Maine soldiers more vigilant after attack

PORTLAND – Soldiers from the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion have made friends in Iraq. But they’ve grown more suspicious of Iraqis after a suicide bomb attack that killed two members of the 133rd.

Civilians, most of whom left the base in fear for their lives, and the Iraqi National Guard battalion that still trains adjacent to the 133rd’s encampment are no longer viewed the same way as before the attack that came as soldiers gathered for lunch Dec. 21.

“There’s more vigilance. There’s more of a guarded stance,” Capt. Mike Steinbuchel of Buxton, commander of the 133rd’s Headquarters Support Company, told the Portland Press Herald. “People just don’t have the same sense of trust that they once did.”

Most of the Iraqi civilians at Forward Operating Base Marez stopped coming to work long ago because of threats against those who cooperate with the Americans.

Sgt. Roger Jones, the liaison to the on-base workers, said they came for the money. But it also took courage, and that’s what he came to respect.

“We’d laugh and joke and they’d talk about how their families were,” Jones said. “We’d talk about their lives.”

His perspective has been altered by the attack. “There was a lot of trust,” he said. “More than probably should have been given.”

Complicating matters is the fact that Maine soldiers in a city with a growing insurgency aren’t sure whether they can trust the Iraqi National Guard, either.

Last week, a 16-vehicle convoy from the 133rd was assigned to drive deep into downtown Mosul to Forward Operating Base Blickenstaff, a former U.S. military base that was turned over recently to the Iraqi National Guard.

They had barely arrived when, just outside the base perimeter, a police station came under attack by 40 to 50 insurgents armed with machine guns and mortars. Then a stray mortar exploded over the Iraqi troops.

Iraqi soldiers responded by opening fire. One Iraqi soldier tripped and shot another Iraqi soldier in the stomach. He later died.

The Maine soldiers quickly finished unloading the trucks while keeping a wary eye on the Iraqi soldiers, Steinbuchel said. The Mainers were concerned about another accidental shooting, but there also was another, more disconcerting, worry.

“Frankly, we’re not sure which ones are on our side and which ones aren’t,” Steinbuchel said. “I think [the attack on the mess tent] showed us that.”

Nobody among the Americans knows what help the suicide bomber may have received from Iraqi workers who could have done reconnaissance while they worked for the 133rd.

Jones concedes that as time passed and the frequent mortar attacks on FOB Marez became more accurate, “It was clear there were some informants in the camp.”

But he refuses to paint all Iraqis with the same brush. “There are good people,” Jones said. “And there are bad people.”

Back in Maine, funerals were planned today and Friday for the Maine soldiers killed by the suicide bomber: Sgt. Lynn Poulin Sr., 47, of Freedom and Spc. Thomas “Tommy” Dostie, 20, of Somerville. Poulin’s funeral is today at 11 a.m. at Notre Dame Church in Waterville.

Dostie, a mechanic, was a member of Steinbuchel’s headquarters company. Dostie’s funeral is at 11 a.m. Friday at Erskine Academy in South China.