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Troops' Christmas Present Is In Iraq

Photo from Shane Williams

Capt. Shane Williams sends Christmas wishes to family and friends back home. This is his third Army Christmas away from home. Of his efforts in Iraq, he says, “I’m happy. I think I’m doing a good job.”

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By GRETCHEN PARKER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 25, 2007

Updated: 12/24/2007 10:55 pm

TAMPA - On a base near a seemingly mythical place called Babylon, surrounded by flatness and dust and nothing familiar, soldiers are about to celebrate Christmas American-style.

The 2,500 Army soldiers at Forward Operating Base Kalsu in Iraq are looking forward today to a turkey and ham dinner and services in the chapel. "It's a Wonderful Life" will be playing on the big screen that's normally reserved for briefings on the day-to-day business of being at war.

"It's not totally sad and depressing," said Capt. Shane Williams, a 38-year-old company commander who grew up in Plant City and is now on his second tour in Iraq. "They're looking forward to tomorrow. It's Christmas."

They're holding small parties for their own circles of friends, handing out cards and - keeping their senses of humor - wishing each other "Merry Han-Kwan-Christmas and Ramadan." A few guys made snowflake-shaped pinatas out of cardboard boxes and manila folders. They stuffed them with candy sent from home.

Little colored lights decorate the offices. A couple of the women set aside time to stitch Santa hats and elf booties. The toes curl.

Williams is looking at two poinsettias and two Christmas trees while he talks in a telephone interview Monday about what it's like to spend Christmas in the Babil province, just south of Baghdad.

This is his third Army Christmas away from home. In 2000, he was in Bosnia. In 2002, he was in Kuwait and getting ready to invade Iraq.

But this time, he knows it's different. Public opinion has turned against this effort, something that he tries to take in stride, even though it stays on his mind.

"I don't even watch the news anymore. I've stopped," Williams said. "And I actually feel better about myself."

Hearing the commentary and second-guessing of the operation is disheartening, he said. "A lot of times, it does get discouraging. Anybody can armchair quarterback Sunday's football game on Monday."

Instead of being undermined, Williams tries to think of his work as the guarantee that folks back home are able to disagree and criticize their government. "I think we did the right thing" by going into Iraq, he said.

Iraqi Children Make His Day

In the rural areas south of Baghdad where his company patrols, children run up to the soldiers with smiles and waves, Williams said. They're not always asking for treats; many times they use English to ask, "What's your name? Where are you from?"

"That makes my day. That's why we're here: to make their lives better," he said. "So they can make their choices and not have someone dictate to them how they should think and how they should live."

He knows the Army is sometimes seen as a "blunt instrument" that overwhelms with force, but he focuses on the progress he and his fellow soldiers have made.

"I've seen a lot of change," he said. "We do a lot of patrols in rural areas. A lot of local civilians are taking stands against insurgents. They call them terrorists."

When Williams rolled through Iraq the first time, in March and April of 2003, he was executive officer of a tank company. This time, there is less maneuvering. There are no jets overhead when they jump out of their Humvees and confront insurgents.

"We've had a couple of fights where it's old-world fighting: soldiers on both sides on the ground and shooting. Just soldiers with rifles shooting one another," he said.

He Aspired To Be A Soldier

Being a soldier is what he has always wanted to do.

"It's always been his love," said his mother, Linda Williams, a Plant City native who recently moved to North Florida.

He remembers hearing tales from his father, Clifton Williams, of his days as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division. "I never said I want to be a fireman or a policeman or a scientist. All I ever wanted to do was be a soldier," he said.

He graduated from Plant City High School in 1988, joined the Army in 1990 and went to Kuwait in 1991 for the first Gulf War. Three years later, he was out of the Army and enrolling at the University of South Florida to earn a history and archaeology degree.

As if, he likes to say, he was Indiana Jones.

He worked at his old high school in 1998, substituting and teaching JROTC. He helped the Florida National Guard keep Central Florida from burning up in wildfires, but it wasn't scratching his itch to be full-time military. He came out of Officer Candidate School as a second lieutenant. He went to Bosnia.

Looking around his office at the co-workers he calls "Army family," as they sent Christmas e-mail home, Williams summed it all up by saying: "I'm happy. I think I'm doing a good job."

Just like the criticism, he takes the accolades for his work in stride.

When he's back in the States and someone wants to shake his hand and say, "Thank you," he can't help tearing up. Every time it happens.

He said he tells them what he believes is true: "I'm just one guy, just trying to do the best I can."

Reporter Gretchen Parker can be reached at (813) 259-7562 or gparker@tampatrib.com.

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