Day of Fun, Food and Independence

It was so hot you almost didn’t need a grill to barbecue, not to mention being dusty and glaring and all that more unpleasant for being far from loved ones.

Yet U.S. soldiers in Iraq on Sunday made the most of what for many was a light day of work on Independence Day: shopping at the PX, lifting weights and running on treadmills, lining up for ice cream. (One burly G.I. was sighted curled up on a vinyl chair watching “Finding Nemo” on a flat-screen TV.)

Morale officers laid on special events such as volleyball, basketball and video game tournaments. A rendition of Atlanta’s Peachtree Road Race drew more than 100 runners, who gathered at 5:30 a.m., when the temperature was still down around 80, for a 10-kilometer race that took them past a former palace of Saddam Hussein, complete with two man-made lakes.

Contract cooks from KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, made sure steaks, burgers and hot dogs were plentiful at their air-conditioned chow halls. At least one cherry pie with a red-white-and-blue frosted crust was spotted.

But for the Army’s 1st Armored Division, which has seen 15 months of continuous duty in Iraq, longer than any other military unit, this Independence Day took on special meaning. These soldiers were getting ready for a 3-month-overdue ride home.

The morning began with a “casing of the colors” ceremony overseen by division commander Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey. The rolling up of his task force’s flags marked the official end of its mission to provide security in and around Baghdad -- and, more recently, to lead the battle against Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr’s Al Mahdi militia in Karbala and Najaf.

The tank division, which was formed a year before the U.S. entry into World War II and known as “Old Ironsides,” was in the midst of packing up to return to its base in Germany in April. But the outbreak of parallel uprisings in Fallouja and Najaf created an emergency for the already stretched forces here, and the Pentagon delayed the exit.

At the departure ceremony, held in the shadow of a vast Iraqi hangar, Dempsey recalled the more than 100 troops from his division who have died in the war, and the more than 1,000 who have suffered serious wounds.

“We have learned a lot about the price of freedom,” he said. “We learned that people experiencing freedom for the first time may not understand how fragile it can be and how much sacrifice may be required to earn it and preserve it.”

Quoting Thomas Jefferson, he reminded the assembled troops that the “tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and of tyrants.”

“We did our duty, nothing more, and certainly nothing less,” he concluded. “Well done, Iron soldiers.”

One of the tank officers going home, Lt. Col. Randy Lane, originally from a suburb of Cincinnati, was watching his troops make final checks of Abrams tanks loaded onto the back of flatbed trucks for the 24-hour drive to Kuwait.

“I feel pretty good about it,” Lane said, looking forward to joining his wife and children in Germany. “It’s Independence Day for the country and independence day for us -- that’s a double blessing in one day.”