Airman shares Iraq experience

Senior Airman Tony Sopczak, a member of the 366th Operation Support Squadron at Mountain Home AFB, returned home from Kirkuk, Iraq on Monday, May 28.

It was Sopczak's first deployment to Iraq. He said he didn't have any expectations when going over there because "you don't really know much. I had a couple of weeks notice then I was gone."

The mission he was helping to fulfill at Kirkuk Air Base in Iraq was the "same as what we do here (Mountain Home Air Force Base), but with different aircraft, he said. As an air traffic controller, Sopczak's job was monitoring the aircraft as they landed, took off and completed practice runs. Part of his job also was to make sure only aircraft with proper approval could come and go from the air field.

It was his first time working with other aircraft, and "it was weird and interesting going with different aircraft because of speed differences." It was also the first time he worked with helicopters, or with any Army aircraft.

He said there was one incident of miscommunication between base operations, air traffic control and RAPCOM (Radar Approach Control), in which an aircraft landed and was greeted by a sniper team. "The worst thing that happened to me, air traffic wise, was when a pilot landed on the wrong runway. There had been people on that runway five minutes before the pilot landed." Thankfully Sopczak did not get in trouble, but he said the pilot did.

Iraqi pilots were doing a lot of practicing (flying) at the air base, said Sopczak. "At first the Iraqi trainees were with American pilots who helped with the language barrier. Then the Iraqi pilots got better and could fly by themselves, and then it got real hard.

"It was difficult because the language thing was really bad. We would have to repeat things to the Iraqi pilots a lot, and I could tell when they got frustrated. Language was probably the hardest thing to get over. We just made sure everything was safe to let them do what they needed to do to train."

Sopczak never saw combat himself. "I never had direct contact with people outside the fence (of the base), but I played ping-pong with Iraqis who would tell me how bad it was.

"You could see bullets fly every now and then, and we got attacked a lot. It wasn't the best of times. There were a few times where it was really close to me." He said they were not told a lot, but he thinks it was a rocket or mortar. "Which sucks being in the tower. Being the tallest thing on base."

When attacks occurred, Sopczak said they were told "to do everything on their checklist and you'll be alright. You also put gear on so you were safe. A false sense of safe because I'm sure if a rocket hit me, I'd die no matter what I was wearing."

While deployed to Iraq, Sopczak lived in a mobile dorm of three rooms with five people. They separated their beds into separate rooms using blankets and would hang blankets over their bunk beds so that it was always night in there so they could sleep because they worked during the night.

Half of the people in the mobile dorm were air traffic controllers and the other half were with the air control squadron. They were on different time-table shifts and each would wake the other up. "We'd get louder just to wake them up," Sopczak said.

Unlike Sopczak and his mobile dorm roommates, "the Medevac guys with the Army lived right next to the Blackhawks," said Sopczak, referring to transport helicopters flown by the U.S. Army. "They could be up, ready and off the ground in eight minutes. I never have room to complain with the Army. They have been extended months past their year deployment. It makes you appreciate them even though there's that brotherly rivalry."

But it was not all work for the soldiers deployed to Kirkuk. Spokczak said in his free time he worked out a lot and played soccer. "In May the pool opened up, and that became a daily thing," he said. Watching movies, playing Xbox and card games also were a popular pasttime.

"We played soccer over there and the Iraqis would come over," he said, "that was the most fun-- 'international soccer'. They don't play by the rules either. They would call things (penalties) on us but not themselves."

The Army also played soccer. "They're just rough and always wanting to get in fights. We had to ban some people from playing because they always wanted to fight," Sopczak said.

"We had really crappy (soccer) equipment. Our nets had holes in them. Our captain on our team who happened to be a (real) captain was mailing the New England Revolution Soccer Team. They sent us all new equipment: nets, balls, goalie gloves. They're my new favorite team now. I already have tickets for Salt Lake City."

Being deployed comes with its perks of seeing a new part of the world and meeting new people, but it also has its downfalls like being away from loved ones.

"You try to deal with it and not think 'Oh, I'm away from family. This sucks.' You keep your mind off it." Sopczak kept in contact with his family "usually through e-mail and sometimes a call, but it was hard (to call) because of the ten hour difference."

Now that he is home, he has been spending time with his family who live here in Mountain Home. "I knew I'd get real busy because everyone wants to see you, and there's not much time for yourself," he said. He plans on staying local for the next week, and then he is heading to Ohio to visit more family.

He said he would like to go back to Iraq, but "I would like to go somewhere else. Go somewhere that is busier. It's slow for air traffic purposes there (Kirkuk)."

His advice to others deploying is "to get prepared, and most likely you'll know someone already there, so get in contact with them to get more information about what to bring and what not to bring."