Iraq — My Weekend in Iraq With Dr. Biden

WASHINGTON — It was the day before the long, Fourth of July week­end and I already was in hol­i­day mode. My step­daugh­ter, who lives in Texas, was in town, and I was plan­ning to load all of my chil­dren up and head to the beach where I intend­ed to lounge for three days.

2nd Infantry Division's 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team
Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, speaks with sol­diers of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 4th Stryk­er Brigade Com­bat Team dur­ing an Inde­pen­dence Day bar­be­cue on Camp Vic­to­ry, Iraq, July 4, 2010.
DoD pho­to by Elaine Wil­son
Click to enlarge

I was count­ing down the min­utes until my week­end could begin. 

But then my office phone rang with an irre­sistible offer. I was invit­ed to accom­pa­ny Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, to Iraq and write about Dr. Biden’s time there. I am an admir­er of Dr. Biden and her sup­port of mil­i­tary fam­i­lies, so I was thrilled at the oppor­tu­ni­ty to spend time with her. 

Plus, I had always want­ed go to this spe­cif­ic locale. Although I had trav­eled the world with the Air Force, I had nev­er been to Iraq. 

I broke the news to my fam­i­ly – who were sur­pris­ing­ly sup­port­ive — and the next day I was sit­ting in a plane, sand­wiched in between reporters from Fox News and Politi­co. Fif­teen hours and a stop in Ger­many lat­er, and I was in Bagh­dad. I stepped off the plane and into the swel­ter­ing sum­mer heat of Iraq. The tem­per­a­ture was expect­ed to top out at 115, then cool down to a balmy 90 degrees at night, accord­ing to my iPhone. 

That night was a blur, filled with brief­in­gs and meet­ings, and mas­sive jet lag. We stayed in trail­ers on Camp Vic­to­ry. I was dis­ap­point­ed at first that it was­n’t a pri­vate room – I had three room­mates – and the bath­room was down a dim­ly lit rocky trail. But then I remem­bered the troops here, liv­ing in aus­tere con­di­tions night­ly, and felt guilty for being so spoiled. 

The next morn­ing, I had the priv­i­lege of attend­ing a nat­u­ral­iza­tion cer­e­mo­ny for more than 150 ser­vice­mem­bers in Al Faw Palace, breath­tak­ing in its mar­ble-laden, extrav­a­gant­ly dec­o­rat­ed beau­ty. The Bidens and Army Gen. Ray­mond Odier­no, the top U.S. com­man­der in Iraq, presided over the ceremony. 

The front rows were filled with ser­vice­mem­bers from every branch and rep­re­sent­ing more than 50 coun­tries. And the room was packed with troops – peer­ing out from sec­ond and third floor bal­conies — eager to sup­port their fel­low ser­vice­mem­bers for their accom­plish­ment in becom­ing U.S. cit­i­zens. But also, I sus­pect, to catch a glimpse of the vice pres­i­dent and his wife. 

The cer­e­mo­ny was mov­ing, and after the troops took their cit­i­zen­ship oath, the audience’s applause eas­i­ly filled the cav­ernous room. 

The Bidens then stopped by the Oasis Din­ing Facil­i­ty on Camp Vic­to­ry. They cir­cled the crowd­ed room, tak­ing time to speak to troops and civil­ians, nev­er turn­ing down a pho­to request. And when a sol­dier admired her high-heeled shoes, Dr. Biden took one off and held it up in their pho­to together. 

Dr. Biden then took her tray over to a group of female ser­vice­mem­bers, hand­picked due to their diverse fam­i­ly sit­u­a­tions. The women rep­re­sent­ed sin­gle moms, dual-mil­i­tary cou­ples and sin­gle sol­diers. Dr. Biden urged them to be frank, and the women dis­cussed every­thing from edu­ca­tion to sex­u­al assault while they ate their lunch. 

After­ward, the vice pres­i­dent left to attend meet­ings with senior Iraqi lead­ers while his wife went to vis­it more U.S. ser­vice­mem­bers. Dr. Biden first stopped by a fit­ness cen­ter to help 1st Armored Divi­sion sol­diers kick off their Fourth of July cel­e­bra­tion, which includ­ed a live­ly vol­ley­ball game. She was met with thun­der­ous applause the moment she entered the room. She spent time talk­ing with each sol­dier and pos­ing for pho­tos that I’m sure were e‑mailed home short­ly after the visit. 

Dr. Biden next attend­ed an Inde­pen­dence Day bar­be­cue for the sol­diers assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division’s 4th Stryk­er Brigade Com­bat Team. The sol­diers had eat­en already, but lin­gered until she had a chance to say “Hi.” She drift­ed from table to table, mak­ing sure she met each sol­dier there before grab­bing a steak and sal­ad for herself. 

Dr. Biden told them she felt like she was among fam­i­ly. “I’m a mil­i­tary mom, my son Beau is in the Army,” she said. “I feel like you are my extend­ed fam­i­ly.” The Bidens’ son is a cap­tain in the Delaware Army Nation­al Guard. 

Dr. Biden summed up her hol­i­day as “amaz­ing.”

Our day was topped off with a Black Hawk heli­copter ride to the U.S. Embassy in Iraq. I had heard the vice pres­i­dent note the dif­fer­ence in Iraq; how even traf­fic jams were a pos­i­tive sign. And I saw evi­dence of his com­ments – count­less lights and busy roads – in the city below. 

Dr. Biden made the most of her last day in Iraq. A 30-year edu­ca­tor her­self, Dr. Biden held a round­table dis­cus­sion with female Iraqi teach­ers at the U.S. Embassy, lis­ten­ing to their edu­ca­tion-relat­ed con­cerns. The women talked of out­dat­ed text­books, lack of tech­nol­o­gy and poor­ly trained teach­ers while Dr. Biden intent­ly listened. 

Before her next stop, Dr. Biden paid a quick vis­it to a Marine secu­ri­ty detach­ment assigned to the U.S. Embassy, nev­er fail­ing to say thanks or have a per­son­al word with each servicemember. 

She capped off her trip with a round­table dis­cus­sion of fam­i­ly relat­ed issues with Texas Army Nation­al Guard soldiers. 

“I have a spe­cial place in my heart for the Nation­al Guard,” she told the group of about a dozen sol­diers of the 72nd Infantry Brigade Com­bat Team gath­ered in a small café here. Her son, she explained, was deployed here last year. 

She encour­aged them to bring up their fam­i­ly con­cerns to her, espe­cial­ly relat­ed to their home­com­ing in August and how the sep­a­ra­tion may have impact­ed their fam­i­lies. The sol­diers brought up issues that ranged from sup­port for sin­gle sol­diers and their fam­i­lies to job oppor­tu­ni­ties for those who may have been laid off in recent months. 

Dr. Biden pledged her ongo­ing sup­port to the troops and their fam­i­lies. She encour­aged them to send her an e‑mail if they think of oth­er issues or just to say they’re back home again. 

My hus­band often says that tak­ing care of troops and their fam­i­lies is a “sacred oblig­a­tion,” Dr. Biden said. “[First Lady Michelle [Oba­ma], the pres­i­dent and I are 100 per­cent behind that.” 

I spoke to troops at each stop and heard noth­ing but admi­ra­tion for Dr. Biden, whose car­ing and com­pas­sion for the troops were evi­dent. Many said they appre­ci­at­ed that she opt­ed to spend her hol­i­day with them rather than at home with fam­i­ly, and oth­ers were glad they could share their con­cerns with some­one in a posi­tion to make a difference. 

I think the admi­ra­tion was mutual. 

“I don’t think I can real­ly find words to express my grat­i­tude and pride for our sol­diers,” Dr. Biden told me in an inter­view. “It’s a great way to spend the Fourth of July, thank­ing our troops for what they’ve done for us.” 

I agree. After just a few days in Iraq, in sparse quar­ters and egg-boil­ing heat, I was ready to leave. But the ser­vice­mem­bers I met had been there or were about to be there for a year. As the plane lift­ed off, I could­n’t help but think about their ser­vice and sac­ri­fice that enables Amer­i­cans to main­tain their freedom. 

On July Fourth, our nation cel­e­brat­ed Inde­pen­dence Day. And today, I want to say thank you to the U.S. ser­vice­mem­bers – espe­cial­ly the troops I met in Iraq — who help keep our way of life a reality. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →