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TERRACE

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 13, 2003 - Bl

Back from the Iraqi desert

By JESSIE GIES

-LOOKING INTO Kevin

Braam’s dark green eyes,
_ you.can't help wondering
_ what they’ve seen.

Braam returned to Ter-
‘race [wo weeks ago after
fighting the rule of Sad-
dam Hussein.
~~ He was raised in Ter-
-tace as a dual cilizen of
both Canada and the U.S.

because his mother is from

Towa and his father is from
here,

““Ty feels really good to
be home,” he said in an
interview. with The Ter-
race Standard.
>. Braam, 21, enlisted in
the .U:S. army after attend-
“ing: a-private Christian col-
‘tege in Iowa.
ov tA-year and a half ago,
-nobady thought we were
‘going [io Iraq],” Braam

said. “We didn’t have the

slightest clue.”

~ Braam spent several

months ‘prior to the war
training at a.U.S. army

'~-base in Georgia.

“In mid-January, he was
~~ deployed to Camp Penn-

-sylvania in Kuwait with
°20,000 troops of the Third
Infantry Division of the
U.S. army.

"There, he continued
reguiar training with his
“combat engineer unit.

. As fighting intensified
- in the desert, so did the

> heat. Braam said when he

“average. temperalure was
around 20 degrees Celsius
‘but ‘steadily climbed asthe
“months. passed until it
reached 55 Celsius.
_- “We were only told we
_ were. going to war two or
“cthree days prior,” Braam
said,
“occAs a-combat engineer,
* Braam was responsible for
tearing. down field obsta-
cles like barbed wire fenc-
es and other tasks. Mem-
bers of Braam’s squadron
were also responsible for
dismantling land mines.
~“We're not considered
main combal,” Braam
“said, describing the posi-
“tion of his six-man unit,
~" “We're combat support.”
_ Braam . was alsa
'-charged with maintenance
of the company Humvee
“vehicle.
“Some guys in the unit
were a lot worse off than
“me,".Braam said. “I was
-. fairly ‘safe compared to a
me lot of guys.’
‘During his time in Iraq,
communications home

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- first arrived in January, the

BROUGHT UP in Terrace with dual American and Canadian citizenship, Kevin Braam spent the last
few weeks in Terrace on leave from the war in Iraq. A combat engineer, Braam experienced every-
thing Irom desert heat to a tour of one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. PHOTO BY JESSIE GIES

were difficult and Braam
said his parents didn’t
know whether he was safe,

That was until Braam
was interviewed by report-
ers in Iraq after a munition
cache went off. Friends of
the family said they had
seen Braam so his parents
knew he was okay.

Braam was by -no
means sheltered from the
violence there.

He said none of the
hours and hours of training
could prepare him for the
violence he experienced,
which he said was shock-
ing at first,

“You don’t know what

it's going to be like until it

actually happens,” he said.

May 1 marked the end
of major U.S. operations:in
Traq.

“That didn’t make it
any less intense,” Braam
said.

Braam said things were
getting cleaned up, but he

‘said there were still guer-

rilla fighters and armed
civilians attacking Ameri-
can troops.

He said Iraqis were fir-
ing RPGs (rocket pro-
pelled grenades) at Ameri-
can soldiers, weapons he
said were easy to obtain in
Baghdad.

“Owning RPGs in Iraq
is like owning a 12-gauge
shotgun in Terrace,”

Braam said.

Braam said there were
very few civilian casual-
ties at this time and
though “things got hairy”
at times, he believes the
majority of Iraqis were
happy to have Hussein out
of power.

Braam said the standard
issue rifle for U.S. army
troops in Iraq is the M-16
which he said weighs just
under eight and half

tatoes and beans.

“Tt was great,” Braam
said. “It’s what me and my
dad always had.”

Braam described the re-
ality of a desert storm.

“it’s just miserable,” he
said, ‘The wind is blowing

- hard-and there's sand com-

ing from every direction.”

He said sand: got in
every nook and cranny and
it was impossible to stay
clean.

“Out there in the desert, when there’s
no storm, the sunset is a beautiful thing

to watch.”

pounds.

The total gear each
member of his unit carried
weighted up to 45 pounds
and they had to wear fa-
tigues during the entire
three month patrol in Iraq.

“We're dressed up like
it's winter and it’s 115
degrees!" he remembers
saying.

Getting a good night's
sleep in Iraq was also dif-
ficult, Braam said.

“We'd wake up at two
or three in the morning to
artillery going off nearby.

Troops had a main diet
of packaged meals that
Braam said were boring.

His first meal at home
was barbecued steak, -pa-

view, several people inter-

“Baby wipes (are) a
high commodity out
there,” he said.

Braam said the soldiers
had some time of each day
for personal reflection.

“[ started thinking of
things I never thought I
would remember,” Braam
recalled, saying childhood
memories of Terrace
would flood back to him as
he sat in his camp.

“L thought of being a
child. So innocent, not
having a worry in the
world.”

He remembers thinking
of his friends and family
back home,

Throughout the inter-

rupted to embrace Braam.

“God bless = you,
Kevin,” one woman from
his church said as she
hugged him.

Braam said the experi-
ence made him appreciate
the beauty and safety of
Terrace.

But Braam’s experience
was not all bad:

“Out there in the desert,
when there’s no storm, the
sunset is a beautiful thing
to watch,” he said.

Braam also had the

' unique opportunity to see

the inside of one of Hus-
sein’s palaces.

“For someone with that
much money, it’s a shame
he spent it all on himself,”
Braam said.

He said the palaces
were lavishly decorated,
with marble flooring stair-
cases as well as dynasly
furniture.

Braam said he was
positive previous to de-
ployment that Hussein was
hiding weapons of mass

destruction, Though none

were found and Hussein is
reportedly still at large,
Braam said the U.S. mis-
sion was nota failure.
“He's not dead, but he’s
not in power,” Braam said.
“We liberated a country in
three weeks with very,
very few casualties. We
haven't failéd at all.”

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