Author's notes about these
Military Support Cigar Chronicles

While not necessarily beating the drum for the cigar industry, it is a reality that smoking cigars is one of the few pastimes permitted soldiers in Iraq. Under Coalition command policy - General Order #1 - troops are forbidden to consume alcoholic beverages, and, it goes without saying, illegal drug use is prohibited and thankfully minimal. Partially as a consequence, most all soldiers either smoke cigarettes or cigars or use smokeless tobacco products. Of the three I personally consider cigars the most benign.
        
There is camaraderie among military people - even when old-timers like me interact with the younger generation - that transcends age, race, sex, or time served. Cigar smoking in Iraq played a large part in renewing that spirit for me and in building bridges across generations.
        
So I'm offering for your enjoyment a few stories from my too-brief time spent with the soldiers and thereby hope to give you a brief glimpse into life with the military police in Baghdad and beyond.

— Gordon Cucullu

Lieutenant Colonel (Chaplain)
Peter Baktis at "He Brews Cafe,"
Camp Liberty, Iraq. Click the photo
to read "Coffee with the MP Brigade
at 'He Brews' Cafe."

Staff Sergeant Ronald
"Doc" Cardey, another Joe's
Cafe regular. Click the photos
to read "After the Patrol -
Conversations at Joe's Cafe."

In the aftermath of an insurgent rocket attack, soldiers at the 18th MP Brigade befriended this wounded seagull. Click the photo to read the article "A Seagull Named Rocket."

A Gift to the Troops from the St. Jorge Tobacco shop

A week or so prior to leaving my home in St. Augustine, Florida to make the flight to Kuwait and hence to Baghdad, I dropped by my local tobacconists, "Ticker" and Diane Gurr, owners of St. Jorge Tobacco, located in a small strip mall on Route A1A south just off Highway 312. Entering their shop the first thing that hits is the warmth of the smell. The olfactory blend of exotic tobaccos from the Americas and around the world invites the visitor to come in and look around.

Over in the far right corner a TV is on, surrounded by a small ensemble of leather chairs and a dark-wood coffee table holding a huge ashtray and the latest issues of Cigar Aficionado magazine. To the immediate left, Diane usually is handling sales while Ticker roams continually, assessing stocks, arranging displays, preparing orders, and chatting up customers. They have been at this for decades, having moved their original store from Downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island several years ago.

I have been a patron of St. Jorge Tobacco since I caught the cigar bug from Admiral Harry Harris, former commander of the Joint Task Force in Guantanamo, who introduced me to cigars and spent quality time with me sharing his collection and his wisdom. Over three years I spent weeks at Guantanamo conducting research for a book on the detention facility. On several occasions Harry and I visited and delved into military history, current issues, and possible outcomes over several excellent cigars.

Today though, my mission was different. I was on the way to Iraq to interview and visit with soldiers.

As a child I had been raised with the dictum that visitors always bring a gift. After some thought, it seemed to me that the best gift would be cigars to share with the soldiers. So I headed off to St. Jorge.

I loaded up on smokes, selecting primarily Quorum cigars, an inexpensive but very good quality, hand-rolled Nicaraguan product. I got them in all shapes and sizes, stacking them out by the box or bundle.

When Diane started ringing up the order, she was a bit surprised. I had put 100 or more cigars on the counter. "This is a larger amount that you usually buy," she noted. I replied that yes, it was more, actually many more, and that I needed them because I was headed to Iraq to get material for a book and wanted to bring some cigars to share with soldiers.

Diane stopped on a dime. "You're going to Iraq? Take these for the guys," she said, tossing a handful of cigars into the pile. Walking over to the wall where specialty products hang from racks, she pulled down a large, flat, rectangular plastic zip-lock container.

"Do you have a traveling humidor?" she asked. Uh, no, I answered. "Here take this with you. You'll be surprised at how much fresher it will keep your cigars. Particularly in the desert." Diane showed me how to use it. "Keep it closed, zipped up tight, and press the air out."

Ticker approached us and Diane informed him of my destination and purpose. "He's writing a book on the soldiers in Iraq and is taking these cigars over to share with them." Wordlessly, Ticker glanced at what I was buying, went into the humidor display and grabbed a couple more bundles of Quorums that he dropped into the pile.

"Take these to them from us," he said. "Make sure to tell them how much we appreciate what they're doing for us," Ticker said. "For all of us."

"Tell them not to pay attention to what they hear on the news," Diane added. "We love those kids and we're behind them 100 percent!"

I thanked them for their generosity and promised them that I'd make sure the cigars found a good home. Later when I packed up for the embed, I was mildly worried that Kuwaiti customs officials might think I was smuggling cigars. What a stack!

By the time I made my way down to 18th MP Brigade and its subordinate units, I found that the cigars were a welcomed item by all the soldiers. It was an informal tradition in many units to hang out in the evenings and smoke a cigar, usually accompanied by a non-alcoholic beer (alcoholic drinks are prohibited to U.S. troops in Iraq). For many of them, smoking a cigar is the only real break they get.

It made me feel good to be able to haul a plastic bag of stogies out to the respective lounge areas and pass them around: the veranda of Saddam's palace overlooking his huge artificial lake complex with the 18th, the screened porch off LTC John Bogdan's quarters at the 95th, behind the TOC at the 716th, or at Joe's Cafe up in Camp Streicher with the 728th.

"Here," I would say, "have a cigar or two on me, and from my pals Tinker and Diane at St. Jorge Tobacco in St. Augustine."

It was a good feeling to see soldiers relax with a smoke after an exhausting day in the field. I sensed their gratitude for the cigars, sure, but even more was pleased that they knew that friends they might never meet back home cared enough for them to send them a gift of thanks and love.

— Gordon Cucullu

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