How is Track Palin doing?

In comments the other day, Alex Raye asked "I wonder how Track Palin is doing?" This got me curious about how Private First Class Palin's unit is faring in Iraq, especially since Saturday was the day of Iraqi provincial elections. So I hope you all don't mind if I do a little bit of milblogging on this normally political blog.

I'm sure everyone here knows that Track enlisted for active duty in the U.S. Army on September 11th, 2007. In January 2008, he completed his initial training in Georgia, and was subsequently assigned to Fort Wainwright, just outside Fairbanks, home of the 25th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team (Stryker) - better known as the "Arctic Wolves". The Wolves, over 4,000 strong, consist of three infantry battalions and a cavalry squadron, as well as several attached specialist units such as artillery, signal, and engineers.

Colonel Burdette "Burt" Thompson, the alpha dog of the Arctic Wolves.

Track is assigned to one of those specialist units - Delta Company, 52nd Infantry Regiment (Anti-Tank) - the "Dragoons". A Stryker anti-tank company normally consists of around 50-60 soldiers and 10-12 Strykers equipped with the TOW, a wire-guided missile designed to take out main battle tanks at long range.

M1134 variant Stryker (Anti-Tank Guided Missile). In addition to the TOW missile launcher, the vehicle mounts an M240 medium machine gun for defense against enemy infantry.

According to Track's company commander, Captain John Atwell:

Soldiers of D/52nd IN are elite warriors that are expected to be able to fight using both infantry and cavalry tactics, engage the enemy at further distances with more firepower than rifle companies or cavalry troops, and do it all with less people.

Units like Delta Company are trained and equipped to destroy enemy armor in a stand-up conventional fight. Since the raggedy Al Qaeda muj in Iraq don't have any armor, or much of anything worth wasting a TOW on, the Dragoons were re-equipped prior to their Iraq deployment with the M1130 Command Vehicle variant of the Stryker, and assigned the mission of providing security for the brigade command team.

M113o variant Stryker (Command Vehicle). The M2 .50 caliber machine gun atop has an integrated camera and night vision system - you can see the lens under the barrel - and is operated by remote control from inside the vehicle. Pretty cool, huh? (The grates on the sides are called "slat armor" and are designed to detonate rocket-propelled grenades before they hit the Stryker.)

The Arctic Wolves knew they were scheduled for deployment to Diyala Province in Iraq for nearly two years prior to their September 2008 departure. In July 2008, the unit conducted intensive desert training at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California - in the heart of the Mojave Desert. The exercises at Fort Irwin certified the Wolves as qualified for deployment to Iraq.

On September 11th, 2008, with all possible preparation complete, the Wolves assembled for their departure ceremony. The ceremony featured 20 foreign-born soldiers, from 13 different nations, who took their oaths of American citizenship in front of Governor Palin and the assembled brigade.

September 11th, 2008 - Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, honorary member and official "Brigade Mom" of the Arctic Wolves, watches her firstborn go off to war. (Photo by Airman First Class Willard Grande.)

Governor Palin attended and spoke at the ceremony - an engagement which had been scheduled long before her selection as the Republican Party's Vice-Presidential candidate. Earlier in the day, Palin had faced her first major network interview since her nomination, with Charlie Gibson of ABC News. Gibson, sneering with disdain over his nose-glasses, his body language screaming disgust at being forced to interview this conservative nobody from Alaska, asked such unbiased questions as "Doesn't (accepting the VP nomination) take some hubris?" and, attempting to paint her as an ultra-religious whackjob, "Are we fighting a holy war?" In the course of the interview, Governor Palin said:

...I do believe, though, that this war against extreme Islamic terrorists is the right thing. It’s an unfortunate thing, because war is hell and I hate war, and, Charlie, today is the day that I send my first born, my son, my teenage son overseas with his Stryker brigade, 4,000 other wonderful American men and women, to fight for our country, for democracy, for our freedoms.

Charlie, those are freedoms that too many of us just take for granted. I hate war and I want to see war ended. We end war when we see victory, and we do see victory in sight in Iraq.

Her remarks at the Fort Wainwright ceremony highlighted the willing self-sacrifice of the Fort Wainwright soldiers:

"Each one of these Soldiers is here by choice," she said. "For some, it was a long-held ambition to serve, for others a more recent decision. A call to serve something greater than self…For every Soldier who leaves us today, it is the choice that defines you and always will."

Following the ceremony, the personnel of the brigade departed for Kuwait via chartered airliners, while the brigade's vehicles and equipment followed by sea via the USNS Bob Hope, a heavy cargo ship. The Arctic Wolves spent several weeks in Kuwait getting organized and conducting last-minute training and preparation, finally moving out in October to Forward Operating Base Warhorse, near Baquba (a city of 500,000) in Diyala province, Iraq.

Diyala province, Iraq.

Diyala is a tough assignment for any unit. Stretching from the Baghdad suburbs to the Iranian border, it's an agricultural area known for its dates and oranges. (This causes problems for US forces - insurgents use the orchards for cover, and we are reluctant to destroy the trees because this hurts the livelihood of the locals.) The area has recently been experiencing a severe drought, and unemployment ranges anywhere from 50-80%. The long border with Iran has long been a crossing point for smugglers, and the border area is still heavily mined from the 1980s Iran-Iraq War. A cottage industry harvesting the old mines has sprung up; criminals sell the munitions to insurgents for up to $200 each, and the explosives are re-packaged into IEDs.

The handover of an area from one military unit to another is always a dangerous time...Al Qaeda terrorists will frequently attack during these periods on the assumption that the outgoing unit is looking forward to leaving (the military slang for this is "short-itis") and the incoming unit is not yet fully up to speed. The Al Qaeda insurgents in the area were quick to test the new unit in Diyala; on October 16th, terrorists conducted a rocket attack on FOB Warhorse, killing two of the Arctic Wolves, Specialist Heath Pickard and PFC Cody Eggleston, and wounding nine others.

By October 27th, the handoff from the old unit in Diyala (the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment out of Vilseck, Germany) to the Arctic Wolves was made official in a "transition of authority" ceremony.

From all that I've been able to determine, Colonel Thompson and his brigade have been doing an outstanding job. He's assigned his engineers to help the local farmers install drip irrigation systems to help with the drought, and he's apparently detached several of his cavalry troops to back up the Iraqi security forces along the Iranian border. Thompson has been personally inspecting prisons in Diyala to maintain humanitarian standards, and he's assigned his JAG lawyers to work with Iraqi judges in establishing a free and fair justice system.

He is also well on his way toward satisfying several important long-term goals for coalition forces; transition of control of the Sunni "Sons of Iraq" militias from U.S. forces to the Iraqi government, and certification of Iraqi police stations in Diyala province.

By far the most important work the Wolves have been doing over the past months is preparing for the Iraqi provincial elections. Unlike the last elections in 2005, the Iraqi Army and Police have primary responsibility for security of the polling places. Col Thompson and his staff engaged in extensive planning and rehearsals with local Iraqis to ensure a smooth and safe election.

January 22, 2009 - Colonel Burt Thompson reviews election security plans with Abdul Hussein, the Iraqi provincial director of police.

As a member of Colonel Thompson's headquarters security force, PFC Palin has undoubtedly been travelling all over Diyala as Thompson coordinates and oversees his forces. I'm sure it has been an educational and eye-opening experience.

Numerous press reports have incorrectly stated that Track is a "bodyguard" for the brigade commander...I never liked this portrayal because it implies that he's getting some kind of special treatment, following Colonel Thompson around like a Secret Service agent. In fact, he's only a "bodyguard" in the sense that he's a member of an entire company that provides security to the brigade command team as it moves around Iraq. Given the fact that the Bush/Petraeus "surge" strategy requires a brigade commander to disperse his units into the Iraqi communities, the command team needs to do a lot of moving around through insurgent- and IED-infested areas to keep tabs on his subordinates. The "Command" variant of the Stryker contains the communications and intelligence-collection gear to enable the command team to keep things organized while on the move.

(As a bonus to PFC Palin, the Command Strykers also have an air-conditioning system not found on other Strykers. This isn't for the comfort of the crew - something the Army cares little about - but to keep the extensive electronics suites in the Stryker from burning out. But I'm sure the crew appreciates the bennies of being in the command vehicles.)

By all accounts, Track is a modest and unassuming young man, and a good soldier.

“He doesn’t want to be known as the governor’s son. He wants to pave his own route in life. I have to say, I admire him for it,” Hyde said.

This was echoed by Colonel Thompson in an interview on October 30th:

"He's a good kid and a good soldier and he'd like to remain anonymous,"

[....]

Colonel Thompson says Palin has received no threats along the lines of Britain's Prince Harry , who had to leave service in Afghanistan, and doesn't expect any. As for reports in the press that implied favoritism to get Palin into the Alaska Stryker unit, they're balderdash, says Thompson. Looking ahead, he says: "It might be kind of tricky if she [Governor Palin] is elected, but he's probably safer here with these guys than anywhere else in the world. It is certainly dynamic and pretty cool to have him with us."

Thompson also emphasized the close relationship between the Arctic Wolves and Governor Palin:

"Sarah Palin does communicate with us via E-mail and she receives the brigade updates in the form of the weekly newsletter. She's also the official Brigade Mom . . . We know Governor Palin very well, trust me. We get her E-mails and she gets ours. She has sent us some very nice E-mails." He adds, "Listen, she's been to every deployment ceremony, she visits units in Alaska, and she really cares about the military. And all that was even before she decided to run for vice president."

However, despite his attempts to keep a low profile, I'm sure Track gets his share of ragging from the other soldiers. I particularly liked this quote:

“He is probably going to get teased a lot, they will say ’dude your sister is hot’ and things like that,” Captain Tiffany Bilderback, 25, and 13 months into her 15 month tour in Diyala, told The Times.

(Speaking from personal experience, I can indeed testify that you should not let your buddies see photos of your attractive female relatives - they will be the subject of endless conversation whenever you are around. I imagine this tradition goes all the way back to the Spartans, or even earlier.)

I've always had a lot of sympathy for Track Palin, because this honorable young soldier has been unfairly smeared more heavily than nearly any other member of the Palin family. Exit question: Should C4P adopt the Delta Company Dragoons? If there's any interest, I can contact the Fort Wainwright Public Affairs Office to see if they will cough up an "Any Soldier" address for care packages. Soldiers always appreciate toiletries like baby wipes or disposable razors, and "pogie bait" like hard candy, beef jerky, or packaged cookies, as well as things like school supplies and toys that they can give to the Iraqi kids. My wife has an extensive collection of Beanie Babies from the 1990s out in the garage that she's finally consented to get rid of - I'm going to send them to Iraq for GIs to give away to Iraqi kids while on patrol.

UPDATE: The next update in this series can be found here.