give it to the laundry service. We turn in our laundry bags to a place near our dining facility, and 72 hours later they come back. They even fold my underwear. Please pass that fact on to my mother, because I know she never did that for me as a kid!

9. What’s the weather like?
It’s been pretty warm here, in the 80’s and 90’s. It is a desert climate however, and at night it gets pretty chilly so that when we get up in the morning it is pretty nice to do PT and hang out outside. It honestly is pretty comparable to what I experienced in Arizona last year. Kuwait on the other hand was extremely hot and at times very humid. Kuwait is like the movies you see set in the deserts- blinding white sand, camels running all over the place, etc.

10. How long will you be there?
I will be here for 15 months and am scheduled to come home in February of 2009.

11. What is the one thing that you like the least there? Is there anything that you like there?
There isn’t anything here yet that has really gotten me to dislike it. I have to say that the food is better here, and having the shower trailer and work so close to where I’m living allows me to sleep a lot more than I could in Kentucky- go figure.

12. How long did it take to get there? What forms of transportation did you use?
We left the United States at about 1PM central time on Monday, and arrived in Kuwait at 7PM on Tuesday. So a total of 22 hours. We flew in a commercial jet from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky and made stops in Iceland and Germany before arriving in Kuwait. We then were bussed around in Kuwait until it was time to leave for Iraq. My flight to Baghdad was on a C-130 aircraft that is operated by the Air Force (they are the big military planes). Landing in a C-130 in a combat zone is quite an experience with the evasive maneuvers they are required to use on each trip in and out of Baghdad. Think a medium level roller coaster.

13. How much free time do you have?
Right now, more than I probably will for the rest of the deployment.

14. What is life like for the average Iraqi?
Militant and criminal activity is at an all time low in our area due to a variety of reasons, and it seems as life seems to be coming back to the Iraqi people in the area. They are able to freely walk the streets, and are making concerted efforts to redevelop their neighborhoods economically and socially. That being said, the lives they lead are extremely different than those that we lead in the United States as they do live in an active war zone.

15. What are schools like there?
That is a good question and I’ll try to find out more about it.

16. Is there a gym there to work out in?
We actually have two gyms in walking distance as working out is one of the soldiers favorite past times.

17. Are dogs used to sniff bombs or in any other capacity?
There are dogs that are hear that work both with our explosive teams, as well as with our Military Police.

18. What exactly is your job?
I am the HUMINT(Human Intelligence) Platoon Leader. I am in charge of 17 guys that conduct interrogations in our detention facility, and source operations (basically going out on the streets of Baghdad and meeting people that want to become informants). I will be managing their actions and also conducting analysis on the intelligence the collect as my primary military job is general intelligence analysis.

19. Are there a lot of combat noises around?
Blackhawk helicopters fly so close to the ground that it shakes my bed, random police sirens go off at times, and there have been a few mortar and rocket attacks on other parts of the complex. It’s a pretty good thing that I’m a deep sleeper.

20. Do you participate in any “fun” sporting events on base?
I played football this morning- I was the quarterback, but we’re not going to talk about who won or lost. They also have some volleyball courts around the base, and sponsor runs that coincide with some of the more famous marathons and 10K’s in the United States.

21. What is the biggest change you have encountered?
Honestly, things are not that shockingly different yet. I am, however, in a relatively secure location and have not formally started my job yet or “gone outside the wire.” Ask me this again in about a month and I’ll probably have a pretty good answer for you.

22. As a female have you had to change your attire when you are in public areas?
Other than wearing a uniform at all times with correct eye protection, no. Even when women operate amongst the Iraqi people, they have come to accept that our women have different standards than their own and gain legitimacy in their actions because they are an American soldier instead of being rejected because they are women. Female interpreters have been known to cover their heads in keeping with their Muslim faith. I would venture a guess that many of these women do not come from Iraq, or are American-Iraqi’s.

23. What is the most high tech piece of equipment that you have used?
Haha…I could tell you but then I would have to kill you. The lame answer is that the new up-armored hmmwv’s are pretty cool, as are some of the magnifying optics that you can put on your M4. Working with intelligence just gives you the ability to play with some very cool toys.

24. Do you spend all of your time on base?
As of right now, yes.

25. What are the ages of people that you work with? Where are they from?
Age 18 to about 50. I have soldiers from Louisiana, Cleveland, Buffalo, Vermont, California, Tennessee, and a whole bunch of other places. I, unfortunately, am the only one from the great State of Maine.