Chris Kegel- Audio Clip

Chris Kegel Interview

Could you state your name and rank in the army?

My name is Captain Christopher Kegel I was a platoon leader with the O guard for the third infantry, The Us infantry. Now I am the Battalion S2 of the military intelligence officer.

What conflicts did you participate in?

I was a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom 06-08 From October of 2006 till December of 2007.

What branch of the military were you in?

I’m with the US army.

Were you activated during wartime?

No, I’m on active duty so this is my full time job 24/7.

When and why did you join the service?

Joined ROTC my freshman year of college which would have been August 2001 and stayed through my entire college career, then got my commission in ’05, and joined to have ROTC pay for my college.

What kind of prewar training did you receive?

Everything, we not only went to every range possible from 9 mil, to m16, m4, m203 grenades, to machinegun training, then prior to going to Iraq we went to JRTC at Fork Polk, Louisiana for thirty days and basically going force on force with people playing Iraqi insurgents and Iraqi civilians and interacting with them.

What was an average day in the military like?

There is no average day. Every day is different there’s not a single day that’s the same. While we’re at Garrison it could range from 3-4 meetings a day to having nothing to do and sitting around doing nothing playing on our computers and go to lunch. In Iraq there’s not a single day that is the same. One day you could be doing patrols for 15 hours out of the day, next day you are just sitting in your room, and next day you’re in a fire fight so there’s never a single day that is the same.

How was diversity accepted in your unit?

Explain that one. Like racial diversity or men and women how was that accepted? Well there are no women in the infantry so there are no women, well there are here and there in the support units there are women there are. For the most part there were no women with us, so as far as that goes we just didn’t have any women so we didn’t have to deal with that. Not that that’s a bad thing but as far as diversity there are a lot of Americans, a lot of Latinos, there’s a big mix of everyone.

Were you deployed during your service?

Yeah out of my 4 years active duty I was deployed 15 months to Iraq and my Unit just went back again.

When were you deployed and what did you do at your duty station?

I was deployed form October of 2006 to December of 2007. We were based out of base Pandelota by the city of Belad, Iraq about 50 or 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, and we did basically patrols in our area to decrease the presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

How many years have you been a part of the military prior to your deployment?

I’ve been on active duty since May of ’05 to October of ’06 so right around 16 months. Then I went to Iraq and came back.

What kind of preparations did you make prior to your deployment?

Myself? Big preparations prior to leaving for me were getting the proper power of attorney straight, like I had my mom as my power of attorney so she could handle all my finances while I was gone. Just getting everything squared away on the home front. Where I was going to keep my truck, make sure my apartment was straight, furniture housing stuff, as far as other stuff I spent a lot of money on buying equipment, uniforms and stuff prior to leaving so I had enough stuff and make sure I would never run out. The army pretty much squares you away before you leave they make sure that we get all the necessary shots, all our finances are straight our paper work is straight, our wills our life insurance policies emergency contact information all that stuff all that’s squared away.

What training did you receive in preparation for the mission?

In preparation for our mission we knew we were going to be doing a lot of patrols, street patrols, so when we worked we worked our preparation worked in coordination with the Iraqi army the Iraqi police, and doing joint patrols with them. A lot of react to contact drills so when we were going to get in fire fights so reacting in a timely matter and quickly getting enough fire power down the range was a big one. React to IED was a big one. We got hit with quite a few of those. CAS evac was a big one, evacuating casualties off the battlefield. Pretty much our training was based on us whatever we wanted to train for. We trained for every possible scenario we could think of. We were very well prepared for going into it.

How did that training differ from normal training?

Normal training once we got back from Iraq, the normal training you are talking about is like going to ranges, working on tactical stuff here and there but, the more focused war training is a lot more tensed, more focused. Certain aspects of either marksmanship or tactical training, clearing rooms stuff like that. The difference is just in preparation for war you are always training for combat. Once you know you’re going and the time keeps getting shorter and shorter to me it becomes more focused and a lot more intense.

At your duty station what was your life like?

Now when you say duty station you mean Iraq? Life was easy because it was a set scheduling we, at least for my company we were on a company sized FAB. So we would do, like one week we would be on FAB security and we’d be manning the guard towers manning the front gate the next week we would be on QRF, quick reaction force, so if anything happened out in sector where our company or anybody needed a hand we could get out there quickly and provide the necessary fire power and man power. Then the next week we would be running patrols. They could be anywhere from going out at 6 in the morning to noon coming in for lunch and going back out for another 6 or 7 hours just patrolling around Iraq our area of operations. So like I said days were never the same. When we could get down time we would take it guys would sleep do whatever they wanted to do; call home, get on the internet, but once it was time to conduct a mission it was game on. So that was on a given day. We were on FAB security it was pretty lax, if you were on the towers you could do whatever you want.

What was the hardest thing about being over in Iraq?

The hardest thing was probably being away from family because we would always go on Com black outs, some reason the phones wouldn’t work, net wasn’t working, and you just couldn’t get a hold of anybody. Hardest thing also was it’s always in the back of your mind that something bad is going to happen and you won’t get home alive, so it’s… the hardest thing would probably be being away from family. Once you’re there you don’t really think about what could happen during your mission you just do your job. So there you go.

Did you see combat while you were there?

Yeah we got in our first firefight in the first week we were in Iraq. When going through an open field snipers would pin us down. So that was our first little taste of getting shot at and it was pretty crazy to actually know and realize that someone is actually shooting at you. So that was our first little taste and that was pretty much every time we went out we would get shot at least once or twice. You get so accustomed to it that it’s just like whatever. You don’t even react to it anymore. So yeah we saw quite a bit of combat from small arms fire to IEDs to RPGs to everything.

Did you interact with the locals and if so are there any memorable moments?

We interacted with the locals every day. The Iraqi people are pretty amazing people I mean for them it’s, they’re still pulling carts with donkeys and living in mud huts, with no electricity maybe having an hour of electricity a day, no running water.  So seeing that and seeing how they live kind of humbles you a little bit, makes you glad for what you have. The Iraqi kids are cute as hell. They’re, sorry, they’re camera whores. I mean every time they see you they say "Aww, take my picture!" The Iraqi kids are awesome, they would usually light the situation up and my guys we would go and play soccer with them and stuff like that so the Iraqi people are pretty cool. Yes they wanted us there but at the same time they wanted us to leave. I don’t really have any memorable moments with the Iraqis. They were good people though really they are.

How long did you serve over there?

I was there for just under 15 months, we were there 14. We were in country about 4 months when we found out that we were going to be extended past our year mark so at that point it was like ok whatever we’ll just stay here as long as they need us. We were lucky in the fact that we didn’t have to stay to 18 months.

The current war is an urban war. What is meant by urban war? How does today’s fighting style vary from the past?

Urban warfare is much harder than your conventional warfare. The typical, it’s basically guerilla warfare right now with the fact that urban warfare it’s you’re on the enemies terrain. They know all the back allies and the back doors and the houses, they know everything. With the insurgents we’re not fighting an army. We are not fighting any militia or anything.  It’s all civilians. They can shoot at you from one ally run to the next ally, dump their weapon, and walk right down the street and you’ll never know that that’s the guy that was shooting at you. So in that sense urban warfare is much harder also to the fact that if it’s a 4 or 5 story building and they shoot at you from a window you have no idea what window it came from. As opposed to in the woods you can pretty much narrow it down to where the firing is coming from. In the urban setting it helps but it also hinders us at the same time. The, we can maneuver pretty well, but like I said the insurgents aren’t wearing the body armor or our equipment so they can move a lot faster. They are some of the fastest people I have ever seen run in sandals. Also with our capabilities I was with armored cavalry so we had M283 Bradley’s and we can move a lot faster on the streets than they can run, but then we can’t get down some of the back allies to get to them, to put quality fire down on them. So urban warfare is good but at the same time it is very difficult to win a fight in.

How does today’s fighting style vary from warfare in the past?

Oh, Jesus. That’s a tough one. I don’t know. I guess now it’s a lot more decentralized. Like my commander would just say hey I want you to go here and I would be like okay and I could basically do what I wanted to do. I would go out do whatever I wanted to do, patrol, go to this house talk to these people move down the street to this area, patrol this orchard it didn’t matter and I was a platoon leader in Iraq so as far as fighting style it was a little more decentralized than the past but at the same time it was pretty similar. As far as wars in the past I mean, there’s lessons learned from every conflict. What we learned in Vietnam we are applying now that we can use just based on the guerilla warfare aspect. I don’t know I really don’t know. Sorry. That’s ok.

What effects did new technology at the time have on your experience?

Some of the technology that is out now, like the raven and the predator and the hunter, which are all UAVs which are unmanned aerial vehicles, helped us tremendously in the fact that we could send them up, the insurgents can’t hear them, we can get eyes through the thermals, infrared, we can get eyes on how many people they have, where they are hiding before we ever get close to the location. So that helped us tremendously in the fact that some of them like the predator and the hunter are armed as well, if we need to put fire down on them the predator and hunter can destroy the enemy before we even get there. Also the use of foreign air controllers so we can use fast movers, jets, F16s, A10s, British tornadoes and what not. We can call them in, like with the use of our radios we can talk to anybody. Big on the ground, I know I’ve coordinated, talked to F16s trying to get eyes on the enemy further down range than we were. Calling in helicopters we always had apaches with us or Cayowas or whatever that could put firepower down if we need them too. So technology is definitely an advantage, we’ll put it that way.

What was your opinion on this technology?

Ah I loved it. Technology helps but it also hinders at times too because granted you a lot of times were like ‘yes we got technology’ then we would use it and it would be helpful but at the same time it was a hindrance sometimes we were waiting for it and we couldn’t move because there was a problem with it or we couldn’t do some things because it was down for mechanical issues or whatever. So it’s helpful but at the same time it can hinder some of your operations as well being reliant on the technology.

What kind of stress did you endure while deployed?

As far as stress goes, it’s always stressful when you get in a firefight. It doesn’t matter how many times you do it it’s always a stressful situation. When there are bullets flying or IEDs going off your stress is always going to be heightened. Loosing soldiers is one of the toughest and most stressful parts that we had. We lost eight. In my platoon alone I lost one. Loosing soldiers is probably the most stressful situation. As far as other stressful situations ROEs brings a lot of stress on you. Just like the situation like I was telling you before they would shoot at you, run to an ally, drop their weapon, and walk down the road and you couldn’t do nothing about it so ROE was a stressful situation, fire fights, loss of soldiers. Stuff like that.

How does that differ from everyday stress as a soldier?

In all Honesty, when we were in Garrison or when we are at home at our posts doing our day-to-day operations there really is no stress. There’s no reason you should be stressed out unless you are working on high-level stuff because you can go home every day. You can go home and just relax, watch T.V., chill, or whatever. So as far as once, while you’re in Iraq you’re there You can never really get away from your stress that’s when we let the guys do whatever they want, call home talk on the internet. They had gaming systems. We had three sixties, play stations TV’s and stuff. We let them just chill kind of just relieve their stress. Just kind of let out steam so that in Iraq it was a lot more difficult to relieve your stress, here at home there’s really, you shouldn’t be stressed out because you have, there’s so many things to relieve your stress. Whether it be family you know, TV, internet, whatever you can get away from the entire military aspect by going home.

So what kind of equipment did you have while at your duty station in Iraq?

When you say equipment what do you mean? Like caviler helmets, your weapons.

OK, Oh god, the day to day soldier had an S.H. advance combat helmet every soldier had, ok we’ll go from head down, Than the body armor we had point blank body armor with net guard groin protector throat guard, As infantry soldiers we just wore the side sappy which is an E sappy plate covering the side of the ribcage other soldiers would wear shoulder sappy, and side sappy which is just a Kevlar layer that protects you from the outside of the shoulder to the underarm. Then on that it was up to the soldier to what they wore, be it their type of rack system, chest type of rack system, when I say rack system I mean where they put their canteens, canteen pouches, MAG pouches, grenade pouches, radio pouches, camel pack, drop pouches. It was soldier preference to where they had all their pouches. It is soldier’s fit. You can’t tell them where to put their gear. It’s got to be where it is most comfortable and where they can get at it easily. From the bottom, Kneepads are required now; it was soldier preference when I was there. You could wear them but you didn’t have to. I never wore them. After that it was just your ACs, your boots, most guys carried an M4 carbine with either an M68 optic or EOTECH or MACOG and then either a PEC2 or PEC4 laser which is just a ground pointing laser that can point under NODs, or your night vision. You had a pressure switch, wherever your laser pointed if that’s where you shot that is where the bullet would go. Other guys had sure-fire flashlights and so if you did enter a building you could shine that light. So on average each soldier carried at least 8 magazines, 30 rounds a piece in each MAG so average soldier would be carrying 240 rounds. You could carry more, but there was no less than 8 MAGs per man.  We usually carry 3-4 smoke per team leader, squad leader. We would carry flares. We would have a camel back at least a 3 quart camel back of water Full at all times. You had to have eye pro whether it was clear lenses, amber lenses, or shaded lenses it didn’t matter some kind of eye pro ballistic eye pro. Squad leader and above carried radio or a PRIK148, it’s a small radio that could reach out quite a ways that was our radio. For me that way I could talk to my Bradleys and the Bradleys could then talk to the company. If you are a team leader or above you would carry a M203 grenade launcher, attached to your M4 carbine and you would carry at least a dozen rounds with that. I knew team leaders that would carry 60 rounds of grenades to shoot in a firefight and they would go through them all in a firefight. That’s just the average soldier. Is that detailed enough for you? Yeah!

What personal items were you allowed to take along with you?

As far as personal items you could bring your Ipod, computer, I mean any of that stuff. Any personal items you can bring. As far as personal weapons and what not, you could not bring personally owned firearms like handguns and everything, those were not allowed. If you did manage to get it into the country you didn’t get it out. Also, you could bring knives; you could bring pocketknives, fighting knives, stuff like that, they had no problem with that. Other than that it’s pretty open. You can bring a lot of stuff over there and if you have any questions on it it’s usually commander’s preference. If your commander doesn’t want you to bring it then you don’t bring it.

What specifically did you take?

I took my computer, an external hard drive, I brought a DVD player, IPod, speakers, I brought a KBAR, a fighting knife, I brought a trench knife that my father gave to me, other than that nothing really else. You can get a lot more stuff over in the country now. Like I bought a Playstation and T.V. for my guys while I was over there, you can obtain the stuff over there and then you don’t have to truck it back and forth.

What did you miss most from back home?

Home cooking, food in Iraq was good but at the same time it was terrible. I missed home cooking. I missed just the day-to-day stuff. Being able to do what I wanted to do, not having to carry a weapon around all day, and I missed being able to walk out of my house and not having to worry about a mortar falling on top of me or a bomb going off. I missed driving my truck most. In Iraq I always had drivers so I didn’t have to drive anywhere. One of those things I just, you missed the novelties from back here, being able to jump on the internet whenever you wanted to, or call home whenever you wanted to and just interact with other people. I mean I love my guys to death and I would do anything for them, but at the same time it was like I got sick of seeing their faces. Just the novelties and stuff that you take for granted here at home. I actually missed filling my truck up with gas, driving and having to fill it up with gas. Yeah it was weird I know.

From one of the other interviews I did he said that they had taco bell and like…

In our company patrol base we had nothing. We just had our chow hall that was it. If you went to the bigger FABs like El Alexandra which was where I was headquartered at there was the main PX was there, then you had an embroidery shop, green bean coffee, pizza hut, Burger King, Popeye’s, and then if you went on the other FAB side they had Subway, Pizza Hut, I mean they had everything over there. If you wanted it you could get it and if you wanted to get fat you could get fat.

With the firefights how was their technology compared to ours?

Their technology is pretty primitive. They are using AK47s, which are fine weapons, can put a lot of rounds down range real quick and you can drag it through mud and it will still work. As far as that goes there are more AKs in that country than you could shake a stick at. They don’t have a hard time getting them. Every house is allowed to have 1 AK. As far as that goes it’s pretty primitive. Their making of IEDs was primitive as well I mean they started taking little mountain dew bottles that type of thing, 20 ounces and filling them with gasoline and then putting them in the IEDs so when the IED went off gasoline would spread just everywhere and just burn. They use it as an accelerant, and they made homemade explosives. They would take just tree trunks for knives. They would just shove the metal into a tree trunk then wrap it with wire, burn it or whatever. Their RPGs were usually so old and so degraded that they would hit our Bradleys and impact walls and not even blow up. They are good fighters, they adapt to what we’re doing, and they learn our techniques, and they at times are pretty effective, but their technology limited them to think that they could penetrate our Bradley armor with AK rounds and they would stand there are fight. We would eliminate an enemy but at the same time they think they can hide from our imagery and they can’t. They think if they just lay in a ditch we can’t see them with our inferred and our heart signature capabilities, so technology limited them but the same time they were effectible at times so, good, ok.

About how many times a day was your station mortared?

We got mortared I’d say two times a week it wasn’t an everyday occurrence and they were usually horrible with their aim. So we usually didn’t worry about it. A couple times when a grenade came over the wall or a rocket would come zinging into the compound they were never effective, no one ever got injured. We’re thankful for that a lot of times we would watch the motor rounds impact the town that were right across the street from our fobs. No big deal.

What did you do on your free time?

My platoon sergeant and I would usually, once we were done debriefing, fill in some paper work, find out when our next mission was. We lived together so we’d go back to our room drop our kit take our boots off, and relax we had acquired a satellite, put it on top of our hut, our container house unit, we would just sit there watching satellite TV. We‘d watch movies, miniseries, we would just chill, and we would just relax. It was a good time. Also in our free time we worked out almost every day. We had a gym too.

Are there any memorable moments that you would like to share from over there?

Memorable moments… I’m trying to think of one that sticks out. As far as memorable moments they are all memorable moment because I got to spend some time with some of the best guys I have ever met in my life. I would go to war with them any day. So as far as that every day was memorable because I got to fight with some of the best soldiers in the army. There isn’t one memorable moment that sticks out. I mean I had a good time over there I would go back in a heartbeat.

How did you feel after you returned home?

It was a culture shock again. Coming back, on my ride home, my parents can attest to this, they came to pick me up from the airport and every hole I saw I thought there was going to be an IED in it That kind of thing. The dark was always a little iffy too, coming home you would walk outside in the dark and there would be a, I’m always thinking there is going to be someone around a corner or whatever. Once home I was always wondering where my weapon was because we carried it 24/7. You never went anywhere without your weapon. At times I would be looking around for my weapon, why isn’t my weapon here? Other than that though it was just nice to be home it took a little time getting used to having all my stuff again. Being able to do what I want again.

What kind of reception did you get when you came back?

It was first Cavalry 8 they brought us home we marched on to the parade field and all the families were sitting there in the stands, then we were released and our parents met us out on the parade field. So that was pretty nice. They gave us a nice little welcome home.

What lessons did you learn from your experience in the war?

What lessons did I learn? A couple lessons I learned were don’t take the enemy for granted because we need to learn and adapt to their kind of war fighting. They do the same for us. The know our TTPs, they know the way we conduct business, they know our standard operating procedures, they know how our equipment works, they pretty much know everything. They have intelligence just as much as we do. So pretty much just taking the enemy for granted is one lesson I learned. I don’t know, I don’t know that’s a tough one. I don’t know I really don’t know. I’ll have to think about it. I’m going to have to take a pass on that one.

What did serving your country mean to you while on active duty?

Like I said I am on active duty all day every day. I love the army. I would give my life for the country I love it. So serving on duty in Iraq was very honorable to me. From the day the war started I wanted to get over there and do my part. If I hadn’t been able to go over to Iraq and do my thing I probably would have been a little more pissed off. Just because it was a great learning experience for me as a leader I think without it I would be less effective, if that makes sense. Serving in Iraq was very honorable for me and like I said I would probably give my life for my country.

Is war like it is in Hollywood?

Hell no. Hollywood makes war seem all glamorous and exciting, where everything with one round blows up, big fireballs, and where people put, in Hollywood you can watch a guy fire a weapon for 2 minutes straight and reload. Where every round they shoot is effective, it hits the enemy, kills the enemy, that sort of thing. What they don’t show is the fact that you could shoot an Iraqi 2,3,4 times and they would run at you like there’s nothing wrong with them. They don’t show you that yeah you can shoot 40, 30 rounds at somebody and you’ll never hit them. You are just firing at specific points you see them engaging the enemy in Hollywood, a lot of the time we were just firing at points where we thought the enemy was at. So no. Were there gas balls? Yes. Were there big explosions? Yes, but is it to the magnitude of Hollywood? No. No not everything goes boom like Hollywood does.

Is there a message for people today that you have about the war?

Message about the war… The message I would say is it’s not as bad as the media projects. The media is very skewed very biased. They only show the bad stuff that is going on. We really are doing very good work over there. The Iraqi army is taking over everything, they don’t ever portray that we set up a free medical clinic and now all the people have free medical care, or that we are giving books, pens, and now the kids actually have stuff to use at school. They don’t show that, they don’t show us giving gas; they don’t show us giving food, water, and giving medical care. Everyone’s real harsh on Bush and the fact that we had 4,700 casualties, but if you think about it the war’s been going on what 6-7 years now and that’s really not that bad. 4,700 soldiers in a 6-year war is nothing. I guess people just need to support the troops; it’s not our fault that we are over there. For everyone to get down on the soldiers and criticize us for doing our jobs is pretty harsh and retarded. Like I said it’s not like we chose to go over there. We are just doing our jobs. So for them to get all down and upset with us and not supporting the troops, all they are doing is hurting us. You’re not hurting anybody else. I guess I am just asking people to support, I’m not asking people to support the leadership, but at least support the troops on the ground. We are out trying to keep America safe and people take that for granted.

When our occupation leaves the Middle East what state do you feel the Middle East will be in?

It’s going to go to hell in a hand basket. To put it frank, sorry. Once we leave the Middle East will go into it’s normal state there is going to be war, there’s going to be fighting, just like there has been for the past 2,000 years. It’s not going to change over night. We do need to leave and let the Iraqis fend for themselves. We can’t hold their hand anymore. There’s going to be a power struggle and we just need to let it happen. It’s been happening for the entire history of the world has been a power struggle. So they have to deal with the power struggle on their own.

What will this mean for the US with their power struggle over in the Middle East?

We’ll always have a hand in it I’m sure. I couldn’t tell you for sure. As far as the US we have learned a lot from this conflict about what our strengths are, what are weaknesses are and how to fight an insurgent type of warfare how to counter insurgents. We will always have an eye on the Middle East if not for any other purpose than oil, which is the business for the area. The politics in the Middle East are always tough. I’m sure we will be always sending people over there I don’t mean soldiers but ambassadors to help control the situations.

Do you feel there should have been something done differently in the current conflict?

I’m not really one to say what we should have done differently. Like I said I just do my job.  I mean that’s why the Generals get paid a whole heck of a lot more than I do to make those decisions. They are going off what they know and what their intelligence tells them and we go down there and we carry out what they tell us to do. So if something could have been done differently it should. Could it have been a more perfect thing, 20/20, high sight? Hell yeah. We are just doing what we do and we try to do it the best we can.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

You got any other questions?

That was the last one.

No I’m good. I’m good if you’re good.