Iraq the new Terror
by CPT Darren Fowler

Halloween tricks and scares are often described as ghastly, frightful, terrifying, chilling, and fun. That is how I would want my patrons to describe my haunted house. Being associated with haunting houses for most of my life I thought such adjectives were synonymous with war. I was wrong. It was worse! Never before had I been exposed to such fear, exhaustion, and loneliness. It was living nightmare that never ended. Friends die, stress keeps you up at night, and horrible images are burned into your mind that will haunt you the rest of your life.

My name is CPT Darren Fowler. I am an Armor officer in the US Army and spent 15 months in Baghdad with the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division. First, let me describe myself. I am a Halloween fanatic who loves HauntWorld Magazine, scary masks, and anything and everything about haunted houses. I grew up with my brother playing Army in the woods behind our house and building haunted houses in October. I was asked to share my experiences with the readers of HauntWorld Magazine because of my love for both Halloween and the military.

My tour in Iraq was from April 2003 through July 2004. Upon arrival in Baghdad, we replaced the 3rd Infantry Division and assumed operational control of Baghdad. 3rd ID did a great job. A single Division fought and took Baghdad in less than a month. They fought magnificently. When we arrived the 3rd ID showed us around town and the best places to eat. Truthfully I didn't expect us to fight much. The war was over and the Iraqi people were free and happy. They would dance in the streets, wave to our convoys, and hug our soldiers. That was how they treated the coalition forces. The Iraqis themselves at the time appeared to be more interested in looting, demonstrating and experiencing freedom for the first time in their life. The first priority in our effort was restoring the Iraqi infrastructure: Sewage, Water, Electricity and Trash (SWEAT). Besides, since we were going to be here for a year we might as well make this place as comfortable as possible for us too. The entire country was a mess. The cities looked frozen in the 1960s, few technological advances had been to the city since Saddam invested his money in his palaces. Standing pools of raw sewage in neighborhood proved to be challenging health problems, most city blocks did not have power and water. Trash was thrown into the streets, stray animals pulled everything imaginable from trash piles. It looked like something from Dawn of the Dead.

The time of celebrating, thanking us, and looting lasted until the end of May. That was when we and 3rd Infantry Division finally got a hold of the situation and had everything under control. The month of June brought all of 1st AD back into the fight. The military insurgents, most of whom were foreign marauders, began testing us by emplacing Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs). It was interesting to see how this year evolved to where we are today. They tested our strengths and weaknesses. They would pay our national workers for information. The insurgents began to hit us in our weakest points with roadside bombs and random RPG and mortar fire. Surely they thought the Americans could not react to what they don't see. It was in June that the American soldiers death toll began to rise.

The first few weeks in Iraq were some of the most difficult times of my life. The heat was oppressive and nothing was what I had expected. We did not have adequate living conditions, no air conditioning and no running water. The supply system was not fully established so we ate meals ready to eat (MREs) and "Heat-and-Serve" T-rations. We were rationed two bottles of water a day. We had no phones to call our loved ones and internet access was unheard of. What mail we were receiving was slow, sometimes post marked months before we received them.

Besides the heat and trying to find some Kool-Aid for our bottled water, the first couple of months we had to develop the situation in Iraq. Department of Defense hired civilians to restore the infrastructure. We spent our time trying to figure out who local Klan leaders were, safe house locations, how were they making bombs, and more importantly, how can we stop them. All Battalions held weekly Neighborhood Advisory Counsel (NAC) meetings for each neighborhood. Each neighborhood would in turn send a delegate to the monthly District Advisory Counsel (DAC). Concurrent with this effort, we began a recruitment campaign for the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC).

Like I said before, I thought it was going to be an easy year, just like Kosovo. It was this thinking that made me naive to many actions going on around us. The next two months were spent in the planning phases with a long term goal of aggressive intelligence gathering to counter the threat. The majority of patrols we sent out were nothing more than presence patrols and sensitive site guarding. But we were still loosing soldiers on these patrols. Soldiers were getting shot at from roof tops, stabbed by pedestrians, and hit with PRGs which were shot from passing cars. It was an insane experience.

My first experience of war, the one that changed my perspective ofand ended my naiveness came one morning in July around 0630 while I was running along the Tigris River in the Green Zone. An Iraqi with an AK-47 engaged my commander and myself while we were running. I did not realize it at that moment that someone was firing at us since gunfire was a common noise in Baghdad. It was the zips from the bullets pinging past us and the ground to our front began to boil did we realized that we were being shot at! So we did what anyone soldier would do, we ate some dirt and switched off the safeties on our weapons. Lucky for us an MP patrol also heard the firing and saved us. I had just survived my first contact with the enemy and I was grateful I was still alive. Needless to say it was a real eye opener. The route we were running was inside a secure area. So, anyway the war went on.

Things became worse from July on as the fighting intensified. IEDs and mortar attacks on our Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) became a common occurrence. The intelligence guys began to organize the terrorists into fundamentalists groups. As for me, I began to rebuild the Al Sijood palace in the Green Zone into a livable building and get us some Air Conditioning.

Rebuilding the palace consumed most of my time. I drew out $20k in cash every week to pay for improvements. I removed rubble, installed new plumbing, wiring, walls, lights, doors, and bathrooms. By the end of March I had put in over $1 million in palace repairs and improving overall quality of life for the soldiers.

Over the next several months the division fell into steady state operations. Everyone knew their role and executed it to the highest standard. But we could not escape the IEDs and mortars. In August we killed Uday and Qusay. That night I witnessed the most fantastic celebratory gunfire show. Well, it was impressive until it became apparent that what goes up...comes down. It literally rained bullets! The next morning we were finding bullets all over the FOB's grounds. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt.

Then in October Halloween came around. We took the opportunity to celebrate too. Alpha Company 2nd Battalion 6th Infantry Regiment held a costume party. Soldiers made some unique costumes. The winning soldier used some boxes and became a Bradely-bot complete with TOW weapon. There were witches, ghosts, devils, and carved pumpkins. It was great fun! Halloween in Iraq! I will never forget it. They celebrated around a huge bonfire with a live band and some traditional Iraqi food. It was not haunting fun but it was a unique experience to have festive fun!

November thru April was about the same. The mortar fire became predictable and we had found new ways to counter IEDs and how to identify them. So, to counter our intelligence the marauders began to attack other Muslims. The biggest attack was on the Babylon Hotel in central Baghdad, near the university. A vehicle-borne IED struck the heavily populated hotel. The damage was extensive and the death toll was high, over 30 people died in the blast. The carnage was so high our soldiers were scrapping flesh from their boots as if it were mud.

Finally, in April The Cavalry had arrived! The 1st Cavalry Division from Ft Hood, Texas arrived to replace us. We were happy to see them, we were finally going home after a year in combat, or so we thought. Two days before we were to go home the Pentagon extended the 1st AD for 120 days. This decision was made because some cleric named Al-Saddar began to inspire his followers to take up arms and fight the "infidels". I don't know why he was so upset, but he did not like the US occupation in Iraq. His supporters put up a strong resistance. During this time was when the coalition forces lost control of Falluja. With fighting renewed across Iraq the Pentagon and the intern Iraqi government continued on the timeline set to give Iraq its sovereignty.

On 30 June Iraq became a sovereign government. The only way to keep more American lives being lost was to allow the Iraqis to handle their country's own problem. So, we pulled out of troubled cities and let the Iraqi Army persuade the militia to stand down. We conducted joint patrols with the Iraqi Army to maintain presence in the cities. Eventually the insurgents backed down and some compromises were made. Well, this lasted until the pervious uprising still ongoing in Falluja.

During the rest of the extension the 1st Armored Division focused on clearing routes of IEDs and increasing patrols in and around Baghdad. On July 4th, 2004 I left Baghdad. I spent the next two weeks in Kuwait redeploying our vehicles and equipment. I finally made it home to my beautiful wife on 17 July.

I have met some exciting people in the haunt industry who supported us. I would like to thank everyone for your patriotic support and letters of encouragement. Particularly the West Springs Spook House, Terror on the Fox & Black Dog Productions, Tom from Fright Night Creations, and last but not least I would like to thank Larry and Hauntworld for asking me to write this article sharing my experience in Iraq.

Thank you.

Happy Haunting.