My mission to Baghdad for President Obama

<p>It was April, and I sat at my desk at Shands at the University of Florida doing the routine things that my job as media relations coordinator requires when my phone rang. I picked up the receiver and a voice on the other end of the line said, “Hey Jeff, think you can go back to Baghdad?”</p><p>I recognized the husky voice on the other end of the line immediately as Captain Wayne Capps, chief of public affairs for the 315th Airlift Wing at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. Capt. Capps had been my full-time boss until January of this year when I took a job with Shands. Before my time with Shands, I worked as noncommissioned officer in charge of public affairs for the 315th and I am still a reservist with that unit. </p><p>Immediately, my mind swirled with memories of my last deployment to Iraq – a year in the desert between 2003 and 2004. The months away from friends and family, the pride of serving with my fellow military members, the heightened stress caused by impending enemy attacks, the sand and the heat all took center stage in a play that ran somewhere in my brain.</p><p> Before I could cycle through the rush of emotions, Capt. Capps must have sensed that I’d taken his question the wrong way.</p><p>“I can’t tell you the details over the phone, but I need a commitment from you ASAP,” he said. “All I can tell you right now is that you will be serving as a public affairs escort for some high-profile passengers and we want you to cover the trip for television. (One of my jobs in the Air Force is to report for the military news program Troop Talk.) Talk to your employer about it and get back with me.</p><p>“Just realize that this will include the Number One,” he concluded.</p><p> His cryptic last sentence intrigued me. I thought he must be talking about President Barack Obama. If this was the case, I surely wanted to do anything to help on the mission. To be able to accompany the President to Iraq would be an experience of a lifetime. </p><p>I approached my boss at Shands with some trepidation. I had only worked there for a couple months and here I was asking for over a week off work for my “other” job. To my relief, everyone in my office could not have been more supportive. Even though I could not tell them exactly why I would be going to Iraq, they understood that it was something unique.</p><p>The next few days went by in a flash and before I knew it I was driving to Charleston Air Force Base to report for duty. When I arrived, I was disappointed to hear from Major Bill Walsh, who was going on the mission as well, that we were not going to be carrying President Obama into Iraq as planned.</p><p>Instead, in a whirlwind six-day trip, we would be carrying the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and the Commander of United States Joint Forces Command, General James Mattis, who also serves as NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation, from Brussels, Belgium into Baghdad, Iraq. Twenty foreign diplomats would also be aboard.</p><p>Although we were not going to be flying with the President, we would be on the ground in Iraq at the same place and at the same time. </p><p>After our pre-mission briefing, we were bused to a waiting C-17 Globemaster III and we took off for Langley Air Force Base. At the base in Virginia a crew met our plane and started the process of turning the back of our massive cargo plane into a flying office. For secuirty reasons, I cannot describe everything that was done to our plane, but be assured that our high profile passengers had phone, Internet, a full communications crew and all the amenities an office on the ground would have. </p><p>After the conversion was completed we took off again and headed to Brussels. The flight was routine except for the massive office that now sat in the back of our C-17. I couldn’t help but imagine what the atmosphere would be like when the NATO Secretary General (who is considered a head of state because he controls his own military) and one of the highest ranking U.S. military men boarded the plane with a band of ambassadors and diplomats in tow. </p><p>We would have about 24 hours to think about it because our aircrew needed some rest before we began that leg of the mission. So it was off to a hotel in Belgium to get some sleep before loading our distinguished visitors the next day and heading for Baghdad.</p><p>The mood of our crew had changed the next day. As we drove to the airstrip where our plane was parked, I realized that the laughing and joking had stopped and everyone was on their toes ready for the arrival of our high-profile passengers.</p><p>Before the VIPs arrived, their security team made their way to the plane. Some of them introduced themselves and others never uttered a word. These guys meant business and their demeanor ensured that you knew it.</p><p> After security deemed the aircraft safe for our dignitaries, they made their way to the plane. Secretary General Scheffer and General Mattis were the first to arrive, with the other diplomats not far behind.</p><p> Upon seeing me standing there in the back of the C-17, General Mattis walked over and asked me, “What are you going to be doing on this mission, Sergeant Kelly?”</p><p> I told him that I was public affairs and would assist him with any media needs he might have when we hit the ground in Baghdad. I also told him about the TV show and my role in reporting for Troop Talk.</p><p>“Just keep my name out of the newspapers,” he said. “We have some issues that we are handling when we get there and a lot of it is of a sensitive nature.” Then he patted me on the back and walked away to talk with some of his security team.</p><p>I immediately realized that I was not going to get that exclusive interview with the supreme allied commander on this trip that I had hoped for; in fact, after having another look at his security team I wasn’t sure if I would mention his name at all.</p><p>As we took off for Iraq, thoughts and emotions flooded my mind. It had been almost five years to the day since I had been in Iraq. I wondered about the people that I had met while I was there. I wondered if they were OK.</p><p>I thought about mortar attacks and roadside bombs and all the other nightmare scenarios that are unfortunately a reality in Iraq today. I thought about how oppressive the sun feels some days there and about the U.S. troops that were sitting under that sun at that very moment.</p><p>I made myself snap out of that daydream because I knew that every one of us needed a clear head when we landed at Camp Victory across the runway from Baghdad International Airport. We entered into Iraqi airspace and our aircraft commander ordered all of us to don our body armor. This is standard procedure, but in that instant you realize you truly aren’t in Kansas anymore. </p><p>We had just received word that President Obama was on the ground safely in Baghdad when we started our descent. I walked up to the flight deck and was sitting behind our co-pilot in one of the jump seats as we gradually lost altitude. </p><p>The views that I took in caused those old memories to stir again. With video camera in hand, I filmed the Iraqi landscape from the air and thought to myself how everything looked the same as it did five years ago.</p><p>Before I knew it we were on the ground and taxiing to our parking spot on the tarmac. We pulled up next to four Blackhawk helicopters, and a large group of people with a large group of armed guards met us at the airplane. The door opened on our plane and we all piled out onto the runway.</p><p>Immediately, we were told that video was not being allowed but we could shoot still photography. Again, not what I had hoped for but we could get the video segments we needed from inside our C-17 so it was not a big deal.</p><p> What was a big deal was that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and his entourage of security and media was standing at the head of the group that met us on the ground. He had just left President Obama and was now greeting our distinguished visitors.</p><p>After getting a nod and a wave from Obama, our contingent was focused on the visitors that flew in with us.</p><p>Air Force One stood across the runway from us, and one of the little known facts about Air Force One is that the call sign follows the President, not the plane. If the President had flown with us as originally planned, our C-17 would have assumed the Air Force One call sign.</p><p>It was at that moment that I couldn’t help but think to myself, “What is a small-town guy from Savannah doing here right now?”</p><p>I was sharing space with the President of the United States, the president of Iraq, the NATO secretary general and the supreme allied commander, and just a few days earlier I was sitting at my desk back at Shands.</p><p> After a few handshakes and photographs, our passengers split into four groups and took off in the helicopters that were waiting for them.</p><p>President Obama was safely behind the walls of Camp Victory, beginning his visit with our troops. It was just our aircrew still on the tarmac with our C-17.</p><p>Although I speculate that President Obama discussed policy behind the scenes while he was there, his main purpose was to raise the morale of our troops. We missed seeing his warm reception as men and women in uniform surrounded him behind the armored walls of the base.</p><p>The passengers we carried were there specifically to tackle policy issues, namely the transfer of power in Iraq from American to Iraqi control.</p><p>To keep the plane as safe as possible, the crew was scheduled to rest that night in Turkey. So everyone loaded back on board and we headed for Incirlik. We knew that the next day was going to be the longest of the trip, so after landing in Turkey, getting our rooms and eating some dinner, most of us made it an early night and got some good rest.</p><p>The next day we would have to fly from Incirlik back to Baghdad. We would pick up our passengers in Baghdad and fly back to Brussels, Belgium. There we would drop our NATO passengers and continue to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to drop off the last of our VIPs. This one leg of the mission would take about 26 hours of flight time. No matter how you look at it, that is a long time to spend on a plane.</p><p> We got lucky and they allowed us to film on the ground in Baghdad the next day. Our distinguished visitors arrived back to the plane on time and after a few hours on the ground we were back in the air headed out of Iraq for the last time. </p><p>When we landed in Belgium, the NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer presented us with a silver platter emblazoned with the NATO emblem as a thank you for a “mission accomplished.”</p><p>We then took off for the U.S. and after catching a little sleep, landed at Andrews. General Mattis took the time to thank each one of us individually as a crew on the ground began disassembling the fully functional office that had taken up most of the back of our cargo plane. The previous days had been a blur and I was looking forward to the day of rest that we had on the ground in our nation’s capital.</p><p> We made the trip by taxi from the airbase to downtown Washington, D.C. Our hotel rooms were just a few blocks from the White House and the Washington monument. For obvious reasons this seemed like the most fitting place to stop for our last night before heading back to Charleston. </p><p>We took the opportunity to take in a few of the sights there in Washington. While standing in front of the White House, one of the guys mentioned that we had been in the capital of Belgium, the capital of Iraq and the capital of the United States, all in the same day. What an amazing trip it had been.</p><p> That afternoon we flew the last leg back to Charleston, and before I knew it I was driving back to Florida. On the five-hour drive back to Gainesville and in the days since the trip, I have reflected on what a truly amazing experience this was.</p><p>It is remarkable that a reservist like me can wear civilian clothes most of the time, but when called upon, has the honor of wearing a U.S. military uniform on missions like this one. It happens every single day and there is no way that missions like this could take place without the support of our civilian employers.</p><p>On this mission in particular, the reservists that took part had civilian jobs that ranged from meteorologist to truck driver to police officer, but the varied settings that reservists borrow their skill sets from are variables that contribute to the continued success of the Air Force Reserve. These people from diverse backgrounds come together to get the job done. Not too bad for this being their “other” job.</p><p>CUTLINES:</p><p>Jeff Kelly, a reservist with the 315th Airlift Wing of the U.S. Air Force, is now back on duty at his “regular” job with Shands HealthCare.</p><p>President Barack Obama gets a warm welcome from the troops at Camp Victory during his April visit to Iraq. Kelly and his contingent had to settle for a nod and a wave from the President across the tarmac at Baghdad International AirporT. </p><p>When the C-17 Globemaster carrying NATO’s Secretary General and Supreme Allied Commander entered Iraqi airspace, the aircraft commander ordered everyone to don their body armor. Kelly, right, complies.</p><p>Blackhawk helicopters were standing by to transport the VIP passengers after the C-17 landed at Baghdad International Airport.</p><p>Reservists from the 315th Airlift Wing stand in Brussels, Belgium with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and the Commander United States Joint Forces Command, General James Mattis. The group was presented with a silver NATO platter upon returning from a successful mission to Baghdad.</p><p>Gen. James Mattis, left, head of the United States Joint Forces Command, and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer thank the crew, including Lieutenant Colonel Trace Williams, at right.</p>