This is day three of our embed in Sadr City, writes Fox News correspondent David Mac Dougall in Sadr City.
I woke up at 4am to the sound of a soldier talking on the radio right next to my cot.
He kept calling for one of his colleagues.
Somewhere in the Joint Security Station (JSS) there are soldiers awake at all times of the day and night. After a few days we've come to understand the rhythm of the building: soldiers waking and sleeping, going on missions, preparing their body armour and weapons, the guard shift change, and peak times for getting food which is stored in boxes at the end of the hallway where we're sleeping.
After a few very long workdays, we decided to stay at our make-shift office today. The office space consists of out storage boxes on the floors, with the computers balanced on top. We've snaked the cables out a broken window up to the roof of the building so we can set up the mini-satellite and get on the internet.
'War On Smoking' Launched
The trooper running the JSS on the American side is 1st Sergeant Don Knapp. Since we've been here, he's achieved an important victory - stopping the Iraqi police and civilians chain-smoking on this floor of the building. They try to hide the cigarette smoke with incense but 1SG Knapp can smell a burning ember at 50 paces, and he makes them stop.
The soldiers tell me when they first arrived at the JSS, the hallway was thick with smoke. 1SG Knapp has made a big improvement in the air quality - and it's no small miracle to get Iraqis to obey the "no smoking" signs.
1SG Knapp isn't here today. He's gone to a large base in Taji, about 15 miles away. In theory, soldiers should get a 48-hour chance to take a shower, clean up, do some laundry, and enjoy a decent meal every 31 days - they call it a "refit". Don Knapp went about 23 days without showering. He's become an expert at using baby wipes. The crew and I are using baby wipes too. Lots of them. And we're running low on supplies! SFC Knapp promised to try and bring some back for us.
Tomorrow is another busy day. Cameraman Michael Pohl and I plan to go out on patrol again with troopers from the 82 nd Airborne (to be precise, we're embedded with Bravo Troop, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division).
We're hoping to interview some Iraqi security personnel who are part of the big Baghdad security plan here in Sadr City to get their perspective.
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