Harsh prison duty in Iraq stays with Nevadans

Jace Radke

Monday, Dec. 22, 2003 | 11:06 a.m.

Serious injuries at Abu Ghraib prison during the 72nd Military Police Company's deployment.

The hum of generators masked the low thump of mortar rounds being fired into Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Never knowing when an attack would come, 111 Nevada soldiers kept one eye on the prisoners they were guarding and another on the dark desert skies.

"At times it was almost overwhelming, and it is definitely something that will stay with me the rest of my life," said Daryl Keithley, a Las Vegas resident and first sergeant for the Nevada Army National Guard's 72nd Military Police Co. "It took a lot of courage to walk out into that yard knowing that mortar rounds could be lobbed in on you at any time.

"It was hard for some of us to handle, but you try to help each other out and make it through."

All the support the soldiers in the 72nd had for 3 1/2 months last summer was each other when they were sent to Abu Ghraib to guard hundreds of prisoners by themselves. The company was in Iraq for nearly seven months and spent about six months at the prison before returning home to Nevada earlier this month.

During their time at the prison, about 20 miles west of Baghdad, the 72nd watched over as many as 1,000 prisoners at a time, some of whom were prisoners of war while others were facing criminal offenses.

While the mortars sometimes skipped a night of pounding the concrete walls of the prison, the stories of thousands of Iraqis being tortured and executed there during the reign of Saddam Hussein were a constant companion.

One story Iraqis told the military police was how one of Hussein's sons visited the prison and, after deciding it was overcrowded, ordered 2,000 prisoners in one wing executed to clear some space, Keithley said during an interview at his home Tuesday.

"You hear the stories about mass graves, and knowing that the water table is only 5 or 6 feet deep there you always wonder what may come up," said Keithley, a 43-year-old Metro Police detective. "One day we had a Fox News reporter who wanted to come in the prison with seven men who had had their hands cut off during a previous stay as inmates.

"Apparently there was a tree in the prison that their hands were buried under and they wanted to show the reporter."

The soldiers came upon other signs of torture at the prison, which sits on 280 acres behind 15-foot-high stone walls that run a mile long on each of the four sides of the prison.

"There was one death chamber that still had the ropes they used to hang people dangling from the ceiling," Keithley said.

The company's discovery of the prison's infamous past came after their arrival in the Middle East in early May.

Soldiers said they had an advantage going in that helped them weather mortars and the prison's ghosts.

"The company was deployed to the Presidio of Monterey in California for a year after Sept. 11, so we had the chance to work together and develop as a cohesive unit," said Capt. Troy Armstrong, commander of the 72nd. "Obviously California and Iraq are night and day, but we got the chance to experience active duty and to see each other's strengths and weaknesses."

After two weeks in Kuwait the company made the two-day drive through the desert to Baghdad.

The unit removed the doors from their Humvees on the trek so that they could more easily return enemy fire, but doing so also removed some protection from the blowing grit of sandstorms.

"You would just see these huge clouds of dust and smoke in the distance and then it would be on you and sand would get everywhere," Keithley said. "When they would pass you'd step into powder that you would sink in up to your knee."

The two-day trip was the first chance that Keithley and the soldiers, whose average age was 24, had to see Iraq firsthand. The small outposts and towns that provided refueling stops also contained children who would beg the soldiers for food and water.

"At first we gave them food and water, but then we had kids running out into the convoys, and we had to stop," Keithley said. "The children usually liked us, and it made me feel like what you were doing was worthwhile.

"It also made me feel that we'll probably have to have soldiers in Iraq until those children grow up and become leaders if things are going to change."

The convoy rolled into Baghdad late at night and its soldiers ended up sleeping on the steps of Saddam International Airport.

Once the unit reached the prison they found children, sheep, wild dogs and fields of feces-ridden rubble and trash. Over two days they cleaned out one of the prison compounds inside the 280-acre prison complex.

The first two weeks in the prison left the soldiers looking like they had chicken pox as sand fleas and mosquitos ate at them.

Some of the worst pests that the company had to deal with were camel spiders, Keithley said.

The arachnids got as big as two fists, and their sting could make an arm or leg go numb.

"We killed every one we saw because they sting you and then lay eggs in your skin," Keithley said. "They were as fast as mice and could jump."

The 72nd commandeered a warehouse in the prison to serve as troop quarters. The building had been used as a factory where prisoners made shoes in much the same way prisoners make license plates in the United States.

A huge mural of Saddam Hussein dominated one wall of the building, above which the company set up their cots.

Temperatures of more than 130 degrees were a challenge even with a unit made up mostly of Southern Nevadans. Just going to sleep could become an arduous task because of the heat.

"That was the worst part for me," Keithley said. "The fans were like blow-dryers so you had to pour water over your head to feel cool. Then you just try to go to sleep as fast as you can.

"You always woke up in an inch of sweat. It was kind of like you were a turkey being basted in an oven."

Armstrong, a 35-year-old child abuse investigator with Clark County, said that the heat, bugs and other problems had to be overcome.

"For several weeks I questioned how a human being could survive, but I saw the civilians dealing with the same things we were, so I knew it could be done," Armstrong said. "I asked the company for 120 percent and they came through.

"It wasn't an environment that you could say no in."

The soldiers erected razor-wire pens were in the prison yard and named them after hotels on the Strip. The largest pen was known as the Bellagio.

In each pen a translator and a leader were chosen from among the prisoners to make communication easier.

Iraqi criminals who committed what would be considered a misdemeanor offense in the United States, such as looting, were held for 21 days before being released. More serious felony-level criminals were held for trial and had to be transported the 20 miles back to Baghdad for court appearances.

"Whenever you went out of the prison on some kind of mission there was a chance you would be attacked, either by snipers, rocket-propelled grenades or explosives," Keithley said. "You were driving through areas where anything could happen."

Keithley said he was amazed at the way some Iraqis would attack, even when clearly overpowered.

"Sometimes we'd get tanks that would come out and try to clear the area of mortars, and you'd see pickups drive up with a guy shooting an RPG from the bed," Keithley said. "They'd shoot and then try to get away before the tanks could fire on them."

The company earned 10 Purple Hearts during its deployment, and none of the the soldiers was killed, Armstrong said.

"The soldiers did the things that hurt," Armstrong said. "They filled sandbags in 130-degree heat, they wore their Kevlar and their body armor. They did what they needed to do to complete the mission and get home, and I can't ask any more than that."

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