Always use the right bait

October 13, 2006

I feel a little bit like a stalker.

I suppose I am one — of sorts.

Arkansas' 875th Engineer Battalion is all over Balad Air Base. I see them at the chow hall, walking on the side of the road, everywhere. But I can't find the unit's command post.

Tonight at dinner I sat by the ice cream counter at the exit door. It was the perfect fishing hole in my quest for the 875th.

I'd been stopping every private and specialist I saw with a hog patch here for the last couple of days, asking them where they lived and worked. Answers were vague.

"Across the road." There was nothing but a vacant fenced lot across the road I thought he was talking about.

"Over by the engineers." There are a lot of engineers here. An entire brigade, which means thousands.

Did I mention that Balad’s perimeters contain more land than most Caribbean islands? But, I would not be daunted.

Time is ticking down for us here. We've been in Balad for two and a half weeks and our ride home is only days away.

Desperation is a great motivator.

I called three different Army public affairs offices on camp yesterday looking for Sgt. Chris Durney, the 875th’s public affairs contact. Every call got me one step closer. Progress was slow but steady.

The public affairs office for the 411th Engineer Brigade, the higher headquarters of the 875th here in Iraq, told me the 875th wasn't here yet. They said the Jonesboro unit was in Baghdad at Camp Stryker.

Then I told them about the herds of hog patches I'd been following around.

"I'll call you back," the sergeant said.

This is a difficult time for the 411th. They are rotating thousands of soldiers and pieces of equipment into Iraq to begin their one-year deployment here. The locations of troops change by the day. To add to the confusion, half of the 875th is at Camp Stryker and half just arrived at Balad.

Moments later, the phone rang with the sergeant on the other end. He found Durney at Camp Stryker, gave me a phone number and then told me two companies of the 875th had, indeed, made it to Balad.

I thanked him and thanked him again.

Whew!

It was good to hear Durney’s voice on the other end of the line. He works in the state public affairs office at Camp Robinson, so I knew him well.

He told me to call Capt. Dave Moore, Alpha Company commander, and gave me a phone number. I gave him the DSN — military phone — number I was calling from in case he needed to find me for any reason.

He asked what the country prefix was and I reminded him that I called him on the DSN military phone, not a civilian phone. No prefix needed. And as far as I can tell, you can't call one from the other. We wished each other luck and hung up.

The prefix on the phone number Durney gave me didn't look quite right, but I picked up the military phone and dialed. Nothing.

It was a commercial phone number, not DSN.

I called Durney back. No answer. It was dinner time. So close, so close!

I went to chow hall No. 3 with the usual crew from the 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron — known as the 463rd Airlift Group back at Little Rock Air Force Base.

So there I was, sitting in the chow hall by the ice cream counter, fishing for hog patches while eating dinner with Lt. Col. Mark Czelusta, Lt. Col. Tim Anderson and Maj. Ryan Guiberson.

Action!

A sergeant 1st class walked up to the ice cream guy. I got up and patted him on the shoulder. I told him I was with the Democrat-Gazette and was looking for the 875th.

He was a filler from Vermont, never heard of our paper, but offered to introduce me to his commander, Capt. Dave Moore. The elusive Capt. Moore, right here in this very building?

I walked up to the captain, introduced myself and said I'd been looking for him. He said he'd been expecting me. Durney had told him to keep an eye out for me.

The lesson here?

When in doubt, when all else fails, get ice cream.

Posted by editor at October 13, 2006 11:48 AM