Wednesday, May 11, 2005
A letter of truth from Iraq.
howdy all,
so, I guess from now on I'll do quick proof read of updates before I send them out. This could possibly help me put the appearance accross that I can actually put togeather a sentance.
Anywho, in the news it appears baghdad is quite a busy town. I haven't seen anywhere as much action as the news is reporting about here. That in no way means that there isn't gunfire and explosions on a daily basis. There is but, I am staying safe and am always surrounded by much armor and all my gun toting buddies.I try and not watch the news much as it is rather depressing. Funny though, I had no interest in the news before I was here and now I'm surrounded by it. It's amusing some of the headlines I see on yahoo... like " insurgents have started offensive" and other useless blurbs to someone who only has to look out their window. The blurbs don't do much to explain the actuality of what is going on here either. As of late the majority of the attacks have been against IP and IA.The attacks against coalition forces have been secondary options. The attacks have increased though as we've started handing over the sectors. I doubt they'll stop anytime soon either wheather we're here or not.
Lately we've been settling into our routine. One day, a section will man the front tower, that overlooks the front gate, while the other section is QRF while running 1-2 patrols and picking up the daily supplies. the next day we rotate. Each section is comprised of 2 squads and there are 4 squads in our platoon that resides here at the plant. We share the responsibility of gaurding the plant with hired british and fijian gaurds as well as iraqi gaurds.
We have a sniper team attached to our company that resides out here at the plant with us. We've been rotating through going on missions with them. I went with them about a week ago. A couple days after my mission, my section took them out for an insertion. A catholic school was selected as 24 hr op as it overlooks high traffic road which has had several ied's since we've been here. It also overlooks a technical college that we've dubbed ied tech. We took them to a side gate in the middle of the night to set up there op. We used my hummer to get them over the 10ft steel gate at the side of the school. We pulled security as they made there way to the building before we loaded up. As we were about to roll out we got the call for immediate extraction. There are gaurds at ied tech and everyhousehold is allowed one ak so as we didn't hear gunfire we still moved immediately. I cut out of formation and blew through the gate. I preface the following by saying no one died. When I blew through that gate it was freaking amazing. This was my third gate but the most sizable one. I knocked down a 5ft cinder block wall and entry to open it up for troops but this gate was definately the most exhilarating. It wasn't till later that we were able to smile about the gate. The gate opened up to the back of the school where we were unable to reach the snipers who had made their way to the opposite side of the school on a 2ft ledge along the 2nd floor of the building. We exited the compound and went to the front of the school's compound where the front gate was beyond my abilities and those of my hummer's front grill. We climbed the gate and sprinted the 200yds to the sniper team. They hadn't been attacked. The ledge had collapsed under the lead sniper as they were making there way to the roof access. It was pretty scary but we always roll out with a medic. He had jumped the gate with us. As they started first aid, I went to get the priest to open up the front gate so we could transport our guy out. Through the terp,interpreter, the priest told me he didn't want to let our vehicles on to his property for fear of retribution from insurgents. This is the grey area. I briefly mentioned going to catholic school. I didn't figure it was the best time to try and explain that I actually went to an episcopal school and a jesuit university. From here I didn't do so well and maybe it was easier on me not actually being catholic. I told him first it wasn't his fault the soldier had been hurt but, if he didn't open the gate immediately it would be destroyed as well as his school and he would be held responsible for the soldiers life. He may have inferred more from my tone, or in the translation from the terp, about his personal safety. He immediately had the gate opened. I made it back to the downed soldier in time to help secure him to a backboard. He had a possible spinal injury broken leg and arm as well as concussion. We loaded him on my hummer and took what seemed like the longest and bumpiest drive I have ever taken. We got him back to the fob one of the two places within 10 minutes of anywhere in our sector that we can take wounded. It turns out he only recieved a compound fracture in his arm and a dislocated elbow and shoulder. It sounds fairly nasty but it could have been much much worse.
So with the sniper, castillo, in stable condition in germany, it's easier to joke around about busting gates down. My buddy and I came up with a little saying after my first joy-ride through the city. It's a play on the bracelets that were quite popular a few years ago. The saying is What Would Bo and Luke Do (Dukes of Hazard). I don't know if we'll go as far as naming our hummer the general lee and adding an ornamental novelty horn to my ride but it's definately something we chuckle about as I'm weaving through traffic, jumping medians and knocking down walls. All things that probably don't seem quite proper from stateside but things are different here and gain quite a different perspective after a couple weeks in sector.
Well, I've rambled on quite enough. Hope everyone is well. The 1st pic is my section on foot patrol through the Al Dorha market and the 2nd is our medic having tea with a local family. Peace
Dave
howdy all,
so, I guess from now on I'll do quick proof read of updates before I send them out. This could possibly help me put the appearance accross that I can actually put togeather a sentance.
Anywho, in the news it appears baghdad is quite a busy town. I haven't seen anywhere as much action as the news is reporting about here. That in no way means that there isn't gunfire and explosions on a daily basis. There is but, I am staying safe and am always surrounded by much armor and all my gun toting buddies.I try and not watch the news much as it is rather depressing. Funny though, I had no interest in the news before I was here and now I'm surrounded by it. It's amusing some of the headlines I see on yahoo... like " insurgents have started offensive" and other useless blurbs to someone who only has to look out their window. The blurbs don't do much to explain the actuality of what is going on here either. As of late the majority of the attacks have been against IP and IA.The attacks against coalition forces have been secondary options. The attacks have increased though as we've started handing over the sectors. I doubt they'll stop anytime soon either wheather we're here or not.
Lately we've been settling into our routine. One day, a section will man the front tower, that overlooks the front gate, while the other section is QRF while running 1-2 patrols and picking up the daily supplies. the next day we rotate. Each section is comprised of 2 squads and there are 4 squads in our platoon that resides here at the plant. We share the responsibility of gaurding the plant with hired british and fijian gaurds as well as iraqi gaurds.
We have a sniper team attached to our company that resides out here at the plant with us. We've been rotating through going on missions with them. I went with them about a week ago. A couple days after my mission, my section took them out for an insertion. A catholic school was selected as 24 hr op as it overlooks high traffic road which has had several ied's since we've been here. It also overlooks a technical college that we've dubbed ied tech. We took them to a side gate in the middle of the night to set up there op. We used my hummer to get them over the 10ft steel gate at the side of the school. We pulled security as they made there way to the building before we loaded up. As we were about to roll out we got the call for immediate extraction. There are gaurds at ied tech and everyhousehold is allowed one ak so as we didn't hear gunfire we still moved immediately. I cut out of formation and blew through the gate. I preface the following by saying no one died. When I blew through that gate it was freaking amazing. This was my third gate but the most sizable one. I knocked down a 5ft cinder block wall and entry to open it up for troops but this gate was definately the most exhilarating. It wasn't till later that we were able to smile about the gate. The gate opened up to the back of the school where we were unable to reach the snipers who had made their way to the opposite side of the school on a 2ft ledge along the 2nd floor of the building. We exited the compound and went to the front of the school's compound where the front gate was beyond my abilities and those of my hummer's front grill. We climbed the gate and sprinted the 200yds to the sniper team. They hadn't been attacked. The ledge had collapsed under the lead sniper as they were making there way to the roof access. It was pretty scary but we always roll out with a medic. He had jumped the gate with us. As they started first aid, I went to get the priest to open up the front gate so we could transport our guy out. Through the terp,interpreter, the priest told me he didn't want to let our vehicles on to his property for fear of retribution from insurgents. This is the grey area. I briefly mentioned going to catholic school. I didn't figure it was the best time to try and explain that I actually went to an episcopal school and a jesuit university. From here I didn't do so well and maybe it was easier on me not actually being catholic. I told him first it wasn't his fault the soldier had been hurt but, if he didn't open the gate immediately it would be destroyed as well as his school and he would be held responsible for the soldiers life. He may have inferred more from my tone, or in the translation from the terp, about his personal safety. He immediately had the gate opened. I made it back to the downed soldier in time to help secure him to a backboard. He had a possible spinal injury broken leg and arm as well as concussion. We loaded him on my hummer and took what seemed like the longest and bumpiest drive I have ever taken. We got him back to the fob one of the two places within 10 minutes of anywhere in our sector that we can take wounded. It turns out he only recieved a compound fracture in his arm and a dislocated elbow and shoulder. It sounds fairly nasty but it could have been much much worse.
So with the sniper, castillo, in stable condition in germany, it's easier to joke around about busting gates down. My buddy and I came up with a little saying after my first joy-ride through the city. It's a play on the bracelets that were quite popular a few years ago. The saying is What Would Bo and Luke Do (Dukes of Hazard). I don't know if we'll go as far as naming our hummer the general lee and adding an ornamental novelty horn to my ride but it's definately something we chuckle about as I'm weaving through traffic, jumping medians and knocking down walls. All things that probably don't seem quite proper from stateside but things are different here and gain quite a different perspective after a couple weeks in sector.
Well, I've rambled on quite enough. Hope everyone is well. The 1st pic is my section on foot patrol through the Al Dorha market and the 2nd is our medic having tea with a local family. Peace
Dave
