(Published in Facsimilation Magazine 2004)

Back From Iraq: The Phillips Debriefing

by
Diana Grove

On the eve of September 11th, 2004, I had the good fortune to interview my friend, Kenny Phillips, a musician from Oklahoma City who had just returned from playing keyboards on a 3-week long U.S.O. tour in Iraq, Bosnia, and Kuwait. Kenny is no stranger to playing over seas during war time. In 1975 he played with Tennessee Ernie Ford in Russia under the Brezhnev administration. However, in Iraq, this tour of duty was anything but cold. It involved live mortar fire, dead soldiers, and a first hand look at Saddam Hussein's rein of terror. As we sat sipping cocktails in the ornate bar of the Mayflower Park Hotel in Seattle, I turned on my camera and he told me his story - a story that was as surprising as it was thought provoking.

DG "Jesus Kenny, you must be exhausted from flying half-way across the world…and then to Seattle. "

KP "Nah… I'm used to it by now."

DG "Ok, let's hear about this trip of yours, playing keyboards for the U.S.O. tour, wow…how did that come about?"

KP "Well, a friend of mine from Oklahoma City who often plays for the military needed a spare keyboard player, and he asked me."

DG "Did anyone from the government ask you any security questions before you left home?"

KP "No, not really. Actually, it was an M.W.R tour, which stands for 'morale, welfare and recreation' - it's an off shoot of the U.S.O. Before I left I had to sign a series of documents saying it was ok if I go over there and they kill me in the name of the government. I mean, it's the same deal all the soldiers sign...because basically you're walking into a war zone."

DG "Did anyone tell you where you were going to be stationed?"

KP "I knew the general areas we were going into: Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq. But we didn't have a really well defined program as far as dates and times - that was kind of confidential. You know, in case someone wanted to fuck up the U.S.O tour and kill Americans, or turn it into a hostage situation."

DG "Ok, so you flew from Oklahoma City…"

KP "…Oklahoma City to Detroit, then from Amsterdam to Kuwait City. That's where we started."

DG "Your band, 'Key West', was essentially a Jimmy Buffet cover band right? How many times did you have to play 'Magaritaville'?"

KP "Well…at least once a night. But the music wasn't the deal, those guys didn't care what we played. To them, it was just wonderful to have us there. In fact, more than half of the time I didn't even have my own keyboard. The airlines and baggage people in Sarajevo and Kosovo suck. They lost all my stuff. So when we were playing in Iraq, I had to go around to all the soldiers and ask if anybody had a spare keyboard. I was playing on shitty Casios most of the tour. But they didn't care, they loved us. They treated us like the Beatles."

DG "It's weird a soldier would be able to bring a keyboard to war. I mean imagine that checklist: gun, helmet, fatigues… piano.

KP "Yeah, I know, but they had 'em."

DG "You say the Bosnian airlines sucked - does that mean the country is still pretty messed up from the war?"

KP "Yeah, there are still peace keeping forces in Bosnia, but in my opinion, those bases are like Boy Scout camps. In the multinational camps, they had bars after 6 p.m. and dancing girls, and to me that was all very sleazy. I mean, after being in Baghdad, in places where American soldiers are getting blown up, and then seeing soldiers who are also getting hazardous duty pay in Sarajevo and Kosovo - it just didn't feel right, because those guys haven't been shot at in a long time. But soon, they're going to pull out all those American boys and send them to Iraq.

DG "Yeah, they seem to be running short. So you say you started in Kuwait City, what's that like right now?"

KP "Well, there were Sultans walking around the airport wearing these long, white robes and everyone drives a BMW or better...basically in Kuwait, everyone's rich. We were stationed at a camp at the Port of Kuwait, which is protecting the whole entryway into the Mid-East. We played next to these huge oil tankers and storage tanks."

DG "Were you able to get photos of any of this stuff?"

KP "Oh, I got photos of everything. There's really nothing going on in Kuwait right now, but there's still a huge U.S. military presence. There are thousands of soldiers stationed there and I have hundreds of photos. The soldiers gave me a disc of jpegs filled with photos of the war, including some with dead Iraqis and burned children…really horrible, intense stuff."

DG "Jesus, isn't that a security breach, handing out stuff like that to a civilian?"

KP "No way, it is what it is - it's fucking war. Besides, I had GS 14 clearance, and…they liked me."

DG "When you went to the various bases, where did you stay?"

KP "We stayed in tents, barracks and bunkers. Sometimes all eight of us would be in one room. There were six of us playing, all from Oklahoma City, and we had a road manager. And we always had a military escort, so that made eight. It was his job to make sure we didn't get killed. Then we went camp to camp."

DG "After Kuwait City where did you go?"

KP "Well, in Kuwait City they issued us our body armor, our helmets and basically all of our armament products. Then they palletized our musical instruments and we went up on a C5 Galaxy, and from there we went to Baghdad. We found out we were traveling in the same plane that Toby Keith and Ted Nugent took on the last U.S.O tour, but those guys didn't go to the forward places like we did - the really dangerous places with mortar fire. And apparently Nugent was alone playing acoustic guitar, and he was none too comfortable playing 'Cat Scratch Fever' unplugged."

DG "What's Baghdad like, is it total chaos?"

KP "Baghdad was obviously a war zone, so it was a total black out. We landed on a black runway with no lights anywhere. If you wanted to see anything, you had to use your flashlight. Then they brought Hummers on the flight line to pick us up and we stayed at one of Hussein's palaces."

DG "You're kidding?"

KP "No, it was all spread out with beautiful architecture - everything was marble. Everything was over the top ornate, he spent a fortune. We stayed there one night, then we went to his main governmental building. There, the soldiers and watch commander took us in to meet the base commander for the whole NATO operations. He gave me a special coin on it with nine points and 11 points commemorating 9-11."

DG "Do you think the troops see a connection between the 9-11 terrorist attacks and the fight in Iraq?"

KP "Politically, that's what the government seems to be pushing."

DG "What else happened at the palace?"

KP "You know when you see Hussein sitting on that huge gold chair - a throne really - we all posed for pictures in that chair."

DG "Wow, it must have been like sitting in Letterman's chair, huh?" 

                              

DG "Ok, maybe it was slightly different…"

KP "Oh, when you're over there, you can really see the effect of his control and influence on the country. But everything's shot to shit. There are bullet holes, mortar holes and tank rounds everywhere - total destruction."

DG "Are there people trying to do business? I mean, are there civilians walking around Baghdad trying to carry on normally?"

KP "It's a total dichotomy, really. You'll see someone come by in a Jaguar in a Sultan's outfit, then you'll see an old woman pushing a wooden cart down the street full of hay."

DG "Did you ever feel you were in danger?"

KP "We played in some very forward bases, these are the places where everyone's dying. From Baghdad, we put on all of our body armor and flew around to various bases in Blackhawk helicopters. There were three Blackhawks everywhere we went. They always traveled in groups of three because they've determined that's the best way to get around and not get shot. They've got guns sticking out both sides, and apparently they've found if they fly low enough and fast enough, which in our case was about 70 feet off the ground at about 160 M.P.H., no one can hear them coming. Or by the time they do, they're already gone. So no one can launch an RPG and shoot 'em down."

DG "It must have been pretty terrifying?"

KP "Not at all, it was a real gas. I videotaped the whole thing from the air. And the pilots were doing evasive maneuvers…"

DG "Oh you mean serpentine!"

KP "Yeah, underneath the power lines…it was cool."

DG "How large were the crowds of soldiers you were performing for?"

KP "Oh, anywhere from 20 to 300. And probably the most appreciative crowds were in the most forward bases, like outside of Tikrit. We were in bases that were so forward, you had to wear full body armor when you left the bunker. They had a bunker that the soldiers had taken their own money to build and there was a little stage in the corner. No band had ever played there before. And we found that most of the places we went - the forward positions - no one had ever come to entertain. So let's just say those guys were thrilled to have us there."

DG "Was there any other kind of entertainment for them?"

KP "In the rec hall there was a place where they could check out VHS and DVDs. And the guys could go on their laptops and email their families back home, because there were no phones."

DG "Were you able to talk to the soldiers at all?"

KP "Oh we talked to a lot of them, all the time. In fact, a big part of our job was to talk to them after the show. We talked, took pictures with them…we hung out."

DG "Did the soldier's tell you any stories?"

KP "Yeah…but I really don't want to talk about that. There was some shit that was really personal…I don't know, just some heartbreaking shit.

DG "I believe it…"

KP "…I mean one night we played at one of the really forward bases, and we played on what was once, I think, a tennis court, and everything around it was all shelled out and blown up, and it was a total blackout. The soldiers were all sitting on makeshift benches with flashlights, and since we couldn't turn on any lights, they pulled up two trucks to our stage area and pointed their headlights on us. In the background you could see flashes of incoming mortar- the Iraqis launching fucking mortars into the camp area. And there were some guys we had met earlier, soldiers, who didn't make it back that night. They died…they didn't come back"

DG "Jesus. How was morale?"

KP "Um…morale was good. I mean the guys are there following orders. They're rock solid, they know their jobs. The men and women of the U.S. military are the shit. They are unbelievably well trained and all the equipment is state of the art. I have a lot of respect for those guys. And I think most of the Americans there really believe they're on a good mission - a peacekeeping mission to free the Iraqi people. I mean…it's called Operation Iraqi Freedom. "

DG "Do they have any idea how long they're going to be there?"

KP "They're just there for the duration, they don't know."

DG "Were you able to relax and have a drink at all?"

KP "No, no, there was no liquor on base. And I observed that, I didn't drink for a couple of weeks. Afterwards, we got two days off in Amsterdam and I partied my ass off."

DG "You mentioned to me earlier that going to Iraq changed your life."

KP "Yeah, I mean, I thought I knew what was going on over there…I had a lot of crack pot ideas."

DG "Like what?"

KP "Um…well, I went through three different emotions, thinking we should be there, we shouldn't be there, we should be there. But the stories the locals told about Hussein, I mean you hear the stuff on the news, but when you actually hear if first hand, it's just fucking horrible."

DG "What were some of those things?"

KP "Uh, well for instance, I'll show you a picture of this blown up soccer stadium that we played in (outside of Tikrit). There, I just felt this vibe of fucking evil. It used to be a world-class stadium and now it's just blown to shit…."

KP "…I told my drummer I thought the place had a vibe like they used to kill Christians there, you know, with lions or something. Then we heard a story from the chaplain that Hussein had gone there after he had come to power to watch a soccer game, and when the home team- his hometown- lost the game, he went out and picked out the guys who he thought had caused the team to lose, and he killed the guys - in front of an entire stadium full of people. Then we found out they used to hold public hangings there…right in the infield.- whoever Hussein felt had to die that week. We heard hundreds of stories like that."

DG "Christ…unbelievable."

KP "Yeah, really sick shit. That's when I started thinking, maybe it's right for us to be there and have some effect on the mass genocide. But then I got to be around some of the locals, and I realized that they hate us. Everyone there hates us - they don't want us there. While we're there, they'll take our money, but they really just want to kill us."

DG "Well, we currently have over 1,000 dead, but their toll is much higher. I mean, so far, America has killed about 20,000 Iraqis. That's probably why they hate us."

KP "Well, I don't know about those statistics, but I don't think the United States soldiers went in there and killed anybody they didn't need to kill. That's not what those guys do."

DG "Ok, what do they do?"

KP "What they do is hunker down in their bunkers and when they go out on patrol, they wait for someone to shoot at 'em, and when the bad guys shoot at 'em, they shoot back."

DG "But who are the bad guys?"

KP "The insurgents."

DG "But why are we over there, what's our goal?"

KP "The goal of the U.S. military is the occupation of Iraq. It's just their job. They're doing their job."

DG "Yeah, but it's an occupation for what, I don't understand what their job is?"

KP "Look, they were just sent there…and we all know why. They were sent there to fulfill the fucking Bush prophecy."

DG "Which is what?"

KP "To go after Hussein."

DG "But they got him! I mean after Hitler was out of the picture and WWII was over, there were zero deaths."

KP "Ok look…here's the other side of it. There are insurgents in there that are not going to allow America, or anyone else, to establish any kind of security in that country, and they're going to do that from now on. And our guys are over there taking hits, one pop at a time. Someone is taking local Iraqi guys, you know, guys who are praising Allah , and handing them RPGs saying, 'if you hit that American tank I'll give you $500, and if you die, I'll give the $500 to your family.'"

DG "But what's wrong with that? Wouldn't you do the same if some foreign power tried to take over Oklahoma City?"

KP (Shrugs) "They want to discredit America's ability to sustain democracy in the Mid-East."

DG "But why do we want democracy in Iraq, for what gain?"

KP "Because this is America's opportunity to establish democracy, just to show that we can…."

DG "Oh come on, that's bullshit! "

KP "Look….it's all part of the big plan. You see…there's oil. And the Iraqis don't care about that oil. What they care about is the sand, and their mosques, and their traditional garb. All the things they do, and have done for thousands of years - that's what they care about. They don't give a fuck about the oil. They never saw the income from that oil. You see, Hussein never spread the wealth."

DG "So you think it's more of an imperialist maneuver on our part? I mean, if you look at it that way, it's a lot like what England did in the 17th century, or what Napoleon did to gain power and wealth and secure the stability of France. It all fell apart after a while, but it seems like that's what we're doing - marching into Iraq to steal their oil. And whether it's right or wrong is relative. It all depends on how you look at it, right?"

KP "I'm not saying whether it's right or wrong. All I'm saying is that's how it is. The Iraqis think were not a peacekeeping force. But we think we're doing a good thing."

DG "What do you think?"

KP "I don't know, after being there, I really don't know what to think anymore. It just breaks my heart."

DG "So are you saying you might be for the war?"

KP "I'm not saying I'm for the war…I'm for the troops."

DG "Well of course, we're all for the troops…"

KP "…Yeah, but anyone who says the troops are a bunch of reservists, or are just there to get free college tuition are wrong. Those people are rock solid. Those people are doing their jobs in adverse conditions that you can't imagine. When I first got there it was hot, about 125 degrees, and the soldiers were all wearing body armor - helmets and long sleeve shirts - going out on patrol. And that was a mild day in Iraq, later it was 135. That's how much you pre-heat the oven to make biscuits! When the sun went down, it was still 132. Americans just aren't made for that kind of heat, I mean fuck you Death Valley, it doesn't even compare to the Mid-East! But the people who live there are made for it. Everywhere you look you see these people wearing long, black robes, completely covered up. That's because there are sand fleas that will eat your ass up, camel spiders that will kill you…shit out in the desert that will just…get you. I didn't know about any of this before I left home. Some of the soldiers told me about these camel spiders, they apparently inject an anesthetic into your skin…they're huge - as big as your hand. You don't feel them eating into your flesh…but they do, right to the bone!"

DG "Christ almighty! Did you get any kind of inoculations before you went over?"

KP "No, but I should have. Everyone got sick except me. But we ate well - all the soldiers are eating well. These guys walk into the mess hall with their M16s locked, loaded and ready to go. There were mortar rounds coming in all the time. In one of the bunkers, where we slept, we were woken up by mortar rounds coming in…"

DG "Did anyone in your band start to loose it due to stress?"

KP "No, not really. We're just a bunch of musicians, we're used to shit conditions."

DG "Did you get any kind of pay?"

KP "It was like…mediocre money. No one in the band did it to get paid."

DG "Did you have any preconceived notions of what it would be like before you went over?"

KP "Well, I just thought I'd be playing for a bunch of guys who were living in the lap of luxury, cruising around in these really highly-automated, well-protected environments or something. And it wasn't like that at all. They're getting their shit blown up! "

DG "Was there any talk amongst the soldiers about the Bush administration or the upcoming elections or anything?"

KP "No, no one talks about that. No one criticizes the president or the government. It's just not said. A lot of the guys were talking about Michael Moore's new movie, but they didn't really comment on it either way."

DG "Ok, so tell me, over all…what do you think this whole Iraq thing boils down to anyway?"

KP "Well… here's the thing, I think maybe I've figured it out. You're gonna think I've been smoking crack, but I think the reason we're there - the reason Americans are over there fighting and dying - is because all these fat, happy bastards in America and Europe and Canada, and all the first world countries live off the oil, wherever we acquire it. Right now, men and women are fighting in Iraq to maintain that son-of-a-bitch in that T-Bird over there (waves out the window). And until all of these Americans are ready to buck up and pay $8 a gallon; we won't have to send people to die in Iraq! That's what it's all about. I don't think Bush is necessarily wrong, I'm not even sure Halliburton is wrong. It's about keeping all of these people (waves at the bar crowd) driving their cars! And I'm one of 'em! We're all one of 'em. And as much as I hate Bush and the Texas oil interest, I don't hate 'em as much as I used to. Because it's not just them, it's the whole American people. "

DG "Yeah, and it's not just cars either. Oil is necessary for highways, power plants and plastics too."

KP "Right. But in Iraq, you see these people walking along with some kind of an animal - and guess what that is - it's their entire livelihood. You drive past these majestic buildings, and out in the desert you see shanties. There are no power poles, there's no water - the locals live in that shanty - and their very happy. They've been doing it for thousands of years. And it just breaks my heart that our men and women are over there dealing with that, all wide eyed and optimistic, thinking their doing the right thing. And it's a world where there is no right and wrong. They'll try to give a hand out to an Iraqi woman who's dressed up in robes, and she's got a weapon. See, they don't know who the bad guy is."

DG "You admire what the soldiers are doing over there, but how would you feel about a draft in the next administration?"

KP "I'd send my kids to Canada. There's a difference between a draft and a volunteer army. The guys that are in the military now are proud to be there. They enlisted, they're getting paid well, they do their job well - and they get great benefits."

DG "What about when they come back?"

KP "When they come back…they're all fucked up. Just like Vietnam. They're damaged, they've lost their job and they have a hard time fitting back into society. Gimme a break, I'm not saying it's all good…America sucks!"

DG "So overall, are you glad you risked life and limb to go over there?"

KP "Oh yeah, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. It changed my life. Basically, it resolved my feelings about Vietnam. See I was a protestor, I burned flags and blew up shit with the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). I wasn't over in Vietnam, but a lot of my friends were…and they were killed. But with this tour, I really feel like I helped those guys. And do I think this war is wrong? I really don't know. All I know is that those guys, the fighting men and women of the U.S. military, are…the shit. "