Muddy Iraq

I read an article today on the Stars and Stripes website about the effects of mud on troops at Camp Victory in Iraq. Photos there tell the story, but better still are some of the candid descriptions by Soldiers of the effects of mud on their daily lives. One said it was the worst part of his deployment, even worse than mortar attacks. Mud in Iraq reminded me of my tours of duty in South Vietnam. When I was with the 62nd Engineer Battalion near Phan Rang in 1965, I remember falling several times off a wooden plank walkway over a drainage ditch between my sleeping tent and the company shower area. It was like…head to the shower wearing flip-flops, slip off plank into the mud. Take shower, clean off the mud. Return to sleeping tent with wet flip flops and again slip off plank into the mud. Return to shower to clean off mud a second time. And so it went all through the monsoon season. From what I learned today, my hatred of mud in Vietnam is no different than the ill feelings those in Iraq have about the sticky goo.