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Local troops manage supply convoys in Iraq

CAMP BUCCA, IRAQ — National Guard troops based in Janesville and Elkhorn are getting an international education as they oversee supply convoys in southern Iraq.

That's according to the latest update from the approximately 130 soldiers who comprise Alpha Company of the 132nd Support Battalion.

The unit is a part of Wisconsin's 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, also known as the Red Arrow Brigade, whose 3,000 members have been scattered across Iraq since last spring.

Alpha Company soldiers stationed at Camp Bucca oversee the trucks that enter Iraq from Kuwait to bring supplies to the camp and to nearby Iraqi cities of Basra and Umm Qasr, according to e-mail communications this week.

The civilian and military convoys feature drivers from Vietnam, Pakistan, Turkey, India, the Philippines, Iraq and Kuwait, to name a few, according to brigade spokesman Lt. Col Tim Donovan.

"Few soldiers on forward operating bases in Iraq deal with a more diverse group of customers than those who work in the convoy-staging lanes. At Camp Bucca, this is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation," Donovan wrote.

Donovan quoted Spc. Michael Vallarta of West Allis, who said the most challenging part of the mission is "dealing with people who don't speak English, and then they get mad at you for not understanding what they are saying."

"Vallarta said the language barrier can cause both sides to get frustrated with each other, and cultural differences make it even more difficult for female soldiers who often have a harder time getting male truck drivers to follow their instructions," Donovan wrote.

"Fortunately, in almost every convoy there is at least one driver who speaks English, and that driver acts as the representative of the group. However, that driver rarely speaks good English," according to an e-mail response to the Gazette from Alpha Company's Capt. Chad Simandl.

The drivers are hired by large civilian companies contracted to provide trucking services to the U.S. government, Simandl wrote.

"These convoys consist of civilian drivers who are simply here to make a living. Perhaps some have a few more patriotic reasons, but our understanding is that the pay they receive here must be lucrative enough, compared to what they could make in their home countries, to make up for the risks they take driving," Simandl said.

The Wisconsin soldiers escort the trucks to a staging area, which looks like a giant parking lot surrounded by concrete barriers, Simandl wrote.

Drivers can rest, get food and water and often sleep in their trucks in the area, which is guarded 24/7, Simandl wrote.

Soldiers keep track of the trucks and supervise their unloading. Then, the soldiers make sure the trucks are refueled and that there are no obvious safety violations before they leave. Drivers are offered water and ice for the road.

If a truck sits in the staging lanes for too long, soldiers must find out why, Simandl wrote.

In a typical day, the staging-lanes soldiers handle as many as 40 civilian trucks that haul everything from fuel to mail to hamburger patties for the camp's Burger King restaurant, Donovan wrote.

By deployment's end, Alpha Company's soldiers will have processed more than 3,000 trucks.

The 32nd Brigade is scheduled to return to the United States in less than two months.