'The War Tapes' Offers First-Person Look at Operation Iraqi Freedom

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

April 18, 2007 – When a soldier returns from war, is he the same person he was before deploying? No, he's not, said Robert May, producer of "The War Tapes," a documentary that shows Operation Iraqi Freedom through the eyes of several New Hampshire National Guardsmen who were supplied with digital video cameras and an endless supply of tape.

"You hear about the people who die, you hear about the people injured," May said. "What about the majority of the people who come home?"

"The War Tapes," which made its theatrical debut last year and won the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival award for best documentary, will air tomorrow on the Military Channel, A Discovery Channel affiliate.

When "The War Tapes" director, Deborah Scranton, offered the cameras to Charlie Company, 3rd of the 172nd Infantry Regiment training at Fort Dix, N.J., in 2004, 21 of the guardsmen agreed to film the ensuing year of their lives, May explained during an interview with American Forces Press Service.

Troops were eager to use the new gadgets as a diversion during their daily routine, he said, and after deploying to Iraq, they adopted the technology as a second set of eyes, mounting cameras on gun turrets, inside dashboards and on their Kevlar helmets and vests.

Based at Logistics Support Area Anaconda in Balad, Iraq, the guardsmen recorded their lives under constant threat of ambush and deadly improvised explosive device attacks. According to the film's Web site, the unit traveled 1.4 million miles during their tour, and lived through more than 1,200 combat operations and 250 direct enemy engagements - nearly one a day.

"Inevitably, if you let the camera run, you're going to come upon things that are going to be compelling and also provide the fodder necessary to understand what they've gone through," May said. "We suggested they hook up their cameras and let 'em roll all through their shift, as opposed to trying to catch certain things on tape."

After the year-long deployment, 1,000 hours of raw footage was distilled into a 97-minute film narrated primarily by three guardsmen - Sgt. Zack Bazzi, Sgt. Steve Pink and Spc. Mike Moriarty.

During the film, Bazzi, an Arabic-speaking Lebanese-American, was a university student; he loves politics, traveling, and being a soldier. He is now serving in Operation Enduring Freedom with the New Hampshire National Guard in Afghanistan.

Pink is a carpenter with a sharp sense of humor, whose candid and insightful journal entries and letters home add color to "The War Tapes." He is now writing a book about his experience in Iraq.

Moriarty, a resolute patriot and father of two, rejoined the army after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and has since fulfilled his obligation to the National Guard.

"We focused on these three guys because they had the most complete arc to their story," May said.

While serving in Iraq, each guardsman left a significant woman at home - a mother, a girlfriend, and a wife, respectively - whose private lives were captured intimately on film, then juxtaposed with the first-person frontline experiences of the three narrators.

"When we see a casualty, or hear about an injury, or when people come home, we just think about the soldier themselves, but no one is placed on the earth by themselves. They have families," May said. "How does the deployment affect the families - the mothers, the children, the spouses?"

May said that once family members overcame their timidity and initial worries about having their lives displayed publicly, the "real emotion" emerged.

"For me, the thing about great documentaries is knowing that you're peering into some place you don't think you should peer into," he said. "I think that's evident on the film. There's a lot of unintended emotion that comes out."

Broadcast news can report war statistics, but it has a limited ability to create an emotional connection between the warfighter and the news consumer, or to show what May calls the "untold cost of war." "But by following a couple of guys that you get to know through an entire year-long deployment, you get to know a lot more about the cost of war than you ever thought possible before," he said.

After "The War Tapes" was screened before an audience that included members of New Hampshire's National Guard, a major general told May that the documentary should be required viewing for anyone who has been to war.

"All the training can't really prepare people for what they will feel and see," May recalled the general telling him after the film. And often, soldiers are unprepared to discuss what they felt and saw after returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"One officer had a son who had recently come back from Iraq and just couldn't talk about the experience," May said. "By showing this film to family members, the soldier that was there had something to more talk about. Family members asked, 'Was that what it was like?'"

Watching "The War Tapes" with his family helped the soldier speak out about his experience in Iraq, using the documentary as a basis for comparing and contrasting his own war narrative, May said.

The film can stimulate dialogue between families affected by war, and is sometimes a mechanism soldiers use to cope with the effects of combat, May said. "They can say, 'Watch this movie, then you can get an idea of what we saw, and then ask us questions,'" he said.

In making "The War Tapes," May said the directors and producers followed one golden rule: show what it's like to walk a mile in soldiers' boots.

"When the soldiers saw it once they got back we asked, 'Did we tell the story you set out to tell?'" he said. "They all agreed that that's the unfiltered story."

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DoD Unveils Compensation Program for Frequent Deployments

By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service

April 18, 2007 – The Defense Department today unveiled a program that will reward administrative leave to servicemembers whose service in combat does not meet the department's goal for the time at home station between deployments. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates directed the development of this program Jan. 19, when he implemented a force management policy stating that DoD's goal was to give active-duty troops two years at home station for every year deployed, and reserve component troops five years at home station for every year deployed. At the time, Gates recognized that national security concerns would require servicemembers to be deployed more frequently than this goal, so he announced a compensation plan to make up for frequent deployments.

Under the new policy, active-duty servicemembers who are deployed for more than 12 months in a 36-month period will earn one day of administrative absence for each month beyond 12. If servicemembers are deployed for more than 18 months in a 36-month period, they will earn two days of administrative absence a month. Past 24 months, they will earn four days a month.

Members of the reserve components will earn one day of administrative absence a month for every month beyond 12 they are mobilized in a 72-month period. Members of the reserves will earn two days a month if they are mobilized past 18 months in a 72-month period, and four days a month if they are mobilized past 24 months in the same period.

Administrative absences are days off authorized by the commander, and are separate from normal leave accrued by a servicemember.

In a Pentagon news conference announcing the policy, Michael Dominguez, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said that this program is meant to recognize the sacrifices servicemembers make, but is in no way trying to put a physical value on their service.

"Secretary Gates and all of us honor the service of the men and women in uniform, particularly in these demanding times," Dominguez said. "This program can't be viewed as being commensurate with the level of service that they offer to the nation. In many respects, while it is substantive and it is tangible, it's also symbolic. It's part of our recognition that we're keeping them in our thoughts and we're trying to do something for them."

The policy is retroactive to Jan. 19, so any servicemember who was deployed or involuntarily mobilized from that day forward, whose service exceeds the time frame in the policy, will earn the days off, Dominguez said. Also, any troops who were deployed within the last three years, and are deployed now, will earn administrative leave for their current deployment, he said.

In deciding what compensation to give servicemembers who are deployed more frequently than DoD would like, defense officials considered a wide range of options, Dominguez said. Monetary compensation was considered, he said, but time off seemed the logical choice to reward increased frequency and intensity of service.

"We weren't trying to find some metaphysical balance between the service you were rendering and buckets full of gold, or any other thing we can do for you," Dominguez said. "This was about telling men and women of the armed forces that we know when we ask you to do something extraordinary."

DoD has had a policy since 2004 that pays servicemembers who are extended in theater beyond 12 months $1,000 a month, Dominguez said. That policy is still in effect, he said, and applies to Army personnel who now have to serve 15-month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new policy is meant to deal with frequency of deployments, rather than the length of each deployment, Dominguez said. The administrative leave servicemembers earn under this policy will stay with them through their military career and can be used anytime, with commander approval, he said.

"This is what we do; it is the job," he said. "This is the job of the men and women of the armed forces, from which they do not shirk, and the volunteer force is extraordinary. This is just saying, 'Look, we know what you're doing, we recognize what you're doing, we're proud of what you're doing, we're grateful for what you're doing.'"

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.S. Defense Secretary Visits Israel During 'Days of Remembrance'

By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service

April 18, 2007 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is visiting this Mediterranean seaside city during a symbolic period, Gates' Israeli counterpart said here today. "We are welcoming you two days after having marked Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. We are welcoming you a short time after celebrating the Passover holiday when we read the verse that in every generation our enemies try to destroy us," Defense Minister Amir Peretz said during a joint news conference with Gates at the Defense Ministry's headquarters, the Kirya Defense Complex.

"These are days of remembrance for the Jewish people," Peretz said. "In a week's time, we will celebrate our 59th Independence Day. It is symbolic to me that our meeting is taking place at this time."

Gates said he places great importance on the United States' relationship with Israel.

"I was surprised to learn as I began to prepare for this visit that I was the first secretary of defense to visit Israel in almost eight years," he said. "I think the fact that I have come here in the end of my fourth month as secretary illustrates the importance that I attach to our relationship with Israel."

Today's meeting between the two chiefs of defense focused significantly on the threat posed by Iran. The leaders and members of their staffs also discussed Syria and the robust U.S.-Israeli military-to-military relationship.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said publicly that the Holocaust never happened and that he'd like to see Israel destroyed.

"I would like to underscore the position of the State of Israel, which determines that Iran is a threat not only to Israel but to the entire region and the free world," Peretz said. "This is a problem that concerns your government, the governments of Europe and all the countries of the free world. Iran denies the Holocaust, openly declares its plans and intentions, and we are sure that the free world, led by the United States, will not stand by."

Gates said he stressed during the meeting that diplomacy and economic pressure are the best ways to deal with Iran.

"These things don't work overnight, but it seems to me (diplomacy is) clearly the preferable course to keep our focus on diplomatic initiatives and particularly because of the united front of the international community at this point," Gates said.

Peretz underscored that point, but still left room for other means of dealing with the nation, which President Bush labeled as part of the "Axis of Evil."

"The diplomatic track is preferable, and it must be exhausted, but it is still not able to remove other options from the table," Peretz said.

Gates also discussed Iran in a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier today in Cairo, Egypt. In a news conference at Egypt's Presidential Palace, Gates said he and Mubarak spoke of "the desirability of continuing diplomatic and economic measure intended to sway the Iranians to change their policy, their behavior."

In response to a reporter's question, Gates reiterated statements made a day earlier by Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace that U.S. officials have discovered Iranian-made weapons in Afghanistan.

Gates said the U.S. doesn't know if or at what level the Iranian government sanctioned supplying arms to Afghanistan. However, he called it "troubling and worrisome that the Iranians may be deciding to counter the efforts of some 42 nations and Afghanistan trying to help the Afghan government establish a strong democratic state, so we'll watch it very closely."

In today's broad-ranging news conference at the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Gates also touched on the situation in Iraq when a reporter asked him to discuss a series of attacks in Baghdad today that killed up to 170 people, according to some media reports.

The secretary reminded reporters that U.S. military officials have said enemy fighters would step-up the violence in response to the recent Baghdad security plan, which calls for heightened U.S. and Iraqi military presence in the Iraqi capital.

"Today was a horrifying thing," Gates said. "But I think it illustrates another point: These terrorists are killing innocent men, women and children who are Iraqis. They are killing their countrymen, and I think it is important to highlight their efforts to try and disrupt the process of a reconciliation, to try and prove the Baghdad security plan a failure, and we intend to persist to show that it is not."

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Army Restricts Spending While Waiting for Congressional Approval

By Carmen L. Gleason
American Forces Press Service

April 18, 2007 – Due to budget shortfalls, the Army announced April 16 that spending restrictions will be enforced while waiting for Congress to pass an emergency supplemental for funding requirements associated with the global war on terror. Army budget officials said the delay is related more to the policy issues surrounding the supplemental, rather than the amount of money being requested.

Funds for operations and maintenance have run low, requiring restrictions in other areas to ensure funds are available for the Army to execute its mission of defending the nation and prosecuting the war on terror while continuing to support military families, officials said.

Although the restrictions are unusual, they are not unprecedented, William Campbell, deputy director for the Army budget, said. He said the Army plans to slow down spending to stretch out available funds in the interim.

"I am confident that (the supplemental) will get passed," Campbell said. "In talking with staffers and congressmen, they are eager to get the money to the Army that it needs."

Campbell said the guidance is in a phased plan that will begin with simple restrictions over the next six weeks before becoming more stringent.

Beginning in mid-April, the Army will slow the purchase of non-critical repair parts and supplies, he said. Non-essential travel and supply transactions using a government purchase card and shipment of equipment will also be restricted unless needed immediately for war efforts.

In the interim, Army officials have worked with the Defense Department comptroller to submit a proposal to Congress to borrow $1.6 billion from the Navy and Air Force that would ease the Army's shortfall through June.

If budget issues aren't soon resolved, Campbell said that another reprogramming would be submitted in three or four weeks to carry the Army through the end of July.

This is the second year in a row that the Army has had to restrict spending while waiting for additional money from Congress. However, DoD has taken steps toward the stabilizing of funding for the next fiscal year.

Current policies have military branches getting a "down payment" of funds at the beginning of each fiscal year and receiving the remainder in April, May or June, said Campbell.

"DoD has submitted, for (fiscal year 2008), a base program budget and (global war on terror) allowance for the entire year as part of the budget," Campbell said. This would allow the Army to receive all needed money at the beginning of the fiscal year, he said.

Campbell said that commanders have been given a lot of latitude and flexibility to make exceptions in restrictions for the war on terror, family programs and national intelligence programs.

In the worst case scenario, contracts may be deferred and civilian hiring will be restricted, but not frozen, he said.

"At this point there is no reason to be concerned about employment," he said. "Last year we did release some temporary employees, but this year we're going to monitor it more carefully."

Campbell said that soldiers shouldn't be too concerned because it will not affect their pay or deployment readiness. "We should be able to manage money so that it's transparent to soldiers and their families in the field," he said.

"This is really mostly a budget drill," he said. "But it's gotten a lot of media coverage because of the policy issues surrounding it."

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