Army Staff Sgt. Richard Sanchez grew up in Albuquerque, not far from his current post at Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs. At 27, he is married, with three young children. He served in Iraq from October 2006 to December 2007 and is about to head out again, this time for Afghanistan. Claire Martin
Q: What did you do in Iraq?
A: About 80 percent of it was roadside patrols — and door-to-door clearance sessions. We went door to door, searching houses for weapons, bombs, anything that could be used to make a bomb, and taking photographs of all military-age males.
Q: What did you look for? Explosives?
A: Everything. We looked for large stashes of cellphones that insurgents use to make IEDs (improvised explosive devices). If someone acted suspicious, we’d get out a kit we had that brings up gunshot or explosive residue on your hands. We’d also look in the kitchen to see what they had for food. If they were hurting for food, we’d give them what we called “speedballs.”
Q: Speedballs?
A: Those are big, double-bagged sacks of food — flour, rice, evaporated milk, beans and stuff like that.
Q: How did they respond to you?
A: When we first went in, in fall 2006, they were kinda hostile to us. For the first six months, there was a lot of combat, with small-arms fire and IED attacks. The insurgents didn’t hold off on holidays, either. One of the worst IEDs was on Christmas Eve, where the IED was large enough to completely disable an Abrams tank.
Q: How did you turn that around?
A: We made our success in the non-kinetic part — the helping of the people and rebuilding of Ramadi. When we gave them food and electricity, they started to become more friendly. They started giving up insurgents.
Q: What other changes did you see?
A: When we got there, Ramadi was like a ghost town. No open businesses, and nobody on the streets. When we first got there, you were on a 360-degree watch, constantly looking down every alley, every street. By the time we left, there was a sense of security, with Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi police in charge of what had been our camp. People were painting the buildings and walls, and putting Iraqi flags up. There were people in the streets, kids on their bikes, and people were more friendly.
Q: What was the most surprising thing you learned in Iraq?
A: When I went over there, I thought war was all about forcefulness. But I found that if we helped the Iraqis, and used their customs, and their courtesies — what I call the non-kinetic side — then that was the most effective. I learned that leadership has a lot to do with understanding the culture.
