2nd email from the Sinai

Hi Everyone,

I'm a bit behind on my emails and have a lot to catch you up on. If it gets too long, I might split it into two. So now that I've been here two months, I'll try to give you a little better idea of what the Multinational Force and Observers is and what/why we are here in Egypt, day to day life on a military base in the middle of nowhere, and what my job entails.

So here’s the background, you can skip this part if you find it too boring. The MFO came out of the Camp David Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt (1979) after the war. Which war you may ask, since there have been so many in this region. Not the 6-day war between Israel and pretty much everyone else in 1967, but the Yom Kippur war in 1973 when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in an attempt to take back territory lost in the earlier conflict. It wasn't as humiliating a defeat for Egypt this time around and paved the way for the Egypt-Israeli Peace Treaty and the eventual recognition of Israel's existence by the first Muslim nation (Egypt).

So during the treaty negotiations, all parties agreed to an international force presence in the Sinai to help monitor treaty terms. It was assumed that the UN would occupy this role, but the Soviet Union threatened to use their veto power on the Security Council. Hence the MFO was born and in 1982 began their mission in the Sinai. Since then 17 countries contribute either money or troops to support the mission. Right now there are 11 countries with about 1800 troops in either North or South Camp, they are: United States (~700), Columbia (~300), Fiji (~300), Uruguay, Canada, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, and Hungary.

The Sinai was divided into three zones and one additional zone is located along the international border in Israel. MFO soldiers are only allowed to operate in Zone C, the closest to Israel in the Sinai. There are lots of outposts, security check points, and the like throughout this area. The Civilian Observer Unit, which I'm part of, is authorized to work in all four zones. There are 16 of us in the unit, five from the State Department, and the rest are retired military officers. Our job is to basically ensure that both parties are complying with terms of the treaty. In short, we count tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery, and troops in all four zones. I also have to be able to tell the difference between a T-55 and an M-109 tank, self propelled artillery and tanks, the different sizes of artillery pieces, etc. It’s very confusing to say the least. We are required to do this two times per month, so one week we do an aerial reconnaissance of all areas and the second week we get into monstrous suburbans and drive. If we find that something isn't where it should be, we report it back up the chain of command to Rome (MFO headquarters), and if all the attorneys agree, the party in question can receive a violation.

So the question is, why the hell are we still here after 27 years? The reality is, this is the only long term successful peace keeping mission in the entire world. Furthermore, the amount of money it costs the US Government is chump change compared to our other expenses. Finally, the fact the there have been no hostilities between Israel and Egypt in over 30 years sort of justifies its existence.

So enough background, but I thought it's important to have some context. I might have already told you some of this, so bear with me if I have. North Camp is located in North-east Egypt about 7ish miles from the Gaza Strip and the same distance from the Mediterranean Sea. If you get out a map and find a small place called El Gorah, you've found us. South Camp is on the Red Sea coast right outside of Sharm El Sheik. My home is North Camp, surrounded by sand dunes, Bedouins, their camels and goats, and a lot of garbage floating around. Camp is a typical military installation with a bit more security (two layers of fencing and concertina wire, guard towers, etc.) You can literally stand at one end of camp and see to the other side. We have the only forest in the whole Sinai which is full of jackals, owls, freakishly large hares, and other critters. It’s pretty cool to sit outside in the evening and listen to the jackals yelp and bark at each other. They sound almost like small children, very strange. Depending on your rank, you live in either a small one story house (Major and above), a single hooch (me), a shared double hooch, or barracks. Most of the barracks are just long buildings with a hall down the center and lots of bedrooms off both sides and a crappy shared bathroom. The Fijians and Columbians have three story ones that look a bit like the old inner city tenements.

Each of the contingents has their own bar and many have an unofficial "patios" where they have parties. Beers and mixed drinks are one (1) dollar, so it could be easy to become a total lush. There are all kinds of goofy theme nights like the Kiwi gangster night, the French white party, jungle night, etc. They can be…fun isn't quite the right word…mildly amusing might be closer. The Fijians and Columbians are forbidden from drinking because apparently they get into all kinds of trouble when they do. The Fijians really amuse me. They are like big kids always whopping it up, belly laughing, goofing around, etc. But if you put a drink in them, its apparently like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. An example was about a month ago when two Fijians went into Cairo, hit the booze, got into a fight with two Kenyan nationals and literally beat one to death with their bare hands. Needless to say, they were both whisked home straight away. We also had our first murder on base right after I got here when one of the Columbian front gate guards shot another Columbian in the leg and ass and he bled out en route to the hospital in Israel. Apparently the Columbian was being bullied by his fellow soldiers prior to this event. The next week, a Fijian at one of the outposts, just walked off in the middle of the night into the desert. No one knew where he went, but he had his weapon and walked through a mine field. They started a massive search and rescue mission and eventually found him. He also was being harassed by colleagues and had had enough. It’s amazing this kind of behavior is tolerated, but the Force Commander has really landed hard on the leadership here to crack down on bullying.

So anyway, I got a bit sidetracked. I'm not sure why, but we tend to hang out with the aviators and the EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) guys more than anyone else. I'm trying my best to be social with other contingents. With the Kiwis and Aussi's it's not too hard, but otherwise, people do tend to stick with each other. My first week in the dining hall, I was told who sat at which tables and what time they usually came to eat. When I asked what would happen if I went over and sat at the Canadian's table, I was told, that just doesn't happen. I felt like I was back in high school all over again. Since I mentioned the dining facility, I might as well tell you about the food. For some unknown reason, they choose to employ Brits contractors as the cooks (and Italians as the sailors). We've all agreed they got it totally backwards, but we're stuck with it. Since there are so many different groups and preferences here, they really do try to make food that appeals to everyone. Generally speaking it's not bad and occasionally you find something tasty. However, more often than not, it's just kind of blah, over cooked, under seasoned, greasy, etc. That being said, it is still too easy to be a total pig and have a big greasy breakfast, two other dinner sized meals, desserts, etc. It looks like a lot of people gain weight here, but I'm determined not to. I've allowed myself only two deserts per week and am starting to skip Tuesday make your own pizza night.

Speaking of which, besides the bars/patios, they have all kinds of other activities to keep people occupied, i.e. bingo, quiz night, all kinds of sports teams, Texas hold-em poker, etc. The first night I went to bingo I won a whopping $620 (a record). I was basically afraid to walk home alone or show my face the next week, but since then haven't won a damn thing so everyone has stopped harassing me. We also have a great library with tons of DVD's and books. The problem is, no one (except us in the COU) has the ability to get off base very often and it can be a bit stifling after a while. They used to be much more lenient, but there have been three attempted suicide or IED attacks against the MFO in the last five years and our security posture has increased proportionately. It's a shame because you used to be able to go to the beach on weekends, go into El Arish, etc. and now you can’t anymore.

I think I mentioned that there are six areas that my unit keeps an eye on, five in Egypt and one in Israel. I am required to be certified on three of those, which means I can run the whole mission by myself and train new people on it. I’ve started out with the D-15 Israeli mission and one of the Northern Sinai missions. They both take two days for the verification part, and after I’m certified (in 2 weeks), I’ll start learning the four day St. Catherine’s mission in the south. For the D-15, we do the reconnaissance in the Blackhawk helicopters. Prior to coming here, I’d never been in a helicopter and let me tell you, they are so fun to ride in. We take off from north camp, hop across the border where we pick up our Israeli Defense Forces officer, fly up to about 5 km away from the Gaza Strip (any closer and the bad guys could shoot surface to air missiles at us), go all the way down the international border line to the city of Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba, refuel at the airport, and then head back. The whole thing takes about 3.5 hours usually. My favorite part is taking off from Israel on our way back to Egypt. Since we are sitting right at the border, they take the helicopter straight up about 1,500 feet, hover there until they get clearance to cross and then the nose tips forward and we tear off to North Camp, it’s so very cool.

The verification mission is basically the same thing but driving and it takes the entire day to get to Eilat. We spend the night in an overpriced hotel, eat a good meal, and then head back the next day. The drive itself is really interesting and a bit treacherous at times. The typography goes from flat desert to high desert plains, to hills/mountains that reach up to about 3,500 feet. The mountains are amazingly beautiful in their own desolate, dry way. Most of them look like piles of rubble with no discernable peaks, but in the middle of all the sandy colored hills, there will be a completely red or black one. The roads twist and turn up the sides of these hills and since it’s mostly a military road used to get to the border outposts, it is narrow, in bad condition, and lacking any guardrails. The first time I drove it, it was nerve racking to say the least. When you get close to Eilat, you hit these really jagged mountains that line both sides of the valley (the other side is in Jordan) and have to do this really steep descent to get to the water. It’s one of the more beautiful drives I’ve been on. Eilat is a major Israeli tourist trap. It’s a small piece of coast line on the Gulf shared with Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. It’s always hot and with the constant wind blowing it feels like someone is following you around with a hairdryer. The first time I was there, at 8:00 p.m. the temp was still 40 degrees centigrade (about 105 Fahrenheit). Amazingly enough, the water is very cool, but the beaches aren’t too nice, mostly small rocks. The entire gulf all the way down to the Red Sea is very popular for scuba divers (because of all the coral reefs and shipwrecks) so there are lots of schools and diving resorts.

The Northern Egypt mission I’m doing is quite a bit different. First of all we fly in a French Casa fixed wing aircraft. It’s a smallish troop transport plane that seats about 40. It is pretty nasty to fly in and at least one person (usually the Egyptian officer) gets sick on each flight. When you are doing your particular zones, you get to sit on a jump seat up in the cockpit between the two pilots. It’s pretty cool, because you fly at usually about 500 feet and have a great view. The problem arises when you have to go back into the plane and sit for another hour plus. I use those little pressure point wrist bands, homeopathic medicine, my noise cancellation headphones and usually lie down but still have to consciously try not to get ill. For the verification part, we spend the entire two days winding around stopping at dozens of small military installations (ammunition supply points, armored battalions, mechanized infantry battalions, artillery battalions, etc.). To say that the area we are in is desolate is a monumental understatement. You can drive for more than an hour and see nothing but undulating sand dunes and the occasional deserted Israeli bunker complex. It really is beautiful in its own way, but yikes, I can’t imagine having to live out there. The military units are really shoddy operations usually. A few guys in some run-down buildings, usually no electricity and it looks like inadequate food and water supplies. You wonder who they pissed off to land themselves out there. Some of the tanks they have are literally from the last world war, and it’s hard to believe it still even functions.

We always have an Egyptian Military Liason Officer with us and one shooter (guys with an AK-47). The danger isn’t necessarily terrorists in this area, but the Egyptian Government and the local Bedouin population pretty much hate each other. One week the Bedouin will raid a place and try to steal supplies and kill a police officer and the next week the police will kill two to three times as many Bedouin in retaliation. It’s a pretty bad situation with no real end in sight. The Bedouin have been here forever and basically do not recognize any government as legitimate. They have been neutral in all regional conflicts and just want to keep living the way they have for hundreds of years. The Egyptians look down on them as basically sub-human and do not really give them adequate access to education, healthcare and the like. Since they are forced to eke out a meager existence, they can grow olives, peaches, or the big cash crop, hashish.

My biggest problem is remembering where in the hell you need to go and how to find all the places you need to see. Without identifiable landmarks, it is a real pain. We have GPS, satellite tracking systems, VHF & HF radios, and satellite phones to help us if we get lost or have problems, but it is still a challenge.

The other problem is land mines. I had no idea prior to coming here, but the Sinai is one of the most heavily mined areas in the world. In the C Zone alone, they estimate there are over 5 million unexploded mines. The really have no idea how many are in the rest of the Sinai, but besides the Israeli and Egyptian mines, they know that they go all the way back to when the British were here. One of the problems with mines in this area is that they tend to not degrade very quickly because of the lack of humidity and rain. So a mine laid 50 years ago can still function quite well. The other problem is that when the wind blows, sand shifts, and with the sand, move the mines. Road here are constantly covered with sand drifts and we are told under no circumstances are we to drive over sand unless there are recent tire tracks already on it. The windy season is starting now, and in the past they have to skip entire portions of the mission because of massive sand drifts. There are some areas that are clearly marked by the Egyptians as heavily mined, and let me tell you, driving on a narrow road with barbed wire fences on both sides warning of mines, over sand drifts is more than a bit stressful. In the past, the Bedouin (in the C Zone) would find mines and sit them on the side of the road for our EOD guys to collect and dispose of. Since the Gaza situation heated up, they found that they can sell them on the black market and make some money. Luckily we’ve never had anyone killed by them, but some dumb ass Columbians detonated one while they were doing donuts in their truck outside their outpost in a known minefield, talk about the Darwin award).

So along with having to quickly come up to speed on all things military, we had a training week were we learned combat first aid, how to drive a fully armored vehicle, and did a firearms familiarization course. First of all, the only gun I have ever fired was an old rife at Boy Scout camp 25 years ago. When they handed me a 9 mm pistol, an M-4 assault rifle, and an AK-47, it was just a bit intimidating. I had very mixed feelings about the whole thing, but in a way, if we did have any trouble out of the road and our shooters were not able to help us, it is nice to at least be able take the safety off and defend yourself. We learned out to take apart all the guns, the safety features, and then all went out to the range were we got to fire about 70 rounds from them. It was also the first time I had to wear my body armor, and it really cumbersome and hot. I don’t know how our soldiers in Iraq basically live in them. I was very nervous at first, but all in all wasn’t too bad of a shot. On the 25 meter range, 62 of my bullets actually hit the black part of the target. I was the only person there to have never fired a real gun and everyone said I did amazingly well considering. There is some discussion about how often we will do this and whether or not we should actually become qualified to carry weapons on some missions. Not overly thrilled with that prospect, but it’s not my call.

Since this is now well into the fourth page, I’m going stop now and write a separate email about my trips to Tel Aviv, Petra (in Jordan), Cairo, and a few ancient city sites we’ve gone to. I would love to be able to include pictures from my travels around the area, but we are strictly forbidden from taking any photographs while on mission or traveling in an MFO vehicle. So much so, that if the Force Commander finds out, he can send us home. I’m trying to figure out how to start my own blog on the internet, so the next time I write an email, I’ll post it there and just provide you the link. Hope you are all well and enjoying your fall (or spring). Take care,

Steve