Local Soldier Returns from Middle East
by Ben Hogwood

Zach Sprague was driving down the road one day when he came upon some
bombs - not particularly out of the ordinary in Iraq.
Sprague, 21, recently returned from the country, once rather ironically
called the birthplace of civilization, where for the last nine months
his army engineering company has been rebuilding an airfield at the FOB
Ridgeway, between Habbaniya and Fallujah.
Sprague, from Elmore, joined the army in January of 2001 and shipped off
to Iraq, from Fort Bragg, NC, on September 9, 2003. He arrived the
following day at a dusty, sandy and cold country, where temperatures
ranged from 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the day to 20 at night.
His company, along with two others, was in Iraq to rebuild Saddam's
former airfield, which was destroyed in the first Gulf War. The goal,
which they completed, was to make it possible to land large planes on
the runway. In addition, they had to set up a perimeter, build roadways,
bunkers and repair buildings. As this was one of the few airfields where
locals didn't try to shoot down the planes, tons of supplies would come
in there, so they went on many convoys to deliver engineering goods.
The convoys, said Sprague, were the most exciting part of the
deployment. This is when they would come across piles of bombs lying in
the road and see lines of cars, stretching for miles, waiting to get
gasoline. These missions were also the most dangerous. Most of the trips
took between four to six days and though they were never stopped, they
were often shot at. One vehicle had to be abandoned as it was so badly
damaged. Most attacks were just pot shots, said Sprague, but some RPGs
were fired upon the convoys. Fortunately, no one in his company was
badly injured. Often the shots came from buildings, so the soldiers
wouldn't fire back for fear of hitting civilians. There was an occasion
when they fired a .50 caliber gun at a vehicle firing upon them and, by
mistake, hit a taxi.
Their base was also fired upon by insurgents, but again nobody was
injured. "No attacks destroyed any of our buildings," said Sprague.
Attackers would often come from Habbaniya, lob a few mortar shells, and
leave. Again, the army rarely fought back as they would need to get
permission to fire, and by the time that happened, the attackers had
already driven off.
The first time insurgents hit the base was a little sketchy, said
Sprague. "You just try and get inside," he said. Soon, he became
accustomed to it.
One thing Sprague really didn't get used to was the food. "Everything I
tasted, I swear it had a hint of lamb," he said. There was also a lot of
rice, dates and chicken. They occasionally had beef, but Sprague said he
was pretty sure it was really lamb. The soldiers were not allowed to buy
food from local vendors in case it had been poisoned.
As far as the atmosphere amongst the locals, Sprague said that when they
first arrived, the Iraqis were happy, but that faded as time went on.
Sprague graduated from Peoples Academy in 2000 and joined the army a
year later. He said he never thought about enlisting until he ran into
an enlistment officer. The officer put the idea into Sprague's head and
in September of 2001, Sprague signed up for three years, though he will
most likely be in for four. Sprague will return to Fort Bragg at the end
of April and later ship out to either Afghanistan or Iraq.
Sprague plans on studying multimedia and design when his time with the
army is over.
"I didn't have a bad experience in the least," said Sprague about his
time in Iraq.