BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) One young man cannonballed into the cool
blue pool, another applied suntan lotion to his girlfriend's
shoulders and a third swung his machine gun onto a lawn chair. A
pair of Black Hawk helicopters hovered above.
The men and women could have passed for American college
students, but they were U.S. soldiers at Camp Liberty in western
Baghdad, seeking a break from the war raging just beyond the blast
walls. Hours later, some would don helmets and flak jackets, jump
into armored vehicles and patrol through violent Baghdad
neighborhoods.
''When I come here I don't feel like I'm in Iraq,'' said Sgt.
Jeanne Crochet, a nurse in the 256th Brigade of the Louisiana
National Guard, who sat next to her suntanning boyfriend, Sgt.
Bryan Ebeling, as Jimmy Buffett tunes played in the background. ''I
don't complain much about living conditions.''
In this war, troops particularly infantrymen who regularly
patrol and conduct raids struggle to relax and get away from the
violence that relentlessly creeps up on them. Even inside bases
such as Camp Liberty that stretch for miles, insurgents continue to
kill and injure soldiers by launching mortars and rockets over
fortified walls.
Just last week word flashed through the camp of a big-screen
showing of the new Star Wars movie, generating a flood of
excitement.
But then insurgents fired a rocket into the base, slamming close
to shops and fast-food eateries where the movie was to be shown,
killing one soldier.
''The soldiers came in and yelled, 'Save yourselves and run to
the bunker,''' remembered Jericho Aquino, a Filipino worker at the
Cinnabon dessert shop close to where the rocket struck.
Future screenings were canceled.
But the U.S. military has brought other slices of Americana to
this dusty complex of white trailers and palaces once used by
Saddam Hussein.
A Burger King and Pizza Hut compliment a dining hall that can
compete with most corporate dining facilities lobster and a dozen
desserts are often on menu and a local store resembles a major
retail outlet, complete with rows of CDs, DVDs, and big screen TVs.
Some soldiers relax over video games or bootleg DVDs on their
laptops. Others look forward to seeing celebrities. A recent
visitor was actor Vince Vaughn, a local favorite.
But the most popular venue on base may be the palace pools where
soldiers lie in the sun or swim with friends, ignoring the
occasional explosion that reverberates in the distance. In one pool
in a man-made lagoon jutting into a pond, soldiers preparing to
return to the U.S. relaxed and looked back on their year in Iraq.
''It was frustrating sometimes. It was like we were fighting
ghosts,'' said Sgt. Wayne Brekke, of Aloha, Ore., a combat engineer
assigned to the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. Brekke said it
was difficult to fight hidden insurgents who detonated roadside
bombs by phone or sporadically fired from neighborhoods that they
could quickly blend into.
Most of the soldiers said their work had a positive impact in
the capital, pointing to areas such as Haifa Street where attacks
have been reduced. But the war that continued throughout the city
was fresh in many minds Brekke's unit suffered casualties on
their last two patrols, including one attack that was videotaped by
militants and later posted on their Web site.
''It was mentally and physically exhausting, especially in this
heat,'' said Brekke, two days before a flight was scheduled take
him away from his 12-hour Baghdad patrol shifts and fly him to
Kuwait and then to California. ''You never knew when something was
going to happen.''
The soldiers knew the burden of a yearlong deployment was at an
end and looked forward to vacation plans long in the making. ''I'm
going to Vegas, man,'' Brekke said.
