The 737th -- Editor's Note

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The 737th -- Editor's Note

No, we haven't forgotten.

Since chief photographer Brian Fitzgerald's daily coverage of the approximately 150 men and women of the Army Reserve 737th Transportation Company ended in early March, readers have told the Yakima Herald-Republic they want to know more about the unit's experiences in the Middle East.

If one thing has been constant for the 737th, it's change. Originally destined to haul fuel and other supplies from Kuwait into Iraq, the unit's mission in February and early March instead consisted largely of providing base security and escort protection for civilian convoys within Kuwait. Some drove armored Humvees while escorting military convoys into Iraq.

Since then, with the situation in Iraq intensifying, the 737th's mission has changed again. It's not always been easy to keep in touch with the soldiers ? working in a war zone, they've had difficulty finding time to sit down and write e-mails to the hometown newspaper.

But that's what we've asked them to do: write a few paragraphs describing their experiences, their lives and their missions, then send them to us to share with our readers.

Today the Herald-Republic kicks off an irregular series, titled "Letters Home," with an update on the 737th's activities from company commander Maj. Bud Bittner. There are also excerpts from an interview with Sgt. T.J. Rabe of Sunnyside to accompany the feature story on him, his wife, Kristin, and the recent birth of their first child.

We'll continue to publish comments from other soldiers in the 737th as they're made available.

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Rabe -- 'The War Is Not Over, It's Worse'

EDITOR'S NOTE: Sgt. T.J. Rabe, 26, is a member of the 737th Transportation Company's 2nd Platoon. In early March, Yakima Herald-Republic chief photographer Brian Fitzgerald chronicled Rabe's first Iraq mission as part of a two-Humvee crew protecting a military supply convoy. Currently in the Yakima Valley on leave for the birth of his first child, Rabe spoke to Fitzgerald about his experiences in Iraq and Kuwait since early March. These are Rabe's edited comments.


I've been on six, seven trips to Iraq. I've been driving in gun trucks (Humvees) and man the SAW (squad assault weapon), Mark-19 (grenade launcher) and .50-caliber machine gun. It's easier driving in Iraq than in Kuwait. You just get on the road, put the pedal to the metal, and drive. In Iraq, people are scared of the military.

We got into (Convoy Support Center) Scania (180 kilometers south of Baghdad) in mid-March. I was with the same group of guys (Spc. Bob Sherwood of Selah, 1st Sgt. Vernon Hegler of Spokane) ... and some 737th troops were in the trucks. We took sixty-five 7,500-gallon fuel tankers. We went to BIAP (Baghdad International Airport). They were almost completely out of fuel.

The next trip we went to Camp Anaconda and BIAP, then went to (Camp) Cedar and filled up again and went back to Anaconda. It was a great mission. Every time, we're getting (shot at) from buildings. We got shot at at night outside of Scania. (No one from the 737th has been wounded.)

We'll go out for 15, 16 days at a time. They tell us to prepare for a five- to seven-day mission. I tell my guys to prepare for 16 days.

I spent about a month in Fallujah. The war is not over ? it's worse. When (soldiers) first went over there, they knew who they were fighting. It's only going to get worse, because we are occupying, not liberating.

It's not quiet anymore. We're always getting (attacked). In April a truck ahead of us hit an IED (improvised explosive device). As soon as it rolled to a stop they opened fire on it. It took us 30 minutes to get a chopper in there. There was blood all over. I don't think he (the civilian driver) even made it to the hospital.

(The military) shut down all (civilian) convoys going up north, and there is so much activity. Now there's a gun truck every five vehicles. It doesn't matter ? (insurgents) attack us.

It's scary to think about how crazy it's getting and to see that they're attacking us no matter what we're rolling with.

(The Abu Ghraib prison scandal) is going to affect us. The anger of the population there is getting worse because of the media and their coverage of certain things. In the long run it'll affect us.

I'm leaving for Kuwait on May 25, but I don't know where I'm going exactly. I'm getting e-mails telling me we're moving to (Camp) Cedar. Before you know it, we'll be back in Kuwait. This is probably not the last time we'll move.

I'd probably rather be in Iraq than Kuwait. Time goes faster when you're working.

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T.J. Rabe Is Heading Back to Iraq
By AMANDA HAMMON
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
SUNNYSIDE ? T.J. Rabe's world is all upside down.

He's not looking over his shoulder everywhere he walks. He isn't reaching for a weapon. There aren't camel spiders chasing him, nor are snipers shooting at him. There are no last minute life-and-death decisions to make.

There's just new life, the small form of his look-alike son cradled in his wife's arms. A no-uniform, jeans and T-shirt moment with the two people more dear to his heart than anyone else on the planet.

And he has scant few days to spend with them before returning to Iraq and his post as a sergeant with the 737th Transportation Company. The Army Reserve unit based at the Yakima Training Center was sent to the Middle East in February. The company, which mostly transports fuel, has been stationed at Camp Doha, Kuwait, but is now in the process of moving into southern Iraq.

Still, T.J., 26, and his wife, Kristin, 21, are exceedingly grateful for the 15-day leave he was given for the birth of their son. Tyler James came into the world at 7:43 a.m. May 14 with all the size and vigor of a tailback, says his proud father.

This little 22-inch, 8-pound, 13-ounce fellow will play football. T.J. can just tell. After all, "he's already crawling."

The baby has his daddy's red locks ? "we like to think of it as strawberry blonde," T.J. says, adding that nobody who has red hair likes it. Plus, the boy was born with hair longer than military regulations. T.J. fiddled with the baby's soft hair as his son nestled against his chest.

"He's ready for a haircut. High and tight," T.J. says.

Kristin just rolls her eyes, big, almond-shaped blue eyes like her son's.

The Rabes obviously are in awe over their status as parents.

"It's everything," Kristin says. "It's so much more than anyone could prepare you for. I told T.J., 'He's half of you and half of me. He's ours.'"

Kristin may be biased, but she looks at her son and sees "T.J. through and through. The only thing the kid has of mine are toes that spread like piano fingers. I wanted to get a little mini T.J., and I got him."

The new parents have a new routine. Kristin "is just food. Daddy is sleep," she says. Tyler won't go to sleep unless he's on his daddy's chest.

That's just fine, until Tuesday. That's when T.J. returns to Iraq. Then Kristin knows she will have to be sleep and food both.

Mom and dad. Strength and play. Until daddy gets home.

"I keep trying to think that he's here, not that he's leaving," Kristin says.

All she prayed for is that he'd be home for Tyler's birth, and "now I'm praying that something will happen and he won't have to go back."

Says T.J.: "She doesn't want me to go back, but I want to go back. I want to finish my time."

He would have been out of the service May 20 had his unit not been activated. Now he has eight more months to serve, assuming his duty isn't extended.

The unspoken truth is that T.J. has to go back to an increasingly volatile Iraq. He's stony in his assessment of the situation: The war isn't over. The enemy is nebulous. Politics rule over strategy, and American soldiers lose their lives because of it. He isn't going to be one of them.

"I have too many dreams for this little guy here and our family," he says.

Kristin is hopeful and prayerful and trusting, but is in no way ignorant of the risks. They have plans for his return.

It will be in February. Then the family will take a vacation. One day they will celebrate Thanksgiving. There will be turkey and probably football. Then they will celebrate Christmas. There will be presents and snowmobiling. Kristin will finish a distance education humanities degree through Washington State University and get a teaching certificate from Heritage College.

T.J. was studying religion with an emphasis on youth ministry, but he may change his major to business. Most importantly, he'll be home to take care of his family.

Until then, they will miss each other.

"Instead of just missing a wife, it's missing a son and a wife," T.J. says. "I can't wait for eight months to go by so I can play with him. He'll be ready to have facial expressions then."

Until Tuesday, Kristin just looks at the two redheads nestled near each other and relishes the glimpse of her family.

"They're the two most precious things in the world. And they're both home.

"And one's not in my stomach," she adds gratefully.



BRIAN FITZGERALD/Yakima Herald-Republic
Kristin Rabe, left, looks on while her husband, Sgt. T.J. Rabe, holds their infant son, Tyler James. T.J., a member of the Yakima-based 737th Transportation Company, leaves Tuesday to rejoin his unit in Kuwait and Iraq.

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BRIAN FITZGERALD/Yakima Herald-Republic
T.J. Rabe holds his son, Tyler James, who doesn't seem at all pleased that his dad is going back to Iraq.

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Letters Home -- Bittner Says Drivers Staying Busy

The following is an edited e-mail written by Maj. Bud Bittner, commander of the Army Reserve 737th Transportation Company:


Since March, we have been very busy. We have taken over the driving for civilian contract drivers from other countries at the Theatre Distribution Center (next to the 737th's original home base in Kuwait, Camp Doha). We're driving brand new Mercedes-Benz trucks and trailers. We were driving supplies throughout Kuwait and helping prepare loads for Iraq; one platoon still had (security duty), and the rest drove.

When all the things started happening in Iraq, and KBR (civilian contractor Kellog, Brown and Root) became more at-risk, we started to supply another Army unit with drivers to move fuel into Iraq. We had three missions that went into Iraq. Two of the convoys were attacked with IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and small-arms fire. The soldiers reacted well and cleared the area without anyone getting hurt.

In mid-April, we were told that a mission change was in the works again. This time, we were going to be driving fuel trucks into Iraq from Camp Arifjan (about 50 miles south of Camp Doha). ... (After training our replacements) we went to our live-fire convoy range. During this training we had three soldiers hurt. One, Staff Sgt. Sean Hay (of Everett), was pinned between two vehicles. The other two, Pfc. Alexander Panes (of Silverdale, Wash.) and Spc. Lynn Wagner (of Seattle), were in the back of the truck and fell from it when it was struck. Hay was flown back to the States with a broken pelvis, and the other two were treated for bumps, sprains and bruises.

Currently, the unit is training on the KBR trucks and tankers, but our location for the move has changed. We are moving to Camp Cedar II in Iraq. This location is west of Tallil and south of Baghdad. We will be there June 1.

I have mixed emotions about our new mission and where we will be living. The location, compared to Doha (the Army's version of the Kuwait Hilton) is like being out in the desert on a cot. We will be living in eight-person tents. They have air conditioning, lights and power ? and an awful lot of sand.

The soldiers have performed well. We thank you for your continued support.