By: Janice Kortkamp

Date: November 27, 2017

“Jan, as long as I live, I’ll never forget this place.” The words of a fellow activist and traveler during our four days in Deir Ezzor province last month.

I knew exactly what he meant. Now that all the ISIS command centers are vanquished and their back broken, I’ll to try to describe that experience better; I didn’t want to jinx anything before. When we were there, ISIS was still present in about 40% of the city and in much of the surrounding countryside. The battle for securing the entirety of the city wasn’t finished until a few weeks later. Al Mayadeen, 45 minutes or so by car to the south, had just been liberated two weeks before but they were still facing the difficult one of Al Bukamal even further down the Euphrates River.

I spent a lot of time looking into people’s eyes and at their faces. The Syrian, Hezbollah, Iranian, Russian soldiers … all those fighting men were weathered, some faces like wrinkled leather. Many people of the region have fair skin but almost all there were dark from the sun and harsh extremes of the desert. Even the youngest soldiers had old man eyes.

The people too were weathered and aged before their time. Even after being there and getting a short glimpse of their lives it is impossible to imagine what they’ve seen and experienced.

All this made smiles seem miraculous. As I would try to catch people’s eyes and offer them one, so often I was rewarded with a face transformed into a most welcoming greeting.

Many of the battles saw casualty rates of 70% or more, not all, but enough to make it clear that being sent to fight in Deir Ezzor was too often a one-way trip but still they fought. I think often of a particular soldier at the checkpoint outside al Mayadeen with bright blue eyes and nice semi-flirtatious smile when he saw ladies visiting. The little outpost seemed so vulnerable – I hope he’s still alive. I hope they all are but I’ll never know.

While the great majority of people there were thankful to be liberated from the ISIS monsters’ rule, some are brainwashed by that death-cult ideology so there was some nightmarish treachery. Kids would go to checkpoints around the city and they’d get food from the soldiers but some of them were sent to spy out those positions and report back … and the same soldiers who just helped them would get attacked. As in any war and especially on battle fronts like that one, men sometimes sought pleasure with prostitutes whose services could be had for about $4. But a few whores were working for ISIS either by force or by choice and their services were alluring traps to get soldiers killed or captured.

We stopped at the local liquor store to get a few beers, water, etc. To add to the parallel-world, frontier feel of the place, there were many bottles on the shelves that looked like Johnny Walker whiskey, and other famous brands, but closer examination of the labels gave us a chuckle. It wasn’t Red or Black Label, but “Red Liquid” and “Black Liquid”. And no, we didn’t even try the stuff!

We were usually accompanied by a pickup truck with soldiers and their AK-47s and some of us got to ride with them in the back on one excursion. It felt like we were going 100 miles an hour (was probably closer to 40) flying down the road, choked with dust sometimes, hair all over the place realizing this was how they got around everyday. You see soldiers traveling around in all kinds of ways: on motorcycles and scooters, in trucks of course but also on top, a continuous ebb and flow of motion in uniform.

The three women were in one house and the four men in one across the street. We were staying in very nice homes that reminded me of those where I grew up in the Arizona desert.
Both were lovely but ours was nicer 😉 and had running water. No electricity of course but our wonderful, kind, gracious host – a local doctor – would turn on the generator so we could recharge batteries and have light in the evenings. There was no cell phone coverage or internet.

I would wake up usually around 3am to the sound of close artillery – big BOOMS and a few jets. I’d go out on the little balcony off my room wrapped in a blanket with a few cans of delicious coffee, and listen to the sounds of neighborhood roosters competing with those of the Syrians and allies kicking ISIS’ butt, silently cheering them on.

The video is really just audio – it’s black except for a glimpse of my feet! But I wanted to share those sounds with you even though i didn’t catch any of the loudest ones.

It’s just 3am now, sitting at the computer in quiet, safe Virginia. My body is here but my mind this morning is back in Deir Ezzor.

As long as I live, I will never forget that place … the people, and especially the soldiers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTatApQoIXM&feature=youtu.be