After arriving at Abu Ghraib prison, both Staff Sgt. Hugh Wade and Master Sgt. Thomas Carlson said they had been on duty only a couple of days when prisoners in the Ganci compounds rioted on Nov. 24, 2003.
A March 2004 report by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba stated the prisoners were protesting the squalid living conditions at the prison.
"The prisoners were throwing rocks and using tent posts as spears," said Carlson, 48, who decided to stay on active duty. His skin stark against the dark greens and browns of his uniform, he runs his hands through his short silver hair at the end of each sentence.
"The riot ended when guards in the towers shot into the prisoners," said Wade, 42, who has returned to civilian life and his job as a police officer. In his uniform and bulletproof vest he is imposing despite is 5-foot-9 frame.
By the time the riot ended, three detainees had been killed, another nine wounded and nine soldiers had been injured, according to the Taguba report.
Wade had been on duty for 20 hours.
Wade, a St. Petersburg police officer, returned home to his family; a hero in their eyes. Carlson, who had been a mail carrier for 10 years in the St. Petersburg area, returned home but has remained on active duty at his reserve unit. Less than a month after soldiers left Iraq, everyone in America would know the name Abu Ghraib, and now both men find themselves defending the honor of fellow soldiers as well as the honor of the military.
A Life in Chaos
Riots were almost a daily part of life at Abu Ghraib. Conditions at the prison were grim, Wade said. The prison had been looted before U.S. soldiers arrived. After it became a U.S. prison, the soldiers lived in dilapidated prison cells, and detainees were held in a prison yard full of mud and filth.
They tried to improve conditions at the prison. The Army provided tents, showers and bathroom facilities. They gave the prisoners sandals, clothes, coats, blankets, prayer books and beads. They even tried to provide detainees with culturally sensitive food, said Carlson. But the food provided by the Iraqi civilian contractor was often infested with bugs, dirt and sometimes rats, said Wade.
Attempt to correct problems like these at the prison were either ignored or dismissed, according to military reports.
"Who was in charge," said Carlson, pushing his round, silver glasses up, magnifying his steel gray eyes, "changed everyday."
The power struggle between the reserve commanders and active duty commanders translated into a lack of leadership for soldiers, Wade and Carlson said.
The commander of the 320th Military Police Company, Capt. Michael Mastrangelo, said the 320th Military Police Battalion reported to both the 800th Military Police Brigade and the 205th MI Brigade, creating ambiguity.
Mastrangelo, a police officer in Orlando who had been on active duty and served in Bosnia, said the chain-of-command at Abu Ghraib, "wasn't as clear as it should or could have been."
Changing Perceptions
His taut skin the color of whipped mocha, his palms the color of spun cotton candy, Wade stretches his fingers out reaching and then curls them back into fists as he talks about his hopes and dreams. He joined the military 5 months after immigrating to America from Jamaica in 1986.
Wade had been out of the military for seven years when Sept. 11 happened.
As a reservist "there is always a possibility" of going to war and he knew that, Wade said. "A lot of times we tend to look at what is going on in the world and what is going on in our country and say 'Well, let the government take care of that, let the military take care of that,' but, I personally believe that if you live in a country, if you believe in the principles of that country, then you should be willing to defend it."
On April 4, 2003 their company was originally assigned to Tillil Airbase, located 192 miles, southeast of Baghdad and 12 miles, southwest of the city of Nasiriyah. By November the company had been assigned to Abu Ghraib prison, 20 miles from Baghdad.
The Taguba report confirmed there were numerous instances of abuse at Abu Ghraib by several members of the military police between October and December 2003.
Wade said, he started hearing rumors of abuse inside the prison by the end of November 2003.
By April, a month after the Taguba report, the rest of America would see the ugliness first hand. "60 Minutes" aired the photographs of American soldiers forcing naked Iraqi prisoners into sexually graphic positions on April 28. Carlson said he was shocked when he recognized several of the soldiers in the photographs.
Carlson a transplant from Long Island, N.Y., had been a soldier for 15 years. He was embarrassed by the photographs and said he tried to explain to his friends and family that the abuse was isolated. He hopes that people won't judge the rest of the military by what a few soldiers did.
"Any time you tell someone you were in Iraq and then you say you were at Abu Ghraib, 'Oh, you were part of that whole mess?'" is the response you get, Carlson said, looking at his combat boots and shaking his head. "That's not what I want to associate myself with."
Wade is also concerned how Americans will remember this time. However, what he hopes and thinks will happen are two different things.
"What I hope is that we will always remember the people who gave the ultimate sacrifice," he said. "I hope that we will remember as a nation that we helped to liberate a country that was oppressed for so many years."
However, what he thinks will happen is heart breaking: as a nation we tend to forget easily, he said.
"I think we will forget that freedom comes with a price—that each of us must be willing to pay that price," he said, hoping to remind Americans that they went to Iraq as liberators not occupiers. "War is never pretty, it's never going to be and it will never be. [War is] necessary sometimes to liberate, but never good."
Three-in-One
"It was a hard life," Wade said.
Wade's unit was not assigned to the wing of the prison called the "hard site," where the abuse happened, he said. There were three separate prisons within Abu Ghraib. Prisoners were separated into categories: war criminals, accused of aggressive acts toward coalition forces; violent criminals, accused of rape or murder; and common criminals. Wade guarded the common criminals in Ganci.
The Ganci section of the prison is set up in one of the prison yards about three miles by three miles. This area was divided into eight spaces, each separated by three layers of concertina wire. The areas labeled 1 through 8 had at least 22 tents and could hold 400 prisoners, however, because of over-crowding there were usually 550 prisoners in each section. At one point, 145 soldiers were responsible for more than 6,000 prisoners, Carlson said.
Wade said their unit was spread so thin that, at one point, non-military police soldiers like cooks and administrative personal had to pull guard duty.
As soldiers went home, there was no one to replace them Mastrangelo said, however the mission was still there and the unit had to come up with creative ways to guard the detainees. Mastrangelo said the soldiers were given a condensed course and were always paired with a trained MP and only did guard duty in the towers, never in the yard.
A Precedent for Abuse
As horrified as Americans were of the photos that came out of Abu Ghraib, it wasn't the first time Iraqi detainees were abused. The Taguba report states detainees were abused at Camp Bucca detention center in southern Iraq as early as May 12, 2003, five months before the first abuse documented at Abu Ghraib.
A major who worked at Abu Ghraib told U.S. News & World Report that he was convinced that what happened at Abu Ghraib would never have happened if soldiers involved in the abuse at Camp Bucca had been prosecuted instead of discharged. Three soldiers accepted non-judicial punishments and were discharged from the military. Another solider agreed to an other-than-honorable discharge. At times, there were as few as 100 military police guarding 8,000 prisoners at Camp Bucca.
Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, gave a similar defense in her testimony. However, the Taguba report stated that after the Bucca incident Karpinski made no attempt to provide training on rules of the Geneva Convention or any training that would ensure abuses were not repeated.
Unlike the soldiers who were involved in the abuse at Camp Bucca, the Abu Ghraib soldiers, who are accused of abuse, are facing charges. At least seven soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company, the 320th Military Police Battalion and the 800th Military Police Brigade are either under investigation or facing numerous charges including dereliction of duty, sexual misconduct and indecent acts.
No one from Wade and Carlson's company has been charged in the Abu Ghraib case. However, their unit does report to the 320th Military Police Battalion, which has several soldiers being charged in the Abu Ghraib case.
The Taguba report stated that the geographical distance between reserve units is partly responsible for the communication breakdown at Abu Ghraib. The 320th Military Police Company is based out of St. Petersburg, Fla., yet reports to the 320th Military Police Battalion, a reserve unit in New Jersey.
Because the reserve units don't receive the training the active duty units do, Mastrangelo said he is extremely proud of the job his soldiers accomplished at the prison and said that Wade, "the Reverend," and Carlson, "the wise old man," are examples of the maturity they possess.
The 320th Military Police Company was picked to mentor new units arriving at Abu Ghraib. Mastrangelo said he felt one of the reasons his soldiers were not involved in any scandal was the commitment his senior leadership had to the men working in the yard. The senior NCOs and the lieutenants would spend time in the yard with the soldiers guarding the detainees. "It's all about personal accountability," Mastrangelo said. "Whatever your troops do or fail to do is representative of your leadership."
The Geneva Convention
While getting ready for deployment at Fort Stewart, Mastrangelo said the soldiers received training on the Geneva Convention and the Army rules of engagement.
And as a soldier Wade said he agreed they are obligated to treat people according to these rules. There are limitations set by the convention that outline the treatment of prisoners.
"If it doesn't look right, it doesn't feel right," he said, "than don't do it."
Wade never actually saw a copy of the Geneva Convention at Abu Ghraib and said he didn't remember receiving any training on its rules prior to deployment. When asked how he knew the proper and lawful treatment for prisoners of war, he said, "It's just common sense."
The Taguba report supported Wade version of events. The report stated that prior to deployment to Iraq, military police received no training in either detention or internee operations. Furthermore, it states there was no discussion with soldiers regarding the Geneva Convention and rules relative to the treatment of prisoners of war. Nor did the leadership provide copies of the convention to soldiers or detainees.
Mastrangelo said that as early as January 2004 the commanders were told there had been an incident. The new leadership at Abu Ghraib required that every soldier receive training on the Geneva Convention and that laminated copies of the convention and the Army rules of engagement were hung in each guard post throughout the prison, said Mastrangelo.
A Different Picture of Abu Ghraib
The riot on Nov. 24 was the last time lethal force in the Ganci encampment was referred to in the Taguba report. The report stated that during the riot the non-lethal and lethal ammo had been confused.
The non-lethal ammo the U.S. military uses is similar to the rubber bullets used by the Israeli Defense Force and the other non-lethal weapons use small densely packed beanbags as ammunition, Mastrangelo said.
Mastrangelo didn't know how the ammo got confused, he said. The lethal ammo is painted red and the non-lethal is painted green. What he said happened during the riot was they simply ran out of non-lethal ammo. However, the shortage was addressed, he said.
According to Mastrangelo, the November riot was the last riot in the Ganci compound until his unit left in April 2004. The most profound moment for Mastrangelo was working with the Red Crescent, he said, helping feed Iraqis and changing the perception of Americans in Iraq.
For Wade, who worked directly with the detainees, the time he spent with three of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib left the most lasting impression.
Prisoners were numbers at Abu Ghraib. But Wade remembers the names of Sayeed, Hidar and Fa Ras, prisoners in Ganci compound 5, where he worked. Two of the men were lieutenants in the Iraqi Army and the other had been Saddam's personal letter writer, he said.
These men reminded him of "average Americans," he said.
Wade, who took it upon himself to learn enough Arabic to have a simply conversation or give directions, said "the Iraqis respected you a little bit more as an English-speaking person when you try to understand some of their language."
Having met soldiers in the Iraqi army and talked to them, Wade said he learned to respect the fact that they were soldiers and, just like him, they were doing their job.
"They might wear a different uniform, they might be the enemy, but they are doing their job," Wade said. Keeping that in mind helped remind him that these prisoners like him had loved ones, who worried about them.
"They had the same desires we had. They were good people," he said. And "just like he was there in the jail missing his family, I was there missing my family."