[A-List] Iraq: the development of underdevelopment

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Gun nests become golf bunkers in Mosul
IAN BRUCE
The Herald, September 25 2003

IN the midst of chaos and insurrection, the soldiers of the US 101st
"Screaming Eagles" airborne division have built themselves a six-hole
golf-course in the desert outside the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The course, believed to be the only one in the country, is open to off-duty
soldiers of all ranks in the sector just above the deadly "Sunni Triangle"
in which the majority of ambushes of coalition forces have taken place since
May.

It began as a personal recreational project by Lieutenant Jesse White of the
division's 426th forward support battalion and was initially 150 yards long
with just one hole. It has since been extended to six, par-three holes
ranging from 50 to 250 yards in length.

The club, nicknamed "Mosul South", is on the edge of Quayyarah West
airfield.

A country club in the Signal Mountains of Tennessee has donated two dozen
golf clubs and hundreds of balls, scrounged by Lt White's father, a member
at the US course.

A US army spokesman said: "It's a great diversion, but I don't think they'll
be staging the Open here for a few years yet. The bunkers here used to have
machine-guns in them."