Deadline: June 30, 2009

A Crucial Date for Iraq Approaches

 The ready smile was gone from Iraqi Army Corporal Gassem Mohammed’s freckled face, replaced with an intensity of purpose.  Three of his fellow soldiers lined up behind him against the wall.  A voice bellowed from the catwalk above and the four men moved in unison inside a small room and squeezed the triggers of their Kalishnikov rifles.  Gunfire echoed from the room only to be drowned by the gusting winds whipping over the Iraqi desert.

  Mounted on the walls, two cardboard silhouettes are dotted with bullet holes.

An American with a greying goatee and dark sunglasses walked briskly into the room.  Special Operations Advisor Rober Wise wore a camouflage shirt with the words “Army” over his right breast pocket and “Contractor” over his left.  A native of Alabama, Wise has 20 years of Special Forces experience and he’s using it as a civilian instructor to mold these young Iraqi soldiers.  He looked at Mohammed and said in an even tone,   “You don’t stop there.  You make your way further into the room.”

The stern look evaporated from Mohammed’s face, replaced by the face of an attentive student wanting to please his teacher.  It’s time to do the exercise again.

The clock is ticking.  Not just on America and it’s allies, but on the Iraqi military as well.  Late last year the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) was signed by Iraq and the U.S. and earlier this year the words were echoed by President Barack Obama.  The U.S. military will leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

However, there is another major deadline looming.  U.S. and Coalition forces must be out of Iraq’s major urban centers by June 30, 2009.  In a matter of weeks, the Iraqi military must be ready to hold fast if a renewed insurgency and/or Al Qaeda attempts to take advantage of the military drawdown.

The U.S. will not leave Iraq’s soldiers unprepared.  Aboard Al Asad Air Base in Iraq’s Al Anbar Province, Marines, often with the help of contractors like Wise, are training segments of the Iraqi Army to stand on its own and protect its citizens.

 Recently members of the 1st Company, Commando Battalion of the 7th Iraqi Army Division found themselves face-to-face with U.S. Marines and following their every lead.  The American military uses teams for their training.  A Military Transition Team is known by it’s acronym MiTT.  Iraqi police are also trained by Police Transition Teams, or PTTs.  Iraqi border guards are trained by BTTs, Border Transition Teams.  There are even POETTs, Port-of-Entry Training Teams.

Corporal Muhammed and his team were almost ready to repeat the room-clearing technique.  His commando battalion is training to capture or kill insurgents, room by room, at their new Close Quarters Battle Course just outside Al Asad.  It’s also known as a “shoot house.”  The course is a metal house without a roof.  Where a roof would be is a steel catwalk where Iraqi officers stare down at their men or bark orders.  Gradually, Robert Wise speaks less and less to the Iraqi soldiers.  He wants the Iraqi officers to pick up the instruction and lead their own men.  It’s all part of the process of leaving Iraq.  Hand over authority, hand over towns, hand over training, hand over cities, day by day, to the Iraqis. 
The nation’s sovereignty is written on paper and respected by the U.S. military, but sovereignty also means the Iraqis must assume every facet of their country’s security.

Close Quarters fighting can be intimidating to learn, much less perform. Marine Lt. Col. John Van Messel, team leader of MiTT 7, stood on the catwalk next to the Iraqi officers and watched.  ““I’ll tell you it’s no different than young Marines going into a shoot house in the United States,” Van Messel explained.  “The first time they do live fire in close quarters there’s a bit of trepidation.”

This is where Mohammed had to be corrected by the instructor.  He listened intently, nodding as the interpretor, or the “terp” as they’re called here, translated the instructor’s words from English to Arabic.

             Next, they lined up outside and ran into the room again.  This time, each of the four are in the proper formation: two men against one wall, two on another.  Bullets slam through the cardboard silhouettes and the wood behind them.  The shoot house’s thick, steel, exterior walls forbid the rounds from leaving the building.

            Wise and his interpretor tell the four they did a good job.  Mohammed and his men leave, quickly replaced by four more Iraqi commandos ready to fire their first bullets into a small room.

            On the catwalk, the Iraqi commanding officer, 1st Lt. Amir Mwafic, is satisfied with what he’s observed.  “This training improves the abilities of our soldiers,” he  said.  “We, as officers, are more confident with our soldiers after the training.”

            Outside the shoot house, Corporal Gassem Mohammed is more relaxed and his comfortable smile has returned.  “The Marines have increased our experience.” he said with a nod, “and we are becoming faster than before.”

            At the end of the day, the battalion of Iraqi Commandos march away from the shoot house, climb into the back of several waiting pickups, and drive off to their camp on the opposite side of the Al Asad Air Base.

Tomorrow is another day of training and tomorrow doesn’t wait.  The June 30^th deadline for these Iraqis to be on their own, without the U.S. military watching over their collective shoulders, also will not wait.  Ready or not, the date is fast approaching. 

Randy Garsee

May, 2009

Al Asad Air Base

Author Brian Lumley

Write Fright

A Creepy Conversation with Brian Lumley

by

Randy Garsee

British author Brian Lumley sat by a Phoenix hotel swimming pool, just outside of yet another convention of writers, readers, and publishers of the horror genre. He lit up a cigarette and looked at me, his eyes squinting as though this bestselling writer of vampire books wasn't exactly comfortable with the concept of daylight.

"Everybody has something that frightens them," he said and leaned toward me as if to make sure I understood the message. "Everyone has something that frightens them."

I agreed. I was sitting here under the Arizona sun talking to a guy with an English accent who was famous for scaring the bleep out of people. So, yeah. I agreed with him. And that's when he told me the secret behind his bestselling technique.

"I write about things that would frighten me," he confessed. "And that way I believe I'm going to grab my reader by the throat."

I swallowed and tugged lightly at my shirt collar.

"If it frightens me," he said, "It's going to frighten [the reader.]"

"But where is it going?" I asked him. "People, critics, say horror is dead. Do you believe that? What do you think?"

Lumley smiled and exhaled a cloud of smoke that drifted over the pool. "I think the future of horror belongs really in being able to explore the reader's mind. Like Hannibal Lecter. Get into your reader's mind and find out what frightens him."

Getting into the mind of what scares us is precisely what Lumley has been doing for more than 30 years. In fact, the focus of most of his stories is on the undead.

"I have a big stake in vampire stories you might say," he said and laughed, a deep, throaty voice of a man who loves his work.

Lumley knows what scares us because he's seen a lot of gut-wrenching, heart-pounding things in his time. He's a retired Royal Military policeman. He's taken the horror he's witnessed on the streets, thrown them into a surreal blender, mixed in the fictional dark side and the psychologically twisted, and punches "puree."

A prolific writer, Lumley's penned nearly 50 novels and short story collections, but he's probably best known for his Necroscope series where the main character is a psychic detective.

"My Necroscope series deals with a guy who talks to dead people," Lumley explained. "A paranormal talent. A psychic skill. He is more than just a psychic. He actually can converse with them and they can tell him all the secrets of the world and all the knowledge they took with them."

Lumley points out that Hollywood is raising the level for the horror genre through special effects that can recreate the most frightening imagination of any writer.

"Hollywood can do anything with special effects," Lumley said, snuffing the cigarette out in a ashtray. "So once upon a time you could be too extreme with horror. You're aliens could be too weird and far off. They can't be anymore, because they can be done. So if we can envision it, if we can see it in our mind's eye, it can be put on the screen."

For the latest information on Lumley visit www.brianlumley.com

From 2003

Like an Alien Landing

Mayberry on Steroids?

by 

Randy Garsee

     Have you ever watched Mayberry, R.F.D. or The Andy Griffith Show? What would the sheriff have done if large buildings started going up on a secluded piece of land just outside of quiet little Mayberry? And then he couldn’t find out why? Would he finally have to put on that gunbelt and give Barney Fife more than one bullet?
     Of course that plot was never part of a Mayberry episode but it has become a very real episode elsewhere, but first I had to travel more than 700 miles to a quiet little town in west Texas.
     Ten years ago, Randy Mankin went into the newspaper business. "I was looking for a way to stay in this town. We like this little town. It's like living in Mayberry."
     The Eldorado Success is a reflection of his Mayberry with its bad news. "Sometimes that means getting out of bed at three in the morning and going out and covering a car wreck."
     And its good news like, "Seeing someone getting a Lions Club recognition. That's just fantastic."
     A few months ago, however, Mankin's Mayberry began to whistle with questions, conspiracies and paranoia. "When this thing came to town, this story, it was so foreign to what everyone had seen it almost did seem like a UFO had landed."
     "Naturally, panic took over the town a little bit," said Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran. He discovered the seeds of fear sprouted from a secluded ranch north of town. "Where they're building, it sets right in a valley, so, it's real hard to see anything. There was a heightened awareness within our community. There was a lot of fear of the unknown."
     And the unknown wanted to stay that way. The ranch gate stays locked. The red sign offers no warm welcome. To the side, a surveillance camera watches all those who approach. But the unknown could still be seen, as the sheriff pointed out, “Their biggest problem is aircraft flying over."
     "All of a sudden you see them in Shleicher County and it's like, my goodness what's going on down there,” said Justice of the Peace, Judge James Doyle. He took me on a flight over the ranch in question. The view from above showed a lot of major construction: three-story log cabins and buildings large enough to hold hundreds of people.
     Eventually, authorities contacted the names connected to the deed. At first they told the local officials that it was going to be a hunting lodge. It was a lie. Mankin says the stories kept changing. After the hunting lodge tale, they were told it was going to be a place for a businessman to entertain his Las Vegas clients.
     Mankin said, "First thing we thought was 'Well, the mob's coming to town.' It almost would have been easier to understand, had it been."
     The truth finally came from Arizona. It seems Eldorado's newest residents were Arizona transplants. Not just a few people but a religion, a religion that allows men to have more than one wife. The church, of course, is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or F-L-D-S.
     Thousands of its members live in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah.
"Fundamentalist Mormonism, I guess you'd call it, is not a common thing here in Texas and definitely not in Eldorado, Texas," said Sheriff Doran.
     As it turned out, the ranch would be used by a church accused of forced underage marriages, child abuse and financial misconduct. The church is led by a reclusive prophet who is being sued by his own nephew for sodomy. Understandably, the truth has not eased the minds of the citizens of Eldorado. Now there are new concerns of how many church members are moving here when the compound is finished and what are their plans for the once worry-free west Texas town?
     "As far as them taking over the community,” the sheriff said, “There are big concerns of that amongst the citizens."
     For now, newspaper editor Randy Mankin has the story of his career in a town he once compared to Mayberry.
     "Is it still Mayberry?" I asked.
     "It's Mayberry on steroids," Mankin said and laughed.

Fair Park in Dallas

A Universal Place

by

Randy Garsee

   

   In the shadow of the Cotton Bowl in Dallas is where you'll find it.  Fair Park is a universe of attraction, filled with museums, amusement rides and the fun of learning.  As Public Relations Director Anne Haskel explained, the Museum of Nature and Science is only one star glimmering in its cosmos.

  "There are other cultural institutions," she said.  "There's the Women's Museum and the Texas

Discovery Gardens, so you can really make a day trip."

   There's also the Planetarium with its space and history shows projected on its domed ceiling and don't forget the Ferris Wheel called the Texas Star or the Dallas Aquarium.  When you're tired of seeing things, you can hit the water.  You can rent a Swan paddle boat and make a round trip in the park's pond.  All the fun is in one location.

   "Especially if you're watching your pennies," Haskel said.  "You get a great value coming here.  There's 20 some-odd exhibitions, plus the Imax Theater."

   This is not a crock, although you'll see fossilized crocodiles.  It's a mammoth opportunity to see dinosaurs and a lot more.  Haskel said, "First of all, we have exhibits, both permanent and special traveling shows, that will appeal to a multi-generational age range."

   There's also the African-American Museum, the Museum of the American Railroad and the Hall of State which houses the Dallas Historical Society.  "Come try us.  Give us a day and, then, I really think you're just going to keep coming back," Haskel said.

   There is no doubt.  Fair Park is like a world within a world, a place certain to add to your universe of knowledge for as long as you want to stay.