Interview with American Soldier Michael Chechele

In January of 2005, I had the honor of interviewing Michael Chechele, a local soldier who served a year overseas in Iraq. He was nice enough to invite me into his home and answer a couple of questions for me.

1. What was your main job overseas in Iraq?
Michael: I worked in the S2 section-I found information on all and any enemy activity, plotted it on map for situations within the last 24 hours.

2. Where are you stationed at?
Michael: I was stationed at Camp Slayer, which is located in Baghdad, next to the Baghdad Airport.

3. What were the living conditions like in Iraq?
Michael: We lived in stone houses with marble floors. There was also an Old Republican guard building there. There was also a long lake, air conditioning and there was good mess hall(cafeteria).

4. What was the hottest temperature? The coldest?
Michael: The hottest temperature while I was there was 118 degrees and the coldest temperature was between 70 and 80 degrees.

5. What time did your day actually start?
Michael: My day usually started at 6 a.m. and ended around 4 p.m. depending on how the day goes.

6. What were conditions in Iraq like before you left in the end of Feb/beginning of March 2005?
Michael: When I left Iraq, attacks slowed down and there were less missions.

7. Did you have any other jobs other than being a worken in the S2 section?
Michael: When i was in Camp Cropper, I was put on guard duty. I was also a vehicle escort. A vehicle escort is someone who sits in incoming vehicles and makes sure that they aren’t sneaking anything on to the base.

8. Was there a favorite part of the day for you in Iraq?
Michael: When I was in Camp Slayer my favorite part was the karaoke, and when I was in Camp Cropper, my favorite park was the internet cafe.

9. What kind of food did they have to eat over in Iraq?
Michael: They had good food because they would have a certain night for a certain type of food. One night was steak, another night would be meatloaf and so on. The mess hall was decent sized and was run by civilians. The mess hall was run by a company called Kellogg Brown.

10. What did you like the most and the least about the living conditions in Iraq?
Michael: What I liked the most about these living conditios were the kids, and the camaraderie, and the things I liked the least were being in the combat zone(potential of getting hit) was the physical thing I disliked, and the emotional thing that I disliked the most was attending Sherwood Baker’s Memorial.

Note:Michael also told me that their was no plumbing in the camps that he was staying at so there were water trucks that would come through the camp everyday delivering water to every building.

In regards to Sgt. Sherwood Baker, the local Arena Football team, The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers all last season were accepting donations for the entire Baker family.