CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq - Staff Sgt. Michael Warmenhoven and his squad from Company B, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry have run the gamut of convoy escort security missions for the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division.
The squad spent its first four months at Camp Adder with the 1-34 Brigade Troops Battalion and later the 134th Brigade Support Battalion. There they rode in Humvee gun trucks escorting semi trucks and trailers driven by civilian contractors to points north, including Logistical Support Area Anaconda.
In September, the squad returned home to Al Asad, where, his company escorts convoys to Jordan and back. The 300 mile, one-way trip take almost two days to complete.
This western port of entry allows the fastest route in the region. It takes less than a week to move these commodities compared to a minimum of 45 days from Kuwait and Turkey.
Warmenhoven of Marion, Iowa, said the only thing similar about convoy escort missions in eastern and western Iraq is the long days of driving. Differences include the nationality of the drivers, their attitudes and experience, and the amount of traffic on the road.
On the Adder runs, if something broke down, the drivers would have it fixed or have a solution by the time you made it to the problem truck," he said. "Out here, the drivers tend to add to the problem and it takes a lot of shouting to get them motivated to do anything."
This “motivation” can start before sunrise. The Soldiers inspect the trucks and trailers in a civilian contractor yard. These inspections include looking for contraband, illegal passports, and unauthorized passengers.
Once the inspections have been completed and the drivers have received a safety brief, the convoy of empty trucks or “deadheads” rolls out the gate.
For the first few hours, this convoy will travel along a narrow road carved up on each side by roadside bomb blast holes. As Warmenhoven’s vehicle turned onto this road, his driver Spc. Jonathan Bengston of Iowa Falls, Iowa, wished his fellow Soldiers to “have fun.”
Several hours later, his convoy will arrive at Camp Korean Village where the Soldiers will prepare for their next trip to Forward Operating Base Trebil, Jordan. The trucks are parked in a large staging yard filled with hundreds of vehicles. The Soldiers will have any maintenance concerns fixed by a dedicated staff of mechanics.
The Soldiers will do conduct another safety check before departing this tiny Marine Corps outpost in route to FOB Trebil. Once the convoy reaches the FOB, the empty trucks are dropped off. The Soldiers will then escort trucks full of commodities like fuel and food to CKV where they will stay overnight.
The next morning the convoy leaves for Al Asad.
Warmenhoven said some of these runs home have taken as long as 14 hours because of roadside bombs or trucks breaking down.
The extended travel time often causes the Soldiers to arrive at Al Asad at night, Warmenhoven’s former favorite time to be on the road.
Warmenhoven said he liked the night convoys for two reasons, the cooler temperatures and the Soldier’s night vision capabilities. He said the cooler temperatures allowed him to push the convoys to higher speeds.
He said in comparing the average speeds, the day convoys are much slower than the night convoys. He said the drivers also struggled with the extreme heat during the summer day trips.
Warmenhoven also really liked the night missions because of all the convoys on the road at the same time. The reason he said was he knew he would be assisted quickly in case of emergencies. "Anyone who has served as convoy commander and has been hit would probably back me when I say that there is nothing better than hearing people jump all over each other on the radio, saying that they are on the way to your position."
It is a good bet Warmenhoven’s company would “jump all over him” in case of an emergency. He served with this company for eight years before transferring to a Michigan Guard unit.
He returned to Task Force Iron in order to deploy with the Soldiers he knows and had served with before.
“More or likely I was going to get deployed with a Michigan unit,” he said. “I knew all these guys and trusted these guys.”