We actually had a semi-decent meal out here. We got turkey, roast beef and ham, but by the time I got to go to chow the turkey was already gone. I tried the ham (bad idea) and the roast beef was ok...so I filled up on mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Yeah...talk about carbo-loading!
Christmas
I don't think we'll need anything to celebrate out here. I'm sure it will just be another day; missions as usual, which was just like Thanksgiving. Supposedly we're supposed to be moving shortly after Christmas, so we'll probably be packed up by then anyway. Seems like we just get settled in, and then they decide to move us again. Oh well...
Its actually starting to get kinda chilly around here. Its down into the low 40's at night...I think a couple of times its dipped into the upper 30's, but just for the night. Highs are probably upper 50's to low 60's still. You really notice the chill in the air when we're sitting on a rooftop overwatching the streets. Still haven't brought any of my "snivel gear" on the missions, but thats just because we usually walk around for a little while and warm up before we go and sit. In all honesty, I would probably take a knit helmet liner with me, though. Once we get set, we take our kevlars off and its pretty cold if the wind is blowing.
I can't think of any special requests for the package. Oh...actually, if you run across some of those hand warmers, a couple of those would be great. Other than that, I think I'm set.
I'm looking forward to getting back to Iowa. Glad that everything is going well there.
Things are kinda picking up around here. We've had some activity in the last couple of weeks that we haven't seen for quite a while. Its really got us back on our toes again. Everyone is ok; a couple of guys from the company we're attached to sustained minor injuries (especially compared to what they could have been) but I'm sure they'll be back in short order.
I guess we've got some big-wigs coming through sometime soon...so of course we've had to "tidy up the area." Doesn't make much sense, the whole country is covered in trash and garbage, and we're doing a police-call across our compound. Yay for brass.
Talk to you later, John
Troy
Monday, November 26, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
On the way back to the desert
Troy’s last few hours home are upon us. If you would like to see or talk with him before his departure you better drop him a line soon. Troy departs the Cedar Rapids airport at 0600 tomorrow morning. It will take approximately a week of traveling before he returns to his unit in the western edge of Iraq. Troy promises to keep us up to date as he finishes his tour.
As the Picture shows, we really enjoyed having troy in town
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Promotion
It is my pleasure to announce that prior to his mid tour leave PFC Troy Ruffin was promoted. Troy has now earned the rank of Specialist. We are all proud of Troy for this milestone.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
On the move
I got a phone call today from troy.
He has moved off of the front lines, and is currently resting up at Al Assad air base. He should move next to Kwait. From there he will fly to Dallas, and finally home to CID.
We expect him home on Wednesday.
He has moved off of the front lines, and is currently resting up at Al Assad air base. He should move next to Kwait. From there he will fly to Dallas, and finally home to CID.
We expect him home on Wednesday.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
9/27/07
Hey...I'm almost all packed up here, just have a couple things left to throw in my bad, and then I'll be all set to leave out of there. Got less than XXX hours till I hitch a ride to XXX, and from there begin the long journey home. When I start getting more information, I'll pass it along.
I'm wearing a brand new uniform, which looks waaaay out of place around here. Everyone else is wearing uniforms thick with dust and dirt from our daily activities, and here I sit in a bright, crisp uniform. I haven't worn anything this clean all year! Its kinda strange. I'm sure it'll get dusty/dirty on the drive tomorrow, so I'll pack a second one in my bag. It'd be interesting for people to actually see what we look like over here instead of the bright and shiny uniforms they see us wearing in the airports. But...they said we have to wear clean uniforms on our way home on leave. I'm not going to risk anything, so I've got on a brand new uniform, and one in my bag. Nothin's gonna stop me getting home!
Anything new in your neck of the woods? I'm sure I'll be spending a couple days at XXX, so I'll try and call sometime while I'm there.
Hope all is going well! Can't wait to see you again, John
Troy
I'm wearing a brand new uniform, which looks waaaay out of place around here. Everyone else is wearing uniforms thick with dust and dirt from our daily activities, and here I sit in a bright, crisp uniform. I haven't worn anything this clean all year! Its kinda strange. I'm sure it'll get dusty/dirty on the drive tomorrow, so I'll pack a second one in my bag. It'd be interesting for people to actually see what we look like over here instead of the bright and shiny uniforms they see us wearing in the airports. But...they said we have to wear clean uniforms on our way home on leave. I'm not going to risk anything, so I've got on a brand new uniform, and one in my bag. Nothin's gonna stop me getting home!
Anything new in your neck of the woods? I'm sure I'll be spending a couple days at XXX, so I'll try and call sometime while I'm there.
Hope all is going well! Can't wait to see you again, John
Troy
Thursday, September 13, 2007
09/13/2007
Can't wait, man!!! Tentative day for me to leave here is Oct 2. I figure travel time is probably 3-5 days. Will keep you posted, though.
Been getting your emails
Nothing too exciting out here, other than one of my guys burning his balls. Seriously...a flare was set off and it burned his thigh and penis/scrotum. Yeah...2nd degree burns, and his dick is on a long road to recovery. Probably will lose a large chunk of skin off his balls, too. But, gives him a great pick-up line: Hey baby, wanna see my war wound?
Anyway, should probably go...
Been getting your emails
Nothing too exciting out here, other than one of my guys burning his balls. Seriously...a flare was set off and it burned his thigh and penis/scrotum. Yeah...2nd degree burns, and his dick is on a long road to recovery. Probably will lose a large chunk of skin off his balls, too. But, gives him a great pick-up line: Hey baby, wanna see my war wound?
Anyway, should probably go...
Monday, August 27, 2007
On the move update
As I figured, things have changed regarding the move. We're still heading to the same general area, but my destination has changed a little bit.
From our company (B Co), our 3rd platoon is being attached to E Co (engineers) to help augment their capabilities. At first, the plan had been to have one of the E Co medics cover the platoon, and I would stay with Bravo to cover the platoon we would be getting from D Co. This, however, has changed, and I am now flying out Thursday (I think) to E Co's area of responsibility. I'm actually happy with this change, as I have done most of my missions with 3rd platoon; they all know me and are confident in me and my abilities, and I know how they work. I think this is going to work out in everyone's best interest.
My address is changing just a little; all that is changing is the platoon assignment.
PFC RUFFIN, TROY
B Co, 3rd PLT, 2-7 IN BN
UNIT # 73431
KOREAN VILLAGE
APO AE 09371-3431
Still don't know much about the area for which we'll be responsible, or specifics on living conditions. As so much of this is up in the air, and it doesn't appear that any more information will be passed down to us, I am taking the "worst-case scenario" standpoint and anticipating not having the chance to use the phone or internet after I leave here on Thursday. If that is the case, my next chance to use them will be when I arrive at one of the larger bases on my way home on leave. Still don't have a confirmed date yet, but I have been told I'll be on the first or second flight out for the month. Rough estimate is 6-10 October, but will have a more definitive idea when I start my travels back towards the States.
I have most of my gear packed for the upcoming move; just the stuff I need on a daily basis left to throw in my bad. I'm also stuffing my aid bag with as many extra supplies as it will hold. For now, it sounds like I may be close to one of the established aid stations, though I don't want to be caught without the supplies I need.
The nice thing is that I'll be running missions right up until I leave for our new "home." This is definitely helping the time pass quickly. I haven't been keeping a calendar or anything, but we should be right around the "halfway point" for our deployment. We've heard talk of our return date being anything from mid-March to early April; most of us have decided to take the latest date and shoot for that...if we return any earlier it'll just be icing on the cake.
Not much else to report from here. If anything pops up in the next couple days I'll pass it along.
Best wishes
Troy
From our company (B Co), our 3rd platoon is being attached to E Co (engineers) to help augment their capabilities. At first, the plan had been to have one of the E Co medics cover the platoon, and I would stay with Bravo to cover the platoon we would be getting from D Co. This, however, has changed, and I am now flying out Thursday (I think) to E Co's area of responsibility. I'm actually happy with this change, as I have done most of my missions with 3rd platoon; they all know me and are confident in me and my abilities, and I know how they work. I think this is going to work out in everyone's best interest.
My address is changing just a little; all that is changing is the platoon assignment.
PFC RUFFIN, TROY
B Co, 3rd PLT, 2-7 IN BN
UNIT # 73431
KOREAN VILLAGE
APO AE 09371-3431
Still don't know much about the area for which we'll be responsible, or specifics on living conditions. As so much of this is up in the air, and it doesn't appear that any more information will be passed down to us, I am taking the "worst-case scenario" standpoint and anticipating not having the chance to use the phone or internet after I leave here on Thursday. If that is the case, my next chance to use them will be when I arrive at one of the larger bases on my way home on leave. Still don't have a confirmed date yet, but I have been told I'll be on the first or second flight out for the month. Rough estimate is 6-10 October, but will have a more definitive idea when I start my travels back towards the States.
I have most of my gear packed for the upcoming move; just the stuff I need on a daily basis left to throw in my bad. I'm also stuffing my aid bag with as many extra supplies as it will hold. For now, it sounds like I may be close to one of the established aid stations, though I don't want to be caught without the supplies I need.
The nice thing is that I'll be running missions right up until I leave for our new "home." This is definitely helping the time pass quickly. I haven't been keeping a calendar or anything, but we should be right around the "halfway point" for our deployment. We've heard talk of our return date being anything from mid-March to early April; most of us have decided to take the latest date and shoot for that...if we return any earlier it'll just be icing on the cake.
Not much else to report from here. If anything pops up in the next couple days I'll pass it along.
Best wishes
Troy
Thursday, August 23, 2007
On the Move
Hi everyone,
Not much new to report regarding the move. As of right now I'm slated to fly to our new base on the 4th of September, so its coming up pretty quick. We won't know much more until we get there; the first two weeks will be spent doing some recon of the area to figure out where they want to put all of the different units. From what we've heard, while at Korean Village (our initial destination) our living conditions will not be so great; more than likely it will be 80 men in a tent, limited showers, and in all reality no chance to use the phone or internet. Once we move away from the base, we'll probably be building our own little outpost for either a platoon (25 or so Soldiers) or company (approx. 150 Soldiers) sized element. If thats the case, we won't have phone or internet up for a while; initial estimates are 2 weeks to 2 months. So, looks like I'll be going to back to snail-mail for a while.
We have our new address, which can be used already as we will be arriving around the time the first mail makes it there.
PFC RUFFIN, TROY
B Co, HQ PLT, 2-7 IN BN
UNIT # 73431
KOREAN VILLAGE
APO AE 09371-3431
We're still trying to find some background on why its called "Korean Village," but from what we've been told, apparently it used to be the center of a large Korean population around the time of the Korean War. Not sure why anyone would want to move to Iraq, nor are we sure if they were from North or South Korea. We'll see if we get any more info when we get up there.
I'll write again soon,
Troy
Not much new to report regarding the move. As of right now I'm slated to fly to our new base on the 4th of September, so its coming up pretty quick. We won't know much more until we get there; the first two weeks will be spent doing some recon of the area to figure out where they want to put all of the different units. From what we've heard, while at Korean Village (our initial destination) our living conditions will not be so great; more than likely it will be 80 men in a tent, limited showers, and in all reality no chance to use the phone or internet. Once we move away from the base, we'll probably be building our own little outpost for either a platoon (25 or so Soldiers) or company (approx. 150 Soldiers) sized element. If thats the case, we won't have phone or internet up for a while; initial estimates are 2 weeks to 2 months. So, looks like I'll be going to back to snail-mail for a while.
We have our new address, which can be used already as we will be arriving around the time the first mail makes it there.
PFC RUFFIN, TROY
B Co, HQ PLT, 2-7 IN BN
UNIT # 73431
KOREAN VILLAGE
APO AE 09371-3431
We're still trying to find some background on why its called "Korean Village," but from what we've been told, apparently it used to be the center of a large Korean population around the time of the Korean War. Not sure why anyone would want to move to Iraq, nor are we sure if they were from North or South Korea. We'll see if we get any more info when we get up there.
I'll write again soon,
Troy
Monday, August 13, 2007
08/13/2007
Hey everyone,
Its been more than a month since I last wrote, so I thought its probably time that I write again.
The previous month has been somewhat interesting. There have been a lot of changes in how we operate in town, and for a while we weren't running any patrols or other missions. This made for some very bored medics. We went from running three or four missions a day to coming to a screetching halt. Not sure if its ADD or what, but we certainly were getting restless. This is part of why I volunteered for the mission out into the middle of the desert.
We were told that we had a mission where we'd be supporting a Marine operation; our job was to provide a blocking position as the Marines swept through the desert, rooting out any possible insurgent cells or training camps. We were told that the mission would probably last up to a week, and be prepared to "rough it." There were no buildings where we were headed, so we'd be living out of our humvees. So we get packed and head off into the wide open desert, not sure of what we'll see.
The morning we left, it was briefed that we were supposed to be traveling at about 25mph to make sure that all of our vehicles could keep up. Great...this is going to be a long drive. As soon as we start down the road, the mechanics call up that their truck is having a hard time even making 25. Eventually the get the cobwebs blown out, and the truck is able to keep up. We make it to the one base between our town and our destination in the middle of nowhere. We link up with the rest of our group; all in all we have more than 30 trucks, and over 100 Soldiers, to include infantry, scouts, tankers, mechanics, and some support personnel. The drive out to our "destination" takes us about 6 hours, and it is well over 130-degrees, and some of the humvees don't have AC. This is not an enjoyable Sunday cruise. It got so bad that the truck in front of me started weaving on the road, and then came to a very sudden stop. I see the truck commander (TC) hop out and run around to the driver's door. He throws the driver's arm over his shoulder and starts pulling him out of the truck; even with all the water he'd been drinking, he still was dehydrated. I hop out and go take a look: eyes rolled into the back of his head, and not exactly all there...yep, time for an IV. So I run back to my truck, grab my aid bag and stick him right there in the middle of the road. His TC didn't even see me setting up the line; when he came around from his side of the truck after calling up to the convoy commander, the IV was already done. "Dang Doc, that was quick! You don't mess around, huh?" We put him in the medic's humvee (they sent two other medics with us) which had amazing AC, so he could cool off and take the rest of his IV. 45 minutes later and he was fine...back up and at 'em.
The drive took so long that we had to stop the convoy to fuel; we had a giant fuel truck with us, and we had a line of trucks on either side filling up...didn't even turn off the engines, just gas and go.
We finally got out to the area we were supposed to be staying at for the first night; it was on a little plateau so we could see the surrounding area. There was nothing out there; we landed smack in the middle of nowhere! For as far as the eye could see was nothing but sand, rock, and more sand. The place was flat, too, so we really didn't have to worry about anyone sneaking up on us...we had about 10 miles of warning before they would have even been close! When we stopped I went to all of the trucks from my company and made sure they were drinking water, and gave them a quick safety brief on the wildlife. All the snakes in Iraq are poisonous (to the point where they'll kill a healthy man) and there are 9 species of scorpions that can kill you. Not to mention the other little critters that make life miserable. So they're a little cautious at this point. As I get back to our truck, the gunner yells down at me to kill the spider running through our little "campsite." Yeah, it wasn't a spider, it was a scorpion; the first one we'd seen, and we hadn't even been there an hour. Turns out, sometime that night one of the guys got up to answer nature's call; on his way out he heard a "hissing noise," and started backing away. One of the other guys knew what it was: a soft-scaled viper, which, had he been bitten, would have killed him. Awesome...this trip is starting off with a bang.
We move out from the large assembly area to our respective areas of responsibility to assume our blocking positions. We find a little ridge on which to make camp, and proceed to set up tarps off the side or back of our humvee. We pounded in metal fence posts and then lashed the tarp to it; even though it was early morning, we knew that it was going to get ugly later on in the day and we were going to want some shade. Once the shade had been established, we started pulling out cots and turning it into "home." Life out there really wasn't all that bad; we had ice in our coolers (thanks to the freezer truck with 1,800 bags of ice), we had "food" (Meals Ready to Eat, or MRE's, which have a shelf life of more than a decade), and the only thing we had to do was watch the horizon for anybody trying to get through our line. Sometime during the day I looked up and saw some trucks way out on the horizon, so I let the other guys know about them. They started scrambling for gear and weapons until I told them where to look. Most of the guys couldn't see them because they were miles and miles away. After ten minutes or so, they could finally see things moving along the horizon. After that the guys were giving me grief for my "binocular vision." At least we know they can't sneak up on us! Turns out they were the Marine trucks on their push through the desert.
At one point while we were out there it hit 138-degrees...in the shade!!! Things were a little toasty. But, we had a pretty good breeze that kept things tolerable. We split our group in half, and in the afternoon they returned to our make-shift assembly area after driving through miles and miles of nothing looking for anyone. I think they saw one shepard all day, and that was it.
Around 5 or 6 that evening a sand storm started blowing in, so we decided to make sure our tarps weren't going to blow away. One of the trucks had guys filling sandbags to anchor their tarp. While one of the guys was digging, he had an unexpected guest. Since it was so hot out, we all had "unbloused" our pants, so the pantleg was open and allowed a little air to circulate. As he was digging, a scorpion ran up his leg unbeknownst to him. In the middle of digging, he got stung; thinking that it was a cactus he dropped his pants looking for the offending thorn. His search unsuccessful, he hikes up his pants, only to be stung two more times. Now searching in earnest, he spots what appears to be a large spider; after closer inspection he realizes that it is, in fact, a scorpion. He reaches down to brush it off, and manages to get stung again on the knuckle. So he and his group all start yelling, and one of the other guys manages to gorilla-stomp the critter into oblivion. He comes walking over (pants still at half-mast) saying he's just been stung. I have him take a seat on my cot so I can take a look at the injection sites. At that time, a big gust of wind pulls a fence post out of the ground, and promptly smacks him in the back of the head. (This was the same guy that nearly stepped on the viper the previous night. Poor guy was having a rough day) The injection sites were only a little red, and he felt fine except for some moderate burning in his leg. After inspecting what was left of the scorpion, I figured out that it was a non-lethal species (claws were too large and telson was too small) The only thing I had with me to give was some benadryl and ibuprofen. I called it up to the medics back at the large assembly area to make sure we didn't have a "mandatory evac" order while we were out there. After what felt like a revisitation of the Spanish Inquisition, they decided that they agreed with what I had done, and if he wasn't having any further symptoms he could stay out there if he wanted. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to get much sleep that night because of the pain. Wish I had had something more to give him, but unless he got shot, I couldn't give him any morphine.
We packed up the next morning and moved probably 20 miles down the road. This trip shouldn't have taken very long, but one of the mechanic's trucks got a flat, and they took almost 2 hours to fix it.
Finally at our new area of responsibility, we start setting up shop again. Same thing; tarp out, cots assembled and cold drinks close at hand. This is our third day out there at this point, and we're expecting it to go on for at least several more days. Around 2 pm we get the call that the mission is over, and to pack up to move back to our respective bases. Thinking that we'll be home in just a few hours, we set to the task at hand with a purpose. I don't think we'd ever stowed our gear so fast.
Turns out, we were in for a much longer mission. The same truck that got a flat blew another tire on our way home. On large trucks, the left side is reverse-threaded so the nuts don't spin off the tires going down the road; the right side is normal, though. These mechanics (who's job it is to know this) spend almost three hours turning the wrench the wrong way. During this, the convoy commander's truck breaks down; guess it had enough of the heat just like the rest of us. So now we're waiting for the tire to be changed, plus hook up the dead humvee because the wrecker they brought is already towing a humvee that broke down the day before. 4 hours after we stopped, we finally start moving again.
We're not half a mile down the road before the mechanic's shop truck blows the hoses off the engine. Great...we figured we were spending the night out there. But, at least this set of mechanics could reclamp an engine hose.
12 hours after we started our return trip we made it back to base. However, this didn't lighten our mood. While we were gone, the generator that powers our building had blown up, literally. Apparently the battery got too hot and exploded all over the generator. This left the majority of the building without power. The aid station still had lights, but the AC was out of freon and only blew in hot air. So, it was at least as hot inside the aid station as it was outside. Thankfully we had enough power to run a couple fans, which is the only thing making sleep a possibility in there. As of now (almost 3 weeks later) we still don't have AC. The temperature in the aid station is right around 95 through the day; not exactly the ideal location to treat a heat injury, but so far we're doing ok.
For once the rumors are true; we are, indeed, moving. Our move should happen sometime around the end of the month, and will be at a larger base further west than where we are now. We don't have a lot of details about where everyone will be living, or if we're planning on setting up any platoon or company sized outposts, so we'll have to get there first before we learn any of that information.
Apparently the base has an Army Trauma Team assigned to it, and has its own aero-medical evac unit (should be the Blackhawk medevac helicopters), so that makes our job a whole lot easier. Not sure what our mission will be out there. At one point, the base was used to do border patrol between Iraq and Syria, and we may end up doing some of that, though information is still forthcoming. Two of our three duffle bags have to be packed by this weekend to be loaded into the big shipping containers; thats the biggest pain associated with moving: having to pack all of our stuff. Especially after we've spent more than 6 months turning this little "hole" into a home. Oh well...we figured we'd end up moving before our tour was over anyway, we just wish it wasn't so hot when we have to move.
The nice thing about the move is that we'll get up there, do a couple weeks of "right-seat/left-seat rides" where the outgoing unit shows us our new sector, we'll run for a couple weeks, and then I get to come home on leave! I'm hoping that with everything going on, time will go by really quick and October will be here before we know it!
As of now, we're still doing missions out in town. Nothing really exciting, just the usual patrols. A lot of the city council doesn't want us to leave because we've done so well getting the city back on its feet again. Hopefully the incoming unit of Marines keeps the forward momentum that we've gained so we don't have to come back in here and do it all over again. They have a tendency to be a little heavy-handed and trigger-happy when it comes to a new town. Hopefully this new unit is different.
Other than that, we're trying to get all the immunizations and shots done before we move bases. Right now we're in the middle of trying to get everyone's PPD test done making sure they don't have Tuberculosis. Out here, though, its a genuine concern as most of the population wouldn't know what it is if they contracted it. So far we haven't had any positive reactions. Lets hope it stays that way.
Thats about all from my end of the world. I'll let you know how the move goes, and once we get there we should have a new mailing address, too. I'll send out some pictures from the desert mission so you can see just how desolate the landscape really was.
Best wishes
Troy
Its been more than a month since I last wrote, so I thought its probably time that I write again.
The previous month has been somewhat interesting. There have been a lot of changes in how we operate in town, and for a while we weren't running any patrols or other missions. This made for some very bored medics. We went from running three or four missions a day to coming to a screetching halt. Not sure if its ADD or what, but we certainly were getting restless. This is part of why I volunteered for the mission out into the middle of the desert.
We were told that we had a mission where we'd be supporting a Marine operation; our job was to provide a blocking position as the Marines swept through the desert, rooting out any possible insurgent cells or training camps. We were told that the mission would probably last up to a week, and be prepared to "rough it." There were no buildings where we were headed, so we'd be living out of our humvees. So we get packed and head off into the wide open desert, not sure of what we'll see.
The morning we left, it was briefed that we were supposed to be traveling at about 25mph to make sure that all of our vehicles could keep up. Great...this is going to be a long drive. As soon as we start down the road, the mechanics call up that their truck is having a hard time even making 25. Eventually the get the cobwebs blown out, and the truck is able to keep up. We make it to the one base between our town and our destination in the middle of nowhere. We link up with the rest of our group; all in all we have more than 30 trucks, and over 100 Soldiers, to include infantry, scouts, tankers, mechanics, and some support personnel. The drive out to our "destination" takes us about 6 hours, and it is well over 130-degrees, and some of the humvees don't have AC. This is not an enjoyable Sunday cruise. It got so bad that the truck in front of me started weaving on the road, and then came to a very sudden stop. I see the truck commander (TC) hop out and run around to the driver's door. He throws the driver's arm over his shoulder and starts pulling him out of the truck; even with all the water he'd been drinking, he still was dehydrated. I hop out and go take a look: eyes rolled into the back of his head, and not exactly all there...yep, time for an IV. So I run back to my truck, grab my aid bag and stick him right there in the middle of the road. His TC didn't even see me setting up the line; when he came around from his side of the truck after calling up to the convoy commander, the IV was already done. "Dang Doc, that was quick! You don't mess around, huh?" We put him in the medic's humvee (they sent two other medics with us) which had amazing AC, so he could cool off and take the rest of his IV. 45 minutes later and he was fine...back up and at 'em.
The drive took so long that we had to stop the convoy to fuel; we had a giant fuel truck with us, and we had a line of trucks on either side filling up...didn't even turn off the engines, just gas and go.
We finally got out to the area we were supposed to be staying at for the first night; it was on a little plateau so we could see the surrounding area. There was nothing out there; we landed smack in the middle of nowhere! For as far as the eye could see was nothing but sand, rock, and more sand. The place was flat, too, so we really didn't have to worry about anyone sneaking up on us...we had about 10 miles of warning before they would have even been close! When we stopped I went to all of the trucks from my company and made sure they were drinking water, and gave them a quick safety brief on the wildlife. All the snakes in Iraq are poisonous (to the point where they'll kill a healthy man) and there are 9 species of scorpions that can kill you. Not to mention the other little critters that make life miserable. So they're a little cautious at this point. As I get back to our truck, the gunner yells down at me to kill the spider running through our little "campsite." Yeah, it wasn't a spider, it was a scorpion; the first one we'd seen, and we hadn't even been there an hour. Turns out, sometime that night one of the guys got up to answer nature's call; on his way out he heard a "hissing noise," and started backing away. One of the other guys knew what it was: a soft-scaled viper, which, had he been bitten, would have killed him. Awesome...this trip is starting off with a bang.
We move out from the large assembly area to our respective areas of responsibility to assume our blocking positions. We find a little ridge on which to make camp, and proceed to set up tarps off the side or back of our humvee. We pounded in metal fence posts and then lashed the tarp to it; even though it was early morning, we knew that it was going to get ugly later on in the day and we were going to want some shade. Once the shade had been established, we started pulling out cots and turning it into "home." Life out there really wasn't all that bad; we had ice in our coolers (thanks to the freezer truck with 1,800 bags of ice), we had "food" (Meals Ready to Eat, or MRE's, which have a shelf life of more than a decade), and the only thing we had to do was watch the horizon for anybody trying to get through our line. Sometime during the day I looked up and saw some trucks way out on the horizon, so I let the other guys know about them. They started scrambling for gear and weapons until I told them where to look. Most of the guys couldn't see them because they were miles and miles away. After ten minutes or so, they could finally see things moving along the horizon. After that the guys were giving me grief for my "binocular vision." At least we know they can't sneak up on us! Turns out they were the Marine trucks on their push through the desert.
At one point while we were out there it hit 138-degrees...in the shade!!! Things were a little toasty. But, we had a pretty good breeze that kept things tolerable. We split our group in half, and in the afternoon they returned to our make-shift assembly area after driving through miles and miles of nothing looking for anyone. I think they saw one shepard all day, and that was it.
Around 5 or 6 that evening a sand storm started blowing in, so we decided to make sure our tarps weren't going to blow away. One of the trucks had guys filling sandbags to anchor their tarp. While one of the guys was digging, he had an unexpected guest. Since it was so hot out, we all had "unbloused" our pants, so the pantleg was open and allowed a little air to circulate. As he was digging, a scorpion ran up his leg unbeknownst to him. In the middle of digging, he got stung; thinking that it was a cactus he dropped his pants looking for the offending thorn. His search unsuccessful, he hikes up his pants, only to be stung two more times. Now searching in earnest, he spots what appears to be a large spider; after closer inspection he realizes that it is, in fact, a scorpion. He reaches down to brush it off, and manages to get stung again on the knuckle. So he and his group all start yelling, and one of the other guys manages to gorilla-stomp the critter into oblivion. He comes walking over (pants still at half-mast) saying he's just been stung. I have him take a seat on my cot so I can take a look at the injection sites. At that time, a big gust of wind pulls a fence post out of the ground, and promptly smacks him in the back of the head. (This was the same guy that nearly stepped on the viper the previous night. Poor guy was having a rough day) The injection sites were only a little red, and he felt fine except for some moderate burning in his leg. After inspecting what was left of the scorpion, I figured out that it was a non-lethal species (claws were too large and telson
We packed up the next morning and moved probably 20 miles down the road. This trip shouldn't have taken very long, but one of the mechanic's trucks got a flat, and they took almost 2 hours to fix it.
Finally at our new area of responsibility, we start setting up shop again. Same thing; tarp out, cots assembled and cold drinks close at hand. This is our third day out there at this point, and we're expecting it to go on for at least several more days. Around 2 pm we get the call that the mission is over, and to pack up to move back to our respective bases. Thinking that we'll be home in just a few hours, we set to the task at hand with a purpose. I don't think we'd ever stowed our gear so fast.
Turns out, we were in for a much longer mission. The same truck that got a flat blew another tire on our way home. On large trucks, the left side is reverse-threaded so the nuts don't spin off the tires going down the road; the right side is normal, though. These mechanics (who's job it is to know this) spend almost three hours turning the wrench the wrong way. During this, the convoy commander's truck breaks down; guess it had enough of the heat just like the rest of us. So now we're waiting for the tire to be changed, plus hook up the dead humvee because the wrecker they brought is already towing a humvee that broke down the day before. 4 hours after we stopped, we finally start moving again.
We're not half a mile down the road before the mechanic's shop truck blows the hoses off the engine. Great...we figured we were spending the night out there. But, at least this set of mechanics could reclamp an engine hose.
12 hours after we started our return trip we made it back to base. However, this didn't lighten our mood. While we were gone, the generator that powers our building had blown up, literally. Apparently the battery got too hot and exploded all over the generator. This left the majority of the building without power. The aid station still had lights, but the AC was out of freon and only blew in hot air. So, it was at least as hot inside the aid station as it was outside. Thankfully we had enough power to run a couple fans, which is the only thing making sleep a possibility in there. As of now (almost 3 weeks later) we still don't have AC. The temperature in the aid station is right around 95 through the day; not exactly the ideal location to treat a heat injury, but so far we're doing ok.
For once the rumors are true; we are, indeed, moving. Our move should happen sometime around the end of the month, and will be at a larger base further west than where we are now. We don't have a lot of details about where everyone will be living, or if we're planning on setting up any platoon or company sized outposts, so we'll have to get there first before we learn any of that information.
Apparently the base has an Army Trauma Team assigned to it, and has its own aero-medical evac unit (should be the Blackhawk medevac helicopters), so that makes our job a whole lot easier. Not sure what our mission will be out there. At one point, the base was used to do border patrol between Iraq and Syria, and we may end up doing some of that, though information is still forthcoming. Two of our three duffle bags have to be packed by this weekend to be loaded into the big shipping containers; thats the biggest pain associated with moving: having to pack all of our stuff. Especially after we've spent more than 6 months turning this little "hole" into a home. Oh well...we figured we'd end up moving before our tour was over anyway, we just wish it wasn't so hot when we have to move.
The nice thing about the move is that we'll get up there, do a couple weeks of "right-seat/left-seat rides" where the outgoing unit shows us our new sector, we'll run for a couple weeks, and then I get to come home on leave! I'm hoping that with everything going on, time will go by really quick and October will be here before we know it!
As of now, we're still doing missions out in town. Nothing really exciting, just the usual patrols. A lot of the city council doesn't want us to leave because we've done so well getting the city back on its feet again. Hopefully the incoming unit of Marines keeps the forward momentum that we've gained so we don't have to come back in here and do it all over again. They have a tendency to be a little heavy-handed and trigger-happy when it comes to a new town. Hopefully this new unit is different.
Other than that, we're trying to get all the immunizations and shots done before we move bases. Right now we're in the middle of trying to get everyone's PPD test done making sure they don't have Tuberculosis. Out here, though, its a genuine concern as most of the population wouldn't know what it is if they contracted it. So far we haven't had any positive reactions. Lets hope it stays that way.
Thats about all from my end of the world. I'll let you know how the move goes, and once we get there we should have a new mailing address, too. I'll send out some pictures from the desert mission so you can see just how desolate the landscape really was.
Best wishes
Troy
Sunday, July 22, 2007
7/22/2007
Haven't had the chance to get those pics ready to send yet; our power's been out most of the night...generator decided to run out of fuel. Its got a 1500gal tank on it, and it ran dry. Yeah...well done there. Hopefully it decides to stay running since without it we don't have any AC. We'll see...
Should have time to get those pics off to you tomorrow sometime. I think you'll be impressed.
Sounds like you guys have had a good time with your mom in town. What all did you guys do?
Had a little bit of excitement today...I got to play firefighter this afternoon. Something in the burn dumpster exploded and caught several of our hesco barriers on fire. The hescos are just a tough cloth inside a wire frame that we fill with sand/rock/dirt for cover. Plus, there was a bunch of wood and crap out there too that was burning. So, off we go (four of us) armed with a couple cases of water and one shovel. I think it took about 30 minutes, but we managed to put it out. My clothes still smell like smoke too; probably from when I was trying to shovel dirt onto the hotspots. Oh well.
Hit my personal best in the gym the other day. Benched 205 pounds 9 times (needed a little help with the 10th); not bad for me, considering I weight just over 170. I'm happy because just a couple months ago I could hardly do 4 sets at 135lbs. Everybody's asked what I'm taking to get gains like that...I'm not even taking protein shakes, and we've got guys here spending hundreds of dollars a month on all kinds of crap.
So our schedule is still pretty boring; I've been on one mission in the last week. I'm starting to lose my mind...there's only so much here you can do to kill time. I've gone through so many books; guess I'll just have to ask around and see what other people have. The guys are doing a lot of blocking positions and traffic control points...nothing where they need a medic out there; at this point I think I'd rather be out there just sitting in a Bradley than being bored out of my skull back here. Hopefully this changes sometime soon.
Well, the AC should be running again in the aid station. I think I'm gonna head to bed.
Later, John
Troy
Should have time to get those pics off to you tomorrow sometime. I think you'll be impressed.
Sounds like you guys have had a good time with your mom in town. What all did you guys do?
Had a little bit of excitement today...I got to play firefighter this afternoon. Something in the burn dumpster exploded and caught several of our hesco barriers on fire. The hescos are just a tough cloth inside a wire frame that we fill with sand/rock/dirt for cover. Plus, there was a bunch of wood and crap out there too that was burning. So, off we go (four of us) armed with a couple cases of water and one shovel. I think it took about 30 minutes, but we managed to put it out. My clothes still smell like smoke too; probably from when I was trying to shovel dirt onto the hotspots. Oh well.
Hit my personal best in the gym the other day. Benched 205 pounds 9 times (needed a little help with the 10th); not bad for me, considering I weight just over 170. I'm happy because just a couple months ago I could hardly do 4 sets at 135lbs. Everybody's asked what I'm taking to get gains like that...I'm not even taking protein shakes, and we've got guys here spending hundreds of dollars a month on all kinds of crap.
So our schedule is still pretty boring; I've been on one mission in the last week. I'm starting to lose my mind...there's only so much here you can do to kill time. I've gone through so many books; guess I'll just have to ask around and see what other people have. The guys are doing a lot of blocking positions and traffic control points...nothing where they need a medic out there; at this point I think I'd rather be out there just sitting in a Bradley than being bored out of my skull back here. Hopefully this changes sometime soon.
Well, the AC should be running again in the aid station. I think I'm gonna head to bed.
Later, John
Troy
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
July 4th update
Hi Everybody
Its been a while since I last wrote, and since I have a little time before my next mission, I thought I'd try to send out an email and let you all know what we've been up to.
As we all knew would happen, the weather here has gotten extremely hot. Since we don't have a thermometer here on our little base, we don't have a day-by-day report of the weather, but it has been over 120 on more than a few occasions. Typically the temperatures are between 115 and 120, though it can easily climb higher. Even with all the heat, we still are keeping a high operations tempo; we've been running missions day and night, and on a number of occasions have been out walking through town during the hottest part of the day. The local population has a better idea regarding the heat than we seem to; during the most intense part of the day, they close down most of the shops and they go home since very few people are out at that time anyway. The shops reopen sometime in the late afternoon and remain open till after sundown. We are sure that we are the butt of jokes when the locals see us walking around wearing all that gear in the middle of the day; we usually just joke about being able to speak Arabic when we walk past them, and even though we don't know for sure what they're saying, it can't be far from "Stupid Americans...only they would be out walking in this head." Oh well...at least they know we're tough, if a little lacking in intelligence. At least we haven't had any heat injuries.
Read an interesting article in the newspaper we receive over here; it had to do with the rumors that are going around Iraq regarding the American troops. Some we're sure are the propaganda spread by the insurgents, such as Americans eating babies and stealing children, or that the airborne troops dye their berets with enemy blood (their berets are maroon). Some rumors we're not sure where they got their start. My favorite is the idea that Americans have a "cold pill." I thought this was a pill for the common cold, but I was wrong; apparently a lot of Iraqis believe that we take a pill that keeps our bodies cold and enables us to wear all that gear out in the sun. Boy don't we wish!!! Another rumor is that we all wear x-ray glasses that allow us to see through cars, walls and even people's clothing. We're not sure if they are referring to our sunglasses, or if they're talking about our night vision; I suppose if you didn't know what our night vision goggles were, it could be easy to think that. However, we don't mount our NODs on our helmets until it gets close to sundown, and we usually don't see the crowds of people at night like we do during the day.
Over the last month we were in the midst of a struggle to move us to a different area of the Anbar Province. My battalion of about 1,000 Soldiers is "on loan" to the Marines, and the Marine general in charge of this area wanted us moved out of this city and closer to the Syrian border. They wanted us to be running border patrol missions, trying to stop the flow of arms and combatants from Syria into Iraq. Our Army bosses didn't think this was a good idea, especially since we've got a pretty good relationship with the local Sheiks and the city council. In the end, we won; this means that we'll be staying here for at least a couple more months. We're pretty sure that we'll end up moving before our tour is finished over here. There's good and bad to moving; it won't be a lot of fun having to pack up everything and move out of this area, but if/when we do move it'll mean that this city is up and running on its own and doesn't need our direct supervision. For now we're happy with staying right here where we are. We heard that if we had moved to the bases closer to the Syrian border we'd be without AC, phones, internet or showers...definitely a step backwards. Our home may not be much to look at, but at least its home. Its dirty, it smells, and we don't have a lot of creature-comforts, but at least we can call/email and take a shower every once in a while.
Things around town have been quiet for the most part. There've been a couple incidents, but for the most part the town is doing pretty good. All of our guys are still doing very well and have suffered no injuries apart from the usual bumps and bruises. The big obstacle that we're trying to fix is the electrical supply to the city. In a neighboring town, some insurgent blew up the power plant that supplies all the power to the city. So for the last couple of weeks the locals have been living without AC or lights. Some of the bigger houses have generators, but its usually only the wealthier families that can afford those. Most of the population have taken to sleeping in their courtyards or on the roof (they're all flat roofs over here) since its a lot cooler outside at night, plus they don't have to worry about dew. A couple of nights ago we went into a house and I was checking to make sure the courtyard was secure; it was dark and as I was going around the corner of the house I almost tripped over a sleeping child. Thankfully I didn't wake her, as I'm sure that would have been a rather frightful awakening. Always something to keep us on our toes.
About a month ago we had to give up one of our medics to cover for another unit that was short; that left us with 3 medics instead of 4. We've definitely been "earning our keep" with all the missions we've been on. I just hit my 200th mission this afternoon, and we're not yet half-way through our tour. So far we haven't had any problems covering all the missions that have come up, and have all been sharing the increased load. Brown (the medic retasked for a month) left in early June, and from then until November we'll be running with 3 instead of 4 medics. He was working in the aid station through June, and is now on leave, and the next three months in a row we will have one of our medics rotating back to the States for R&R. I think we're more than happy to take on a little extra work because we know that our break is coming up soon. Usually we can even out the schedule to make sure no one medic gets swamped, but there have definitely been days where I've gotten back off a mission at 4 in the morning and had to get up two hours later to head back out again. At least it makes the time go by quickly.
I was helping out our Marine counterparts with some screening physicals for the Iraqi Police applicants. We got to chatting during a break and one of them said that they'd be Stateside within 90 days; I did some quick mental calculations and told him that I had more than 90 days before I went on leave! Most of the Marine units here do 6 to 7 month deployments, and then usually come back after 6 to 12 months off. We keep giving them grief because with the new rotation the Army has handed down, all of our Active Duty units do almost 3 of their deployments in a single go. They usually counter with something along the lines of "I'll drink a beer for you guys when I get home...and you still have 8 months to go." Point taken.
We had another incident with a humvee last night, but thankfully I wasn't sitting in it at the time. All of our vehicles have internal fire suppression systems, which is nothing more than a big bottle of Halon and an activation switch. (I can hear all the fire and hazmat guys cringe at that one) Halon is the gas used in the system to put out the fire, but its not something you want to be around when it goes off. Last night as guys were loading their gear into a humvee the Halon system somehow got activated. Thankfully we were still inside the wire and not cruising down the road. It wasn't a full purge of the system, but rather a partial discharge; unfortunately one of the guys took a blast right to his face. He was lucky, though, and after I flushed his eyes with a couple bottles of water he was still able to go out on the mission. He's just really lucky he didn't take a big breath of it, as we probably would have had to medevac him out of here.
The city is slowly getting its feet under it. We've been doing a lot of missions with the Iraqi Police in the hopes that someday they will be able to stand on their own. During one of our missions we ended up in the house of a city council member, and since we weren't on any time constraints, we sat and had a long conversation with him. He said that the general attitude in the city is good; shops are open that haven't been in business in over a year, new homes are being built everywhere, the schools have good attendance, and the people feel safe walking down the streets. He said that this wasn't possible more than 6 months ago; he said that they are lucky our unit was the one assigned to this town, because he feels we have taken a genuine interest in rebuilding his city. He said that there are still people who don't want us here, but that they want even less for us to leave. Baby steps...
We just finished another mission; we've been doing pretty good at locating people on our "bad guy" list. Either they're getting complacent, or we're getting better at it. We're also starting to see a lot of information coming in from the local people themselves; just last week someone tipped off the IP's about a weapons cache in a cluster of houses by the river. Sure enough, there was a large stockpile of weapons; normally our bomb squad likes to blow it up in place, but since the neighborhood was friendly to us, we didn't want to give them any reason to change their minds. They took it back to one of the other bases and later that night they shook the sandbags we have in lieu of windows. Its definitely nice to see some positives steps being made.
Its 5:30am, Happy 4th of July! Not sure if theres anything special planned here, but I'm sure they'll come up with something. Since we were out so late, I'm hoping to get a chance to sleep; right now I'd take sleep over festivities. One of the lieutenants was joking with a bunch of lower enlisted guys saying that they were going to be able to shoot off flares and rockets and throw grenades and all kinds of stuff that goes "boom!" They got so excited and were about to run off and prep their stuff when he told them he was just kidding. It'd be fun, but we'd probably scare the town pretty good if we started going through our arsenal...best not to chance it.
I think thats about it from my end. My 25-hour day is finally at an end, so I'm gonna go rack out, or at least until someone kicks my bed and tells me to get up for our next mission...we'll see how long this actually lasts.
Best wishes to all
Troy
Its been a while since I last wrote, and since I have a little time before my next mission, I thought I'd try to send out an email and let you all know what we've been up to.
As we all knew would happen, the weather here has gotten extremely hot. Since we don't have a thermometer here on our little base, we don't have a day-by-day report of the weather, but it has been over 120 on more than a few occasions. Typically the temperatures are between 115 and 120, though it can easily climb higher. Even with all the heat, we still are keeping a high operations tempo; we've been running missions day and night, and on a number of occasions have been out walking through town during the hottest part of the day. The local population has a better idea regarding the heat than we seem to; during the most intense part of the day, they close down most of the shops and they go home since very few people are out at that time anyway. The shops reopen sometime in the late afternoon and remain open till after sundown. We are sure that we are the butt of jokes when the locals see us walking around wearing all that gear in the middle of the day; we usually just joke about being able to speak Arabic when we walk past them, and even though we don't know for sure what they're saying, it can't be far from "Stupid Americans...only they would be out walking in this head." Oh well...at least they know we're tough, if a little lacking in intelligence. At least we haven't had any heat injuries.
Read an interesting article in the newspaper we receive over here; it had to do with the rumors that are going around Iraq regarding the American troops. Some we're sure are the propaganda spread by the insurgents, such as Americans eating babies and stealing children, or that the airborne troops dye their berets with enemy blood (their berets are maroon). Some rumors we're not sure where they got their start. My favorite is the idea that Americans have a "cold pill." I thought this was a pill for the common cold, but I was wrong; apparently a lot of Iraqis believe that we take a pill that keeps our bodies cold and enables us to wear all that gear out in the sun. Boy don't we wish!!! Another rumor is that we all wear x-ray glasses that allow us to see through cars, walls and even people's clothing. We're not sure if they are referring to our sunglasses, or if they're talking about our night vision; I suppose if you didn't know what our night vision goggles were, it could be easy to think that. However, we don't mount our NODs on our helmets until it gets close to sundown, and we usually don't see the crowds of people at night like we do during the day.
Over the last month we were in the midst of a struggle to move us to a different area of the Anbar Province. My battalion of about 1,000 Soldiers is "on loan" to the Marines, and the Marine general in charge of this area wanted us moved out of this city and closer to the Syrian border. They wanted us to be running border patrol missions, trying to stop the flow of arms and combatants from Syria into Iraq. Our Army bosses didn't think this was a good idea, especially since we've got a pretty good relationship with the local Sheiks and the city council. In the end, we won; this means that we'll be staying here for at least a couple more months. We're pretty sure that we'll end up moving before our tour is finished over here. There's good and bad to moving; it won't be a lot of fun having to pack up everything and move out of this area, but if/when we do move it'll mean that this city is up and running on its own and doesn't need our direct supervision. For now we're happy with staying right here where we are. We heard that if we had moved to the bases closer to the Syrian border we'd be without AC, phones, internet or showers...definitely a step backwards. Our home may not be much to look at, but at least its home. Its dirty, it smells, and we don't have a lot of creature-comforts, but at least we can call/email and take a shower every once in a while.
Things around town have been quiet for the most part. There've been a couple incidents, but for the most part the town is doing pretty good. All of our guys are still doing very well and have suffered no injuries apart from the usual bumps and bruises. The big obstacle that we're trying to fix is the electrical supply to the city. In a neighboring town, some insurgent blew up the power plant that supplies all the power to the city. So for the last couple of weeks the locals have been living without AC or lights. Some of the bigger houses have generators, but its usually only the wealthier families that can afford those. Most of the population have taken to sleeping in their courtyards or on the roof (they're all flat roofs over here) since its a lot cooler outside at night, plus they don't have to worry about dew. A couple of nights ago we went into a house and I was checking to make sure the courtyard was secure; it was dark and as I was going around the corner of the house I almost tripped over a sleeping child. Thankfully I didn't wake her, as I'm sure that would have been a rather frightful awakening. Always something to keep us on our toes.
About a month ago we had to give up one of our medics to cover for another unit that was short; that left us with 3 medics instead of 4. We've definitely been "earning our keep" with all the missions we've been on. I just hit my 200th mission this afternoon, and we're not yet half-way through our tour. So far we haven't had any problems covering all the missions that have come up, and have all been sharing the increased load. Brown (the medic retasked for a month) left in early June, and from then until November we'll be running with 3 instead of 4 medics. He was working in the aid station through June, and is now on leave, and the next three months in a row we will have one of our medics rotating back to the States for R&R. I think we're more than happy to take on a little extra work because we know that our break is coming up soon. Usually we can even out the schedule to make sure no one medic gets swamped, but there have definitely been days where I've gotten back off a mission at 4 in the morning and had to get up two hours later to head back out again. At least it makes the time go by quickly.
I was helping out our Marine counterparts with some screening physicals for the Iraqi Police applicants. We got to chatting during a break and one of them said that they'd be Stateside within 90 days; I did some quick mental calculations and told him that I had more than 90 days before I went on leave! Most of the Marine units here do 6 to 7 month deployments, and then usually come back after 6 to 12 months off. We keep giving them grief because with the new rotation the Army has handed down, all of our Active Duty units do almost 3 of their deployments in a single go. They usually counter with something along the lines of "I'll drink a beer for you guys when I get home...and you still have 8 months to go." Point taken.
We had another incident with a humvee last night, but thankfully I wasn't sitting in it at the time. All of our vehicles have internal fire suppression systems, which is nothing more than a big bottle of Halon and an activation switch. (I can hear all the fire and hazmat guys cringe at that one) Halon is the gas used in the system to put out the fire, but its not something you want to be around when it goes off. Last night as guys were loading their gear into a humvee the Halon system somehow got activated. Thankfully we were still inside the wire and not cruising down the road. It wasn't a full purge of the system, but rather a partial discharge; unfortunately one of the guys took a blast right to his face. He was lucky, though, and after I flushed his eyes with a couple bottles of water he was still able to go out on the mission. He's just really lucky he didn't take a big breath of it, as we probably would have had to medevac him out of here.
The city is slowly getting its feet under it. We've been doing a lot of missions with the Iraqi Police in the hopes that someday they will be able to stand on their own. During one of our missions we ended up in the house of a city council member, and since we weren't on any time constraints, we sat and had a long conversation with him. He said that the general attitude in the city is good; shops are open that haven't been in business in over a year, new homes are being built everywhere, the schools have good attendance, and the people feel safe walking down the streets. He said that this wasn't possible more than 6 months ago; he said that they are lucky our unit was the one assigned to this town, because he feels we have taken a genuine interest in rebuilding his city. He said that there are still people who don't want us here, but that they want even less for us to leave. Baby steps...
We just finished another mission; we've been doing pretty good at locating people on our "bad guy" list. Either they're getting complacent, or we're getting better at it. We're also starting to see a lot of information coming in from the local people themselves; just last week someone tipped off the IP's about a weapons cache in a cluster of houses by the river. Sure enough, there was a large stockpile of weapons; normally our bomb squad likes to blow it up in place, but since the neighborhood was friendly to us, we didn't want to give them any reason to change their minds. They took it back to one of the other bases and later that night they shook the sandbags we have in lieu of windows. Its definitely nice to see some positives steps being made.
Its 5:30am, Happy 4th of July! Not sure if theres anything special planned here, but I'm sure they'll come up with something. Since we were out so late, I'm hoping to get a chance to sleep; right now I'd take sleep over festivities. One of the lieutenants was joking with a bunch of lower enlisted guys saying that they were going to be able to shoot off flares and rockets and throw grenades and all kinds of stuff that goes "boom!" They got so excited and were about to run off and prep their stuff when he told them he was just kidding. It'd be fun, but we'd probably scare the town pretty good if we started going through our arsenal...best not to chance it.
I think thats about it from my end. My 25-hour day is finally at an end, so I'm gonna go rack out, or at least until someone kicks my bed and tells me to get up for our next mission...we'll see how long this actually lasts.
Best wishes to all
Troy
Monday, July 2, 2007
the changes
I recently posted a new picture of troy in Iraq. I was struck by the transformation from the fun light hearted kid from Iowa to the Soldier I see in the picture. I thought you might like to see the comparison a little closer.
The picture on the right was Troy just as he was deploying to Iraq, and the second was taken recently after he has been in country for some time.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Updated address
A quick note from troy's dad
PFC, Ruffin, Troy
Bravo CO, 3D PLT, 2-7 INF
Unit # 73431
Camp HIT
APO, AE 09333-3431
Troy wanted me to pass on his correct address. The one I have been sending to everyone “HHC” gets to him but not near as fast as “ Bravo CO ” so please use the address attached.
Thanks.
Tim
PFC, Ruffin, Troy
Bravo CO, 3D PLT, 2-7 INF
Unit # 73431
Camp HIT
APO, AE 09333-3431
Troy wanted me to pass on his correct address. The one I have been sending to everyone “HHC” gets to him but not near as fast as “ Bravo CO ” so please use the address attached.
Thanks.
Tim
Sunday, June 3, 2007
tour extended
some of you know that troy left for Iraq shortly after January of 2007. His tour was to last 12 months, and he would return home in the early months of 2008. Recenty word came down that troy would be extended until at least April of 2008.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
My apologies
To all who read this blog. I have not been loyal about updating and posting this site. I have just posted everything since march. I hope everyone is well.
JSH
JSH
My apologies
To all who read this blog. I have not been loyal about updating and posting this site. I have just posted everything since march. I hope everyone is well.
JSH
JSH
24 may 2007
So "Murphy" decided to pay us another visit yesterday. Like most of his visits, it involved the vehicles, though this time it was a humvee and not a Bradley. Looking back, its now comical, though at the time laughter was the furthest thing from anyone's mind.
The day started off straight-forward enough; our mission was to escort the Physician's Assistant (PA) to a clinic in town and let him do his thing, which essentially means that we were his private taxi service.
When we prepped the vehicles, the only thing apparent was that one truck was low on fuel but had plenty to make the trip to Camp Hit where we were to pick up the PA. Once on the base, we were able to fill up the truck without much difficulty. This is where things stopped going our way.
After the PA showed up with a medic humvee, we all piled back in the vehicles to take off...the truck I'm driving (which has one person riding "shotgun" and the guy in the turret gunning) won't start. Apparently the battery is low, and needs to be jumped; out come the monster-sized cables...it still won't start. We decide that we can run the mission without this truck and start moving all our gear into the 3 remaining vehicles. Someone walks by and just on a whim tries to start it, which it does. Gear now goes back in the original vehicles, and we start moving. We're not even out the gate and another problem strikes...one of the radios isn't working properly. So we shuffle the order of trucks so that the one with the radio problem is in the middle in case something goes wrong (that way they won't get left behind on accident.) We now have 3 trucks from our infantry company and the one truck with the PA and two medics, one to drive and one to gun. We have to go back to our original base to pick up an interpreter, and drop off a sick Soldier. In the meantime, they've managed to fix the radio.
We get to the clinic in town and park the trucks so we can pull security down all the roads; since the building is on a corner, this means we can't see 2 of the other trucks. The PA does his thing, and we're turning around to head home, thinking that our day is done...here is where Murphy pulls out his masterpiece. I'm now driving the truck which is in the rear of the column, following the medic humvee driven by a guy whom I wouldn't trust to hold a spork. This guy misses the turn, and since I can't see where the other trucks are, I don't realize anything is wrong for another block. When it finally becomes apparent, we make the call over the radio and attempt to turn the truck around; the streets are too narrow, so I have my gunner back me into an alley so I can start what would have been a 3 (or more) point turn. As soon as I put the truck back in "D" it dies. Nothing is wrong with the gauges, but nothing will get this truck to restart. I'm angled about 45-degrees in the wrong direction, but the medic truck can squeeze past to get close enough to jump us. We try for half an hour to get this truck to restart, with no luck; during this time, I discover that my door will not open, but since I'm not going anywhere for the time being it doesn't pose much of a problem. Its now approaching noon, and all we want to do is get back to the base, so we decide we'll just tow it back. Would have been a good plan, with only three small hitches; A) we can't free the tow-rings on the front bumper, so we'll have to tow the truck backwards (these trucks don't have useable side mirrors and have a solid back, so no rearview mirror, either), B) the truck (already overweight because of all the armor) no longer has any power steering and C) with no power we have no AC...not even a fan to keep us cool. But hey...things might work, right?
We now have to push the truck into the street so we can hook the tow strap to the back bumper; in the meantime, we've drawn quite the crowd of civilian onlookers. We later joked that it was like a Saturday morning when your mower breaks and all of your neighbors come over to drink a beer, offer advice and stare at the broken piece of equipment. At one point, we even had some of the residents helping push the truck.
With the tow strap on, we start moving; unfortunately, my truck is still at an angle, and I almost immediately end up running into a wall...much to the merriment of the onlookers. After pushing my truck into the approximate line of travel, we try this again with some success for about 20 feet. We're now faced with our first obstacle...a tight, 90-degree corner. We made sure that the driver of the towing humvee knew to take the corner extremely slow, since I'd be trying this "dead stick." Apparently, he thought slow meant "go as fast as you can," since thats what he did. High school physics teaches that any heavy object in tow tends to take a wider arc than whatever is pulling it, and thats exactly what we did. Physics also says that an object will stay in motion until acted upon by another force; for me, that other force was a wall, which acted with great force to bring us to an abrupt halt. During our brief but wild ride my gunner (who is giving me directions, since we're facing backwards) is yelling for me to turn, and eventually just hangs on for dear life; he later said that the instructions were more for his benefit than mine, and that he could have said anything but it wouldn't have mattered. For the second time in 5 minutes I've hit a wall; since its on the right side of the vehicle no one can get out to see whats going on. After much exclaiming and threatening of grievous bodily harm to the driver towing me, he finally bumps us off the wall enough that I can get straightened out on the road. As we try this once again, we scream over the radio that if the driver doesn't take it slow around this next corner he would soon find himself as the next visual aid for our internal anatomy classes.
After successfully negotiating this corner we have a stretch of road approximately a kilometer long, so all I have to do is keep the truck in the middle of the road. It is at this point that the temperature inside the truck is now approaching 150 degrees, and we still have a long way back to base. The next obstacle is the fact that the intersection where we need to turn is a giant sinkhole, negotiable only on one side but that safe path has a giant dip approximately 5 feet deep; the sinkhole also adds to the problem that to go left we first must turn right to circumvent this lurking disaster. This is the corner the driver should have flogged the truck for all its worth, but instead he took it slow; the result: my truck coming to rest at the bottom of the dip. After many attempts and further threats, we're finally pulled clear; however, the driver of the towing humvee stopped without announcing his intention and we promptly slammed into him, further invoking the wrath of all occupants of my truck. My humvee is now facing the base, so the truck that was previously towing us can now push us the remaining .5km back to base. The logical method would be to slowly make contact, and then once the trucks are bumper-to-bumper begin to push; he instead opted for the "slam into the backend...over and over and over" method, even though by this point we were screaming at him over the radio how he needed to be driving. Besides being a bone-jarring ride, this also presented a problem as we approached the gate to the base. We have barriers set up in a serpentine fashion so that no one can simply ram the gate at full speed; the problem is that at every turn the Bradleys have started digging more dips (like the one at the intersection we just negotiated.) After being slammed into, we don't have the requisite momentum to make it up the far side of the dip; his answer: take a running start and hit us harder! We finally made it to the motorpool where the mechanics could attempt to fix our broken and battered humvee, where we actually had something go right for the first time in hours...my door opened on the first try. Unfortunately, after I peeled myself out of the truck I was immediately greeted by the driver of the tow/ram humvee who's first words were "That wasn't my fault you hit that wall...it was yours." If only looks could kill...
Besides that little adventure, things continue to go well. We're constantly seeing improvements made throughout our town; bridges have been repaired to accomodate vehicles, new businesses have begun to open up along the river, the city government has become more self-sufficient, and the IP's have earned more trust from the residents (enough trust that they are now receiving tips from locals regarding possible insurgent hideouts and weapons caches.) This once very dangerous town has really started to turn itself around.
I hope you got a laugh out of Murphy's latest escapade, I know we sure did though not for several hours afterwards. Just goes to show that all the planning in the world can't stop Murphy's Law.
All the best,
Troy
The day started off straight-forward enough; our mission was to escort the Physician's Assistant (PA) to a clinic in town and let him do his thing, which essentially means that we were his private taxi service.
When we prepped the vehicles, the only thing apparent was that one truck was low on fuel but had plenty to make the trip to Camp Hit where we were to pick up the PA. Once on the base, we were able to fill up the truck without much difficulty. This is where things stopped going our way.
After the PA showed up with a medic humvee, we all piled back in the vehicles to take off...the truck I'm driving (which has one person riding "shotgun" and the guy in the turret gunning) won't start. Apparently the battery is low, and needs to be jumped; out come the monster-sized cables...it still won't start. We decide that we can run the mission without this truck and start moving all our gear into the 3 remaining vehicles. Someone walks by and just on a whim tries to start it, which it does. Gear now goes back in the original vehicles, and we start moving. We're not even out the gate and another problem strikes...one of the radios isn't working properly. So we shuffle the order of trucks so that the one with the radio problem is in the middle in case something goes wrong (that way they won't get left behind on accident.) We now have 3 trucks from our infantry company and the one truck with the PA and two medics, one to drive and one to gun. We have to go back to our original base to pick up an interpreter, and drop off a sick Soldier. In the meantime, they've managed to fix the radio.
We get to the clinic in town and park the trucks so we can pull security down all the roads; since the building is on a corner, this means we can't see 2 of the other trucks. The PA does his thing, and we're turning around to head home, thinking that our day is done...here is where Murphy pulls out his masterpiece. I'm now driving the truck which is in the rear of the column, following the medic humvee driven by a guy whom I wouldn't trust to hold a spork. This guy misses the turn, and since I can't see where the other trucks are, I don't realize anything is wrong for another block. When it finally becomes apparent, we make the call over the radio and attempt to turn the truck around; the streets are too narrow, so I have my gunner back me into an alley so I can start what would have been a 3 (or more) point turn. As soon as I put the truck back in "D" it dies. Nothing is wrong with the gauges, but nothing will get this truck to restart. I'm angled about 45-degrees in the wrong direction, but the medic truck can squeeze past to get close enough to jump us. We try for half an hour to get this truck to restart, with no luck; during this time, I discover that my door will not open, but since I'm not going anywhere for the time being it doesn't pose much of a problem. Its now approaching noon, and all we want to do is get back to the base, so we decide we'll just tow it back. Would have been a good plan, with only three small hitches; A) we can't free the tow-rings on the front bumper, so we'll have to tow the truck backwards (these trucks don't have useable side mirrors and have a solid back, so no rearview mirror, either), B) the truck (already overweight because of all the armor) no longer has any power steering and C) with no power we have no AC...not even a fan to keep us cool. But hey...things might work, right?
We now have to push the truck into the street so we can hook the tow strap to the back bumper; in the meantime, we've drawn quite the crowd of civilian onlookers. We later joked that it was like a Saturday morning when your mower breaks and all of your neighbors come over to drink a beer, offer advice and stare at the broken piece of equipment. At one point, we even had some of the residents helping push the truck.
With the tow strap on, we start moving; unfortunately, my truck is still at an angle, and I almost immediately end up running into a wall...much to the merriment of the onlookers. After pushing my truck into the approximate line of travel, we try this again with some success for about 20 feet. We're now faced with our first obstacle...a tight, 90-degree corner. We made sure that the driver of the towing humvee knew to take the corner extremely slow, since I'd be trying this "dead stick." Apparently, he thought slow meant "go as fast as you can," since thats what he did. High school physics teaches that any heavy object in tow tends to take a wider arc than whatever is pulling it, and thats exactly what we did. Physics also says that an object will stay in motion until acted upon by another force; for me, that other force was a wall, which acted with great force to bring us to an abrupt halt. During our brief but wild ride my gunner (who is giving me directions, since we're facing backwards) is yelling for me to turn, and eventually just hangs on for dear life; he later said that the instructions were more for his benefit than mine, and that he could have said anything but it wouldn't have mattered. For the second time in 5 minutes I've hit a wall; since its on the right side of the vehicle no one can get out to see whats going on. After much exclaiming and threatening of grievous bodily harm to the driver towing me, he finally bumps us off the wall enough that I can get straightened out on the road. As we try this once again, we scream over the radio that if the driver doesn't take it slow around this next corner he would soon find himself as the next visual aid for our internal anatomy classes.
After successfully negotiating this corner we have a stretch of road approximately a kilometer long, so all I have to do is keep the truck in the middle of the road. It is at this point that the temperature inside the truck is now approaching 150 degrees, and we still have a long way back to base. The next obstacle is the fact that the intersection where we need to turn is a giant sinkhole, negotiable only on one side but that safe path has a giant dip approximately 5 feet deep; the sinkhole also adds to the problem that to go left we first must turn right to circumvent this lurking disaster. This is the corner the driver should have flogged the truck for all its worth, but instead he took it slow; the result: my truck coming to rest at the bottom of the dip. After many attempts and further threats, we're finally pulled clear; however, the driver of the towing humvee stopped without announcing his intention and we promptly slammed into him, further invoking the wrath of all occupants of my truck. My humvee is now facing the base, so the truck that was previously towing us can now push us the remaining .5km back to base. The logical method would be to slowly make contact, and then once the trucks are bumper-to-bumper begin to push; he instead opted for the "slam into the backend...over and over and over" method, even though by this point we were screaming at him over the radio how he needed to be driving. Besides being a bone-jarring ride, this also presented a problem as we approached the gate to the base. We have barriers set up in a serpentine fashion so that no one can simply ram the gate at full speed; the problem is that at every turn the Bradleys have started digging more dips (like the one at the intersection we just negotiated.) After being slammed into, we don't have the requisite momentum to make it up the far side of the dip; his answer: take a running start and hit us harder! We finally made it to the motorpool where the mechanics could attempt to fix our broken and battered humvee, where we actually had something go right for the first time in hours...my door opened on the first try. Unfortunately, after I peeled myself out of the truck I was immediately greeted by the driver of the tow/ram humvee who's first words were "That wasn't my fault you hit that wall...it was yours." If only looks could kill...
Besides that little adventure, things continue to go well. We're constantly seeing improvements made throughout our town; bridges have been repaired to accomodate vehicles, new businesses have begun to open up along the river, the city government has become more self-sufficient, and the IP's have earned more trust from the residents (enough trust that they are now receiving tips from locals regarding possible insurgent hideouts and weapons caches.) This once very dangerous town has really started to turn itself around.
I hope you got a laugh out of Murphy's latest escapade, I know we sure did though not for several hours afterwards. Just goes to show that all the planning in the world can't stop Murphy's Law.
All the best,
Troy
Wanted to share some pics with everyone.
Pic 1: These are the type of choppers that we flew on from Al Asad (the air base) to Camp Hit. They're big, which may be tough to determine from the pic. We had about 30 people plus all of our baggage per chopper.
2: This is a typical street towards the edge of town. The pic was taken through the window of my humvee, which is why it looks like it was taken with a dirty lense. The buildings that face the road are all little shops, selling everything from candy and sodas to food and car parts.
3: While we were out on a mounted mission some of us dismounted to talk with the locals and make sure we could get the trucks around corners. This kid came up to us and started talking, even though we had no idea what he was saying. I gave my camera to the gunner in my truck and told him to take a bunch of pics; this was my favorite that he got.
4: We hit the wall they're looking at; hence us being out on foot making sure we could get the trucks around the corners. There wasn't much damage done to the wall, just a little plaster broken off.
5: Taken from a high point in the city while we were out on a foot patrol. Gives a little idea of what the town looks like.
I'll keep taking pics, and eventually I'll have time to resize them so I can send them out.
Enjoy!
Troy
7 may 2007
Hey
I've been trying to write again for the last couple of weeks, but haven't had the time to sit down and write another update. Things around here have really gotten busy, and it doesn't appear that this will be changing any time soon. Our schedule has changed again, as well. My schedule used to be 6 days of missions, followed by 3 days of stand-by for QRF because the rest of our platoon was on guard duty. Normally, QRF wasn't called that much, so those 3 days were a chance for us to rest. Now they have changed it so that there isn't 3 days of straight guard duty, its all mixed in with the other rotations. This means that we have three 3-day rotations, all of which run missions.
So far the only time that this has really been rough was when we're on the QRF rotation. The standard for us is that at any time of the day or night, we have to have a team of guys out in the Bradley ready to roll (meaning full battle-rattle, etc) within 5 minutes of the call. "The call" is someone from the command center grabbing a bull-horn and screaming up the stairwell "QRF, QRF, QRF!!!" Usually its just a drill, though occasionally we'll actually roll out on something. If on the drill we don't make the 5-minute mark, the drill doesn't count, and we can usually expect to be woken up in the middle of the night for another one. QRF switches between the squads in my platoon so the guys aren't on QRF for more than a day out of the rotation. QRF also has the job of doing a mounted patrol every morning sometime around 5-6am. This can make for some very short nights, and very early mornings; this is especially true when we have a late mission the previous night, a QRF drill at 2am or so, and the patrol at 5:30am.
As I stated when I started this email, its now 2 days after I had enough time to start this email, and I now have a couple more minutes to write. I'm hoping not to be called away, though the likelihood of this is slim to none.
Over the last couple of weeks since I last wrote I have broken the "100 mission mark." As of right now I think I'm sitting somewhere around 120 and always climbing, thanks to our new schedule and high operations-tempo (op-tempo for short).
They say the summer always shows an increase in insurgent activity, and it seems this place is no different. I don't know if this is actually the case, or that our intelligence unit now has so many more contacts that we're learning about things that have been going on without our knowledge. Either way, we've certainly been busy.
The weather has gotten dramatically warmer, and in just a few days. We had been in the 70's and 80's for a couple weeks, had two days in the 90's and its been well over 100 for almost the last week. The humidity isn't nearly that of coastal Georgia where we are stationed, but is considerably higher than the rest of Iraq due to our proximity to the Euphrates. Earlier today I was at the big base, "Camp Hit," down the road less than 10 miles, and the humidity is almost nothing out there. Its incredible the change just a few miles can make. Our concern now is to get everyones air conditioning working; many of the units in the Soldiers rooms don't work, including the one in the aid station. They say we're supposed to get a new one in the next couple of days, but I'm not holding my breath. At night it will cool down some, though the aid station acts as an insulator and keeps the room temp right about 90, much warmer than any of us would like.
Our trip to Camp Hit this morning was to get our humvee's A/C filled with Freon. The mechanics aren't sure how long it will last, but for now at least they blow air that is somewhat cooler than it used to be. We think they may keep the inside of the trucks around 110, which is much better than what they had been. Thankfully we haven't had to use the Bradleys in a while, which is nice because they don't have any A/C, just a fan in the back.
On top of the weather, we've been dealing with some sort of viral stomach bug for the last several weeks. I think we're finally on the trailing end of it, which is definitely a cause for celebration. None of the medics were affected by it, but we had plenty of Soldiers come down with it. Loperamide/Immodium was more than worth its weight in gold!!!
On several occasions, we have run missions during the day, and then been out all night as well. Right now one of the medics is in the aid station trying to grab a catnap before he has to go back out again.
A couple nights ago we were on a raid that looked promising. Several hours later, we ended up back at the same house. While this mission was wrapping up, we received a call from base that we had a follow-on mission. Apparently, the IP's found a car in town that was still running, but had no one around it. Once we wrapped up at the house, we headed across town to set up around the car to make sure no one got too close. Thinking that it might be a car bomb, our bomb squad was called out to assess the situation. After having been there for an hour, we finally got the radio call that they were leaving the big base down the road. At that point we knew we were in for a long night. After sending out their little robot, nicknamed "Johnny 5" from the movie "Short Circuit," they placed a charge to blow the trunk open. It didn't work...only the blasting cap went off. Finally they succeeded in opening the trunk, along with blowing off both rear tires. After they wrapped up, we headed back and arrived at base shortly after 6am. It had been a very long night.
We continue to do a lot of training with the IP's in town. All of them have gone through an academy, and now we provide on-going training; several times we have had civilian police officers show up and help out. Their training has included everything from the use of handcuffs, weapons training, eithics classes, to arrest and detention classes. They have been used in a lot of our operations, especially when we go on raids; all of this is building up for the eventual transfer of authority, when we step back and they take over.
On one of our last missions I think they gained a healthy amount of respect for all the gear we carried. The mission was to hit three houses at once instead of one at a time; this prevents people from running, but it also requires more people. We had a lot of IP's with us on this one, and due to the area we were operating in, it was decided we would walk there and back. We made sure the IP's were "geared up" as best as possible before we left; the walk out wasn't so bad for them, but there were more than a few that were hating the walk back. One of them had a machine gun that is similar to one we use, but it is much lighter; at first he had it resting in his arms, then across his shoulders, and at the end of the mission had it hanging in one hand as he trudged back. None of them were carrying anything close to the amount of weight we were, and they were hurtin' after that walk. Its tough though, because this is not a very physical society.
As part of our way of warning system, we use flares that are fired from a metal cylindar about 3 inches wide and about a foot long. The gunners in all the humvees have them up in the turret with them just in case. Yesterday we were rolling out on a mission just like we do any other day; we were still inside the wire when the gunners flare got loose and rolled into the truck. I saw it fall in and had enough time to realize "BAD!" The flare tumbled, then landed on the cap used to ignite the blasting cap that sparks the flare. It sounded like a bomb went off inside our truck!!! The whole truck filled with smoke as all 5 of us scrambled to get out. I was sitting behind the driver and manage to get my door open, though try as I might I could not get my left leg up enough to step out of the truck. Finally I had enough of the smoke and threw myself head-first out of the truck. Since I couldn't see at the time, I failed to notice two very important facts: A) the truck was still in drive, and rolling right along, and B) the driver had already left the truck. This meant that after I hit the ground and rolled, I immediately saw the tire coming straight for my legs; once I had again rolled myself to relative safety, I looked up to see the driver performing a near-perfect 3-legged race with the humvee as he desperately tried to hit the brake. As the truck ground to a halt, I was back on my feet running to the truck to grab my aid bag (lightly toasted, but still in good shape) and make sure the other guys were OK. Once we realized no one was hurt, we couldn't help but laugh; we must have looked clowns trying to escape their burning circus car! Nothing important was damaged in the blast or the several small fires afterwards, so we concluded that we were still able to continue with the mission...until one of the doors wouldn't close. With the up-armored humvees, each door weighs around 400 pounds and has a latching system that has to be in proper alignment to work. In this case, it had somehow gotten off track, and now wouldn't keep the door closed. With two bad occurances in less than 10 minutes, we decided it was not meant for us to go on the mission.
Last month we started sending guys on their 2-week leave; the 14 days starts when they hit the US, not when they leave here. This is a good thing because it sounds like anywhere from five to seven days until they're back on home soil; total time away from the unit is about a month because of the travel time. So far we've been able to keep up the same pace with fewer guys without much of a problem. All four of us medics will be going on leave right in a row; the first in July, and I will be the last in October. We know we're going to be extremely busy trying to cover 4 platoons with 3 medics, but we all know that it'll be worth it.
Thanks for all the letters, packages and emails I've received. I'm still working on emailing more pictures.
I need to head to a briefing for another mission,
Best wishes
Troy
I've been trying to write again for the last couple of weeks, but haven't had the time to sit down and write another update. Things around here have really gotten busy, and it doesn't appear that this will be changing any time soon. Our schedule has changed again, as well. My schedule used to be 6 days of missions, followed by 3 days of stand-by for QRF because the rest of our platoon was on guard duty. Normally, QRF wasn't called that much, so those 3 days were a chance for us to rest. Now they have changed it so that there isn't 3 days of straight guard duty, its all mixed in with the other rotations. This means that we have three 3-day rotations, all of which run missions.
So far the only time that this has really been rough was when we're on the QRF rotation. The standard for us is that at any time of the day or night, we have to have a team of guys out in the Bradley ready to roll (meaning full battle-rattle, etc) within 5 minutes of the call. "The call" is someone from the command center grabbing a bull-horn and screaming up the stairwell "QRF, QRF, QRF!!!" Usually its just a drill, though occasionally we'll actually roll out on something. If on the drill we don't make the 5-minute mark, the drill doesn't count, and we can usually expect to be woken up in the middle of the night for another one. QRF switches between the squads in my platoon so the guys aren't on QRF for more than a day out of the rotation. QRF also has the job of doing a mounted patrol every morning sometime around 5-6am. This can make for some very short nights, and very early mornings; this is especially true when we have a late mission the previous night, a QRF drill at 2am or so, and the patrol at 5:30am.
As I stated when I started this email, its now 2 days after I had enough time to start this email, and I now have a couple more minutes to write. I'm hoping not to be called away, though the likelihood of this is slim to none.
Over the last couple of weeks since I last wrote I have broken the "100 mission mark." As of right now I think I'm sitting somewhere around 120 and always climbing, thanks to our new schedule and high operations-tempo (op-tempo for short).
They say the summer always shows an increase in insurgent activity, and it seems this place is no different. I don't know if this is actually the case, or that our intelligence unit now has so many more contacts that we're learning about things that have been going on without our knowledge. Either way, we've certainly been busy.
The weather has gotten dramatically warmer, and in just a few days. We had been in the 70's and 80's for a couple weeks, had two days in the 90's and its been well over 100 for almost the last week. The humidity isn't nearly that of coastal Georgia where we are stationed, but is considerably higher than the rest of Iraq due to our proximity to the Euphrates. Earlier today I was at the big base, "Camp Hit," down the road less than 10 miles, and the humidity is almost nothing out there. Its incredible the change just a few miles can make. Our concern now is to get everyones air conditioning working; many of the units in the Soldiers rooms don't work, including the one in the aid station. They say we're supposed to get a new one in the next couple of days, but I'm not holding my breath. At night it will cool down some, though the aid station acts as an insulator and keeps the room temp right about 90, much warmer than any of us would like.
Our trip to Camp Hit this morning was to get our humvee's A/C filled with Freon. The mechanics aren't sure how long it will last, but for now at least they blow air that is somewhat cooler than it used to be. We think they may keep the inside of the trucks around 110, which is much better than what they had been. Thankfully we haven't had to use the Bradleys in a while, which is nice because they don't have any A/C, just a fan in the back.
On top of the weather, we've been dealing with some sort of viral stomach bug for the last several weeks. I think we're finally on the trailing end of it, which is definitely a cause for celebration. None of the medics were affected by it, but we had plenty of Soldiers come down with it. Loperamide/Immodium was more than worth its weight in gold!!!
On several occasions, we have run missions during the day, and then been out all night as well. Right now one of the medics is in the aid station trying to grab a catnap before he has to go back out again.
A couple nights ago we were on a raid that looked promising. Several hours later, we ended up back at the same house. While this mission was wrapping up, we received a call from base that we had a follow-on mission. Apparently, the IP's found a car in town that was still running, but had no one around it. Once we wrapped up at the house, we headed across town to set up around the car to make sure no one got too close. Thinking that it might be a car bomb, our bomb squad was called out to assess the situation. After having been there for an hour, we finally got the radio call that they were leaving the big base down the road. At that point we knew we were in for a long night. After sending out their little robot, nicknamed "Johnny 5" from the movie "Short Circuit," they placed a charge to blow the trunk open. It didn't work...only the blasting cap went off. Finally they succeeded in opening the trunk, along with blowing off both rear tires. After they wrapped up, we headed back and arrived at base shortly after 6am. It had been a very long night.
We continue to do a lot of training with the IP's in town. All of them have gone through an academy, and now we provide on-going training; several times we have had civilian police officers show up and help out. Their training has included everything from the use of handcuffs, weapons training, eithics classes, to arrest and detention classes. They have been used in a lot of our operations, especially when we go on raids; all of this is building up for the eventual transfer of authority, when we step back and they take over.
On one of our last missions I think they gained a healthy amount of respect for all the gear we carried. The mission was to hit three houses at once instead of one at a time; this prevents people from running, but it also requires more people. We had a lot of IP's with us on this one, and due to the area we were operating in, it was decided we would walk there and back. We made sure the IP's were "geared up" as best as possible before we left; the walk out wasn't so bad for them, but there were more than a few that were hating the walk back. One of them had a machine gun that is similar to one we use, but it is much lighter; at first he had it resting in his arms, then across his shoulders, and at the end of the mission had it hanging in one hand as he trudged back. None of them were carrying anything close to the amount of weight we were, and they were hurtin' after that walk. Its tough though, because this is not a very physical society.
As part of our way of warning system, we use flares that are fired from a metal cylindar about 3 inches wide and about a foot long. The gunners in all the humvees have them up in the turret with them just in case. Yesterday we were rolling out on a mission just like we do any other day; we were still inside the wire when the gunners flare got loose and rolled into the truck. I saw it fall in and had enough time to realize "BAD!" The flare tumbled, then landed on the cap used to ignite the blasting cap that sparks the flare. It sounded like a bomb went off inside our truck!!! The whole truck filled with smoke as all 5 of us scrambled to get out. I was sitting behind the driver and manage to get my door open, though try as I might I could not get my left leg up enough to step out of the truck. Finally I had enough of the smoke and threw myself head-first out of the truck. Since I couldn't see at the time, I failed to notice two very important facts: A) the truck was still in drive, and rolling right along, and B) the driver had already left the truck. This meant that after I hit the ground and rolled, I immediately saw the tire coming straight for my legs; once I had again rolled myself to relative safety, I looked up to see the driver performing a near-perfect 3-legged race with the humvee as he desperately tried to hit the brake. As the truck ground to a halt, I was back on my feet running to the truck to grab my aid bag (lightly toasted, but still in good shape) and make sure the other guys were OK. Once we realized no one was hurt, we couldn't help but laugh; we must have looked clowns trying to escape their burning circus car! Nothing important was damaged in the blast or the several small fires afterwards, so we concluded that we were still able to continue with the mission...until one of the doors wouldn't close. With the up-armored humvees, each door weighs around 400 pounds and has a latching system that has to be in proper alignment to work. In this case, it had somehow gotten off track, and now wouldn't keep the door closed. With two bad occurances in less than 10 minutes, we decided it was not meant for us to go on the mission.
Last month we started sending guys on their 2-week leave; the 14 days starts when they hit the US, not when they leave here. This is a good thing because it sounds like anywhere from five to seven days until they're back on home soil; total time away from the unit is about a month because of the travel time. So far we've been able to keep up the same pace with fewer guys without much of a problem. All four of us medics will be going on leave right in a row; the first in July, and I will be the last in October. We know we're going to be extremely busy trying to cover 4 platoons with 3 medics, but we all know that it'll be worth it.
Thanks for all the letters, packages and emails I've received. I'm still working on emailing more pictures.
I need to head to a briefing for another mission,
Best wishes
Troy
15 april 2007
Hey guys-
Haven't had much time recently to write, and since our morning mission got bumped back to 10am or so, I thought I'd write a couple lines.
Not a whole lot of celebrating on my birthday (April 1). I think the only thing I did was do my best to stay inside and avoid the sand storm. It never got too bad, as visibility was about 25 meters at the worst point. One of the guys said that it will get so bad we won't be able to see our hand in front of our face. Great. But, we should have a couple weeks still before the big storms usually hit.
I'm sure most of you have read about the Secretary of Defense extending the Active Duty Army tours in Iraq from 12 to 15 months. We found out just like many of you did; I was on the internet checking my email and saw a headline on Yahoo news about the extension. They usually try to give the military 48 hours advanced notice on stuff like that, but I guess they were worried about it leaking before the official announcement. So, we found out just like the rest of the world. The guys here have taken it in stride, as usual. I think a lot of us were expecting to be extended in some fashion, though I don't think any of us expected it to be Army-wide. As of now, we haven't received any new orders, which means that we haven't officially been extended, though we know they're coming. There hasn't been hardly any complaining, mostly because we all know its not going to do any good. A lot of guys' reaction was "Oh....well, OK. Gear up, we've got a mission in 10 minutes." Business continues as always. As with many things in the military, humor is usually a constant companion, and this is no different. One of my guys said, "We're not getting extended, they just canceled our flight in January and rescheduled for April." At least we won't have to be here for two summers!!! Looks like I'll spend both my 25th AND 26th birthdays in Iraq. Not many people can claim that one.
On one of our many foot patrols, our lieutenant came up to me and asked if I had a band aid. I looked at him a little strange and asked what was wrong. Apparently a kid had cut his finger, and the LT wanted to give him a band aid. It took my by surprise at first; here I am carrying a giant aid bag, and I don't have a single band aid on me. I have plenty of trauma dressings, gauze, needles, IV supplies and airway adjuncts...and no band aids. But then again, why would I need them? If one of my guys asked me for a band aid out on patrol I, along with the rest of the guys, would point and laugh, and pass along the age-old military words of advice: Rub some dirt in it, drink water, drive on. Its an Army thing. However, this wasn't one of my guys, so I couldn't just laugh at the kid. We went to one of our vehicles close by and dug through the first aid kit till we found band aids. I wish I would have gotten a picture; me dressing this kid's cut finger, surrounded by 50 more kids watching. We didn't have an interpreter with us, so after much gesturing and speaking very loud and very slow (by both myself and the kids) I finally found his brother and conveyed some simple instructions. I'm just hoping I don't see him in town still wearing the same band aid.
Just over a week ago things were definitely starting to warm up. It was easy to tell when you'd just gotten back from a foot patrol; the body armor we wear doesn't breathe, so it traps heat and sweat, and we end up soaked but only where we're covered with body armor. Makes for an interesting appearance. However, we were reminded that this is only April, and summer is going to be much much worse.
Several days ago I was in bed when I heard a huge boom. So I jumped out of bed and headed for my aid bag, thinking that someone had dropped a mortar into our compound. Turns out, it was a thunderstorm!!! This was something new; we'd had plenty of rain before, but never an actual thunderstorm, just like we have back in the States. A bunch of people congregated outside the main door to watch the lightning; I think for a lot of people it was a reminder of home. However, the novelty soon wore off the next morning, as everything had turned to mud and the storm showed no hint of letting up. That afternoon it finally stopped raining, but not before our entire compound (not to mention the town itself) had returned to the quagmire state we had first seen upon our arrival. Two days later, it rained again. Things continue to dry out, though they are taking their sweet time. With the rain has come cooler temperatures, though I'm not complaining. Along with the mud comes problems walking at night, as a lot of the mud will appear flat but may be waist-deep. One of my unfortunate sergeants found this out first hand. The NOD's we wear are monocles, so our depth-perception is strangely skewed, not to mention that everything is green; you can imagine that this would make walking in mud tough. We were out on foot and had to cross a rather innocuous appearing ditch. It was maybe only 3-4 feet across, but apparently his stride just wasn't long enough. I was already on the other side and heard him squelch into the mud, and then his verbal reaction (that went on for quite a while). He had sunk nearly up to his waist, and didn't look like he was going anywhere fast. We finally extricated him from the mess, and then caught a big whiff of the mud...and other substances. Needless to say he wasn't very happy for the rest of the mission.
At last count, my mission tally is right about 90, though I'm sure I've forgotten to mark a couple. I did some quick math and was thinking that I'd end up with about 500 missions at the end of our tour, but I think it will be much more than that. For starters, we're running a lot more missions than we did the first month or two we were here, not to mention our rotation has changed. It used to be 4 days of missions, then 4 days of guard. Its now changed to 6 days of missions and 3 days of guard duty. The last 3 days I've done 7 foot patrols and 3 missions in vehicles, and we still have three more days before they go on guard duty. When my guys are on guard I usually try to catch up on sleep (though that usually doesn't happen), along with repack/refit my gear. With all the foot patrols we've been on (usually lasting an hour or more) we've gotten used to the weight of all our gear; even my aid bag doesn't seem so bad now.
I've got some new pictures, and will try to get them sent out soon. They show the town a little more thoroughly than the last ones I sent.
Its late, so I should finally head to bed.
Hope all is well,
Troy
Haven't had much time recently to write, and since our morning mission got bumped back to 10am or so, I thought I'd write a couple lines.
Not a whole lot of celebrating on my birthday (April 1). I think the only thing I did was do my best to stay inside and avoid the sand storm. It never got too bad, as visibility was about 25 meters at the worst point. One of the guys said that it will get so bad we won't be able to see our hand in front of our face. Great. But, we should have a couple weeks still before the big storms usually hit.
I'm sure most of you have read about the Secretary of Defense extending the Active Duty Army tours in Iraq from 12 to 15 months. We found out just like many of you did; I was on the internet checking my email and saw a headline on Yahoo news about the extension. They usually try to give the military 48 hours advanced notice on stuff like that, but I guess they were worried about it leaking before the official announcement. So, we found out just like the rest of the world. The guys here have taken it in stride, as usual. I think a lot of us were expecting to be extended in some fashion, though I don't think any of us expected it to be Army-wide. As of now, we haven't received any new orders, which means that we haven't officially been extended, though we know they're coming. There hasn't been hardly any complaining, mostly because we all know its not going to do any good. A lot of guys' reaction was "Oh....well, OK. Gear up, we've got a mission in 10 minutes." Business continues as always. As with many things in the military, humor is usually a constant companion, and this is no different. One of my guys said, "We're not getting extended, they just canceled our flight in January and rescheduled for April." At least we won't have to be here for two summers!!! Looks like I'll spend both my 25th AND 26th birthdays in Iraq. Not many people can claim that one.
On one of our many foot patrols, our lieutenant came up to me and asked if I had a band aid. I looked at him a little strange and asked what was wrong. Apparently a kid had cut his finger, and the LT wanted to give him a band aid. It took my by surprise at first; here I am carrying a giant aid bag, and I don't have a single band aid on me. I have plenty of trauma dressings, gauze, needles, IV supplies and airway adjuncts...and no band aids. But then again, why would I need them? If one of my guys asked me for a band aid out on patrol I, along with the rest of the guys, would point and laugh, and pass along the age-old military words of advice: Rub some dirt in it, drink water, drive on. Its an Army thing. However, this wasn't one of my guys, so I couldn't just laugh at the kid. We went to one of our vehicles close by and dug through the first aid kit till we found band aids. I wish I would have gotten a picture; me dressing this kid's cut finger, surrounded by 50 more kids watching. We didn't have an interpreter with us, so after much gesturing and speaking very loud and very slow (by both myself and the kids) I finally found his brother and conveyed some simple instructions. I'm just hoping I don't see him in town still wearing the same band aid.
Just over a week ago things were definitely starting to warm up. It was easy to tell when you'd just gotten back from a foot patrol; the body armor we wear doesn't breathe, so it traps heat and sweat, and we end up soaked but only where we're covered with body armor. Makes for an interesting appearance. However, we were reminded that this is only April, and summer is going to be much much worse.
Several days ago I was in bed when I heard a huge boom. So I jumped out of bed and headed for my aid bag, thinking that someone had dropped a mortar into our compound. Turns out, it was a thunderstorm!!! This was something new; we'd had plenty of rain before, but never an actual thunderstorm, just like we have back in the States. A bunch of people congregated outside the main door to watch the lightning; I think for a lot of people it was a reminder of home. However, the novelty soon wore off the next morning, as everything had turned to mud and the storm showed no hint of letting up. That afternoon it finally stopped raining, but not before our entire compound (not to mention the town itself) had returned to the quagmire state we had first seen upon our arrival. Two days later, it rained again. Things continue to dry out, though they are taking their sweet time. With the rain has come cooler temperatures, though I'm not complaining. Along with the mud comes problems walking at night, as a lot of the mud will appear flat but may be waist-deep. One of my unfortunate sergeants found this out first hand. The NOD's we wear are monocles, so our depth-perception is strangely skewed, not to mention that everything is green; you can imagine that this would make walking in mud tough. We were out on foot and had to cross a rather innocuous appearing ditch. It was maybe only 3-4 feet across, but apparently his stride just wasn't long enough. I was already on the other side and heard him squelch into the mud, and then his verbal reaction (that went on for quite a while). He had sunk nearly up to his waist, and didn't look like he was going anywhere fast. We finally extricated him from the mess, and then caught a big whiff of the mud...and other substances. Needless to say he wasn't very happy for the rest of the mission.
At last count, my mission tally is right about 90, though I'm sure I've forgotten to mark a couple. I did some quick math and was thinking that I'd end up with about 500 missions at the end of our tour, but I think it will be much more than that. For starters, we're running a lot more missions than we did the first month or two we were here, not to mention our rotation has changed. It used to be 4 days of missions, then 4 days of guard. Its now changed to 6 days of missions and 3 days of guard duty. The last 3 days I've done 7 foot patrols and 3 missions in vehicles, and we still have three more days before they go on guard duty. When my guys are on guard I usually try to catch up on sleep (though that usually doesn't happen), along with repack/refit my gear. With all the foot patrols we've been on (usually lasting an hour or more) we've gotten used to the weight of all our gear; even my aid bag doesn't seem so bad now.
I've got some new pictures, and will try to get them sent out soon. They show the town a little more thoroughly than the last ones I sent.
Its late, so I should finally head to bed.
Hope all is well,
Troy
1 april 2007
I guess its been quite a while since I sent my last real "update" email. That may be because we've been running pretty hard these last couple of weeks.
To begin with, the platoon of our guys had to close down the "combat outpost" they had been inhabiting for the last couple of months, and move all of their stuff back here. This also included setting up defenses in a building very close to the bridge in the pictures. While they were doing that, we had to cover the rest of their missions, which meant we were working overtime. This lasted for about a week, and was just about done last weekend. This meant that we have all four medics living (or at least storing their gear) in the aid station, which is quite cramped. Once the transition was complete, we began manning the building they had fortified in town; this allowed us a presence in town without having to occupy someones house for the day.
We had a rotation set up, every other day for six days, followed by 3 days of guard here at the firm base. The idea behind switching out platoons every other day between here and the out-post seemed sound at first; however it didn't quite take into account our schedules. While out at the building we ran foot patrols several times a day, and when we rotated back here to the firm base, we were up on mission status. They split up the missions between the two squads in my platoon, but as there's only one of me, I end up going out on all the missions. This made for some long days, and some very short nights. The two squad leaders in my platoon are both crazy and love to go on foot patrols. This eventually developed into a competition of "who can go farther" or "who can stay out longer." Not that I would normally mind, but these guys were only going out half of what I was. One of our last rotations to the out post had us up at 5am, walking out (a couple mile hike), along with a patrol in the morning, afternoon and night, getting up at 5 and walking back here to the firm base. Already low on sleep, we then step onto mission rotation, and have another three missions planned for the day. Wake up at 5am again to do the same thing all over. 6 days of this gets a little tiring, and thankfully our commanders listened to us. The new rotation is still being worked out, but it should be 3 days there, 3 here, and 3 on guard. We'll see how it all works out. This last rotation put my total over 70 missions, with a lot of them on foot.
While we're at the out-post, we've been sampling the local cuisine. We were somewhat timid at first, having heard stories of the after-effects of eating their food, but now we regularly eat their food. Normally its for lunch, and we have a couple different places we frequent; we try not to go to become repetitive, so we switch shops. We usually end up buying the kabobs, which are not what we normally thing of as a kabob. They grind up the meat (we think its lamb) and after seasoning it, form it around a stick (hence the "kabob" name) and cook it. Its served on bread which is a cross between tortillas and pitas, and if we're lucky we get the sour cream/cucumber sauce, too. $5 gets enough food to split between two people, which is great.
We've slowly been making improvements both here and at our new out-post. The first improvement to the out-post was simply to sweep the floor; we ended up with a bucket of dirt off the floor. We've since installed a freezer and hung more lights, so at least we can see and keep our water cold.
Besides the events of last saturday night, things have stayed relatively quiet. During our foot patrols we normally ask some of the residents how things are going, and if they know of any insurgents in the area. We're always given the same answers; things are good, there's no insurgents, and when are we leaving? We hope they're telling the truth, but its tough to know since we always rely on our interpreter.
My Dad sent our Company Commander's letter out a couple days ago; it should give a little better idea of what life is like here than the one from our Battalion Commander. This last letter was sent a while ago, so things have changed some since then. We're still burning everything, and the smell is everywhere, but its no worse than some of the streets in town.
We've helped out with Iraqi Army recruiting, our commanders are in constant meetings with the city council, and we've delivered a lot of supplies to the school system here in town. On the list of things to accomplish is fix a bridge in town; this one just spans a drainage canal, but is tough to negotiate since there's a hole in the middle of it. We met a man in town that said he knows how to fix it, so we're trying to get that set up. One of our goals is to come up with projects that the residents can accomplish themselves, hopefully with as little assistance from us as possible.
The kids in town still see us as a parade, and will flock to the street we're on just to watch us walk past. Of course, the possibility of candy doesn't hurt, either. We've learned to be picky where we hand out candy, because if we don't we end up with a mob of 100 kids all following us asking for candy. The kids always ask for "chocolata," which we thought everyone understood. Apparently, it didn't get through to everyone. We were in town one afternoon and after passing by a particularly loud group of children, our gunner (who sits in a hole in the roof of the truck) stuck his head down and asked us "So what does chocolata mean?" We started laughing because we thought he was joking; nope, he was serious. He felt kinda sheepish after we told him.
With the warmer temperatures and amount of standing water in the area, mosquitos have now topped the list as greatest natural resource for the area; dirt has now been pushed to number 2. We're trying to treat the water around here, but its a continual, and often losing battle. Thankfully we have a lot of deet, and even more permethrin, the Army's best "kill-anything-that-flies-and-lands-on-you" spray. However, we're pretty sure this stuff would cause cancer in any lab test. They say it won't, and since the idea of malaria sounds really bad, we're taking the risk and using the spray.
There really hasn't been much that stands out over the last couple of weeks, as its all tends to blur together, especially when we're so short on sleep. Hopefully I'll get the chance to write more frequently, as that will help keep things a little more clear in my mind.
As its after 2:30am, I should get to bed.
Hope all is well!
Troy
To begin with, the platoon of our guys had to close down the "combat outpost" they had been inhabiting for the last couple of months, and move all of their stuff back here. This also included setting up defenses in a building very close to the bridge in the pictures. While they were doing that, we had to cover the rest of their missions, which meant we were working overtime. This lasted for about a week, and was just about done last weekend. This meant that we have all four medics living (or at least storing their gear) in the aid station, which is quite cramped. Once the transition was complete, we began manning the building they had fortified in town; this allowed us a presence in town without having to occupy someones house for the day.
We had a rotation set up, every other day for six days, followed by 3 days of guard here at the firm base. The idea behind switching out platoons every other day between here and the out-post seemed sound at first; however it didn't quite take into account our schedules. While out at the building we ran foot patrols several times a day, and when we rotated back here to the firm base, we were up on mission status. They split up the missions between the two squads in my platoon, but as there's only one of me, I end up going out on all the missions. This made for some long days, and some very short nights. The two squad leaders in my platoon are both crazy and love to go on foot patrols. This eventually developed into a competition of "who can go farther" or "who can stay out longer." Not that I would normally mind, but these guys were only going out half of what I was. One of our last rotations to the out post had us up at 5am, walking out (a couple mile hike), along with a patrol in the morning, afternoon and night, getting up at 5 and walking back here to the firm base. Already low on sleep, we then step onto mission rotation, and have another three missions planned for the day. Wake up at 5am again to do the same thing all over. 6 days of this gets a little tiring, and thankfully our commanders listened to us. The new rotation is still being worked out, but it should be 3 days there, 3 here, and 3 on guard. We'll see how it all works out. This last rotation put my total over 70 missions, with a lot of them on foot.
While we're at the out-post, we've been sampling the local cuisine. We were somewhat timid at first, having heard stories of the after-effects of eating their food, but now we regularly eat their food. Normally its for lunch, and we have a couple different places we frequent; we try not to go to become repetitive, so we switch shops. We usually end up buying the kabobs, which are not what we normally thing of as a kabob. They grind up the meat (we think its lamb) and after seasoning it, form it around a stick (hence the "kabob" name) and cook it. Its served on bread which is a cross between tortillas and pitas, and if we're lucky we get the sour cream/cucumber sauce, too. $5 gets enough food to split between two people, which is great.
We've slowly been making improvements both here and at our new out-post. The first improvement to the out-post was simply to sweep the floor; we ended up with a bucket of dirt off the floor. We've since installed a freezer and hung more lights, so at least we can see and keep our water cold.
Besides the events of last saturday night, things have stayed relatively quiet. During our foot patrols we normally ask some of the residents how things are going, and if they know of any insurgents in the area. We're always given the same answers; things are good, there's no insurgents, and when are we leaving? We hope they're telling the truth, but its tough to know since we always rely on our interpreter.
My Dad sent our Company Commander's letter out a couple days ago; it should give a little better idea of what life is like here than the one from our Battalion Commander. This last letter was sent a while ago, so things have changed some since then. We're still burning everything, and the smell is everywhere, but its no worse than some of the streets in town.
We've helped out with Iraqi Army recruiting, our commanders are in constant meetings with the city council, and we've delivered a lot of supplies to the school system here in town. On the list of things to accomplish is fix a bridge in town; this one just spans a drainage canal, but is tough to negotiate since there's a hole in the middle of it. We met a man in town that said he knows how to fix it, so we're trying to get that set up. One of our goals is to come up with projects that the residents can accomplish themselves, hopefully with as little assistance from us as possible.
The kids in town still see us as a parade, and will flock to the street we're on just to watch us walk past. Of course, the possibility of candy doesn't hurt, either. We've learned to be picky where we hand out candy, because if we don't we end up with a mob of 100 kids all following us asking for candy. The kids always ask for "chocolata," which we thought everyone understood. Apparently, it didn't get through to everyone. We were in town one afternoon and after passing by a particularly loud group of children, our gunner (who sits in a hole in the roof of the truck) stuck his head down and asked us "So what does chocolata mean?" We started laughing because we thought he was joking; nope, he was serious. He felt kinda sheepish after we told him.
With the warmer temperatures and amount of standing water in the area, mosquitos have now topped the list as greatest natural resource for the area; dirt has now been pushed to number 2. We're trying to treat the water around here, but its a continual, and often losing battle. Thankfully we have a lot of deet, and even more permethrin, the Army's best "kill-anything-that-flies-and-lands-on-you" spray. However, we're pretty sure this stuff would cause cancer in any lab test. They say it won't, and since the idea of malaria sounds really bad, we're taking the risk and using the spray.
There really hasn't been much that stands out over the last couple of weeks, as its all tends to blur together, especially when we're so short on sleep. Hopefully I'll get the chance to write more frequently, as that will help keep things a little more clear in my mind.
As its after 2:30am, I should get to bed.
Hope all is well!
Troy
1 april 2007
Hey-
Wanted to share a couple pictures with you guys; let you see what part of the town looks like. I know when I arrived here I had no idea what the city was going to look like, and a lot of it really surprised me.
The first picture is looking across the bridge spanning the Euphrates that we took the Bradleys across (somewhat skeptical if it would hold the weight). This is the only bridge in the area that crosses the river, so it is very important to us that it remains intact and safe. Along the Euphrates is quite a sight; first off there are actually things growing! Some of the houses along the river are amazing, and have a spectacular view. Not everyone can say their house overlooks a river believed to be one of the oldest in the world. The far bank is lined with palm groves; however, once beyond the groves, vegitation quickly dies out.
Pic #2 is looking up river towards what most of us believe are the ruins of an ancient Roman foot bridge. Iraq was part of the Roman Empire until sometime in the 8th century AD, when the spread of Islam began the collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire, and would spread as far west as Venice, North Africa and eventually parts of Spain. It is amazing to be seeing such sights, but the ruins also bring to mind an interesting question; since the ousting of the Romans, how much has actually changed? This town is a culture shock all of its own, as the people here live both in the 21st and 8th centuries; most houses have electricity, a satellite dish for cable tv, cars in the garage, and children go to school, however the people still wear the same garb as they did back then (robes and sandals), and the culture hasn't changed much since the invasion of Islam. Everywhere you look is a collision of two worlds, two very different periods of time.
Pic 3 is one of the mosques we can see from a building we occupy in town, as well as part of the street. It doesn't quite give the full picture of what the streets in town look like; most of them have much more trash.
The last pic is of the mosque right across the street from our outpost in town. This is the one that blares the "call to prayer" into our windows 5 times a day. You can see the speakers about 3/4 of the way up the spire. This pic offers a more typical view of the buildings that line the streets.
On further escapades through the city, I'll try to get some pictures that give an accurate representation of what it looks like on the streets or in the market.
Hope you enjoy a glimpse of our town!
More to follow soon,
Troy
31 march
Below is a newsletter to our Family Readiness Group (FRG) from Troy ’s B Company Commander CPT Fitch.
Tim
Another six weeks down here. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Our Company went through a RIP (Relief-in-Place) of the Company that was previously serving in Hit. The RIP consisted of a few parts. The first phase was building our combat power, getting all of our soldiers here to Firm Base 1, getting our vehicles and containers shipped here, and getting acclimated to our new home away from home. Some of the things we have had to acclimate to include the weather, our living conditions, getting used to all of the systems here (chow, showers, daily operations, etc...),and studying maps in order to better learn our new battle space. Upon our arrival, we conducted a right seat ride with A Co. 1-36 Infantry Regiment. Initially they continued operations with our leaders going on missions with them. On 5 February, we completely took charge of the AO.
Initially, our Company spent a lot of time inventorying all of the property we were taking over: HMWWVs, Sniper Rifles, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, radios, etc... Nothing glamorous, but certainly something necessary. Soldiers for the most part, spent their time improving the defenses on our bases; Firm Base 1 for 1st and 3rd platoons, and on COP-3 for 2nd Platoon. Meanwhile, the Headquarters soldiers spent time learning how to run and support the Company's day to day operations while leaders shadowed their outgoing counterparts in order to observe their tactics. The days were long, usually starting work at around 8 AM and getting to bed around 1 AM, but we knew we had a lot to learn and didn't want to waste the few days we had with the soldiers who had been on this terrain for the past year. They certainly had a lot of useful information to pass on and we incorporated that into how we would run our daily operations.
The city of Hit and the surrounding areas (Haditha, Ramadi, Fallujah) have consistently been the worst areas in the country. Yes, you hear a lot of stuff about Baghdad , but don't forget, its a city of 8 million people. Also, since the Green Zone is there, that's where all of the reporters live, since for the vast majority of reporters, they are too scared, won't, or aren't allowed to travel to most parts of the country (especially places like Hit). A/1-36 lost a large number of Bradley Fighting Vehicles here due to mostly IEDs. They also had a lot of small arms contact (AK-47s mostly), snipers, etc... All in all, not a very friendly place. Our company wasn't nervous, but we certainly knew we would find ourselves in bad situations eventually.
Initially, we were expecting a crazy time. Often, the insurgents will "test" new units by launching an unusually large number of attacks when a unit first arrives there. We prepared up for a slew of IEDs, sniper attacks, and mortars, but so far, it hasn't come. The lack of enemy activity, I believe, can be attributed to our proactive approach to things here. We had a Marine Company attached to us that discovered a large number of caches south of Hit which severely disrupted enemy activity and we just completed a large operation where we supported the IPs in clearing the city of insurgents and establishing an outer cordon to keep them out. The cordon, in conjunction with our proactive patrolling, has kept the enemy at bay for the time being.
At this point, we have been away for about 6 weeks. We have pretty much settled into our daily routines and have held down the fort. 2nd Platoon does not live with us, but they are only about a mile away and they visit every day. They are fairly self-sufficient and enjoy being on the Euphrates River . They grill their own food from time to time and return to FB1 for their fair share of supplies and meetings. Please do not worry, they do have sufficient food and water!
The soldiers here are in pretty high morale, all things considered. The food has gotten better and MRE's have not been a part of our daily diet. We are slowly improving in the cleanliness, which is difficult considering that we burn all of our trash. Furthermore, burning refuse (take on drum of refuse, add gasoline, light, and stir) 24/7 leaves a particularly unpleasant odor hanging throughout the building, and that smell never seems to go away. On the bright side though, you actually start to get used to it. The other thing that is keeping morale high is being on a Firm Base on our own. I know it sounds crazy, but I would rather be here right now than at any of the huge, plush bases in Iraq , even the ones that have Burger Kings, KBR-run chow halls, and porcelain toilets.
With all things considered, we are proud of each other and the loved ones that support our efforts. Thank you for your support. Continue to send your blessings and prayers for our same return home.
Tim
Another six weeks down here. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Our Company went through a RIP (Relief-in-Place) of the Company that was previously serving in Hit. The RIP consisted of a few parts. The first phase was building our combat power, getting all of our soldiers here to Firm Base 1, getting our vehicles and containers shipped here, and getting acclimated to our new home away from home. Some of the things we have had to acclimate to include the weather, our living conditions, getting used to all of the systems here (chow, showers, daily operations, etc...),and studying maps in order to better learn our new battle space. Upon our arrival, we conducted a right seat ride with A Co. 1-36 Infantry Regiment. Initially they continued operations with our leaders going on missions with them. On 5 February, we completely took charge of the AO.
Initially, our Company spent a lot of time inventorying all of the property we were taking over: HMWWVs, Sniper Rifles, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, radios, etc... Nothing glamorous, but certainly something necessary. Soldiers for the most part, spent their time improving the defenses on our bases; Firm Base 1 for 1st and 3rd platoons, and on COP-3 for 2nd Platoon. Meanwhile, the Headquarters soldiers spent time learning how to run and support the Company's day to day operations while leaders shadowed their outgoing counterparts in order to observe their tactics. The days were long, usually starting work at around 8 AM and getting to bed around 1 AM, but we knew we had a lot to learn and didn't want to waste the few days we had with the soldiers who had been on this terrain for the past year. They certainly had a lot of useful information to pass on and we incorporated that into how we would run our daily operations.
The city of Hit and the surrounding areas (Haditha, Ramadi, Fallujah) have consistently been the worst areas in the country. Yes, you hear a lot of stuff about Baghdad , but don't forget, its a city of 8 million people. Also, since the Green Zone is there, that's where all of the reporters live, since for the vast majority of reporters, they are too scared, won't, or aren't allowed to travel to most parts of the country (especially places like Hit). A/1-36 lost a large number of Bradley Fighting Vehicles here due to mostly IEDs. They also had a lot of small arms contact (AK-47s mostly), snipers, etc... All in all, not a very friendly place. Our company wasn't nervous, but we certainly knew we would find ourselves in bad situations eventually.
Initially, we were expecting a crazy time. Often, the insurgents will "test" new units by launching an unusually large number of attacks when a unit first arrives there. We prepared up for a slew of IEDs, sniper attacks, and mortars, but so far, it hasn't come. The lack of enemy activity, I believe, can be attributed to our proactive approach to things here. We had a Marine Company attached to us that discovered a large number of caches south of Hit which severely disrupted enemy activity and we just completed a large operation where we supported the IPs in clearing the city of insurgents and establishing an outer cordon to keep them out. The cordon, in conjunction with our proactive patrolling, has kept the enemy at bay for the time being.
At this point, we have been away for about 6 weeks. We have pretty much settled into our daily routines and have held down the fort. 2nd Platoon does not live with us, but they are only about a mile away and they visit every day. They are fairly self-sufficient and enjoy being on the Euphrates River . They grill their own food from time to time and return to FB1 for their fair share of supplies and meetings. Please do not worry, they do have sufficient food and water!
The soldiers here are in pretty high morale, all things considered. The food has gotten better and MRE's have not been a part of our daily diet. We are slowly improving in the cleanliness, which is difficult considering that we burn all of our trash. Furthermore, burning refuse (take on drum of refuse, add gasoline, light, and stir) 24/7 leaves a particularly unpleasant odor hanging throughout the building, and that smell never seems to go away. On the bright side though, you actually start to get used to it. The other thing that is keeping morale high is being on a Firm Base on our own. I know it sounds crazy, but I would rather be here right now than at any of the huge, plush bases in Iraq , even the ones that have Burger Kings, KBR-run chow halls, and porcelain toilets.
With all things considered, we are proud of each other and the loved ones that support our efforts. Thank you for your support. Continue to send your blessings and prayers for our same return home.
18 march
Ok, so this was too funny not to write home about.
I get woken up this morning around 6:30 because theres a mission and their platoon medic had been out most of the night. I took it so he could get some sleep. It was just supposed to be a patrol that normally lasts a couple hours. This was not to be.
Things started out well; we left at about 7am and stopped in town, spoke to some of the residents and gave out a bunch of candy to the kids. On our way between our second and third stops we get a call that we need to respond way to the south because another company is apparently taking some sniper fire. Ok...no problem. We roll out there and attempt to set up some security. Here's where things go wrong. While trying to position the Bradleys we have to roll through some pretty serious mud. Anyone who's gone mudding before knows not to follow in the leading vehicles tracks or else you might get high-centered and end up stuck. Apparently, the same theory applies out here as well. Cruising along in the mud, our 35-ton Bradley grinds to an abrupt halt. I'm thinking that there's no way we can get a Brad stuck...I'm wrong. No amount of rocking or steering is going to get us out of this quagmire. Figuring that this will be a simple fix, we hook our tow cable to the other vehicle and they begin to pull us out. It works...at first. We end up stuck for a second time. As they move around for a better position, they get stuck! Trying every trick we can think of succeeds only in covering a number of us in mud. So, our pride bruised, we hop on the radio and call for the wrecker. They head towards us, with the commander as well. Great. They made easy work of freeing us from the muck as this wrecker is designed to pull tanks weighing double that of a Bradley. While we had been trying to free ourselves, two more Bradleys got stuck several miles down the road. As a convoy, we all head towards the immobilized Brads. There's nothing for us to do, and at that point we'd been gone about 6 hours so we broke out the MRE's (meals ready to eat) and had lunch while we waited for the wrecker to do its job. Then we get the radio call...now the wrecker's stuck, and the track on the commander's Bradley has slipped off. All 5 of us in the back of our Brad looked up from our food and just shook our head. Yep, that figures. The wrecker has a giant winch on the front, and apparently managed to free itself, though the two Bradleys were still suck, and the track needed to be fixed on a third. Over the course of the next two and a half hours, they finally managed to unstick and fix all the vehicles, while managing to stick and free a humvee in the process. At long last we were able to return to base, slightly muddy if nothing else. All in all, 4 Bradleys (one of them twice), 1 wrecker and a humvee all ended up stuck in the mud; and that was just our company. Others from the rest of our battalion were having the same problems. We finally rolled back onto base at 3:45; eight hours and fourty-five minutes after we left that morning.
Since I left in a hurry this morning, I didn't get the chance to shave. I tried taking care of that as soon as I got back. I managed to shave half my face before the battery on my razor ran out of juice. I had to pull the razor (and a number of hairs) off my face so I could recharge it. Deciding I didn't want to walk around half-shorn, I finished with a blade and called it good.
That's been my day so far. But, if this is the worst my days will ever get, I think I'll be ok with that. However, I think I'm going to head back to the aid station and attempt to avoid any other "email worthy" incidents.
Hope all is well with everyone!!!
Troy
I get woken up this morning around 6:30 because theres a mission and their platoon medic had been out most of the night. I took it so he could get some sleep. It was just supposed to be a patrol that normally lasts a couple hours. This was not to be.
Things started out well; we left at about 7am and stopped in town, spoke to some of the residents and gave out a bunch of candy to the kids. On our way between our second and third stops we get a call that we need to respond way to the south because another company is apparently taking some sniper fire. Ok...no problem. We roll out there and attempt to set up some security. Here's where things go wrong. While trying to position the Bradleys we have to roll through some pretty serious mud. Anyone who's gone mudding before knows not to follow in the leading vehicles tracks or else you might get high-centered and end up stuck. Apparently, the same theory applies out here as well. Cruising along in the mud, our 35-ton Bradley grinds to an abrupt halt. I'm thinking that there's no way we can get a Brad stuck...I'm wrong. No amount of rocking or steering is going to get us out of this quagmire. Figuring that this will be a simple fix, we hook our tow cable to the other vehicle and they begin to pull us out. It works...at first. We end up stuck for a second time. As they move around for a better position, they get stuck! Trying every trick we can think of succeeds only in covering a number of us in mud. So, our pride bruised, we hop on the radio and call for the wrecker. They head towards us, with the commander as well. Great. They made easy work of freeing us from the muck as this wrecker is designed to pull tanks weighing double that of a Bradley. While we had been trying to free ourselves, two more Bradleys got stuck several miles down the road. As a convoy, we all head towards the immobilized Brads. There's nothing for us to do, and at that point we'd been gone about 6 hours so we broke out the MRE's (meals ready to eat) and had lunch while we waited for the wrecker to do its job. Then we get the radio call...now the wrecker's stuck, and the track on the commander's Bradley has slipped off. All 5 of us in the back of our Brad looked up from our food and just shook our head. Yep, that figures. The wrecker has a giant winch on the front, and apparently managed to free itself, though the two Bradleys were still suck, and the track needed to be fixed on a third. Over the course of the next two and a half hours, they finally managed to unstick and fix all the vehicles, while managing to stick and free a humvee in the process. At long last we were able to return to base, slightly muddy if nothing else. All in all, 4 Bradleys (one of them twice), 1 wrecker and a humvee all ended up stuck in the mud; and that was just our company. Others from the rest of our battalion were having the same problems. We finally rolled back onto base at 3:45; eight hours and fourty-five minutes after we left that morning.
Since I left in a hurry this morning, I didn't get the chance to shave. I tried taking care of that as soon as I got back. I managed to shave half my face before the battery on my razor ran out of juice. I had to pull the razor (and a number of hairs) off my face so I could recharge it. Deciding I didn't want to walk around half-shorn, I finished with a blade and called it good.
That's been my day so far. But, if this is the worst my days will ever get, I think I'll be ok with that. However, I think I'm going to head back to the aid station and attempt to avoid any other "email worthy" incidents.
Hope all is well with everyone!!!
Troy
16 march
The following newsletter is from one of the 2-7 In Commanders to the families of the Soldiers serving in Iraq .
Tim
Greetings from Camp Hit in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq ! It’s now March and we can’t believe how fast time has gone by! After spending about 2 ½ weeks completing our training in Kuwait , the Task Force moved north under the control of MAJ T.K. Kelly and CSM Sam Coston while the company commanders and I attended a counterinsurgency training course in Taji , Iraq . It was a challenging, but well executed movement and all Cottonbalers arrived safely to begin our relief in place with TF 1-36 IN near the end of January.
Just over a week later, we officially took control of the sector and your Cottonbalers began making our new home into their home and improving all our positions. We also began to engage with both the local Iraqi leaders and the Iraqi population in our area. I had many hours of discussions in dimly lit, smoke-filled rooms; drinking chai (tea) with my Iraqi counterparts from the city of Hit, the Iraqi Police, and the Iraqi Army. It became clear to us that the people of Hit wanted to take steps to improve security and that there were some potential opportunities we could exploit. The previous unit, TF 1-36 IN had worked hard to bring the situation to a point where these opportunities presented themselves. Two days before we officially took over, we conceived the basic plan for an operation where we would support the local Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) while they cleared the city of Hit of what they viewed as a relatively small number of terrorists and foreign fighters. Just 8 days after assuming control of the sector, TF 2-7 IN and our local ISF launched OPERATION SHURTA NASIR (Police Victory). The operation lasted about 4 days and addressed not only the Iraqi Police goal of killing or capturing many remaining terrorists operating in the town, but also our goal of establishing two additional police stations and several key checkpoints in and around the city of Hit . By nearly tripling the police facilities in the city and helping to design almost a “gated community” in Hit, it was our hope that they could better maintain security after the clearing operation…and as of this writing, our plan has worked.
We’re now spending our time assisting the Iraqi Police force in improving each of the new positions we seized during the operation. In order to guard against the likely insurgent counterattacks, each station or checkpoint requires considerable force protection materials in the form of sandbags for bunkers, wire to control pedestrian access, and concrete barriers to control vehicle access. Your Cottonbalers have spent a great deal of their time and energy helping gather, deliver, and place these materials to ensure the success of our Iraqi partners.
Immediately following the operation which involved a 3-day pedestrian and vehicle curfew for the 40,000 inhabitants of Hit, I met with the fledgling city council and then over 30 sheikhs representing the diverse tribal network of the city. The people were very pleased with the security situation, but naturally brought up the problems you would expect when the infrastructure of a war-torn city has been neglected for months. The city mayor and I attempted to appeal to the people to work together to clean up the town and rapidly repair the infrastructure. The next day, I suggested the city mayor, the chief of police, and I take a daylight walk through the Hit city market and then down a portion of the city’s main street to demonstrate our confidence in the city’s security situation and show the people we were a team committed to improve their quality of life. This singular event achieved results far beyond what I had imagined and truly threw everyone for a loop – including the enemy and the local population.
Word spread of the situation in Hit in the days and weeks that followed as we reached security levels which hadn’t been experienced here for nearly a year. Along with their Iraqi partners, our Soldiers now patrol the streets of Hit day and night both mounted (in vehicles) and dismounted (walking). They engage with the population everyday and are learning every street, alley, tribe, family, shop, etc. in their sectors. The terrorists have tried to rain on our parade a few times, but as of this writing, our Iraqi partners have remained strong and we take steps everyday to help them succeed. As a team, we remain on the offensive whenever possible since defending against a terrorist attack is very often futile. Instead, we’re going after their resources and making the environment unattractive to them through our joint presence, hardened facilities, ever-improving infrastructure, and the support of a population confident we’ll take care of them. Clearly, Iraqi success is our success at this point and much of our time day is spent acting as facilitators, teachers, coaches, mentors, social workers, psychiatrists, or judges for our Iraqi partners. Though their culture is much different from ours, they do have a tremendous desire to succeed and are not shrinking from the dangerous tasks they perform everyday.
Though the bulk of TF 2-7 IN is here in Hit, we have two platoons of our C Co serving with TF 3-69 AR and one platoon serving with TF 5-7 Cav – both in Ramadi. We also have a squad from B Co serving as the personal security detachment for the Brigade Commander – also in Ramadi. We keep close tabs on them and by all accounts, they’re doing great work…and, of course, you and I would expect nothing less!
As always, we appreciate the tremendous support we receive from both the Rear Detachment, led by CPT Neil Johnson and SFC Frank Miller, and the Cottonbaler Family Readiness Group. We appreciated the Valentines cards, the baked goods, and all the other “surprises” you’ve been sending our way! Thanks to all the true heroes who graciously volunteer your time and energy to take care of our Soldiers!
Before you know it, April will be upon us, and we’ll be sending our first Soldiers back home for R&R leave!
LTC Doug Crissman…Able 6
Tim
Greetings from Camp Hit in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq ! It’s now March and we can’t believe how fast time has gone by! After spending about 2 ½ weeks completing our training in Kuwait , the Task Force moved north under the control of MAJ T.K. Kelly and CSM Sam Coston while the company commanders and I attended a counterinsurgency training course in Taji , Iraq . It was a challenging, but well executed movement and all Cottonbalers arrived safely to begin our relief in place with TF 1-36 IN near the end of January.
Just over a week later, we officially took control of the sector and your Cottonbalers began making our new home into their home and improving all our positions. We also began to engage with both the local Iraqi leaders and the Iraqi population in our area. I had many hours of discussions in dimly lit, smoke-filled rooms; drinking chai (tea) with my Iraqi counterparts from the city of Hit, the Iraqi Police, and the Iraqi Army. It became clear to us that the people of Hit wanted to take steps to improve security and that there were some potential opportunities we could exploit. The previous unit, TF 1-36 IN had worked hard to bring the situation to a point where these opportunities presented themselves. Two days before we officially took over, we conceived the basic plan for an operation where we would support the local Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) while they cleared the city of Hit of what they viewed as a relatively small number of terrorists and foreign fighters. Just 8 days after assuming control of the sector, TF 2-7 IN and our local ISF launched OPERATION SHURTA NASIR (Police Victory). The operation lasted about 4 days and addressed not only the Iraqi Police goal of killing or capturing many remaining terrorists operating in the town, but also our goal of establishing two additional police stations and several key checkpoints in and around the city of Hit . By nearly tripling the police facilities in the city and helping to design almost a “gated community” in Hit, it was our hope that they could better maintain security after the clearing operation…and as of this writing, our plan has worked.
We’re now spending our time assisting the Iraqi Police force in improving each of the new positions we seized during the operation. In order to guard against the likely insurgent counterattacks, each station or checkpoint requires considerable force protection materials in the form of sandbags for bunkers, wire to control pedestrian access, and concrete barriers to control vehicle access. Your Cottonbalers have spent a great deal of their time and energy helping gather, deliver, and place these materials to ensure the success of our Iraqi partners.
Immediately following the operation which involved a 3-day pedestrian and vehicle curfew for the 40,000 inhabitants of Hit, I met with the fledgling city council and then over 30 sheikhs representing the diverse tribal network of the city. The people were very pleased with the security situation, but naturally brought up the problems you would expect when the infrastructure of a war-torn city has been neglected for months. The city mayor and I attempted to appeal to the people to work together to clean up the town and rapidly repair the infrastructure. The next day, I suggested the city mayor, the chief of police, and I take a daylight walk through the Hit city market and then down a portion of the city’s main street to demonstrate our confidence in the city’s security situation and show the people we were a team committed to improve their quality of life. This singular event achieved results far beyond what I had imagined and truly threw everyone for a loop – including the enemy and the local population.
Word spread of the situation in Hit in the days and weeks that followed as we reached security levels which hadn’t been experienced here for nearly a year. Along with their Iraqi partners, our Soldiers now patrol the streets of Hit day and night both mounted (in vehicles) and dismounted (walking). They engage with the population everyday and are learning every street, alley, tribe, family, shop, etc. in their sectors. The terrorists have tried to rain on our parade a few times, but as of this writing, our Iraqi partners have remained strong and we take steps everyday to help them succeed. As a team, we remain on the offensive whenever possible since defending against a terrorist attack is very often futile. Instead, we’re going after their resources and making the environment unattractive to them through our joint presence, hardened facilities, ever-improving infrastructure, and the support of a population confident we’ll take care of them. Clearly, Iraqi success is our success at this point and much of our time day is spent acting as facilitators, teachers, coaches, mentors, social workers, psychiatrists, or judges for our Iraqi partners. Though their culture is much different from ours, they do have a tremendous desire to succeed and are not shrinking from the dangerous tasks they perform everyday.
Though the bulk of TF 2-7 IN is here in Hit, we have two platoons of our C Co serving with TF 3-69 AR and one platoon serving with TF 5-7 Cav – both in Ramadi. We also have a squad from B Co serving as the personal security detachment for the Brigade Commander – also in Ramadi. We keep close tabs on them and by all accounts, they’re doing great work…and, of course, you and I would expect nothing less!
As always, we appreciate the tremendous support we receive from both the Rear Detachment, led by CPT Neil Johnson and SFC Frank Miller, and the Cottonbaler Family Readiness Group. We appreciated the Valentines cards, the baked goods, and all the other “surprises” you’ve been sending our way! Thanks to all the true heroes who graciously volunteer your time and energy to take care of our Soldiers!
Before you know it, April will be upon us, and we’ll be sending our first Soldiers back home for R&R leave!
LTC Doug Crissman…Able 6
15 march
Hi Everybody,
We finally finished our mission rotation, which had us all over our entire sector. For two days we were out at the IP station across the Euphrates, helping with the recruitment of new policemen. In order to get there, we had to cross the bridge in town; we had done it in humvee's but they wanted us to take Bradleys across. There's just a little bit of weight difference, even if the humvee's are up-armored. A Brad weighs in right around 35 tons...and this bridge doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence. True, the bracings and beams are all steel, but the decking itself is just sheet metal tack-welded in place. No one was looking forward to this crossing. The dismounted guys (myself included) were going to get out of the Bradley, walk across and pull security as they drove over. Being on the ground gave us a little more confidence; so much so that we were joking with the vehicle crews about making sure they wore the little arm-floaties before they tried driving over. I suggested dropping a brick on the gas pedal, sitting on the top and steering with a broom-handle. Despite our helpful suggestions, the crews decided that they would only drive with the hatches open in case they did take an unexpected dip in the Euphrates. In the end, we all made it across safely. The one thing I did notice as we walked across was that the Euphrates is a lot cleaner than I had imagined. The water is very clear, and doesn't have a brown tinge at all; in fact it looks almost turquoise. The guys that had been over before had all told us how dirty the Tigris was up near Tikrit, and I think most of us were expecting the Euphrates to follow suit. However, it is very clean looking, though this may be because it is larger and faster flowing than the Tigris. Every time we crossed you could see people along the bank fishing, and near the bridge was a large flock of what appeared to be Coot.
Once safely on the other side we went to work; the infantry guys set up their security, and I went inside the compound to see about the days events. Turns out they needed another medic to help with applicant physicals; let me tell you...that was something else. Most of the applicants appeared healthy, but that didn't lessen my concerns about tuberculosis. In addition to having almost no personal hygiene, dentistry is still slow to catch on over here. Most of their breath could have cut through a bank vault. Our physical was pretty basic; check muscle strength, eye movement, pulse at rest and after exertion, and (with some trepidation) lung sounds. Most were clear, though a couple made us wish we had a portable x-ray machine at hand; but since no one had a coughing fit, we felt (relatively) certain we'll be ok. After their physical the applicants went on to a physical fitness test; it wasn't too tough as this was just to determine if they would be accepted into the police academy. I think it was only 20 push-ups, 20 sit-ups and they had them run about 100 meters. It became immediately apparent that this is not a very physical society. There were a handful of surprises, though, as two or three of the applicants actually outran the Soldiers giving the test. Day two was much of the same, though I stayed with my guys outside on security. It always amazes me the different ways with which we keep ourselves entertained; debates over which superhero could beat the others, faults in movies we've seen, practical jokes, our plans for the future, and always stories from home. Out here, being easily amused is a virtue; especially if for the next 8 hours you'll be staring at the same stretch of road.
At first I was wondering how many people would show up to apply, but I needn't have wondered too long. There were so many applicants that we closed the gates early both days. They had filled the quota for the next class of the police academy with no problems. It was nice to see that the applicants all looked eager to be there. This may have been the fact that if accepted they would have a shot at a steady paycheck, but I'm hoping that they also were there because they want to help out their own country. Most of the residents we talk to in town sound like they trust the IP's, though we have found a couple that have had bad experiences. We're hoping to instill in them a sense of pride and integrity so that when we leave the whole system doesn't corrupt and fall apart. There is still a lot of work to be done, though. Progress is being made, though it is slow and tedious.
During the days we weren't helping at the IP station, we went for a couple foot patrols through the town. We usually hit part of the markets in town, which gives the commanders a chance to speak the the shop owners and purchase a couple items. On the last one they found a candy shop and spent a good deal of time "keeping up relations with the locals," i.e. buying a bunch of candy for cheap. Of course, we didn't know about this until later as all the joes (lower enlisted Soldiers) were on the street pulling security. The only thing we knew was that they were in a shop and took way too long, especially as this was during the warmest part of the day. We still managed to have some fun of our own; by pantomiming drinking to the owner of a shop, we had cool beverages run across the street to us by his little boy. We gave him a couple dollars and on his return trip one of my guys gave him a candy bar as well. This area of town seems much more "American-friendly" than some of the others.
At night we walk the streets again, this time knocking on doors and speaking to some of the residents. This is to get an idea of how the population feels about us, about the IP's and IA's, if they have any complaints or if anything needs to be resolved, and also to see if they know of any insurgent activity. They've usually been welcoming, and in several houses we've met people who speak English quite well. Our patrol last night had us walking across our entire sector; it wasn't too bad last night, but its not going to be fun after it gets really hot. We stopped at one house right on the banks of the Euphrates; it was nice even by our standards. Not many people can say their house looks out over one of the oldest rivers in the world. When we entered the courtyard there were 3 guys down at the rivers edge fishing and they wanted to show us their catch; its hard to tell what kind they were under night-vision, but they looked kind of like bass. I think they had 8 or 9 fish when they left. On our way back we walked through one of the markets so we don't take the same route back. In one place some of the residents had strung a volleyball net across the street and had a large game going. Its very apparent that this is a family-oriented society, and everyone in the neighborhood hangs out together in the evenings. We always surprise these groups because we try not to make much noise, and since we use night-vision we don't need flashlights; the end result is us appearing out of the shadows and causing a brief interruption of their game. As soon as we pass we heard the game start right back up, though.
After walking the town for hours we finally got back to base. Most of us had just dropped our gear and grabbed a Gatorade when we heard gun fire in the distance. This isn't uncommon, but when it kept going we realized something was up. Without even knowing what was going on we just threw our gear back on and headed to the Bradleys. (We may have been on foot for the patrol, but we knew we would take the Brads on this one.) After we loaded up we got the radio call that one of the IP stations had gotten attacked. We rolled out and took a house by the IP station; by this time the firing had ended, and we were there in case they came back or if we learned where they had gone. Apparently this house had been hosting a tupperware party or something as there were almost 30 people there. As soon as we had secured the house one of the guys (in broken English and gestures) told me he needed to go to his house because his wife was there with their baby. Why it was so important that he leave right then I never understood, after all he left her there. But in the end we escorted him and his 2 boys home which was only 4 houses down the street. By the time another Soldier and I got back from our escort trip, we were told to head to the IP station to take pics of any bullet holes in the building. I think there may have been 10. Its obvious that there was a lot more outgoing rounds than there were incoming, especially since we listened to most of the "fire fight" and it sounded like WW III had just begun. (My guess is that a couple people had taken some pot-shots at the station, and everyone in the building had returned fire.) After another hour of driving around town and securing deserted stretches of road, we were finally ordered back to base for the night.
Even though I'm off our mission rotation I'm still going out for a 24+ hr mission sometime today. We're running concurrent missions, which means for a while we're going to get even less down time. One of us has to go on the OP, and we'll have another medic out with the patrols and raids. Its not too bad, as I'd rather be out on a mission than sitting here doing nothing. If there are kids in this house they're going to make out pretty well, as I've received several bags of candy in the mail. The resiliency of the children never ceases to amaze me; these children have learned of war not through movies or tv or video games, but with their own eyes, living through it in their own town, often in their own homes. And still they smile. Hope is a powerful weapon.
Time for dinner, and after that I need to pack my gear for tonight. Since its starting to warm up I'm sure we'll be carrying more and more water as the summer drags on.
Thanks for all the emails and packages!
Be back in a couple of days,
Troy
We finally finished our mission rotation, which had us all over our entire sector. For two days we were out at the IP station across the Euphrates, helping with the recruitment of new policemen. In order to get there, we had to cross the bridge in town; we had done it in humvee's but they wanted us to take Bradleys across. There's just a little bit of weight difference, even if the humvee's are up-armored. A Brad weighs in right around 35 tons...and this bridge doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence. True, the bracings and beams are all steel, but the decking itself is just sheet metal tack-welded in place. No one was looking forward to this crossing. The dismounted guys (myself included) were going to get out of the Bradley, walk across and pull security as they drove over. Being on the ground gave us a little more confidence; so much so that we were joking with the vehicle crews about making sure they wore the little arm-floaties before they tried driving over. I suggested dropping a brick on the gas pedal, sitting on the top and steering with a broom-handle. Despite our helpful suggestions, the crews decided that they would only drive with the hatches open in case they did take an unexpected dip in the Euphrates. In the end, we all made it across safely. The one thing I did notice as we walked across was that the Euphrates is a lot cleaner than I had imagined. The water is very clear, and doesn't have a brown tinge at all; in fact it looks almost turquoise. The guys that had been over before had all told us how dirty the Tigris was up near Tikrit, and I think most of us were expecting the Euphrates to follow suit. However, it is very clean looking, though this may be because it is larger and faster flowing than the Tigris. Every time we crossed you could see people along the bank fishing, and near the bridge was a large flock of what appeared to be Coot.
Once safely on the other side we went to work; the infantry guys set up their security, and I went inside the compound to see about the days events. Turns out they needed another medic to help with applicant physicals; let me tell you...that was something else. Most of the applicants appeared healthy, but that didn't lessen my concerns about tuberculosis. In addition to having almost no personal hygiene, dentistry is still slow to catch on over here. Most of their breath could have cut through a bank vault. Our physical was pretty basic; check muscle strength, eye movement, pulse at rest and after exertion, and (with some trepidation) lung sounds. Most were clear, though a couple made us wish we had a portable x-ray machine at hand; but since no one had a coughing fit, we felt (relatively) certain we'll be ok. After their physical the applicants went on to a physical fitness test; it wasn't too tough as this was just to determine if they would be accepted into the police academy. I think it was only 20 push-ups, 20 sit-ups and they had them run about 100 meters. It became immediately apparent that this is not a very physical society. There were a handful of surprises, though, as two or three of the applicants actually outran the Soldiers giving the test. Day two was much of the same, though I stayed with my guys outside on security. It always amazes me the different ways with which we keep ourselves entertained; debates over which superhero could beat the others, faults in movies we've seen, practical jokes, our plans for the future, and always stories from home. Out here, being easily amused is a virtue; especially if for the next 8 hours you'll be staring at the same stretch of road.
At first I was wondering how many people would show up to apply, but I needn't have wondered too long. There were so many applicants that we closed the gates early both days. They had filled the quota for the next class of the police academy with no problems. It was nice to see that the applicants all looked eager to be there. This may have been the fact that if accepted they would have a shot at a steady paycheck, but I'm hoping that they also were there because they want to help out their own country. Most of the residents we talk to in town sound like they trust the IP's, though we have found a couple that have had bad experiences. We're hoping to instill in them a sense of pride and integrity so that when we leave the whole system doesn't corrupt and fall apart. There is still a lot of work to be done, though. Progress is being made, though it is slow and tedious.
During the days we weren't helping at the IP station, we went for a couple foot patrols through the town. We usually hit part of the markets in town, which gives the commanders a chance to speak the the shop owners and purchase a couple items. On the last one they found a candy shop and spent a good deal of time "keeping up relations with the locals," i.e. buying a bunch of candy for cheap. Of course, we didn't know about this until later as all the joes (lower enlisted Soldiers) were on the street pulling security. The only thing we knew was that they were in a shop and took way too long, especially as this was during the warmest part of the day. We still managed to have some fun of our own; by pantomiming drinking to the owner of a shop, we had cool beverages run across the street to us by his little boy. We gave him a couple dollars and on his return trip one of my guys gave him a candy bar as well. This area of town seems much more "American-friendly" than some of the others.
At night we walk the streets again, this time knocking on doors and speaking to some of the residents. This is to get an idea of how the population feels about us, about the IP's and IA's, if they have any complaints or if anything needs to be resolved, and also to see if they know of any insurgent activity. They've usually been welcoming, and in several houses we've met people who speak English quite well. Our patrol last night had us walking across our entire sector; it wasn't too bad last night, but its not going to be fun after it gets really hot. We stopped at one house right on the banks of the Euphrates; it was nice even by our standards. Not many people can say their house looks out over one of the oldest rivers in the world. When we entered the courtyard there were 3 guys down at the rivers edge fishing and they wanted to show us their catch; its hard to tell what kind they were under night-vision, but they looked kind of like bass. I think they had 8 or 9 fish when they left. On our way back we walked through one of the markets so we don't take the same route back. In one place some of the residents had strung a volleyball net across the street and had a large game going. Its very apparent that this is a family-oriented society, and everyone in the neighborhood hangs out together in the evenings. We always surprise these groups because we try not to make much noise, and since we use night-vision we don't need flashlights; the end result is us appearing out of the shadows and causing a brief interruption of their game. As soon as we pass we heard the game start right back up, though.
After walking the town for hours we finally got back to base. Most of us had just dropped our gear and grabbed a Gatorade when we heard gun fire in the distance. This isn't uncommon, but when it kept going we realized something was up. Without even knowing what was going on we just threw our gear back on and headed to the Bradleys. (We may have been on foot for the patrol, but we knew we would take the Brads on this one.) After we loaded up we got the radio call that one of the IP stations had gotten attacked. We rolled out and took a house by the IP station; by this time the firing had ended, and we were there in case they came back or if we learned where they had gone. Apparently this house had been hosting a tupperware party or something as there were almost 30 people there. As soon as we had secured the house one of the guys (in broken English and gestures) told me he needed to go to his house because his wife was there with their baby. Why it was so important that he leave right then I never understood, after all he left her there. But in the end we escorted him and his 2 boys home which was only 4 houses down the street. By the time another Soldier and I got back from our escort trip, we were told to head to the IP station to take pics of any bullet holes in the building. I think there may have been 10. Its obvious that there was a lot more outgoing rounds than there were incoming, especially since we listened to most of the "fire fight" and it sounded like WW III had just begun. (My guess is that a couple people had taken some pot-shots at the station, and everyone in the building had returned fire.) After another hour of driving around town and securing deserted stretches of road, we were finally ordered back to base for the night.
Even though I'm off our mission rotation I'm still going out for a 24+ hr mission sometime today. We're running concurrent missions, which means for a while we're going to get even less down time. One of us has to go on the OP, and we'll have another medic out with the patrols and raids. Its not too bad, as I'd rather be out on a mission than sitting here doing nothing. If there are kids in this house they're going to make out pretty well, as I've received several bags of candy in the mail. The resiliency of the children never ceases to amaze me; these children have learned of war not through movies or tv or video games, but with their own eyes, living through it in their own town, often in their own homes. And still they smile. Hope is a powerful weapon.
Time for dinner, and after that I need to pack my gear for tonight. Since its starting to warm up I'm sure we'll be carrying more and more water as the summer drags on.
Thanks for all the emails and packages!
Be back in a couple of days,
Troy
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