Living in a combat zone

TIKRIT, Iraq -- As students make the first trek to class this fall grumbling about having to walk all the way from the extension to Ballantine Hall, two other IU students are dealing with slightly harsher tasks everyday. \nSgt. Ryan J. Sills and I, Cpl. Vernon R. O'Donnell, are journalists in the U.S. Army Reserve, full-time students at IU and brothers in the Chi Phi fraternity. Ryan, a Bloomington native and graduate of Edgewood High School in Ellettsville, is in charge of our broadcast team which gives him a great deal of responsibility. I am a print journalist and have kept busy writing stories and press releases, which help hone my writing skills upon my return to IU for my last semester next spring. \nNormally, being in the reserves is only a minor distraction with a worst-case scenario of an army drill during the same weekend as the Little 500. But when war loomed in Iraq in January, our reserve unit out of Indianapolis -- the 350th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment -- was activated. \nDue to the political situation at the time we sat at Fort Campbell, Ky., for nearly three months before finally flying to Kuwait, April 13. Our four-man team entered Iraq five days later.\nLife has been difficult from the second we stepped foot in Iraq. The first mission was to make a five-day journey to Tikrit -- a city in the northern part of Iraq and the birthplace of Saddam Hussein. Spending 120 consecutive hours crammed into an uncomfortable Humvee seat without a chance to clean up or sleep was a harrowing experience by itself without considering the stress of traveling through a war zone. Our convoy came under fire twice during the trip, but luckily no one died or was hurt.\nWhen we arrived in Tikrit, we continued to live without running water or shelter. A few days later I moved to Saddam's old palatial grounds in Tikrit, where a chance for real sleep eluded me once again. Twenty minutes after I fell asleep near an open balcony, a rocket-propelled grenade exploded less than 20 feet from where I laid. It was like nothing I had ever experienced. There was intense blast of hot air paired with a shrill, whistling sound and then a bright flash of light. I was sprayed with a mist of glass shards, but managed to avoid any serious injury through pure luck. \nMajor combat operations were declared over May 1, but the threat level remained high. This was especially true for those of us in Tikrit -- the town where Saddam was most beloved. Also, given that we are journalists we travel throughout the area of operations that covers most of north-central Iraq and makes up a majority of the "Sunni Triangle" -- home to most of the remaining resistance elements in Iraq.\nSince then, the days, weeks and months have gone by quickly as Ryan and I try to stay busy and cope with living in a combat zone. There are constant "details" -- a military term for chores -- that fill up time. Our tasks include drawing rations of water and food, cleaning the common areas, driving our bosses and media around, keeping the generator filled with fuel and fixing minor problems on the vehicles. Changing a tire can take hours due to the lack of equipment available and finding other needed supplies can take all day. \nThere are no available washing machines or dryers, so clothes must be hand-washed in plastic tubs. This chore can take hours depending on how long you let your dirty clothes pile up. I know that when I first did laundry, I didn't wash anything until I was out of clean underwear. After spending over four hours washing my clothes, I learned to wash everything every few days to avoid the headache. \nThe unyielding heat makes everything more difficult as well. The soaring temperatures are exacerbated by all the gear we must carry everywhere -- a flak jacket, a Kevlar helmet, an M-16, 210 rounds of ammo, a gas mask and heavy uniforms. Each day the temperature climbs over 100 degrees and for a few weeks at the end of July and the beginning of August, the daytime temperature would reach 125 with heat indexes hovering near 150. People have become so used to the heat that when it drops below 80 degrees people begin to get out their long sleeve T-shirts and break out their heavy sleeping bags made to endure the arctic-like weather.\nOur unit is currently scheduled to arrive home at the end of November or early December, and everyone is holding on to hope that we will be eating turkey at home with our families on Thanksgiving. That gives Ryan and me barely a month to decompress from this experience before beginning full-time school again in January.\nI, originally from Indianapolis and Broad Ripple High School, was in my last semester at IU studying political science and communication and culture when I was activated. Ryan had two semesters and an internship left to complete his degree in public finance from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Things will continue to be hectic upon our return to school.\nThings here are not all bad, as there is always time to read, play poker or watch movies. But these are all just ways to pass time until we leave for home. That is the only goal that keeps people going day-to-day -- the knowledge that every night you are a step closer to family, friends and maybe a frosty libation … or 10.