Shortened deployment still provided lessons learned

  • Published
  • By Valerie Mullett
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs Office
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  Editor's Note: This is part two of a two-part series on the second of two missions Malmstrom security forces members were charged with doing while they were recently deployed.

Officials at Camp Bucca, Iraq, had a second mission in mind when tapping Malmstrom for a security forces officer to deploy there. They didn't need him to oversee missions outside the wire. They needed him to oversee security inside the forward operating base [FOB]. At least for awhile. 

"When I first arrived, I was the assistant operations officer for the 586th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron," said Capt. Adam Baker, who was a first lieutenant when he deployed. "My job was a law and order mission, perimeter security and vehicle control entering and exiting the installation. We had about 300 personnel assigned when I arrived." 

The operations officer learned shortly after arrival that a contract had been established to turn over those duties to contracted Ugandans. This meant his deployment, along with the other 300 personnel assigned, would be cut short - to a three month stay versus a six-month stay his Malmstrom counterparts were tasked to endure. But before he was cut loose to head back home, there was still work needing to be done. 

"It took about two weeks of training the Ugandans and then they had to receive quality control by the FOB commander and the FOB command sergeant major," Captain Baker explained. "My role was to ensure a training plan was in place and the contractors were getting the training required to apply it during contingencies." 

Camp Bucca is not a large installation by any means, about 4 square miles, according to the captain. But it housed roughly 18,000 Coalition forces and 12,000 detainees. 

"There was not a lot of room, but the size and shape of it made it ideal from a security standpoint," Captain Baker said. "Everything was within a short walk." 

But even so, he rarely had the chance to run in to the other Malmstrom security forces deployed there, too. 

"It was hit or miss," Captain Baker said. "I would run into some of them at breakfast and some at dinner, but I really didn't see them that often." 

While his living conditions weren't ideal - sharing an 8-person tent with temporary walls that were portioned off into about 150 square feet per person - the security forces officer was impressed with the sustenance provided. 

"Our dining facility was very large and was open 24-hours-a-day," Captain Baker said. "They offered four hot meals and cold food throughout the day. The workers there took pride in the food they prepared and offered many selections for every meal." 

While cooking for the troops was their main priority, there were still security issues Captain Baker had to see to as his priority. 

Once the Ugandan contractors were comfortable in their new roles, the decision to inactive the unit came shortly afterwards and the operations officer's role became quite different. 

"My job was to aid in the coordination of the inactivation of the unit through tracking supplies and letters of evaluation and decorations for a few of the troops," Captain Baker said. 

Closing down a unit required a hands-on inventory of everything that had been issued to the unit, he explained. 

Once that was complete, his job at Camp Bucca had ended. He would be heading home for the Christmas holidays, departing his comrades on Dec. 24, 2008. Even though he did not remain in theater as long as he thought he would, he still left with a great appreciation for those he was leaving behind from home station. 

"We put so much responsibility squarely on the shoulders of our junior enlisted and these troops were excelling at it. Our young Airmen were handling the same day-to-day tasks as the E-6s and E-7s in the Army and we never worried they wouldn't produce quality work," Captain Baker said. "Because we empower them to make tough decisions, they rewarded us by completing the mission to the highest standard." 

Arriving at Baltimore Washington International Airport was perhaps the most eye-opening experience of the deployment though, for him, though. 

"Seeing a line of patriotic Americans nearly ¾ of a mile long, welcoming us home - thanking us, clapping for us and calling us heroes - makes every sweltering hot day and every freezing cold night away from the comforts of home worth every minute of it."