Home from Iraq, soldier shows and tells

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Capt. John Elfer with the 31st Rear Operations Center of the Mississippi Army National Guard shows children from Treasures Learning Center where Iraq is in comparison to the United States. (Jenny Sevcik The Vicksburg Post)

[12/10/03]Students at a preschool got a show-and-tell Tuesday from a daddy home on his first leave from Iraq in 10 months.

U.S. Army Capt. John Elfer, who is also a five-year deputy with the Warren County Sheriff’s Department, visited his daughter Alli’s class at Treasures Learning Center, 1019 Oak Ridge Road, with items he gathered from the war zone.

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In charge of force protection for a base camp in Kuwait since July, Elfer spent the previous four months handling similar duties inside Iraq, he told the 3- and 4-year-olds in the classroom of Kari Dupree.

“I’m a police officer in the Army,” Elfer told the children. “We do the same thing police officers in Vicksburg do.”

Interviewed afterward, Elfer explained that his station is a base camp outside Kuwait City, which borders Iraq to the south and is host to two other such U.S. military staging areas.

“We’re responsible for all the logistics and support they need,” as well as for ensuring the safety of the troops at the camp, Elfer said of his staff of about 25. “We make sure they’ve got a place to live, a place to shower and are fed.”

Elfer showed the children several items he gathered from Iraq, including:

An Iraqi national flag from one of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein’s palaces

A headdress typical of those worn by the country’s residents

A little girl’s dress he found in a warehouse near the airport of the country’s capital, Baghdad

A wool Iraqi army uniform

A tan Iraqi army helmet

A bottle of Coca-Cola with its label printed in Arabic

A Muslim prayer rug from Iraq

A toy camel

A camoflauge-covered Bible soldiers were given

A chemical-weapons mask

A soldier’s rifle bayonet

Paper money printed by the defunct Iraqi dictatorship

Elfer let some of the children wear the headdress and explained why it and other sun protection is required.

“It got hot enough that the road melted,” he told the students, adding that thermometers in the desert while he was there reached 150 degrees.

Elfer’s quarters at his base camp in Kuwait consists of a tent that sleeps 60 soldiers and has a wooden floor, he told the students. Also at the camp are other tents that are used as a church and as a place for soldiers to watch television and movies.

The tent now has air conditioning, but that has not been the case throughout his time in the desert, he said.

“You get used to not having it,” he said.

U.S. attacks on Iraq began March 19, with ground forces capturing Baghdad April 9. President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1.

Guerrilla and terrorist attacks against U.S. forces have continued. Since the war began nearly 300 U.S. soldiers have been killed in hostile action, including 183 since the end of major combat was declared.

Elfer said he traveled all around Baghdad during the war’s initial phase, but never felt in real danger and has not fired his rifle since he has been deployed there.

“We had some gunfire around Baghdad, but we never came under attack,” he said. “We were real, real lucky. We didn’t come under any enemy fire.”

The three base camps in Kuwait are being used as staging areas for the U.S. troops who are being rotated into and out of the area, Elfer said. Many of the 123,000 combat-experienced troops there are being rotated home.

Elfer said he was not sure when he would be home for good. He was deployed Feb. 2, and deployment was to last at least a year, he added.

He pointed out to the students similarities he had seen between them and their counterparts in the Middle East, and some differences.

“Not everybody has the same chances to go to a good school like this,” he said. “As you get older, you’ll understand that.”