In a wartime environment like Iraq, much destruction occurs in mopping up operations, but Dresden veteran 2nd Lt. Joe Cowing had the privilege of literally building things up during a 16-month tour of duty.
The reason? In the U.S. Army National Guard for 20 years, in 2004 Cowing served in the 133rd Engineering Batallion in Mosul located in the northern part of Iraq in Kurdish territory where as a carpenter/mason/electrician he helped build schools, clinics, and barracks for military personnel.
Every day he had his piece (gun) with him during his construction work ready for any interruption. “You were a soldier first, and your job was second.”
Working daily for 12 hours then waking up for four hours of guard duty made the mission a 24/7 occupation. “It was interesting, but you never let your guard down,” he said.
An employee of Bath Iron Works currently, he comes from a long line of military men, including his father Joe, who served 36 years in the U.S. Air Force in Korea and his grandfather, who served during World War I. That alone represents 100 years in service to their country.
When Cowing went on duty in 2004, he was 46 years old, so facing the rigors of daily military action became a bit of stretch. He went from the extreme of 60 degree below zero Fahrenheit weather at Camp Drum, N.Y. at first with active duty training at Camp Drum, to 145-degree Fahrenheit temperature in Iraq.
As a veteran of the Iraq situation, he looks back on the whole experience as an adventure – although an extremely challenging one – and regards it as an opportunity to help the Iraqi people, support their military and help the United States military by building a 12 by 20-foot building with cement roofs to be able to withstand a mortar attack.
The unit also built desks; many troopers brought laptops, which they could use to email people after setting up a satellite network. They set up bunks for the military and made dividers to afford some privacy and hung up pictures of their family members to have a place they could call home.
His unit also set up military showers and for Iraqi people, they built facilities during their tour.
“Their barracks were way different from ours, much lower standards to keep going,” he said.
He said people’s expressions would light up when things were done for them.
“The Iraqi people were generally very grateful for what we did,” he said.
His relationships with both civilians and Iraqi military went well, but the children especially took to him and the other troops. On a regular basis, they would give them notebooks, pencils, and candy.
“The youngsters seem to have more of an open mind,” he said. “Hopefully down the line, the generations to come will be more accepting of us.”
He recalled the time when he had to go on a convoy to military headquarters set up in one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces during which vigilance was not an option.
“It was interesting, but you never let your guard down,” he said.
Going through heavy traffic in Mosul posed a particular danger, since insurgents could be firing at them at any time from rooftops, for which he and his unit had to constantly be on guard along the route.
The convoy would have to weave in and out when going under an overpass for fear of someone dropping a grenade in the rear of the trucks.
“After six months of it, it becomes ingrained,” he said.
Following eight months of intense deployment, Cowing received a two-week leave to go home to be with his wife, Kelley, his son, Joshua, now age 10, and daughter, Madison, now 17. He returned to the same region when the two-weeks were up to finish his tour of duty in Iraq.
“Those two weeks felt like two days once back,” he said.
Once again for the remainder of his stay, he had to quickly get back into the intense routine where working as a team became a matter of survival.
“They were like your brothers,” he said. “They would guard your backside and you’d guard theirs.”
The day in, day out strain helped to fashion his unit into a team that worked flawlessly together. “You have to learn all this by practice,” he said. “There’s no thinking about it because you get that survival instinct.”
While in Mosul, the troops had to be ready at a moment’s notice to get undercover in the concrete buildings with cement roofs and wait until an all-clear signal. Then there were times when a “controlled blast” signal would go off, and troops would blow up ammunition they uncovered.
“The windows would vibrate and shake,” he said.
Now at age 50 after his tour of active duty, Cowing has settled into a more quiet existence in his homestead on Bog Road in Dresden with his family and work at Bath Iron Works. However, memories of his time in war torn Iraq remain vivid as he relates his personal experience there helping to rebuild the country.