Inside Brownlee’s mission in Iraq
Visit this week with Defence Minister and Defence Force chief Tim Keating unforgettable
When the handy first-aid kits are handed out by Defence Force staff in Dubai on Monday shortly before leaving for Iraq, I’m thinking “how considerate”.
The little khaki pack is to be attached to our day-bags at all times. It’s light, so no problem.
It is not until we are in our quarters in Camp Taji north of Baghdad that night that I explore its contents and it is clear it’s not blisters, cuts, or diarrhoea they have in mind.
It holds a combat-grade tourniquet, a haemorrhage control bandage, 4m of stretched 6-ply gauze, and an “occlusive dressing for openchest wounds”.
Our welcome officer at Taji, the Anzac training camp, preps us on what to do if we hear “Incoming, Incoming, incoming” on the loud speaker system: lie on the floor for two minutes or for two minutes after the last explosion, then put on the body armour and head to the nearest shelter.
Everything visual about Taji screams danger. Yet the first thing we see between the Hercules landing and getting settled in our metal cabins is a stream of soldiers heading to Monday night yoga classes.
It is a strangely calm place because the security awareness is constant and vigilant, not to mention the thousands of slabs of T-walls designed to contain the impact of a rocket attack or explosion.
My only moment of fear on our two-day visit with Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee and Defence Force Chief Lieutenant General Tim Keating is when Brownlee picks up an M16 assault rifle at a shooting range.
It’s a strange existence at Taji. It is not the kind of posting in which you head into nearby Baghdad city on a weekend off. So people create a world within a world in a compound within a compound.
As well as yoga, there is linedancing, salsa, creative writing courses, two 24-7 gyms and sports. There are poker nights, fake pubs and a joint popular with the Australians where you can smoke flavoured tobacco through water pipes.
It is usually hot, dry and dusty except when it is wet and cold, as it is this week.
The World Cup qualifying match between Australia and Iraq was to get its own Taji version this week but the clay field is under water.
The cabins are identical but homely inside. I share with a Lieutenant Colonel visiting from HQ in Wellington. But she is scarce when I need an interpreter for the handout we have been given on Task Group Taji: apparently they have a sick parade every day from 8am to 17.30 which seems a bit mean. And when moving to and from the ablutions all personnel are to wear clothing.
A note on the day’s events at Taji says the address by Brownlee and Keating is for NZDF personnel only. But before they get to hear my howls of complaint, the senior New Zealand officer at Taji says it is only Australians who are excluded, not journalists.