Up in the tower

(Specialist Sean Miller, 20, radioing in at the start of his guard shift.)

You thought your job was tedious. Try pulling a guard duty shift in one of the perimeter towers at LSA Anaconda.

After scaling a steel ladder 20 feet up, you’ll emerge into a cramped turret. There’s just enough room for two soldier’s stools and the trap door. And it's a sweat box.

Even though we felt a few rain drops today, the inside of the tower is steaming. Flies are buzzing about the heads of the two specialists on duty. The full body armor and Kevlar helmet they’re required to wear doesn’t help any.

Specialist Sean Miller, 20, of Rosedale, IN, said they're supposed to be scanning for insurgent threats, but mostly end up watching locals working on the expansive green fields that are directly across the fence from their tower.

“I think they’re grapes,” Miller said. “The stuff changes color everyday.”

Spc. Steven Simcox, 29, from Fort Wayne, Indiana said he’s heard that Ugandan contractors, who already guard the entrance to chow halls and PXs inside base, might be taking over for them, but said it’s probably hearsay.

(Spc. Steven Simcox, 29, of Fort Wayne, IN, who volunteered to be re-deployed to Iraq.)

Simcox, who has a young family and a previous deployment under his belt, said he re-enlisted for another one-year deployment. “The economy’s not too good in the Fort Wayne area. My wife’s pregnant again. I figure I’d save up money. It’s better money than I could make back home. Every penny counts.”

Simcox said he was doing third-party auto inspections in the Fort Wayne area, but because the auto business hasn’t been doing well, the company went under.

“That’s when I decided to go to war again,” Simcox said.

Although the other side of the base has been frequently mortared, especially when the dust clouds roll in, the Indiana Guardsmen's side is pretty quiet.

They have regular radio checks to report in any unusual activity, like say if a local Iraqi appeared to be digging straight into the ground to plant something that wasn’t organic or if say, an Iraqi forded the river and approached the fence.

We have escalation of force procedures, Simcox said, demonstrating a few Arabic words he’d learned for "stop". The only time you take your weapon off safe is if you have gone through all your steps and intend to use deadly force, he said.

Miller said he’s already pulled the duty "too many times". “I just got off this morning (at 4 a.m.),” he said. Simcox has his own philosophy. “I’m not counting (how many tower duties), just like I’m not counting how many days I have left."

Simcox takes out a crossword puzzle book. He says he does one line of the crossword, looks up and then does another one. It passes time.

Miller watches two boys who bring a flock of cows and sheep close to the water. Everyone once and a while one of the boys gets up and beats on one of the cows, Miller said shaking his head with a smile, “Just because.”

(Spc. Steven Simcox, 29, scans the horizon during tower duty, a four-hour shift.)