Peace-Keeper is home from Iraq (From Gazette Series)

Peace-Keeper is home from Iraq

BLANCHWORTH father-of-three Major Nick Sparks returned home in November after a four-month mission to Iraq. An army reservist, Major Sparks, 40, was one of 5,000 extra troops deployed to the Middle East in July to act as a peace-keeping force. Speaking to Gazette reporter JULIA CAUSTON, Major Sparks described the utter destruction he witnessed in the war-torn country.

IT was 50 degrees Centigrade in the shade when Major Nick Sparks arrived in the Basra province of Iraq. All seemed relatively quiet on arrival but he would discover over the next four months things could only get hotter.

This is the first time in his 20-year Territorial Army career that Major Sparks, of the Bath-based 21st Signal Regiment, has been called up for action

"When we first arrived in Iraq it was relatively quiet," he said. "But things seemed to deteriorate quickly into riots.

"The whole country is broken and the Basra province, which was largely abandoned by the regime in the late 1980s. is a criss-cross of abandoned trench lines littered with left-over gun emplacements."

Major Sparks said he witnessed great poverty in the district.

He said much of the looting that had taken place was a reflection of bad feeling towards the former government.

"The people felt like they wanted to get something from the government. In one hospital all the beds had been taken. People did not seem to realise that a hospital was only worth having it has things in it."

Major Sparks said there were times when soldiers felt threatened.

"It was varied," he said. "In some places people were friendly, other times there were crowds of some 200 people throwing stones. But regardless of the strength of feeling, you never went anywhere unarmed. It was quiet lively - there were times where mobs were burning tyres and you have to deal with situations like that."

Major Sparks said soldiers eventually get use to facing danger on a daily basis.

"You are always mindful of the threat and are alert to it," he explained. "But you can't afford to worry about it all the time - you would never get anything done.

"We were careful not to be too predictable, not to have a pattern of movement."

He also had to endure the harsh conditions of the Iraqi summer, which meant returning to his home in Gloucestershire in winter has been a bit of shock.

"It was very hot in Iraq," he said. "It reached the high 50s in the shade and in the sun into the high 60s. When you are sitting in a Landrover for the whole day it did get very uncomfortable. As night it cooled don to around 30 degrees, which was more bearable.

"I am slowly getting used to the cold again. It felt very cold for the first few days."

Major Sparks said despite the cold he was very pleased to be home with his wife, Sarah, and three children.

"I think it was much more difficult for my family," he said. "We were quite busy and in an unfamiliar environment so it kept our minds off home."

Major Sparks said he felt the Iraqi people had had a hard time during Saddam Hussein's regime.

"At the end of the day the Iraqis are just people," he said. "They have been given a pretty bad deal for the last 25-30 years of Saddam's reign. It is very difficult to get over that two generations have grown up in this culture of suspicion.

"The police never acted like police. For example, in a burglary there was no investigation, the police waited to be told who to collect and what to do with them - be it hold, torture or kill.

"There were instances of people informing on their neighbours and throughout all this the Iraqis still had to try and make a life for themselves and their families."

As a civilian, Major Sparks works for British Telecom and will be returning to his job in January, having completed debriefings for the army.

"I am working for the army until today, after which I have a period of leave to readjust before things return to normal," he said.