Another day another...something. I dunno. Everyone's on edge lately due to the year coming to a close. We've packed our connex, which means we have one duffle bag, one rucksack and one assault pack worth of stuff left. Everything else is going to be mailed or thrown away. Missions are long and laborious, mostly hoping nothing happens. And then complaining because nothing did. A weird combination of just wanting to go home and the type A personality screaming to the surface and missing the fight.
I had a few days rest at the US Embassy in Baghdad recently. I had to go there for a court case. One of the guys we picked up came up for trial, so myself and another Soldier got to go hang out at the Embassy. Weird place the Embassy. A false reality, really. If not for the fact that there's barriers everywhere, you might not know you're in a war zone. We felt strange for the simple fact we were carrying M-4s. And a big deal was made about walking through the "red zone" to get to the courthouse...which is right next door to FOB Prosperity (where I started this year out).
So the court case. Very strange experience. You meet with your lawyer the day before and discuss your testimony. On the day of the trial, you meet in a little room with a couple couches and some chairs. The judge sits behind a desk with a person that writes down what the judge tells him to. The interpreter swears you and you give your testimony. In short sentences. While the detainee sits next to you. A few questions get asked to clarify things and that's it. The detainee's lawyer THEN comes in and the detainee gives his testimony (yeah...his lawyer isn't there when you talk.). And the outcome? Can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 9 months. Of course, he's already been sitting in jail for almost 3 months. Being as he's there for attacking coalition forces, emplacing IEDs, threatening locals for working with the Americans, and stealing houses by force...he can wait.
Guess a shorter than normal blog. Just not much to report. We're getting our things ready and waiting for the next unit so we can get out of here. Whenever that might be.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Monday, November 19, 2007
Grinding down
Wow. It's been so long. I apologize first off. Bit of reasoning for it, partially do to laziness. Otherwise to do to conditions out at a COP. Also, it's really quiet lately and there's not too much to write about. No complaints about quiet.
Well, we endured yet another mission change (number 6) as we were attached to our Charlie Company. That meant we got to go live out at their Combat Outpost (COP). Basically a few local's houses that we took over and have built up. Our mission there was to patrol another neighborhood...right as we had begun to make really good progress in our old one of course (we had gotten in good with several sources, detained a few bad guys...then whoosh. New AO). In addition to that, we were tasked with security for the COP. As far as that went, we made quite a few improvements to the towers at the place. Added some bulletproof windows and more camo netting. Nothing mentioned to us about that, of course.
The new neighborhood was a bit more harsh than what we were used to. More IEDs mostly. We found one fairly small one during the changeover patrol (where C Co guys came out with us to show us the neighborhood). No real damage to the truck it hit. The guys in the truck wanted to do it again...some people are just crazy, though.
A few days later we found another one (27 Sept). Went off behind my truck and right in front of the one behind me. Thankfully set off early. It was a fire extinguisher full of HME surrounded by around 6 mortar shells. Thankfully little damage to the truck and the guys in it, outside of some wide eyes and painful eardrums. Afterwards, though, we set up to look around for the wires to the IED and try to figure out where it was set off from. We went to talk to a family down the street (a girl had run from our convoy as soon as we turned the corner...good chance she knew what was about to happen). We got a lame excuse from the family about sending the girl to the market (not that she was anywhere near nor heading towards it among other things). Not too long after we began our interrogation, we heard another boom. A hand grenade had been thrown at one our trucks (mine as it turned out). Me and the guys with me go running back towards the explosion, all while my trucks are shooting at rooftops and suspected positions. We get to the corner (we were set up in an "L" on a T intersection) and see my driver in a heap next to my truck. Not moving. Not good. First thoughts were that I had just lost a guy. We closed in and see that he's concious. If you're breathing, you're generally going to be ok on today's battlefield. And he was breathing.
O'Hara (my driver) had been pulling security to the south for my gunner who was facing east. Still not sure why he was on the south side of the trucking doing this, but he won't make that mistake again I'm sure...or let anyone else. The grenade hit off the cage on top of the turret and landed at his feet. He had the priviledge of watching it come off the roof and hit the humvee. I assume not moving much do to being in awe of what was happening. He ended up with shrapnel wounds to his abdomen (the blast went under his armor), legs, arms. Thankfully missed the most important part by 1/4 inch. He also ended up having about a foot of intestine taken out. He's back in CO doing well, though. Slowly recovering and I'm sure eating more Tabasco right now than he should be (he darn drank the stuff and always carried a bottle with him).
The rest of the time with C Co went fairly smooth. We did a few raids that ended up as nothing. We stayed away from any more IEDs. And generally enjoyed the looser attitudes there.
We're back with Delta again. Nice being back in our old neighborhood. We're doing a lot of work right now with the CO, taking him around to set up local militias. Same concept used out in Ramadi, hopefully it'll work here, too. Ramadi used to be the worst place in Iraq, now one of the safest.
So our "extension" (past the normal 12mo) started mid October. Since then, we've lost two Soldiers. One from A Co and one from D Co. From A Co, we lost SSG Fontenot. My platoon took him pretty hard. We were attached to A Co for the first few months and everybody generally loved the guy. He did a lot of good things helpin our platoon get incorporated into A Co and was just a really good guy. From D Co we lost PFC Iwasinski. He was attached to our platoon for a couple weeks. Also went to basic with a couple guys in the platoon. Needless to say that one was hard for them. We've had an eery trend, though. There's been a scarily high number of guys that were attached to our platoon...that won't be coming home or were injured badly. They all loved serving with us, but it's seemed to be vex on them.
Well...the title's "Grinding Down". We're closing in on less than a month to go before we head home. To say the least, the guys, as well as myself, are ready for it. We've headed past the "wow, this is fun" stage and are fully into the "let's go home" stage of things. Every mission now brings us very close to that, and every time we hand out paperwork related to going home boosts morale. They know it's just one less obstacle they have to do to get out of here.
If you made it this far, I posted a few new pictures. It's a pain to do so there aren't many. But there are two new photos of myself as well as four of my guys doing a cache search. Found nothing as usual. But it was a nice walk in date palm orchard.
Well, we endured yet another mission change (number 6) as we were attached to our Charlie Company. That meant we got to go live out at their Combat Outpost (COP). Basically a few local's houses that we took over and have built up. Our mission there was to patrol another neighborhood...right as we had begun to make really good progress in our old one of course (we had gotten in good with several sources, detained a few bad guys...then whoosh. New AO). In addition to that, we were tasked with security for the COP. As far as that went, we made quite a few improvements to the towers at the place. Added some bulletproof windows and more camo netting. Nothing mentioned to us about that, of course.
The new neighborhood was a bit more harsh than what we were used to. More IEDs mostly. We found one fairly small one during the changeover patrol (where C Co guys came out with us to show us the neighborhood). No real damage to the truck it hit. The guys in the truck wanted to do it again...some people are just crazy, though.
A few days later we found another one (27 Sept). Went off behind my truck and right in front of the one behind me. Thankfully set off early. It was a fire extinguisher full of HME surrounded by around 6 mortar shells. Thankfully little damage to the truck and the guys in it, outside of some wide eyes and painful eardrums. Afterwards, though, we set up to look around for the wires to the IED and try to figure out where it was set off from. We went to talk to a family down the street (a girl had run from our convoy as soon as we turned the corner...good chance she knew what was about to happen). We got a lame excuse from the family about sending the girl to the market (not that she was anywhere near nor heading towards it among other things). Not too long after we began our interrogation, we heard another boom. A hand grenade had been thrown at one our trucks (mine as it turned out). Me and the guys with me go running back towards the explosion, all while my trucks are shooting at rooftops and suspected positions. We get to the corner (we were set up in an "L" on a T intersection) and see my driver in a heap next to my truck. Not moving. Not good. First thoughts were that I had just lost a guy. We closed in and see that he's concious. If you're breathing, you're generally going to be ok on today's battlefield. And he was breathing.
O'Hara (my driver) had been pulling security to the south for my gunner who was facing east. Still not sure why he was on the south side of the trucking doing this, but he won't make that mistake again I'm sure...or let anyone else. The grenade hit off the cage on top of the turret and landed at his feet. He had the priviledge of watching it come off the roof and hit the humvee. I assume not moving much do to being in awe of what was happening. He ended up with shrapnel wounds to his abdomen (the blast went under his armor), legs, arms. Thankfully missed the most important part by 1/4 inch. He also ended up having about a foot of intestine taken out. He's back in CO doing well, though. Slowly recovering and I'm sure eating more Tabasco right now than he should be (he darn drank the stuff and always carried a bottle with him).
The rest of the time with C Co went fairly smooth. We did a few raids that ended up as nothing. We stayed away from any more IEDs. And generally enjoyed the looser attitudes there.
We're back with Delta again. Nice being back in our old neighborhood. We're doing a lot of work right now with the CO, taking him around to set up local militias. Same concept used out in Ramadi, hopefully it'll work here, too. Ramadi used to be the worst place in Iraq, now one of the safest.
So our "extension" (past the normal 12mo) started mid October. Since then, we've lost two Soldiers. One from A Co and one from D Co. From A Co, we lost SSG Fontenot. My platoon took him pretty hard. We were attached to A Co for the first few months and everybody generally loved the guy. He did a lot of good things helpin our platoon get incorporated into A Co and was just a really good guy. From D Co we lost PFC Iwasinski. He was attached to our platoon for a couple weeks. Also went to basic with a couple guys in the platoon. Needless to say that one was hard for them. We've had an eery trend, though. There's been a scarily high number of guys that were attached to our platoon...that won't be coming home or were injured badly. They all loved serving with us, but it's seemed to be vex on them.
Well...the title's "Grinding Down". We're closing in on less than a month to go before we head home. To say the least, the guys, as well as myself, are ready for it. We've headed past the "wow, this is fun" stage and are fully into the "let's go home" stage of things. Every mission now brings us very close to that, and every time we hand out paperwork related to going home boosts morale. They know it's just one less obstacle they have to do to get out of here.
If you made it this far, I posted a few new pictures. It's a pain to do so there aren't many. But there are two new photos of myself as well as four of my guys doing a cache search. Found nothing as usual. But it was a nice walk in date palm orchard.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Long time no type...
Wow, it's been a while since I put anything down here. Right now the mind's flooded with things to write. I guess I forget that what's inane or boring to me can be quite interesting to others. The repetiveness of the job here gets to you, but it's a type of boring I'm sure is hard for most to grasp. We've gotten to where we hear gunshots and shrug our shoulders...there was no crack or whiz, so why worry about it? Hear an explosion and think, "Wow, that was a big one...glad it wasn't us". I guess one would call that battlefield awareness. It's good to a point. It also breeds complacency. Complacency can lead to loss of life. So that creates a constant struggle of having to step back and remind yourself that yes, you ARE in a war zone still. I realized this the other night as I was walking from the bathroom back to my room. At night, with normal sounds of night (sans explosions, paladin launches or helicopters taking off), it's hard to think you're in a war zone. Peaceful. Quiet. Clear skies full of stars. You look around and mostly forget where you are...then the paladin fires. No mistaking it at that point.
The last month has been somewhat interesting I suppose. Not too bad for our platoon, almost tragic for our company. We've been extremely lucky as a company so far and really hope it continues. We had a few IEDs go off, a couple on my platoon. We lost one truck with no injuries but a concussion to the gunner (whose gun slammed into his head...a .50cal no less). Another platoon was attacked by an anti-tank grenade in my neighborhood. The grenade failed to detonate, bounced off the truck. They apprehended the guy who threw it, briefly. While they were waiting on EOD to come take care of the unexploded grenade and questioning the guy, they got attacked with a sniper. One round fired. Two guys hit. First guy got it in the head. Didn't penetrate his helmet, bounced off and into another guy's shoulder. Grenade thrower got away in the "chaos" that ensued. Just say...that platoon hasn't been under fire very often, so their reaction might not have been the best, and they let the bad guy get away.
Missions. What have we been doing? Right. Driving around. A lot. That doesn't seem to change. We did conduct the census on our mulhalla (neighborhood...see...now you know Arabic). That was productive. It got us to visit an area in our mulhalla we had never been because it's so hard to get to. Good visits and some interesting people there. Very poor section, though. And that's saying a lot in a country where the average salary is $1000. Per year. Now don't you feel better about your pay?
Things in our area are...shall we say...interesting right now. We're experiencing an influx of bad guys. Not so much involving direct attacks on us for the time being, but more terrorizing the populace kind of bad guys. It has a lot to do with the way things are going south of us. The "great wall of doura" is doing exactly what we thought it would, canalized the bad guys and forced them to flee. So they're coming to us. I equate what we're seeing to the mob, though. You have a handful of wanna be bad asses. They have what they have through use of force and terror on the people. They do a lot of telling the people they'll kill them if they talk to the Americans. They're watching them...listening to their phone calls (absurd I know...but an uneducated and scared populace falls for this). To prove a point, they recently killed 2 residents of our mulhalla. Right next to the mosque. One was a 17yo kid who ran a falafel stand. The other was the kid's 34yo brother who ran a store across the street. The bad guys had come by early in the day and told the locals they would be back to kill someone. No one called us. They came back, walked up the street with pistols in hand and shot the two guys in the head and left. Unfortunately, we can't be there 24hrs a day. The frustrating thing on our end was that the people did nothing. A large percentage of people have AKs there. But they did nothing. Either too scared or didn't care enough to help their fellow neighbors. So two men die.
The next day the insurgents returned. They shot and killed another man. This one from another mulhalla. We were called to pick up the body because no one knew the guy and were afraid he might be rigged with a bomb.
But sometimes it takes the deaths of others to infuriate some. Because of these actions, people are starting to open up. I assume they figure they'll be killd regardless, so why not give information that might capture/kill the bad guys? We've been geting more and more tips from locals. This is both good and bad. Good because we start having names to look for. Bad because we don't have pictures of these guys. You ask for descriptions, guess what they look like. About 5'8", brown skin, black hair, thin. Yeah. No kidding. Along with every guy we see every day in Iraq. But at least it's a step in the right direction. It's taken six months to get much out of these people, so we'll take whatever we can at this point. It encourages one of the missions I so hate, but know are necessary. The "block party". The get out and talk to the locals in their homes. Yay. Those that know me, know I don't like small talk. I'll expound for days on football. I'll engage in a political debate on the evils of liberals and big government. Want to talk about computers, weight lifting or Jeeps? Bring it on. But idle chit chat? Not so much. Being the quiet one that I am, it makes for some quick trips into homes as we stumble through trying to get a conversation started using a translator. Awkward to say the least. After a few "How ya doin?" and inferences to how they feel about how things are going, it's either over or they feel like going on about all the bad guys they've seen. And offer chai. Chai is always a good thing. Small glass of really sweet hot tea. Lipton. I was shocked, too.
But I digress. Overall things are going well and despite the influx of bad guys, getting better. Will take the overall quiet, but hopefully have good things to report with the next update. Hopefully a few less bad guys on the street among other things.
The last month has been somewhat interesting I suppose. Not too bad for our platoon, almost tragic for our company. We've been extremely lucky as a company so far and really hope it continues. We had a few IEDs go off, a couple on my platoon. We lost one truck with no injuries but a concussion to the gunner (whose gun slammed into his head...a .50cal no less). Another platoon was attacked by an anti-tank grenade in my neighborhood. The grenade failed to detonate, bounced off the truck. They apprehended the guy who threw it, briefly. While they were waiting on EOD to come take care of the unexploded grenade and questioning the guy, they got attacked with a sniper. One round fired. Two guys hit. First guy got it in the head. Didn't penetrate his helmet, bounced off and into another guy's shoulder. Grenade thrower got away in the "chaos" that ensued. Just say...that platoon hasn't been under fire very often, so their reaction might not have been the best, and they let the bad guy get away.
Missions. What have we been doing? Right. Driving around. A lot. That doesn't seem to change. We did conduct the census on our mulhalla (neighborhood...see...now you know Arabic). That was productive. It got us to visit an area in our mulhalla we had never been because it's so hard to get to. Good visits and some interesting people there. Very poor section, though. And that's saying a lot in a country where the average salary is $1000. Per year. Now don't you feel better about your pay?
Things in our area are...shall we say...interesting right now. We're experiencing an influx of bad guys. Not so much involving direct attacks on us for the time being, but more terrorizing the populace kind of bad guys. It has a lot to do with the way things are going south of us. The "great wall of doura" is doing exactly what we thought it would, canalized the bad guys and forced them to flee. So they're coming to us. I equate what we're seeing to the mob, though. You have a handful of wanna be bad asses. They have what they have through use of force and terror on the people. They do a lot of telling the people they'll kill them if they talk to the Americans. They're watching them...listening to their phone calls (absurd I know...but an uneducated and scared populace falls for this). To prove a point, they recently killed 2 residents of our mulhalla. Right next to the mosque. One was a 17yo kid who ran a falafel stand. The other was the kid's 34yo brother who ran a store across the street. The bad guys had come by early in the day and told the locals they would be back to kill someone. No one called us. They came back, walked up the street with pistols in hand and shot the two guys in the head and left. Unfortunately, we can't be there 24hrs a day. The frustrating thing on our end was that the people did nothing. A large percentage of people have AKs there. But they did nothing. Either too scared or didn't care enough to help their fellow neighbors. So two men die.
The next day the insurgents returned. They shot and killed another man. This one from another mulhalla. We were called to pick up the body because no one knew the guy and were afraid he might be rigged with a bomb.
But sometimes it takes the deaths of others to infuriate some. Because of these actions, people are starting to open up. I assume they figure they'll be killd regardless, so why not give information that might capture/kill the bad guys? We've been geting more and more tips from locals. This is both good and bad. Good because we start having names to look for. Bad because we don't have pictures of these guys. You ask for descriptions, guess what they look like. About 5'8", brown skin, black hair, thin. Yeah. No kidding. Along with every guy we see every day in Iraq. But at least it's a step in the right direction. It's taken six months to get much out of these people, so we'll take whatever we can at this point. It encourages one of the missions I so hate, but know are necessary. The "block party". The get out and talk to the locals in their homes. Yay. Those that know me, know I don't like small talk. I'll expound for days on football. I'll engage in a political debate on the evils of liberals and big government. Want to talk about computers, weight lifting or Jeeps? Bring it on. But idle chit chat? Not so much. Being the quiet one that I am, it makes for some quick trips into homes as we stumble through trying to get a conversation started using a translator. Awkward to say the least. After a few "How ya doin?" and inferences to how they feel about how things are going, it's either over or they feel like going on about all the bad guys they've seen. And offer chai. Chai is always a good thing. Small glass of really sweet hot tea. Lipton. I was shocked, too.
But I digress. Overall things are going well and despite the influx of bad guys, getting better. Will take the overall quiet, but hopefully have good things to report with the next update. Hopefully a few less bad guys on the street among other things.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Summer heat and hot insurgents...
As the summer goes on, the heat seems to go up. As the heat goes up, so does the insurgent activity. Rather strange...we want to work less as it gets hotter, these guys seem to want to do more. That or they're just more pissed off than normal due to the unbearable heat. We're starting to reach into the 120's on a daily basis now. As we move into August...that'll start reaching the 130's. I can't begin to explain how hot that is.
My main area of operations is right next to the National Police station. This happens to be a high profile target for insurgents...more so of late. That being the case, it means we're having plenty of shooting to run to. Most of the time, they've already scared the bad guys off. Others, we show up, fire a couple bursts and the bad guys run off. It's impossible to pursue them due to barriers on the neighborhoods, and if your gunner doesn't hit with the first burst, the fight's usually over. So we end up with several short, high intensity engagements a week of late. It gets frustrating to say the least.
Add in the frustration of lying locals. Their constant complaint is of the National Police check point randomly firing into their neighborhood. The NPs don't randomly shoot...they might get a bit excessive when they do shoot, but it's usually not random. So we keep asking the locals...who's shooting from their neighborhood. Of course, everyone's innocent, knows nothing or sees nothing. Do we have proof they shoot? Yeah...while moving to the latest engagement at the checkpoint, two rounds hit in front of my truck. Only place they could have come from was in the neighborhood. Unless the NPs have magical bullets that go over walls and through houses to seek out humvees.
Our NPs did lose someone recently. They were obviously upset, but it hit my guys as well. It was one of the NPs that we interacted with quite a bit, had traded items with and even given a CIB (which is a high honor for an infantryman...but for them, more so to get it from us). I was more upset that my platoon wasn't out at the time to help them out, especially after hearing how the unit on the ground did next to nothing as far as returning fire or helping the NPs with casualties.
Lastly, but definitely not least, my CO found an EFP recently. Everyone made it out ok, the truck was done, though. They had one minor that will be return to duty soon and another that's already back on missions. EFPs are one of the few things we're actually scared of here. Old technology, but tough to do technology. They're generally imported from Iran in some shape or form. Thankfully this one was aimed a little off. The EFP was followed by small arms fire, which made for quite a bit of fun on our part. Not sure the insurgents enjoyed it...but we dropped nearly 10,000 rounds, 3 AT-4s, and then had a pair of Bradleys join in with their main gun. The target house basically disappeared. Can't say we got confirmed kills..but per normal for us, the bad guys learned they really don't want to mess with our trucks. Most convoys will drive through, shoot a few rounds and get out of the area...not us. We fire them up and maneuver if can...
About all for now. Another days ends for me here as I write this. Another day closer to going home. The rest of the heat to contend with before the home stretch of holidays draws us closer to Carson.
My main area of operations is right next to the National Police station. This happens to be a high profile target for insurgents...more so of late. That being the case, it means we're having plenty of shooting to run to. Most of the time, they've already scared the bad guys off. Others, we show up, fire a couple bursts and the bad guys run off. It's impossible to pursue them due to barriers on the neighborhoods, and if your gunner doesn't hit with the first burst, the fight's usually over. So we end up with several short, high intensity engagements a week of late. It gets frustrating to say the least.
Add in the frustration of lying locals. Their constant complaint is of the National Police check point randomly firing into their neighborhood. The NPs don't randomly shoot...they might get a bit excessive when they do shoot, but it's usually not random. So we keep asking the locals...who's shooting from their neighborhood. Of course, everyone's innocent, knows nothing or sees nothing. Do we have proof they shoot? Yeah...while moving to the latest engagement at the checkpoint, two rounds hit in front of my truck. Only place they could have come from was in the neighborhood. Unless the NPs have magical bullets that go over walls and through houses to seek out humvees.
Our NPs did lose someone recently. They were obviously upset, but it hit my guys as well. It was one of the NPs that we interacted with quite a bit, had traded items with and even given a CIB (which is a high honor for an infantryman...but for them, more so to get it from us). I was more upset that my platoon wasn't out at the time to help them out, especially after hearing how the unit on the ground did next to nothing as far as returning fire or helping the NPs with casualties.
Lastly, but definitely not least, my CO found an EFP recently. Everyone made it out ok, the truck was done, though. They had one minor that will be return to duty soon and another that's already back on missions. EFPs are one of the few things we're actually scared of here. Old technology, but tough to do technology. They're generally imported from Iran in some shape or form. Thankfully this one was aimed a little off. The EFP was followed by small arms fire, which made for quite a bit of fun on our part. Not sure the insurgents enjoyed it...but we dropped nearly 10,000 rounds, 3 AT-4s, and then had a pair of Bradleys join in with their main gun. The target house basically disappeared. Can't say we got confirmed kills..but per normal for us, the bad guys learned they really don't want to mess with our trucks. Most convoys will drive through, shoot a few rounds and get out of the area...not us. We fire them up and maneuver if can...
About all for now. Another days ends for me here as I write this. Another day closer to going home. The rest of the heat to contend with before the home stretch of holidays draws us closer to Carson.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Never a dull moment...
Almost. The majority of our time here is spent driving around. We'll stop, talk to some people and generally listen to the same gripes and concerns over and over again. "My power doesn't work" "I don't have propane" "The NPs at the gas station shot my gas can" blah blah blah. Sometimes their concerns are real. Most of the time they're full of it and have their own agenda towards things. So most of the time we give them the always insightful "We'll look into it".
Sometimes we get to play actual infantrymen. Around the beginning of the month, we were visiting the NPs at the local station...listening their gripes and moans (theirs are generally actually relevant and meaningful). While we I was talking to them, their checkpoint outside the gate started taking fire from a building not far away. 2-3 guys with AKs on the third floor. NPs did what NPs do. They started spraying back with their AKs and PKCs (belt fed machinegun...). Meantime, we mounted up in our humvees and rolled out to see what we could do.
What we could do was get on line outside the building and unleash 2 .50cals and 2 M240s. That along with a couple guys dismounted firing their rifles and another that had dismounted as we left the gate firing his SAW made for some very unhappy insurgents.
During a semi lull in the shooting, I dismounted the rest of us and we headed to the building. Luck being what it is...bad guys along with NPs started shooting again. So we had the priviledge of approaching a building with bullets coming from both directions. When we got the building, I called back and got my terp to stop the NPs from shooting. We pushed on and opened the doors on the front of the building. Both sets of doors came up dry...no stairs. We went around the corner of the building and spotted a cooler on the ground. Thinking it might be a bomb and not wanting to find the hard way...we shot it. A lot. No boom so we drove on. Only other door on the bottom and still no stairs.
We cleared the house behind the building and went on the roof. Too high. And only place we could move to was impossible with all that we wear. We moved back and got the NPs, hoping they would be more mobile. Not so much. Still no roof access. All the while, we could hear things sliding around and weapons being worked up above us. The windows were barred...so not much chance of a grenade (plus it was a little ways up there to throw one ;)).
As we moved back down and were questioning some of the neighbors, our SAW gunner opened up again. The street had cleared off and he opened up on the guy that was shooing everyone away. We pursued and cleared several more houses. Kinda slow going with everything we wear, though.
The next day, we went back to the building. We borrowed a ladder from a local and made an entrance up the front of the building. Inside we found plenty of shell casings, bullet holes galore (had to be hell having .50cal cracking next to em :)), and blood stains near some of the windows, two bloody backprints on one of the walls and as we made it to the stairwell...arterial spurts on the wall. So no confirmed kills...but they were definitely hurting bad. There was also a dish of tar, probably used to plug wounds. The scene had also been cleaned up quite a bit. When we got downstairs, we found out why we couldn't get in...they had bricked the wall up. So new plan...we take fire from there again...an AT-4 (rocket launcher) gets used on the wall.
So of course we do take fire from there again a couple days later...on my day off. Obviously I was upset...but the guys did breach the building with an AT-4 and clear it. Bad guys weren't in there anymore...but it was cool nonetheless. They also ended up killing two guys in a field not far away that were trying to flee with AKs.
Couple that with today's brief firefight on our way home as we stopped to help out some NPs, a small IED, a couple anti-tank grenades (from Iran) thrown at our convoy and it's been a fairly busy couple weeks for our platoon.
As always...remember our brothers to our south, though. A sister company got hit pretty hard. 5 KIA and several wounded in one attack. A complex ambush initiated by a deep buried IED. We're definitely taking our lumps as a Battalion...I've been to more memorial ceremonies than I care to, but we're also making a lot of progress. We've captured some top guys and generally disrupted the enemy pretty well. We're also making strides in getting basic services back online and updating some schools in the area. So it's not all for nothing...
Sometimes we get to play actual infantrymen. Around the beginning of the month, we were visiting the NPs at the local station...listening their gripes and moans (theirs are generally actually relevant and meaningful). While we I was talking to them, their checkpoint outside the gate started taking fire from a building not far away. 2-3 guys with AKs on the third floor. NPs did what NPs do. They started spraying back with their AKs and PKCs (belt fed machinegun...). Meantime, we mounted up in our humvees and rolled out to see what we could do.
What we could do was get on line outside the building and unleash 2 .50cals and 2 M240s. That along with a couple guys dismounted firing their rifles and another that had dismounted as we left the gate firing his SAW made for some very unhappy insurgents.
During a semi lull in the shooting, I dismounted the rest of us and we headed to the building. Luck being what it is...bad guys along with NPs started shooting again. So we had the priviledge of approaching a building with bullets coming from both directions. When we got the building, I called back and got my terp to stop the NPs from shooting. We pushed on and opened the doors on the front of the building. Both sets of doors came up dry...no stairs. We went around the corner of the building and spotted a cooler on the ground. Thinking it might be a bomb and not wanting to find the hard way...we shot it. A lot. No boom so we drove on. Only other door on the bottom and still no stairs.
We cleared the house behind the building and went on the roof. Too high. And only place we could move to was impossible with all that we wear. We moved back and got the NPs, hoping they would be more mobile. Not so much. Still no roof access. All the while, we could hear things sliding around and weapons being worked up above us. The windows were barred...so not much chance of a grenade (plus it was a little ways up there to throw one ;)).
As we moved back down and were questioning some of the neighbors, our SAW gunner opened up again. The street had cleared off and he opened up on the guy that was shooing everyone away. We pursued and cleared several more houses. Kinda slow going with everything we wear, though.
The next day, we went back to the building. We borrowed a ladder from a local and made an entrance up the front of the building. Inside we found plenty of shell casings, bullet holes galore (had to be hell having .50cal cracking next to em :)), and blood stains near some of the windows, two bloody backprints on one of the walls and as we made it to the stairwell...arterial spurts on the wall. So no confirmed kills...but they were definitely hurting bad. There was also a dish of tar, probably used to plug wounds. The scene had also been cleaned up quite a bit. When we got downstairs, we found out why we couldn't get in...they had bricked the wall up. So new plan...we take fire from there again...an AT-4 (rocket launcher) gets used on the wall.
So of course we do take fire from there again a couple days later...on my day off. Obviously I was upset...but the guys did breach the building with an AT-4 and clear it. Bad guys weren't in there anymore...but it was cool nonetheless. They also ended up killing two guys in a field not far away that were trying to flee with AKs.
Couple that with today's brief firefight on our way home as we stopped to help out some NPs, a small IED, a couple anti-tank grenades (from Iran) thrown at our convoy and it's been a fairly busy couple weeks for our platoon.
As always...remember our brothers to our south, though. A sister company got hit pretty hard. 5 KIA and several wounded in one attack. A complex ambush initiated by a deep buried IED. We're definitely taking our lumps as a Battalion...I've been to more memorial ceremonies than I care to, but we're also making a lot of progress. We've captured some top guys and generally disrupted the enemy pretty well. We're also making strides in getting basic services back online and updating some schools in the area. So it's not all for nothing...
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Back to a new mission...but some things never change...
So I did make it back from R & R. Sadly, they did make me come back. Home was great. Good times with the wife while we were in CO, good times with the rest of the family in GA.
I got back to a new area, new mission. Still a quiet area, though. Just north of the Market we were in not long ago. Fair amount of Christians in our area and you can generally tell where they live. Their houses are cleaner, they dress a little different, yards are nicer. But they're also leaving the country do to threats. So far we've had two reporters in (LA Times and AP) to look into a story about that. I had the wonderful priviledge of escorting them both around.
What's happened since I've been back on these new and wonderful missions? Well...we've been taking a census of the area, sorta like we do in the US, but here we include a full search of the house, weapon's serial numbers and fingerprint/picture of all military age males. Census days are long, hot days. With temps in the 115 range, even short walks aren't any fun.
Days we don't do census, we do normal patrols. Normal is generally driving around the neighborhoods. Basically we're police officers. We stop and talk to people a little bit. Sometimes we'll put in overwatch positions.
One of the times, while we were putting in the overwatch position (at a highly undesireable, but ordered time of the day...), we took fire from across the road. Most people would be upset by this. Not necessarily the case for us. It gave us an opportunity to 1. Shoot. 2. Maneuver. Bascially what we're trained for.
The OP took fire and returned fire. I went up to observe, see what we could see. The bad guys had already fled. So I took the guys down, reorganized and decided to place them in there anyway. At the range we were being shot at, I felt good about trying to pull them back out into an exchange rather than worry about the fact the position had been compromised. And that's just what happened. As soon as the OP got back up and started setting up, they began to take fire again.
I started pushing trucks to cordon off the area the best we could w/out entering the neighborhood we were taking fire from (it's another Company's AO...). With coverage to the West, North and East, though...there wasn't too far for anyone to go. It wasn't long before a C Co patrol showed up. We directed them to where we were taking fire and they began a sweep of the neighborhood. Best we could do at that point was hold the cordon we had set and let those guys work.
But that seems to be the way things go in our area. To the south it's fairly violent. The most we do is chase ghosts. We hear large volumes of machinegun fire and drive towards it. By the time we get there, there's nothing left to shoot at. The bad guys have left and the IPs or NPs are just excited we actually showed up.
As far as comrades. Since I've been back from leave, A Co's lost one KIA (yet another from my old platoon) and had around 9 WIA (including the PL from my old platoon...who's returned to duty now). B Co's been hit with a chlorine IED that sent 10 of theirs to the CSH...2 stayed overnight. There's been a rather noticeable change in tactics if not insurgent cells in the area as there's less IED's in general, but more accurate RPG fire, more complex ambushes and more guys actually willing to stand and fight against our guys (which generally results in several dead bad guys...).
But we'll continue our police work type patrols. It may be boring overall, but at the same time it's hard to complain. I know A, B, and C Co's would be willing to change with us for a while.
I got back to a new area, new mission. Still a quiet area, though. Just north of the Market we were in not long ago. Fair amount of Christians in our area and you can generally tell where they live. Their houses are cleaner, they dress a little different, yards are nicer. But they're also leaving the country do to threats. So far we've had two reporters in (LA Times and AP) to look into a story about that. I had the wonderful priviledge of escorting them both around.
What's happened since I've been back on these new and wonderful missions? Well...we've been taking a census of the area, sorta like we do in the US, but here we include a full search of the house, weapon's serial numbers and fingerprint/picture of all military age males. Census days are long, hot days. With temps in the 115 range, even short walks aren't any fun.
Days we don't do census, we do normal patrols. Normal is generally driving around the neighborhoods. Basically we're police officers. We stop and talk to people a little bit. Sometimes we'll put in overwatch positions.
One of the times, while we were putting in the overwatch position (at a highly undesireable, but ordered time of the day...), we took fire from across the road. Most people would be upset by this. Not necessarily the case for us. It gave us an opportunity to 1. Shoot. 2. Maneuver. Bascially what we're trained for.
The OP took fire and returned fire. I went up to observe, see what we could see. The bad guys had already fled. So I took the guys down, reorganized and decided to place them in there anyway. At the range we were being shot at, I felt good about trying to pull them back out into an exchange rather than worry about the fact the position had been compromised. And that's just what happened. As soon as the OP got back up and started setting up, they began to take fire again.
I started pushing trucks to cordon off the area the best we could w/out entering the neighborhood we were taking fire from (it's another Company's AO...). With coverage to the West, North and East, though...there wasn't too far for anyone to go. It wasn't long before a C Co patrol showed up. We directed them to where we were taking fire and they began a sweep of the neighborhood. Best we could do at that point was hold the cordon we had set and let those guys work.
But that seems to be the way things go in our area. To the south it's fairly violent. The most we do is chase ghosts. We hear large volumes of machinegun fire and drive towards it. By the time we get there, there's nothing left to shoot at. The bad guys have left and the IPs or NPs are just excited we actually showed up.
As far as comrades. Since I've been back from leave, A Co's lost one KIA (yet another from my old platoon) and had around 9 WIA (including the PL from my old platoon...who's returned to duty now). B Co's been hit with a chlorine IED that sent 10 of theirs to the CSH...2 stayed overnight. There's been a rather noticeable change in tactics if not insurgent cells in the area as there's less IED's in general, but more accurate RPG fire, more complex ambushes and more guys actually willing to stand and fight against our guys (which generally results in several dead bad guys...).
But we'll continue our police work type patrols. It may be boring overall, but at the same time it's hard to complain. I know A, B, and C Co's would be willing to change with us for a while.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
R and R
Finally got home for a bit of rest and relaxation. Back home in CO...definitely a change of pace. Responsibilities now are to wake up every day and decide what we feel like doing. Nothing's always a possibility...and not a bad one.
So far we've made a short trip up Pike's Peak (the apex is closed right now...too much snow...pics posted...). Always a harrowing drive, though. Just something about a 6,000ft drop on a road with no guard rails. Otherwise been wonderfully uneventful. It's nice to drive down the road without worrying whether it's going to go "boom" on you.
Nice flow of wine and beer...good steak...a movie or two under the belt and life's pretty good. We'll be heading down to my parent's in GA soon. Get to see the family and spend a little time with them before heading back to the sandbox and the new mission that awaits me there. Until that time, though...life back in the States is great. I'll have to try to be here more often... ;)
So far we've made a short trip up Pike's Peak (the apex is closed right now...too much snow...pics posted...). Always a harrowing drive, though. Just something about a 6,000ft drop on a road with no guard rails. Otherwise been wonderfully uneventful. It's nice to drive down the road without worrying whether it's going to go "boom" on you.
Nice flow of wine and beer...good steak...a movie or two under the belt and life's pretty good. We'll be heading down to my parent's in GA soon. Get to see the family and spend a little time with them before heading back to the sandbox and the new mission that awaits me there. Until that time, though...life back in the States is great. I'll have to try to be here more often... ;)
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Becoming the norm...
Again with the much belated postings. Lots has been going on. The quick synopsis: My platoon rejoined D Co, A Co moved out into the Market in their Combat OutPost (COP) permanently, they promptly lost 3 KIA, my platoon assumed a new mission. Oh...and we got extended out until mid January next year...Yay!
Whew. So first off, my platoon is back with D Co. Almost immediately upon getting back with them, CPT Bednar's time was up and we were assigned CPT Koontz. The guys are glad to be back with D Co...more "home" to them now I suppose. With that change came the new mission set for us. Basically it boils down to sitting on a road right now. More to come at some point...but for now lazy days watching a road. Ironically the bad guys are a click away to the east...just not a pleasant or smart place for anyone to roam (last unit lost 3 Abrams tanks going over that way...75 tons of armor opposed to the 7 ton Humvee I'm in...hmm...)
As we parted A Co, they moved out into the Market into their COP (the one we were supposed to occupy was taken by another unit, so we stayed in the FOB). They continued their Market patrols but also picked up a couple neighborhoods that were previously covered by B Co. To say B Co wasn't in them enough is an understatement. A Co's been paying the price. They lost 3 guys within 4 days. Right now they're barely able to do missions because of a lack of working trucks. So keep those guys in your thoughts. The KIAs: SGT Joe Polo, SPC Walter Freeman, PFC Derek Gibson (his myspace page...the messages left by friends there tells more than a newspaper article could). The last two were in the platoon I brought over here before joining D Co.
Finally...good ole extension. They say it's a necessary thing. They say it'll be a good thing in the long run. I tend to disagree. It'll be detrimental to the Army in the long run. They've been running with great re-enlistment numbers lately. With the outlook now being 15months deployed 12 months at home (of which, 6 of that is spent preparing heavily for the next deployment...to include 2-3 months at NTC), the numbers will falter. The impact on morale has been noticeable from the minute the announcement was made...come next holiday season, it'll be detrimental to both the soldiers and their families. Hopefully the highers up will end up reconsidering...if not...they better prepare for a mass exodus upon redeployment of units.
Whew. So first off, my platoon is back with D Co. Almost immediately upon getting back with them, CPT Bednar's time was up and we were assigned CPT Koontz. The guys are glad to be back with D Co...more "home" to them now I suppose. With that change came the new mission set for us. Basically it boils down to sitting on a road right now. More to come at some point...but for now lazy days watching a road. Ironically the bad guys are a click away to the east...just not a pleasant or smart place for anyone to roam (last unit lost 3 Abrams tanks going over that way...75 tons of armor opposed to the 7 ton Humvee I'm in...hmm...)
As we parted A Co, they moved out into the Market into their COP (the one we were supposed to occupy was taken by another unit, so we stayed in the FOB). They continued their Market patrols but also picked up a couple neighborhoods that were previously covered by B Co. To say B Co wasn't in them enough is an understatement. A Co's been paying the price. They lost 3 guys within 4 days. Right now they're barely able to do missions because of a lack of working trucks. So keep those guys in your thoughts. The KIAs: SGT Joe Polo, SPC Walter Freeman, PFC Derek Gibson (his myspace page...the messages left by friends there tells more than a newspaper article could). The last two were in the platoon I brought over here before joining D Co.
Finally...good ole extension. They say it's a necessary thing. They say it'll be a good thing in the long run. I tend to disagree. It'll be detrimental to the Army in the long run. They've been running with great re-enlistment numbers lately. With the outlook now being 15months deployed 12 months at home (of which, 6 of that is spent preparing heavily for the next deployment...to include 2-3 months at NTC), the numbers will falter. The impact on morale has been noticeable from the minute the announcement was made...come next holiday season, it'll be detrimental to both the soldiers and their families. Hopefully the highers up will end up reconsidering...if not...they better prepare for a mass exodus upon redeployment of units.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Happy Holidays!
As a reference: Google Earth: Market is 33 15 13.00 N 44 22 59.20 E 24th St is the big road just below the "triangle" running east/west. Muhallah 822 is south of that (Muhallah is neighborhood).
We're in the middle of a Shia "Holiday". Most people know what holidays mean in these parts...
This particular "holiday" is the mourning of an imam (religious leader) that was killed around 1000 years ago. So...how does one mourn this death? Well...by crying...making a pilgrimage...and of course cutting each other, wrapping each other in chains and dragging each other around. Oh..and if you're a female, you just have to slap your face a little bit. Sounds reasonable, no?
This partcular imam is improtant to the Shia because he was supposed to help lead them to victory over the "insurgents" (insurgents in this instance are sunnis...I talked to one of my terps about this for a while...told him outright they were nuts). So the cutting and self deprecation is done because they feel guilty for not protecting this imam well enough, ie, they should suffer for that...best yet, they should die. Heckuva way to "celebrate".
So that brings me to our days lately. Had a very long one yesterday. Since the Shias are celebrating and they blame the Sunnis for the death of this imam and well...we patrol a Sunni area...you do the math.
Our day started out mostly quiet...of course, not too many folks are up at 0500. Around 0800 we started hearing lots of gunfire to our south and some to our west. Since nothing was coming at us, we figure it's good ole sectarian fighting. And out of our AO. Around 0900, casualties started coming north for help from the Americans. Our first candidate was a 20something female with a small shrapnel wound to the leg. Nothing bad, doc patched her up and we headed over to the next one that had come up.
The next two were young 20's males. One shot in the face. One shot in the lower back. I had our medic working on the one shot in the face and started getting my other guys checking some of the locals for gunpowder. The IA's showed up with their ambulance and started loading up the two wounded. The one with the lower back wound found out they were going to the local hospital and not the CSH and had his buddies grab him and carry him away.
One of the guys did check out for gunpowder, but by the time we turned around from checking it, he had taken off back into 822. Definite procedure change will be made because of that. Obviously these guys weren't just on the receiving end of random gunfire.
We got the gunshot wound to the face off to the hospital and started to move back to our position on the west end of 24th. 2 other trucks roving the market and one on the east end. As we got back in place, one of our two rovers started taking fire down from 822. No big deal, no real target to shoot at, could just be overflow from the stuff going on down south. So the continued on.
A few minutes later, one of those trucks took a round to the turret glass. Sniper. The had eyes on the building and returned fire. A good, heavy barrage from their M240. I get the sitrep and ask how far down the house is. 50m is the reply. Cool...let's go get em. I ask permission to enter 822 (since it's not our AO...) and away we go. We bound down the side of the street using backyards. Climbing walls in our gear isn't fun...taxing to say the least. We get to the approximate house and I call for verification. Nope. Not there yet. We look down the street. At least another 250m. Apparently the 50m "guess" was made by the gunner...while he looked through his scope. Frickin privates. We get on the sidewalk and bound back up the street to the market.
We mount back into our trucks and start getting back in position. Again, don't have a chance to get there before another casualty comes up. This time a 10yo boy. Shrapnel through the face. It went in one side, wrapped around the front of the jaw and exited the other side. Knocked out several teeth and he was bleeding pretty bad. With no IA assets left, we took him to the CSH. The patched him up there and he went into surgery to repair a facial break. We were told he would have died if we hadn't taken him...so I guess something good happened.
While we were at the CSH...the rest of my platoon showed up (we headed to the CSH right at shift change...so thankfully didn't have to leave any trucks by themselves for very long). They were engaged throughout the rest of the day. One "brave" insurgent decided to step out of an alley around 90-100m away from one of our trucks and open fire. My guys returned fire...didn't have a chance to find out if he was killed...but he was definitely hit. 7.62 into the body anywhere creates a lot of bleeding...and given their medical possibilities...pretty sure he was a goner at some point. The rest of the engagements were of the 500m variety. So lots of shooting and not much else. More of a posturing game of who can make more noise. It's seldom that anyone comes close to us...they generally know the results.
So that's the current "holiday" happening. Not sure what it's called...and I honestly don't care. It's the same as any other holiday here...an excuse to go out and shoot more. It's all they know.
We're in the middle of a Shia "Holiday". Most people know what holidays mean in these parts...
This particular "holiday" is the mourning of an imam (religious leader) that was killed around 1000 years ago. So...how does one mourn this death? Well...by crying...making a pilgrimage...and of course cutting each other, wrapping each other in chains and dragging each other around. Oh..and if you're a female, you just have to slap your face a little bit. Sounds reasonable, no?
This partcular imam is improtant to the Shia because he was supposed to help lead them to victory over the "insurgents" (insurgents in this instance are sunnis...I talked to one of my terps about this for a while...told him outright they were nuts). So the cutting and self deprecation is done because they feel guilty for not protecting this imam well enough, ie, they should suffer for that...best yet, they should die. Heckuva way to "celebrate".
So that brings me to our days lately. Had a very long one yesterday. Since the Shias are celebrating and they blame the Sunnis for the death of this imam and well...we patrol a Sunni area...you do the math.
Our day started out mostly quiet...of course, not too many folks are up at 0500. Around 0800 we started hearing lots of gunfire to our south and some to our west. Since nothing was coming at us, we figure it's good ole sectarian fighting. And out of our AO. Around 0900, casualties started coming north for help from the Americans. Our first candidate was a 20something female with a small shrapnel wound to the leg. Nothing bad, doc patched her up and we headed over to the next one that had come up.
The next two were young 20's males. One shot in the face. One shot in the lower back. I had our medic working on the one shot in the face and started getting my other guys checking some of the locals for gunpowder. The IA's showed up with their ambulance and started loading up the two wounded. The one with the lower back wound found out they were going to the local hospital and not the CSH and had his buddies grab him and carry him away.
One of the guys did check out for gunpowder, but by the time we turned around from checking it, he had taken off back into 822. Definite procedure change will be made because of that. Obviously these guys weren't just on the receiving end of random gunfire.
We got the gunshot wound to the face off to the hospital and started to move back to our position on the west end of 24th. 2 other trucks roving the market and one on the east end. As we got back in place, one of our two rovers started taking fire down from 822. No big deal, no real target to shoot at, could just be overflow from the stuff going on down south. So the continued on.
A few minutes later, one of those trucks took a round to the turret glass. Sniper. The had eyes on the building and returned fire. A good, heavy barrage from their M240. I get the sitrep and ask how far down the house is. 50m is the reply. Cool...let's go get em. I ask permission to enter 822 (since it's not our AO...) and away we go. We bound down the side of the street using backyards. Climbing walls in our gear isn't fun...taxing to say the least. We get to the approximate house and I call for verification. Nope. Not there yet. We look down the street. At least another 250m. Apparently the 50m "guess" was made by the gunner...while he looked through his scope. Frickin privates. We get on the sidewalk and bound back up the street to the market.
We mount back into our trucks and start getting back in position. Again, don't have a chance to get there before another casualty comes up. This time a 10yo boy. Shrapnel through the face. It went in one side, wrapped around the front of the jaw and exited the other side. Knocked out several teeth and he was bleeding pretty bad. With no IA assets left, we took him to the CSH. The patched him up there and he went into surgery to repair a facial break. We were told he would have died if we hadn't taken him...so I guess something good happened.
While we were at the CSH...the rest of my platoon showed up (we headed to the CSH right at shift change...so thankfully didn't have to leave any trucks by themselves for very long). They were engaged throughout the rest of the day. One "brave" insurgent decided to step out of an alley around 90-100m away from one of our trucks and open fire. My guys returned fire...didn't have a chance to find out if he was killed...but he was definitely hit. 7.62 into the body anywhere creates a lot of bleeding...and given their medical possibilities...pretty sure he was a goner at some point. The rest of the engagements were of the 500m variety. So lots of shooting and not much else. More of a posturing game of who can make more noise. It's seldom that anyone comes close to us...they generally know the results.
So that's the current "holiday" happening. Not sure what it's called...and I honestly don't care. It's the same as any other holiday here...an excuse to go out and shoot more. It's all they know.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Local platoon does good...story at 11 on msnbc
I'll start off with good news that was posted here. It's about the little girl that I mentioned in passing in a previous post. Our medic, Doc Allen, was responsible for stabilizing her. Just a couple notes on the story, though: 1. It wasn't luck that we were there. We're "there" 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. 2. She was shot, not hit by a mortar. If the link doesn't work, go to msnbc videos section and search for "Caught in the crossfire". Wendy, you can stop crying now.
I've tended to try to post more often, but it just hasn't happened that way. Generally not much to post, which is a good thing. Other times...well...just harder to find exactly what to say. The length between posts will stop being up to me soon. If you look at the news at all, you've seen the new plans for us here. So we'll be out in BFI before long. Not sure when. Not sure exactly where...
So the updates from my little section of Baghdad tend to be fairly upbeat. That continues I suppose. Mostly quiet...but again...quiet is relative. I had an epiphany of sorts the other night while we were doing the JSS shift. We were sitting on the balcony of the palace, having an MRE and we hear machinegun fire. To a man, we all look in the direction of it...but no one cares. Too far off. No zings, pops or cracks. So it's not at us and doesn't effect us other than being a cool background symphony.
Part of our job in the Market is helping the locals. Not a bad job. A selfless one, though. They ask for much and are generally helpless to help themselves. Not out of lack of ability. Mostly a lack of desire. But that's a deeper subject plane that doesn't need to be hit on here.
Being as days run into days lately, I can't remember exactly which one it was...but 25th of Feb I think. I got out of my truck on the western end of the Market, along with a couple other guys, to speak with some locals about a barrier that had been moved by another company (a common occurrence...they come through our AO, move a barrier and then don't put it back...thanks Charlie.). We're standing there trying to figure how or if we can move it (highway divider...ie, jersey barrier). We come up with a pendulum action using the chain on the humvee to swing it around in place. Great plan. Should work. As we walk over to the barrier, though, we hear "zip! zip!" Couple expletives later and my gunner's unleashed 50 rounds somewhere to the west. I'm ducking for cover behind a light pole. My SGT's on the south side of the truck hugged up next to it, nicely exposed and shooting west (right in front of me...blocking my line of sight...). Next to him is my driver, sitting out in the open on the south side of the truck. I start yelling for him to move, he's doing no good sitting out there. He gives me the "why?" look and it's all I can do not to shoot him myself. Seconds later rounds kick up next to him, coming from the south and he moves as my gunner adjusts his fire to the south and unleashes another long fusillade.
Apparently Pvt Jones shot enough, close enough to silence any takers out there. 2minutes was all it lasted. But it was one of the few times we actually had a target to shoot at. Or at least a couple had a target. Bad guys don't like to stay and play often. No different that time. No time to maneuver. No time to do much of anything. We were just trying to help move a barrier.
I guess it's good to be helpful here...that's why we're here. But sometimes their belief in the mystical surpasses their logical reasoning. If they have any. I swear they think we have magical pills and salves that will do anything. It's the only logical conclusion I can draw from them seeking help for a woman they brought us.
We were approached on the 27th by a group saying they had a casualty that had been hit by a mortar. Older woman. Missing an arm and leg. They had her at the local clinic, but the clinic couldn't help. Sure...we'll see what we can do, bring her to us (many reasons not to go to her...). So they do. And I have Doc Remaly take a look at her. In the meantime they bring a push cart full of others...3 others. Another older woman and two kids (about 3-4yo, one boy, one girl). Turns out the multiple amputee was DOA. Being as she wasn't bleeding when they got her to us, she was probably dead for a while. See belief in the mystical above...
Same with the little girl. She was done. Doc started with the other two. Reset and splinted both legs of the woman and then ran out of bandages patching holes in her and the little boy. It was rather amazing to me, the kid didn't cry. He probably had 15-20 holes in his body...but not a whimper while they worked on him. Just shut his eyes and squeezed his uncle's hand. I say his uncle...his dad wasn't there. I'll get to him shortly. But after some convincing, we finally got the IA ambulance to come over and loaded the two up to go to the hospital.
So the dad. He had gone with another victim (there were several others apparently that other forces had taken to the green zone) to the CSH. When the IA's were seperating everyone out at the hospital, they recognized him. Local insurgent. He tested positive for explosives and was arrested. Turns out dad was trying to ambush a local general and shot his own house. There's some dark humor in there somewhere...if you can see past the innocent child he killed.
I've tended to try to post more often, but it just hasn't happened that way. Generally not much to post, which is a good thing. Other times...well...just harder to find exactly what to say. The length between posts will stop being up to me soon. If you look at the news at all, you've seen the new plans for us here. So we'll be out in BFI before long. Not sure when. Not sure exactly where...
So the updates from my little section of Baghdad tend to be fairly upbeat. That continues I suppose. Mostly quiet...but again...quiet is relative. I had an epiphany of sorts the other night while we were doing the JSS shift. We were sitting on the balcony of the palace, having an MRE and we hear machinegun fire. To a man, we all look in the direction of it...but no one cares. Too far off. No zings, pops or cracks. So it's not at us and doesn't effect us other than being a cool background symphony.
Part of our job in the Market is helping the locals. Not a bad job. A selfless one, though. They ask for much and are generally helpless to help themselves. Not out of lack of ability. Mostly a lack of desire. But that's a deeper subject plane that doesn't need to be hit on here.
Being as days run into days lately, I can't remember exactly which one it was...but 25th of Feb I think. I got out of my truck on the western end of the Market, along with a couple other guys, to speak with some locals about a barrier that had been moved by another company (a common occurrence...they come through our AO, move a barrier and then don't put it back...thanks Charlie.). We're standing there trying to figure how or if we can move it (highway divider...ie, jersey barrier). We come up with a pendulum action using the chain on the humvee to swing it around in place. Great plan. Should work. As we walk over to the barrier, though, we hear "zip! zip!" Couple expletives later and my gunner's unleashed 50 rounds somewhere to the west. I'm ducking for cover behind a light pole. My SGT's on the south side of the truck hugged up next to it, nicely exposed and shooting west (right in front of me...blocking my line of sight...). Next to him is my driver, sitting out in the open on the south side of the truck. I start yelling for him to move, he's doing no good sitting out there. He gives me the "why?" look and it's all I can do not to shoot him myself. Seconds later rounds kick up next to him, coming from the south and he moves as my gunner adjusts his fire to the south and unleashes another long fusillade.
Apparently Pvt Jones shot enough, close enough to silence any takers out there. 2minutes was all it lasted. But it was one of the few times we actually had a target to shoot at. Or at least a couple had a target. Bad guys don't like to stay and play often. No different that time. No time to maneuver. No time to do much of anything. We were just trying to help move a barrier.
I guess it's good to be helpful here...that's why we're here. But sometimes their belief in the mystical surpasses their logical reasoning. If they have any. I swear they think we have magical pills and salves that will do anything. It's the only logical conclusion I can draw from them seeking help for a woman they brought us.
We were approached on the 27th by a group saying they had a casualty that had been hit by a mortar. Older woman. Missing an arm and leg. They had her at the local clinic, but the clinic couldn't help. Sure...we'll see what we can do, bring her to us (many reasons not to go to her...). So they do. And I have Doc Remaly take a look at her. In the meantime they bring a push cart full of others...3 others. Another older woman and two kids (about 3-4yo, one boy, one girl). Turns out the multiple amputee was DOA. Being as she wasn't bleeding when they got her to us, she was probably dead for a while. See belief in the mystical above...
Same with the little girl. She was done. Doc started with the other two. Reset and splinted both legs of the woman and then ran out of bandages patching holes in her and the little boy. It was rather amazing to me, the kid didn't cry. He probably had 15-20 holes in his body...but not a whimper while they worked on him. Just shut his eyes and squeezed his uncle's hand. I say his uncle...his dad wasn't there. I'll get to him shortly. But after some convincing, we finally got the IA ambulance to come over and loaded the two up to go to the hospital.
So the dad. He had gone with another victim (there were several others apparently that other forces had taken to the green zone) to the CSH. When the IA's were seperating everyone out at the hospital, they recognized him. Local insurgent. He tested positive for explosives and was arrested. Turns out dad was trying to ambush a local general and shot his own house. There's some dark humor in there somewhere...if you can see past the innocent child he killed.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Just another day...
This is a quick update. Nothing vital...nothing too exciting. Things are still relatively quiet in our area, despite the news reports of car bombs galore in other sectors of Doura.
I posted a video on youtube.com located here. It's a little dark (it was early morning), but you can make it out I think. It's of an IED we found. It ended up being a 130mm artillery shell in a bag. The EOD folks couldn't get the bag open so they were going to try to open it with a small charge and see what was in it. Well...they succeeded.
Otherwise we've had more visitors come and go. We entertained an Italian reporter for 24hrs wanting to know about the new JSS system starting up. Geraldo was here on the 15th doing a story on the Market (and no...I was busy elsewhere...so no pic with him....still upset about this.). On the plus side, our little AO is apparently the shining example of how "they" want things to happen. So that's a good thing I suppose.
I posted a video on youtube.com located here. It's a little dark (it was early morning), but you can make it out I think. It's of an IED we found. It ended up being a 130mm artillery shell in a bag. The EOD folks couldn't get the bag open so they were going to try to open it with a small charge and see what was in it. Well...they succeeded.
Otherwise we've had more visitors come and go. We entertained an Italian reporter for 24hrs wanting to know about the new JSS system starting up. Geraldo was here on the 15th doing a story on the Market (and no...I was busy elsewhere...so no pic with him....still upset about this.). On the plus side, our little AO is apparently the shining example of how "they" want things to happen. So that's a good thing I suppose.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
About time for an update
So I realized I haven't put an update on here lately. It wasn't all do to being busy, that's just not the case lately. I am...but not so much that I can't type out a little bit here and there to keep folks up to date.
So generally, things have been quiet here in Dora. Quiet is a relative thing of course. Since the last update, one of our platoons had a guy shot in the head (he's fine and in Germany right now), an Iraqi LT was shot in the leg, we've had a couple vehicles blown up to the point of being deadlined, a little girl was shot a by an insurgent down the street from us (the platoon out there at the time took her to the hospital, think she ended up losing a leg..but we're the bad guys?), my medic patched up a kid that had been shot in the chest in a dispute over propane (still...we're the bad guys?), we've had CBS reporter Lara Logan here doing a story on the market (it was a 3 part series...still trying to find it, but it is out there...I've seen the video), a guy blew himself up placing an IED in the market (he didn't die...but lost a hand among other things) and numerous spray and pray shots.
And my part in most of this? I'm rarely on the patrol that this stuff happens to (except for the Lara Logan one...). It's weird, really. No real complaints. Quiet's not necessarily a bad thing in this area...and compared to what it used to be, it's amazingly quiet.
I mentioned the Iraqi LT above. We're working with the Iraqi Army now. They're in the Market every day with us. Not 24hrs like us, but they're there. Mostly competent. Generally trying to do the right thing and definitely wanting a fight. The ones that are left anyway. When the unit heard they were coming here, 2/3 of them left. They can do that apparently. I guess they heard bad things about Dora and decided they've had enough of playing army.
That microcosm of an event shows why we're still here, though. The numbers shown on TV of how many Iraqis have been trained and are "on duty" are skewed to the say least. Not to mention the competence level. They'll never be to a competence level that we in the West would consider acceptable. It's not in their culture. But we're also not training them to fight another large army that's well trained and capable. So really they just need numbers, decent training and decent equipment. All of which they're getting. The IA's (Iraqi Army) rides around in the same humvees that we do, minus all the armor upgrades we have (but it's still a great ride and 100% better than what I had the first time I was here). They have good rifles, good clothes, and what seems to be an improving logistics line. Logistics is the hardest thing for them to learn. They never had it. The long logistics lines that we take for granted are a foreign concept to most armies in the world (even to an army like China...). These guys are still barely a step above foraging...and really most of what they do could be consider foraging.
I know "The Surge" is a big deal in the news. It'll be effecting us, apparently. Exactly how right now I'm not sure. But I have no doubt it'll be a huge benefit. Mainly because of the implementation strategy they have in mind is exactly what needs to happen to effectively fight the war that we're in. What seems to be on the drawing board is exactly what SFC Perez and I had talked about when we got here and saw what was happening. You can't fight from large fortresses like we are. You HAVE to spread out and be more flexible. That's what's going to happen with this "surge". Lots of little bases around Baghdad. Makes it easier to make quick hits and raids...to more effectively eliminate the insurgents.
But I digress. For those of you watching the Super Bowl...look for one of my team leaders, SGT Lehigh. He'll be in the Baghdad Bowl aired on CBS prior to the Super Bowl. Should be playing CB...not sure for Bears or Colts (they'll be wearing those jersies). Me...I'll be hanging out at one of our new duty stations here...the Iraqi "911" center. Part of the process of integrating 24hr operations to these guys. That's another foreign concept to them. But we're helping them get together quick responder areas to send Iraqi Police, National Police, and IA. Eventually it'll include ambulance and fire trucks. Baby steps for now. But at least in the right direction. Now all we need is time.
So generally, things have been quiet here in Dora. Quiet is a relative thing of course. Since the last update, one of our platoons had a guy shot in the head (he's fine and in Germany right now), an Iraqi LT was shot in the leg, we've had a couple vehicles blown up to the point of being deadlined, a little girl was shot a by an insurgent down the street from us (the platoon out there at the time took her to the hospital, think she ended up losing a leg..but we're the bad guys?), my medic patched up a kid that had been shot in the chest in a dispute over propane (still...we're the bad guys?), we've had CBS reporter Lara Logan here doing a story on the market (it was a 3 part series...still trying to find it, but it is out there...I've seen the video), a guy blew himself up placing an IED in the market (he didn't die...but lost a hand among other things) and numerous spray and pray shots.
And my part in most of this? I'm rarely on the patrol that this stuff happens to (except for the Lara Logan one...). It's weird, really. No real complaints. Quiet's not necessarily a bad thing in this area...and compared to what it used to be, it's amazingly quiet.
I mentioned the Iraqi LT above. We're working with the Iraqi Army now. They're in the Market every day with us. Not 24hrs like us, but they're there. Mostly competent. Generally trying to do the right thing and definitely wanting a fight. The ones that are left anyway. When the unit heard they were coming here, 2/3 of them left. They can do that apparently. I guess they heard bad things about Dora and decided they've had enough of playing army.
That microcosm of an event shows why we're still here, though. The numbers shown on TV of how many Iraqis have been trained and are "on duty" are skewed to the say least. Not to mention the competence level. They'll never be to a competence level that we in the West would consider acceptable. It's not in their culture. But we're also not training them to fight another large army that's well trained and capable. So really they just need numbers, decent training and decent equipment. All of which they're getting. The IA's (Iraqi Army) rides around in the same humvees that we do, minus all the armor upgrades we have (but it's still a great ride and 100% better than what I had the first time I was here). They have good rifles, good clothes, and what seems to be an improving logistics line. Logistics is the hardest thing for them to learn. They never had it. The long logistics lines that we take for granted are a foreign concept to most armies in the world (even to an army like China...). These guys are still barely a step above foraging...and really most of what they do could be consider foraging.
I know "The Surge" is a big deal in the news. It'll be effecting us, apparently. Exactly how right now I'm not sure. But I have no doubt it'll be a huge benefit. Mainly because of the implementation strategy they have in mind is exactly what needs to happen to effectively fight the war that we're in. What seems to be on the drawing board is exactly what SFC Perez and I had talked about when we got here and saw what was happening. You can't fight from large fortresses like we are. You HAVE to spread out and be more flexible. That's what's going to happen with this "surge". Lots of little bases around Baghdad. Makes it easier to make quick hits and raids...to more effectively eliminate the insurgents.
But I digress. For those of you watching the Super Bowl...look for one of my team leaders, SGT Lehigh. He'll be in the Baghdad Bowl aired on CBS prior to the Super Bowl. Should be playing CB...not sure for Bears or Colts (they'll be wearing those jersies). Me...I'll be hanging out at one of our new duty stations here...the Iraqi "911" center. Part of the process of integrating 24hr operations to these guys. That's another foreign concept to them. But we're helping them get together quick responder areas to send Iraqi Police, National Police, and IA. Eventually it'll include ambulance and fire trucks. Baby steps for now. But at least in the right direction. Now all we need is time.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
New Year
So we moved silently into the new year here. The bredth of our celebration was my "Happy New Year, guys" as the opening to our patrol brief for the night. A brief outcrying of "woos" followed. It's hard to get too excited about holidays here I suppose. The only family we have to share them with is ourselves. We spent most of Christmas driving around looking for bad guys in the Market. Our Christmas dinner wasn't very impressive. But we did have each other to drink egg nog and fake wine with.
Right now we're running the night shift. Not much happens at night. The drive to and from the market is probably the most harrowing thing we do. No real complaints there, mind you. The biggest threat in the market at night is really sleep. It's a constant battle. Have to yell at my driver every now and then...and he at me, too. It is a nice break, though.
The situation in general is weird, though. The bad guys use women, children to drop IED materials. They'll spend days building up the spots slowly. Then we get a truck hit. Thankfully no injuries so far...just some trucks towed back home. These folks are innovative, though...that's all I can say to that.
And I'm still intrigued at battlespace sizes. It's almost like we drive to work every day to do battle at the local mall. Very similar in area covered. It has a lot to do with mission and just general concentrations here, but still seems odd to me.
Before I go, have to mention the Saddam hanging. I was asked about protests here about it. I've seen none. We expected a lot of different things. We got nothing. Apparently on the news there's video of protests. I equate it to the protests you see on tv that happen in DC. Something's always being protested there. But it rarely is televised. Here, it has to be. There's not enough "newsworthy" material otherwise. The news folks don't want to put on tv that we've increased power capacity in the country, that we're improving water works and sewage, that a new school opens nearly daily, that hospitals are being improved and built. That goes against their aims of making the public think that things are horrible here and that the US completely destroyed this country and need to leave. We're doing great things here that don't get reported. Yes, we lose troops almost daily. Our brigade's lost a few itself the last few weeks. But we're also getting rid of more and more Al Qaeda and mujahadeen. We're improving the living conditions of these people. We're slowly, but surely making this place capable of standing on its own. In this quick fix society...we forget how long we had to be in Germany and Japan after WWII to help those countries. That we still have troops sitting in Korea for a reason.
There's no quick fix...and failing here is too critical to the region to let happen.
Right now we're running the night shift. Not much happens at night. The drive to and from the market is probably the most harrowing thing we do. No real complaints there, mind you. The biggest threat in the market at night is really sleep. It's a constant battle. Have to yell at my driver every now and then...and he at me, too. It is a nice break, though.
It's been somewhat quiet in the Market. Quiet meaning generally less than one IED per day.
I'm still amazed how IED's get dropped in the market while we're driving up and down the street. It's good in the fact that there's enough people that we don't notice it I suppose, that means the locals are confident enough to come back to shopping without being afraid of being killed. Bad for us because it apparently gives lots of cover for the bad guys.The situation in general is weird, though. The bad guys use women, children to drop IED materials. They'll spend days building up the spots slowly. Then we get a truck hit. Thankfully no injuries so far...just some trucks towed back home. These folks are innovative, though...that's all I can say to that.
And I'm still intrigued at battlespace sizes. It's almost like we drive to work every day to do battle at the local mall. Very similar in area covered. It has a lot to do with mission and just general concentrations here, but still seems odd to me.
Before I go, have to mention the Saddam hanging. I was asked about protests here about it. I've seen none. We expected a lot of different things. We got nothing. Apparently on the news there's video of protests. I equate it to the protests you see on tv that happen in DC. Something's always being protested there. But it rarely is televised. Here, it has to be. There's not enough "newsworthy" material otherwise. The news folks don't want to put on tv that we've increased power capacity in the country, that we're improving water works and sewage, that a new school opens nearly daily, that hospitals are being improved and built. That goes against their aims of making the public think that things are horrible here and that the US completely destroyed this country and need to leave. We're doing great things here that don't get reported. Yes, we lose troops almost daily. Our brigade's lost a few itself the last few weeks. But we're also getting rid of more and more Al Qaeda and mujahadeen. We're improving the living conditions of these people. We're slowly, but surely making this place capable of standing on its own. In this quick fix society...we forget how long we had to be in Germany and Japan after WWII to help those countries. That we still have troops sitting in Korea for a reason.
There's no quick fix...and failing here is too critical to the region to let happen.
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