A great piece on life at Camp Anaconda from Baltimore Sun reporter David Wood…
Elsewhere in Iraq, soldiers and Marines patrol into dangerous Iraqi neighborhoods from squalid COPs, temporary Combat Outposts set in those neighborhoods, places where heat, dirt and foul odor triumph and plumbing, air conditioning and cold water are distant memories, a grueling existence with sudden death or dismemberment as constant companions. Here, no one goes “outside the wire” except on the nerve-wracking convoys. If something is needed – computer paper, communion wafers, concrete slabs, drinking water, an Iraqi souvenir – it is made here or comes by truck or air. People fly in for a year’s duty and never set foot “out there.” Some try. “I have guys who want to go out to see what it’s like,” said Lt. Col. Matthew Parsley of Scotts Bluff, Neb., who commands a National Guard battalion on convoy security duty. He is unsympathetic. “If there’s no reason to go out, there is no reason to go out.” For Fobbits inside the wire, after all, life is tolerable. The food is abundant, the showers have hot water and usually good water pressure, the $5 million gyms are open 24/7, as are the swimming pools, the post exchange and the 745-seat movie theater.
A friend of the WWS writes of the story: “the best description I’ve read of what it’s actually like to be in Iraq for most who are deployed. Of course most people stateside have no idea; they think it’s a living hell.” Doesn’t sound too bad, but boredom can have a nasty effect on morale. According to a recent Pentagon study, “Boring and repetitive work was a main concern for 39 percent of soldiers and 33 percent of Marines.”
