Springfield News-Sun Article

THE WAR IN IRAQ

‘I watch everybody’s back’
Related: Soldier sees changes for the good
More: Photos of Army Staff Sgt. St. Pierre

By Nathan Webster
Contributing Writer
Monday, July 07, 2008

TARMIYAH, Iraq — During a break while working at a traffic-entry checkpoint on the outskirts of this city, New Carlisle native Staff Sgt. Phillip St. Pierre flipped through the pages of “In the Company of Soldiers,” a book detailing the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

When published, the book was a definitive work about the war, but now it’s just a prologue more than five years old.

“This is where we were. FOB (Forward Operating Base) Shell, and we ended up in Tal Afar,” said St. Pierre, showing his unit’s movement on the map of Iraq in the book’s front pages on a recent afternoon.

Of all the troops in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, St. Pierre is the only soldier wearing a combat patch of the 101st Airborne Division, the unit chronicled in the book, which he earned for service in the March 2003 invasion.

It was an awful long time ago, and one of five deployments by the 30-year-old squad leader: Two to Afghanistan, one to the Philippines, and counting this one, two to Iraq. All in just seven years of active duty.

Stationed in this Sunni city about 40 miles north of Baghdad, St. Pierre watches over a squad of about a dozen men, and while the 101st used helicopters, for this deployment, his unit operates from Stryker infantry vehicles — eight-wheeled, heavily-armored troop carriers. Infantry tactics and the war have evolved.

“It’s totally changed since 2003,” he said. “Before, they’d shoot at us and run. A lot more giving up. These guys now aren’t afraid to fight. They’re more committed, better trained.”

Alpha Company, based in Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, has been fortunate on this deployment, with little action as they provide security across Tarmiyah, operating out of a downtown Joint Security Station they operate with local Iraqi police and army forces.

The JSS is already “outside the wire” of the large Camp Taji a few miles away, and St. Pierre is currently even farther outside than that, spending a two-day rotation at Checkpoint 120 at the city’s western edge. One of two outlying checkpoints staffed by the soldiers, here they can watch over Iraqi soldiers and local “Sons of Iraq” who are responsible for searching and checking vehicles as they enter this traffic control point.

As a seven-year veteran, St. Pierre pays close attention to how his soldiers deal with the issue of heat. July temperatures can soar to 125 and require plenty of hydration when missions under the sun can last six, eight, 10 or 12 hours.

“The body gets used to the hot temperatures, but everyone’s got to be responsible,” he said. “I have to make sure everybody does the right thing. I watch everybody’s back, and everybody has to watch their brother’s back.

“I want to make sure all my guys get home,” he said.

* This article was published in the online version of the Springfield (OHIO) News-Sun.