Tent city is home on the road to Iraq

Sgt. Kenyatta Titus gives a haircut to Pfc. Cameron Taylor while Spc. Matthew Yost gets some rest. All are in Company C, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer

CAMP VIRGINIA, Kuwait — When they say "Camp," they mean it.

The dining facility is a half-mile trudge through the sand. Not that soldiers care much. They're just glad there is hot chow.

Big rectangular tents with plywood floors house up to 70 soldiers who sleep within an arm's distance of one another on cots. Bathrooms amount to portable toilets in rows, shower trailers sometimes run out of water, and hundreds of Humvees and 5-ton trucks constantly rumble across this sprawling desert base.

Soldiers of Company B, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, get some practice in securing a post. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

One of several U.S. bases in Kuwait, this outpost is the launching point for the 25th Infantry Division (Light) on its yearlong mission in and around Kirkuk, an oil-rich but ethnically divisive northern city some 700 miles away.

Some units are headed elsewhere: The 84th Engineer Battalion is being based in Balad, while the 540th Quartermaster Company will be in Mosul.

For many of the Schofield soldiers, windblown and chilly Camp Virginia is their first real taste of the desert since a brief stopover at another Kuwait camp, Wolverine, after the nearly 24-hour journey from Hawai'i to Kuwait.

"Pads" of tents are separated by long stretches of heavily boot-tracked but otherwise featureless sand.

"It's kinda hard to deal with being away from family and all that and not having phones and communication," said Pvt. Peter Bates, 22, who's with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment.

Cpl. Mariko Yadao, a 5-foot-2 soldier from Kaua'i who totes an 18-pound belt-fed machine gun, said she expects Camp Virginia and its culture shock to be a crash course for the year ahead.

"Camp Virginia, hopefully, will be the storm before the calm," the 20-year-old said. "It's an adjustment period for everyone going to a different country and being able to deal with different people and adjust to different situations."

For other Schofield soldiers, it's a place they've seen before.

First Sgt. Kerry Moore with Charlie Company, 1-21, was here with the 101st Airborne Division during the 1991 Gulf War.

First Lt. Angela Reber, attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) crosses the dusty plain that separates sections of Camp Virginia. Troops from Schofield Barracks are at the Kuwait base after completing a 24-hour journey from Hawai'i. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Capt. Bill Venable, who commands the approximately 140 soldiers of Charlie Company, said the living conditions are better than he expected. And better than what's yet to come.

"For our training and convoy up, we'll be living as light infantry," Venable said. "We'll be living out of rucksacks and sleeping on the ground in hasty fighting positions."

Maj. Laurie Hostetter, Camp Virginia's executive officer, said the base's population of 6,000 will about double as 130,000 U.S. troops move out of Iraq and about 110,000 move in as part of the biggest troop rotation since World War II.

Temperatures in the 50s and 60s at the camp will soar to twice that in the summer. Sandstorms that blow over tents usually start later.

Camp Virginia hosts all coalition forces for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Hostetter said about 16 countries are represented at the base.

"Japan is here for the first time since World War II," Hostetter said. "The Poles are here, and Ukranians."

In the "chow" line, Slovakian soldiers in beige camouflage sporting big brown spots compare uniforms to the more familiar three-color U.S. desert pattern.

All U.S. soldiers in uniform at Camp Virginia wear their flak jackets and carry their weapons — even to meals — to get them used to the mission ahead.

The 2nd Brigade from Schofield has been practicing live-fire convoy operations in cycles since the first units began arriving in recent weeks.

"As far as camps like this, I'd rather push forward because you are not settled in," said Sgt. Jung Kim with Charlie Company, 1-21. "Here you are just in a holding pattern. We've got these training sessions every day, but the soldiers just want to push forward and get working."

At an introductory taped briefing at Camp Wolverine, Coalition Joint Task Force 7 commander Lt. Gen. David McKernan cautioned the troops to be alert.

"First of all, you are in a danger area right now," he said. "The enemy is not just in Iraq. There are no sanctuaries in this theater of operation."

But life at Camp Virginia is not all hard edges.

During off hours, the mostly 19- to 23-year-old soldiers of Charlie Company clean their weapons, pull out GameBoy Advanced SPs and mini DVD players or read on their cots. They're up at 5 a.m. and lights out is at 10 p.m.

The camp has a small base exchange, a 24-hour Cyber Zone Internet Cafe with 31 computers to send e-mail or surf the Net, a barbershop offering $5.25 "military haircuts," the Desert Diamond snack shop, Baskin Robbins ice cream, gift and jewelry shop and the Green Beans Cafe.

Then there's also a full-size weight room tent, as well as a recreation tent with three pingpong tables and two big TVs — both of which will be showing the Super Bowl during a party that Army officials said will start at 1 a.m. Monday for the 2:25 a.m. kickoff.

Wednesday night, Spc. Natasha Godet, 21, who's with the 540th Quartermaster Company, sat reading a book at one of the picnic tables in the room.

"I think (the recreational facilities) are good for the soldiers' morale," she said. "You are getting away from the rest of the company. It's a good stress reliever."