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If you’re an Iraqi citizen it might be a good idea not to keep family members on your quick dial list on your cell phone.
I’ve had a few recent conversations with troops where I tried to gain a little knowledge of the tactical situation they deal with day in and day out. I asked one soldier how they actually went about finding out who “the insurgents” were and how they knew who was Al-Qaeda and who wasn’t. Basically I was told that if they apprehend one suspect they grab his cell and then proceed to snatch and interrogate everyone on his “top five” list. I guess you take intelligence where you can get it.
Another troop I had in the cab was apparently in electronic communications. I originally felt from our banter that he wasn’t a fan of what was going on in Iraq so I betrayed my intentions about publishing the stories hoping to glean that much more from him. I mentioned something one solider had told me and he was taken aback.
“Wow, he shouldn’t have told you that!”
“I know, I have a lot of troops tell me things they probably shouldn’t, but I’m very mindful of not writing about anything that would put them in jeopardy or betray exact deployment areas.”
“I could tell you all of our encryption codes if I wanted to.” He said, sounding proud that he was responsible for such sensitive information.
“Well please don’t tell me anything you’ll feel compelled to kill me for knowing” my standard bad joke in these instances, “and besides even if you did tell me it probably wouldn’t mean shit to me.”
“It would mean a lot to our enemies. They could decode any battlefield communication of the U.S. or NATO”
I was curious about how, in the world of hackers and electronic theft they can keep the necessary things safe? He went on to explain that he was responsible for networking electronic communication devices on the battlefield. Specifically he worked in Afghanistan coordinating and solving communication issues between NATO and U.S. systems of which there are apparently many differences. He claimed we used a system where we use literally hundreds of different frequencies for our computer communications (frequency probably isn’t the proper term but good enough for a layman like me), and the messages rotate between them while being sent. He said that even if an enemy knew some of the frequencies that he would only get about 1/100th of a second of the message because of the rotating nature of it. For a guy who was originally shocked at the information another troop gave me I think another ten minutes in the cab and another three beers in his gullet and I might have been involved in an official “espionage” incident. In hindsight I’m glad he didn’t feel the need to share the codes with me. As I said earlier he seemed against the war in Iraq but at one point he also said that we “needed to stay until the mission is done” or all those that died or lost limbs did so in vain. He also then admitted that he had never seen a day of combat himself. I suspect some of his fallen and limbless brothers might not agree with him.
Our troops are being sent off to war as well trained as ever, and I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to lease to you.
I met a vehicle mechanic fresh out of basic that was really nervous about how little he’d been shown about his job. I hope it was hyperbole when he told me that all the training he’d received in his MOS was to be shown a Humvee engine once or twice and told that’s what he’d be fixing. He also claimed that the motor pools on our base were pretty much closed because all the vehicles and staff were in country and he wouldn’t get anymore specialized training until his combat deployment. Needless to say he wasn’t enamored with the idea of having to fix his first Humvee engine under fire. I muttered something probably inappropriate about most of the vehicles damaged would be too messed up for him to have to work on. I suggested he crack as many technical manuals as he could until his deployment and he didn’t argue the point.
Many strange whispers about future deployments from our base. If there’s a draw down in the near future apparently the 10th Mountain division doesn’t know about it. The strange thing is that someone is giving some of these troops the idea that it will be over soon. I’m hearing hopeful talk about everyone being home by next year at this time but at the same time these same troops have scheduled deployments as far ahead as December of 2007. One troop told me that a scheduled and fairly large deployment in January had been cancelled. I remarked that it might be back on given the current “surge” rhetoric. It just makes me wonder how far ahead Bush had his “surge” planned and if maybe the joint chiefs have already said it aint happening. This coming June and December are what I’ve heard lately. Business as usual, the machine rolls on. Tip your cabbie.
Shadow out.
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