Guardsmen from Nevada reflect on duty at Abu Ghraib

In a dusty caravan of Humvees and 21Ú2-ton trucks, the 72nd Military Police Company set out from Baghdad International Airport in the early hours of May 24, 2003.

Their mission: to secure the notorious Abu Ghraib prison for an onslaught of prisoners expected to arrive within days.

For the next five months, the soldiers would convert the abandoned, trash-filled complex, a monument of atrocities under Saddam Hussein, into livable cells.

"We worked extremely hard," 1st Sgt. Daryl Keithley said in an interview after returning to Nevada. "Of that, our company walked away very proud."

It would only be later, after the 72nd left Baghdad and word of abuses at Abu Ghraib prompted international outrage, that the Nevada Guardsmen would begin to wonder what they had accomplished.

When the 117 soldiers of the 72nd first arrived at the sprawling prison, they saw only ruins. Garbage filled the prison yard, pipes lay exposed and entire walls were blown out. Human feces, syringes and animal remains littered the grounds.

"It reeked of death," said Spc. Doug Fry, a 26-year-old security supervisor from Las Vegas.

Everything of value had been taken by looters after Saddam released his prisoners just before the start of the war. Since then, the grounds had been used as a dump.

"It far exceeded my worst expectations," said Keithley, a 43-year-old Las Vegas police detective.

As the prisoners arrived, the soldiers heard stories about the history of Abu Ghraib. They were told of some 3,000 prisoners being executed in a single day. They saw the death chamber and the fingernail marks etched into the prison walls.

Some of the U.S. soldiers felt a certain obligation to the Iraqis, Keithley said: "We wanted to show ... that we weren't going to treat (them) like Saddam did."

The gutted buildings were so forbidding that prisoners were housed in a makeshift, wire-and-tent holding area in the prison yard. Guardsmen dug a trench for a communal bathroom and put up pieces of cardboard for privacy.

When the camp ran out of water, soldiers were ordered to hand over theirs to prisoners. When detainees arrived barefoot, soldiers searched the prison grounds for discarded shoes.

But the reception was not always warm. Nights were filled with mortar fire at the prison, which sits in the middle of the so-called Sunni Triangle, home to Saddam's most fervent supporters.

"It was hard to figure out whether people wanted us there or not," said Capt. Troy Armstrong, commander of the 72nd. "One day they're smiling at us. The next day they are throwing rocks at us."

In September, a mortar round landed inside a tent. Two military intelligence officers were killed and 13 soldiers were wounded in the attack.

As the summer of 2003 ended, thousands more prisoners arrived, including "security" detainees - those suspected of insurgent attacks - and members of Saddam's Fedayeen militia.

Armstrong said his soldiers "covered the rules of war" under the Geneva Conventions.

But the 72nd was no longer alone at Abu Ghraib. By mid-October, about 600 soldiers from three military police companies and two military intelligence units were guarding 6,000 to 7,000 prisoners.

A report by the International Red Cross cited abuses as early as October in the "hard site" for security detainees, controlled by military intelligence units.

In June, one prisoner had been shot and killed after he tried to throw a sharp tent pole at a soldier during a prison riot. The incident prompted Spc. Donna Menesini to berate her fellow soldiers.

"I had never seen bodies," said Menesini, 49, of Yerington, Neb. "It was really hard."

But Army officials said no member of the 72nd has been investigated for abuse, and the soldiers said they could not imagine mistreating prisoners.

Keithley said he asked members of a military intelligence unit to stop sleep deprivation techniques in which soldiers banged cans to wake prisoners. He said he was concerned people might think prisoners were being tortured.

When the 72nd completed its mission in November, air conditioning units were going in. Prisoners were allowed to play volleyball and soccer in the prison yard, and a tent had been set up for family visits.

"It was unbelievable the difference," Keithley said. "You had the right and proper things for the prisoners."

The photographs of U.S. soldiers humiliating nude Iraqi prisoners were first broadcast around the world in late April, prompting outrage among Muslims and world leaders and calls for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign.

Seven soldiers from the 372nd Military Police Company - the unit that replaced the 72nd at Abu Ghraib - have been charged with abuse.

Spc. Michael Roe, a 27-year-old student and security guard from Henderson, Nev., said it is difficult to understand how a fellow soldier could treat prisoners in such a humiliating way.

"There were some instances where you could say ... (prisoners) were mistreated because we did not have adequate supplies to care for them," Roe said. But "when it came down to prisoner interaction, I can stand fast knowing that my company never did anything like that."

Although the 72nd has not been implicated in the scandal, some have felt the weight of suspicion. The unit came home with 10 Purple Hearts, but many feel their legacy has been tarnished.

"You can't walk around and tell people about all the good things you did at this prison," Armstrong said. The scandal is "all that's ever going to be remembered."