A Year In Baghdad Deepens Reservist’s Resolve

By Nancy K. Crevier

Being a soldier is a far cry from his job as a quality control inspector for Melissa and Doug Toy Company in Norwalk, but ever since 9/11 happened, Colonel Robert Knapp, a West Point graduate who served in Operation Desert Storm in active duty and who has served since 1994 in the Army National Guard Reserves, has felt driven to serve his country further.

“When 9/11 happened, I was devastated,” said Col Knapp. “It ripped my heart in half.”

He defines himself as a nonpartisan patriot. “I love America more than myself. I have a passionate love of the United States and God. I know that I am a servant of God and country,” said Col Knapp, who returned to his home in Sandy Hook from Iraq on June 18 after serving a year in Baghdad as a Department of Defense contractor.

His mission while in Iraq was to instill Western values into the Iraq military as a teacher for the Center for Military Values, Principles, and Leadership Development (CMVPLD). Originally called the Ethics Center, the name was changed to accommodate the fact that there is no Arabic equivalent of “ethics,” explained Col Knapp.

“We first did surveys of all of the Iraqi military ranks to determine their values, and we found that their values, based on the Koran, are virtually the same as ours in the United States, but with certain cultural twists.” What is different is that the Iraqi view of something like “honor” is more compartmentalized than that in America, he said as an example. “They have ‘family’ honor, and ‘professional’ honor. Family is so important that it sometimes overrides other things. This affects them as military personnel, because they are so focused on family that they tend to hire family members [into the military] regardless of qualifications. We teach that democracy is a civilian run government and it is hard for Iraqis to understand that the military works for the civilians,” Col Knapp said.

It is a complex situation, but Col Knapp feels that the experiential learning modeling used by the CMVPLD is a successful method to increase the bond of trust between officers, noncommissioned officers, and the jundi (lower ranking soldiers).

“Less lecturing is involved and we encourage a lot of dialogue and discussion, all of which is very new to Iraqi military officials,” Col Knapp said. “A lot of them do respond favorably to this style of learning.”

What is important to understand, said Col Knapp, is that the old government system in Iraq was one of centralized leadership.

“There were no noncommissioned officers. Decisions were made way up the ranks only,” he said. “We saw a need to decentralize control so that decisions can be made by noncommissioned officers on a daily basis.”

His work, he believes, will help democracy take hold in Iraq, and he firmly believes that that will happen. “When democracy takes root in Iraq, it will conform to that country,” said Col Knapp. “It will be an Islamic democracy. And the Iraqis are happier now, to the extent that they are beginning to understand what freedom is.”

Not A ‘Normal’ Life

After a year in Iraq, Col Knapp came to appreciate much of what we take for granted here. In his view, life is not really “normal” for the average Iraqi in Baghdad.

“There are basic needs there that are not met,” he said. “In general, in Baghdad, the average home has about four hours of electricity a day. That is probably the greatest need right now. There is food, the kids go to school, but that can depend on what area of Baghdad they are in. In some areas, where Al-Qaeda is strong, it is more dangerous to go to schools and to go to markets. The electricity is a problem, though.”

When one considers that it is not uncommon for summer temperatures in Baghdad to reach 120 degrees or more, he said, the lack of air conditioning in the city is horrific.

On the Rustamiyah base on the eastern side of Baghdad, where Col Knapp lived for nine months, a large generator provided electricity, so life was fairly routine and comfortable. His days consisted of long work hours, with 12- to 16-hour shifts not uncommon. He ate at the mess hall and did a lot of physical training. What he did not do was to wander the city of Baghdad. Even on base, he sometimes had to wear a Kevlar helmet and vest when moving about, depending on the threat level and as protection against the occasional “harassment” mortars lobbed into the base.

He never felt personally threatened while living at Rustamiyah, however. His impression was that “the Iraqis are cautious of Western-looking people in the city proper, but 95 percent of the Iraqis are loving, kind, generous people who want to get along. It is the five percent of fanatics and radicals that create the problems. You try to respect the Iraqi culture there,” he said.

As the insurgency got rolling, security at Rustamiyah became an issue, and he was moved back to the Green Zone for the last three months he was in Baghdad.

Even so, he feels that inroads are being made every day. Helping Iraq to create their own democracy will be a long struggle, Col Knapp believes, but added, “Our surge is absolutely working. Our surge is reaching into those dangerous areas where Al-Qaeda is and the Iraqis are feeling safer because of the surge. Where there were 20 vendors at a market, now you see 100. But it is a dangerous area, there are more soldiers on the ground, and that’s why we are seeing increased casualties,” said Col Knapp. “Putting a face to democracy through increased foot soldiers who show a respect to the people, that is what wins the hearts and minds of the people,” said Col Knapp.

One of his favorite quotes encapsulates much of what he believes as a member of the US Army National Guard Reserves.

“I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said, ‘The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.’ I want to find truth in love. Al-Qaeda is trying to find truth in violence. The good news is that a lot of the tribes are getting tired of Al-Qaeda. If we don’t defeat Al-Qaeda we will see more terrorist incidences. It is fanaticism,” Col Knapp said.

 

Missing America

While he found the Iraqi culture intriguing, he missed everything about America, said Col Knapp.

“My family has been in Newtown over 100 years, so I have deep roots here. I missed Newtown tremendously. I missed my wife, Renee, and my kids. JD just finished his freshman year in high school and Matthew just finished fifth grade. It was very hard to be away from them,” said Col Knapp. “What got me through the year was that I prayed daily, and I read my Bible daily. I read a book called In His Steps by Charles Sheldon and I reread The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I had something to hang on to — my faith — and that’s what got me through.”

Col Knapp plans to spend the next month traveling around the country with his family.

“We’ll visit family in Denver and family in Florida and take a tour of a nice chunk of the country. We just haven’t had enough time together, so I’m going to try to relax,” he said. “I think I did my little piece of the effort in this war against radical Islam. I’m very happy to be back, but I’m happy to go back to Iraq, too, if I need to.”