Roleplaying flavour and guide to Iraq in 2011

[Icelander]

I've got a question about the command of a base which is home to elements of more than one service. In particular, something which is a military air field as well as an Army base, with plenty of living space for both services.

Take, for example, Tallil Air Base, which consists of Ali Air Base and Camp Adder, as well as several other bases that seem to be closed down at the time I'm setting my campaign. It's also home to some Iraqi Air Force units.

Technically, at the end of 2011, Camp Adder seems to be designated COB Addder, presumably standing for Contingency Operating Base. It used to be FOB Adder.

Ali Air Base was formely known as Tallil Air Base and will be handed over to the Iraqis on December 16th 2011 as Imam Ali Air Base. Actually, some sort of formal hand-over already took place on the 1st of December 2010, and the Iraqis have apparently had some sort of command there since then, but at least until December 2011, the US Air Force kept using Ali Air Base for both large helicopters and C-130s.

The Iraqis might have some airplanes there, but did not have any at the end of 2010, at least. Oh, sorry, the 70 Squadron of the Iraqi Air Force was moved down to Ali Air Base. Okay, so the Iraqi Air Force is operating out of the base alongside the US Army and US Air Force. They have their own mess hall and everything. The commander of 70 Squadron, Col. Nazih Al-Amir, is listed in at least one source as the 'deputy commander' of Ali Air Base. Brigadier General Abdul Hakim/Hakeem al-Zubaidi is listed as the commander of Ali Air Base and in news accounts of the handover, as the new commander of Iman Ali Air Base (where there will also be an IA unit, the 38th Brigade).

What I want to know is; who is in command?

There is BG Abdul Hakim al-Zubaidi, an Iraqi Air Force Brigadier General, whom the local press has referred to as the commanding officer of Imam Ali Air Base, but I'm assuming fairly confidently that he does not have any shred of authority over US troops, US planes, US trucks or even US supplies for the PX store. Until the Americans leave for good, his authority starts and stops with his own pilots and ground crews. I don't even think that the Iraqis have anything to do about base security until after the Americans leave.

So there is a US officer in charge of the base, I assume. But who is that officer? Does someone get posted as a commanding officer to a specific base, in addition to or instead of command of a unit? Or does command of a unit based somewhere carry with it command of that base, according to the normal rules for seniority?

If the 407th Air Expeditionary Group is commanded by Col. James Linder and assigned to the Ali Air Base and the 20th Engineer Brigade is commanded by Col. Richard Kaiser and assigned to Camp Adder and there don't seem to be any other large units there, which one of them, if either, is in command of the base complex?

At the handover on the 16th of December 2011, Col. Rick Kaiser was one of the US representatives, but there was no sign of Col. James Linder. I can also find that the 20th Engineer Brigade was responsible for COB Adder 'Major Cell' and if we assume that someone misspelled 'Mayor Cell', that suggests that the responsibility for the running of the base might have lain with them. These both argue that Col. Rick Kaiser is my man.

All the same, I don't really know if 'Mayor Cell' means that the base command itself would be with 20th Engineer Brigade or if that just means that an officer from it would be responsible for the 'Mayor Cell' of COB Adder alone, with someone else responsible for Ali Air Base. Assuredly, Col. Kaiser is important on the base complex, but I don't know what his precise responsibilities are.

Might there be another officer, senior to both Colonels Linder and Kaiser, who is specifically appointed to command the base complex as well as work with the Iraqi elements there?

I find this unlikely, as I can't find any sign of such, but perhaps if the base serves as the HQ of some formation where most of the troops are actually serving somewhere else, it's possible that command of that administrative unit carries with it command of the base complex as a whole.

Or isn't there any base complex as a whole? COB Adder and Ali Air Base might, I guess, entirely administratively seperate and the fact that they are located in the same place and share security and logistics concerns doesn't necessarily have to mean that they have one officer in command over both bases...

I know that the Iraqi Training and Advisory Mission - Air is commanded by Major General Anthony Rock, but his HQ is in Baghdad. He visits Ali Air Base*, because the 307th AEG comes under the mission of ITAM-AF, but the Baghdad-posted General doesn't command it.

I suppose that it's possible that someone from ITAM-A, a Brigadier General or Colonel, has command over those elements of ITAM-A that are posted to Ali Air Base and also commands the base, but if so, I can't find who it is. As far as I can see, the most senior US Air Force officers other than the CO of the 407th AEG on the Ali Air Base are a pair of Lieutenant Colonels, one with command over elements here for Odyssey Dawn and the other in command of the Base Transition Team (BTT).

Command of the security elements at the base appears to be with Lt. Col. Jack Vantress, of the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division. The Greywolves are also slated to be the last unit to leave the base.

So, if Colonel Joseph Irmintraut, the PC from General Frank Helmick's staff in Baghdad, decides he wants to talk to the commander of the US base just outside of Nasiriyah, who does he see?

Does he meet with Colonel Rick Kaiser, Mayor of COB Adder and commanding officer of the 20th Engineer Brigade or does he meet with Colonel James Linder, commanding officer of the 407th AEG, who is apparently the most senior US Air Force officer at Ali Air Base and presumably responsible for working with the Iraqi commanding officer of Imam Ali Air Base?

Whomever of the two has more time in grade as a Colonel? The one appointed to command of the base complex as a whole, which would be... the Mayor of COB Adder? Someone else?

How does this generally work?

*And, in fact, will visit it for the last time on November 5th 2011, which is the current date in my campaign.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Icelander

*And, in fact, will visit it for the last time on November 5th 2011, which is the current date in my campaign.

Remember! Remember
The Fifth of November:
Gunpowder treason and plot.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Remember! Remember
The Fifth of November:
Gunpowder treason and plot.

Ah! Very good.

No doubt this date will evoke radically different states of mind with PC Taz Walker, Australian Catholic*, and Sir Archibald Forsyth-Sykes, an Englishman** who appears to typify the Establishment, boring country gentry, Oxbridge, the Civil Service, the Church of England and loyalty to the Queen.

The other three PCs and Sammy Gupta Singh, the last NPC member of the party, are unlikely to even realise the significance of the date.

Any villainous NPCs, sadly, are unlikely to attach any significance to it either, unless some of them might have gone to school in the UK. And I know that most of them will have received their university education elsewhere, for those who have one, as that's kind of an important part of their backstory.

*Well, more-or-less. For a given value of Catholic, which makes room for your children receiving instruction in Hindu mythology alongside the occasional visit to church.
**Any Scottish forebears are at least two comfortable centuries in the past.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Ah! Very good.

No doubt this date will evoke radically different states of mind with PC Taz Walker, Australian Catholic*, and Sir Archibald Forsyth-Sykes, an Englishman** who appears to typify the Establishment, boring country gentry, Oxbridge, the Civil Service, the Church of England and loyalty to the Queen.

The other three PCs and Sammy Gupta Singh, the last NPC member of the party, are unlikely to even realise the significance of the date.[/SIZE]

Tazza likely won't either; at least he is no more likely to than any other non-English Anglophone. Guy Fawkes Day is not observed here, the constitutional history of England is not taught in high-school history, and Catholics don't make much of it anywhere. If I suggest to my neighbours that poor old Guido was the last man to go into Parliament with honest intentions they stare at me blankly.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Tazza likely won't either; at least he is no more likely to than any other non-English Anglophone. Guy Fawkes Day is not observed here, the constitutional history of England is not taught in high-school history, and Catholics don't make much of it anywhere. If I suggest to my neighbours that poor old Guido was the last man to go into Parliament with honest intentions they stare at me blankly.

I see.

That's a pity.

Well, he did attend a training course at the Roussillon Barracks, Chichester, West Sussex in his youth and spent three years on detached service in Northern Ireland in the 80s. And he had another stint of detached service with the Poms in '91, for six months that time.

So if Sir Archibald starts burning any effigies, he'll know enough to be offended, if he so chooses.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

So if Sir Archibald starts burning any effigies, he'll know enough to be offended, if he so chooses.

Archie wouldn't do that. That would be getting excited about something, which is terribly gauche for an Englishman of his age and class. These days, it's mostly an excuse for setting off fireworks, and is often known as "Bonfire Night" or "Firework Night."

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Icelander

The other three PCs and Sammy Gupta Singh, the last NPC member of the party, are unlikely to even realise the significance of the date.

Any villainous NPCs, sadly, are unlikely to attach any significance to it either, unless some of them might have gone to school in the UK. And I know that most of them will have received their university education elsewhere, for those who have one, as that's kind of an important part of their backstory.

*Well, more-or-less. For a given value of Catholic, which makes room for your children receiving instruction in Hindu mythology alongside the occasional visit to church.
**Any Scottish forebears are at least two comfortable centuries in the past.

Zero chance that they watched V for Vendetta?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Zero chance that they watched V for Vendetta?

Well, no. I suppose that there is a non-zero chance that at least one villainous NPC has seen V for Vendetta.

I just doubt that this would translate into them attaching enough significance to the date the 5th of November for their plans or actions to be affected.

While the wholly-and-completely-benign-why-are-you-asking group in question is not local, the people there do mostly come from Islamic countries and have attended higher education in one particular Islamic country. They are, as a rule, a secular* bunch, but their unconscious cultural framework will still be formed by where they grew up and where they have lived.

If any of them were to consider the question, I rather think they would be on the side of the Gunpowder Plotters and against Church and State. But only because they currently don't hold absolute authority anywhere. While they are broadly on the side of religious freedom, as it applies to them at least, in that they disapprove of anyone persecuting them for their unusual researches and beliefs, they don't exactly tend have any notable passion for fighting for freedom, justice or equality under the law.

If they can be said to have any political views in common, it would be contempt for laws in general, alienation from society and cynicism toward the legitimacy of any form of government. But they don't want any alternative, they want to game the imperfect and inevitably corrupt system.

Most of them have no more ideological basis for their actions than the average organised crime member. Junior members may hold senior members in terrified awe and there is a moderately successful attempt at a cult of personality among any recruits who have been involved for less than five years, but in general, these people are pragmatic, cynical and self-interested.

The nature of the supernatural in the setting does mean that sometimes pragmatism looks awfully like mysticism from the outside, in that some forms of ritual magic attach an enormous significance to symbolic dates, astrological influences or mystical correspondences, but it is unlikely that their particular paranormal disciplines would work any differently on November 5th than on any other day.

Some occult theorists consider the exact dates unimportant and state that it is popular belief in the significance of a date that makes for magical effects. Others believe that there are objective fluctations in magical influences, unrelated to human belief, and that there are different 'flavours' in the magical tides that wax and wane and different times. That would explain the fact that different magical traditions have different times where certain types of magic are more effective.

Syncretic magical systems that combine a lot of other systems appear to suffer somewhat in power, in that the researchers often lack the depth of knowledge of language and culture to learn the oldest and most powerful rituals, but make up for it in the flexibility of use and the availability of innumerable factors that can be leveraged for a small boost, allowing the use of magic under less specific circumstances.

The surely-benevolent group in question here, however, is working with a very arcane, specific and ancient type of magic indeed. In fact, what primarily connects them is that they are among the few people on Earth who have studied a particular culture enough to be able to decipher the mysteries and they are the only ones who speak a certain dead language.

*A case might be made for 'heretical', 'apostate' or even 'loathsome pagan devil worship'.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Archie wouldn't do that. That would be getting excited about something, which is terribly gauche for an Englishman of his age and class. These days, it's mostly an excuse for setting off fireworks, and is often known as "Bonfire Night" or "Firework Night."

Sir Archibald might not show much excitement, but I assure, the use of the familiar 'Archie' to refer to him aroused in him pretty much the same emotions as those Tycho feels in this strip.

If he were to burn any effigies, with or without chanting in Latin over them while sprinkling incense, it would certainly be very odd and perhaps suggest that Sir Archibald might have hobbies or interests that would very much surprise those who assume that his world is circumscribed by spreadsheets and divided exclusively into fiscal quarters.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Icelander

What I want to know is; who is in command?

There is BG Abdul Hakim al-Zubaidi, an Iraqi Air Force Brigadier General, whom the local press has referred to as the commanding officer of Imam Ali Air Base, but I'm assuming fairly confidently that he does not have any shred of authority over US troops, US planes, US trucks or even US supplies for the PX store. Until the Americans leave for good, his authority starts and stops with his own pilots and ground crews. I don't even think that the Iraqis have anything to do about base security until after the Americans leave.

So there is a US officer in charge of the base, I assume. But who is that officer? Does someone get posted as a commanding officer to a specific base, in addition to or instead of command of a unit? Or does command of a unit based somewhere carry with it command of that base, according to the normal rules for seniority?

I can't speak to that base, nor even to a current base. However...

For several bases I've been to, two I've lived by, and one I've been stationed at, the base commander was NEVER a general officer, even tho' there was always a general officer on the base.

The Base Commander was always a Full Colonel (US O6, NATO OF-5) or Navy Captain (same grades). I've seen evidence of base commanders of lesser rank, for small bases, but again, the base commander was nominally under the command of another officer on the base.

The Wing/Brigade/Division/(Naval Squadron) commanders were General/Flag officers. Operational command of the activities from the base fell to the Wing/Brigade/Division CO. Day to day on-base functions, including on base security and law enforcement, facilities maintenance, housing, and food services usually fall to the base commander.