one heck of a week

Hi Everybody
So no pictures in this update, though I promise I'm working on them. This week was incredibly busy; my platoon was up on the rotation for missions, which meant any missions that were assigned, I rolled out on, as well as having to respond to the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) too. QRF rolls for anything that happens in the city, such as shootings, IED explosions, and anytime we get info on where one of the high-priority bad guys are; generally when things go bad and they might want a medic around.
So, Sunday night we're supposed to have a raid looking for one of the head bad guys' driver, but the air was "red" meaning that we had no air support, so the mission got scrubbed till further notice; this just meant that we were up till about 2am waiting. I had a mounted patrol (in the back of the Bradleys) making sure everyone knew that we were still in town. Kind of hard to miss a giant armored vehicle, but hey...why not? Monday night we had a walking patrol; no Bradley, just a 9 infantry guys and I out strolling through town. This was definitely an exciting time; I'd never been on foot in town, so this was my first chance to really see what this town looked like, though most of the time we're looking down alleys and scanning rooftops making sure no one is going to shoot at us. But, it was night, and we have night-vision goggles, and the bad guys don't. We own the night, and they know that, so very little happens on these patrols. Still, doesn't mean the adrenaline isn't pumping. We went out about a mile from base and took over a house. Almost all of the houses have courtyards, so our first obstacle is getting through the gate; if we can't pick it from the outside, we toss over the lightest guy and have him unlock it from the inside. From there, we hit the door and take the house. This usually comes as a bit of a surprise for the residents, who at the time are sleeping. In charge a squad of heavily armed Soldiers, and proceed to occupy the house. After the house is clear of weapons, we set up observation points, generally on the roof, and watch the roadways, making sure no one is out doing anything stupid. Turns out, stupidity was running pretty low this week, and nothing happened. So, after scaring the snot out of a household, we thank them for their time, give them a couple dollars, and head on back to base. Not so bad, except that we still have to walk there, at night in a hostile city. We're quiet...very quiet, but there's one kicker; at night the city is full of dogs, and they all bark as we pass, generally letting everyone know exactly where we are. We can't shoot them as that would make even more noise, and the carcass is an easy spot to hide IED's. Talk about a Catch-22. We're still thinking of creative ways to solve this little problem. Walking with night vision isn't as easy as one would assume; we focus them for distance so we can see whats out there, but this leaves anything up close blurry....like the ground. I'd gotten pretty good at figuring out what was solid and what I needed to avoid, except for one spot. I was walking down a small bank, and everything looked solid; turns out I was wrong. I promptly sink my boot into muck almost as deep as my boot is tall, nearly falling on my face in the process. The last guy in the stack, my platoon sergeant, snickers and pulls me free of the quagmire. I'm sure I'll catch all kinds of grief for this back on base, but for now, silence is the name of the game. As soon as we got back to base, I was told QRF was rolling out to some big fire-fight in the city; this was news to us, as we had just returned and didn't hear anything like that. We heard some sporadic bursts, but nothing that would qualify as a sustained gun battle. Turns out it was nothing, but I still didn't get to bed till after 4am.
Up at 6:45, its now Tuesday, for pre-mission gear checks before we roll out for an Area of Operations (AO) patrol; generally making sure no bombs have been planted in the roads since we were last there. However, this mission was scrubbed as well. I would have gone back to bed, except that now people are coming into the aid station cause they're sick and its tough to sleep. I wouldn't have gotten much sleep anyway, as we got called out on QRF shortly after that. They got passed some info regarding the whereabouts of one of the guys they're trying hard to apprehend. So, into the Bradleys we go and race off into town. As usual, the info was about 5 minutes too old, and they had already left. We did, however, get to see the Iraqi Police (IP) in action, and it seems as though they know their stuff. Hopefully they'll be taking more responsibility in town, and we'll be doing less and less. Thats the plan, at least. So, after trying to track this guy down unsucessfully, we returned to base empty handed. For the rest of the evening we plan for and rehearse our upcoming raid late that night. There are two houses we're supposed to be taking down; both are supposed to harbor known terrorists, and we're hoping to catch them while we're sleeping. After rehearsing the plan ad nauseum, we're told to be back, fully geared in just over two hours; that equates to about an hour of time to sleep. Back up, blurry-eyed and ready to get this over with, we load into the Brads and descend on these houses. Only two occupants total, though there was enough incriminating evidence to detain them both. At the time I thought the old guy was going to have a heart attack, which would have made my life very interesting, but he eventually calmed down, and we took them back to one of the bases. After standing around at the base long enough to watch the sun climb well over the horizon, our commander had finally filled out enough paperwork to turn them over, as well as killing several large trees.
Its now Wednesday morning, and we got back to our base just in time to keep the cooks from tossing out the last of what was left of breakfast. Around 11 I finally crawled into bed to catch a couple hours of sleep; I think I got 3. My boss decides that we're going to clean the aid station; clean the shelves, reorganize our supplies, reseal the cracks in the windows and walls as best we can, and try to make it appear like an actual aid station. This was, is, and will always be a work in progress. However, after 5 hours or so of kicking up a giant dust cloud, we managed to make the place look respectable; as for now, we're just trying to steal some bleach for the floors and we'll be happy. After dinner, QRF is again activated as one of the fuel trucks broke down in town, and we need to pull security for the mechanics to tow this giant bomb-on-wheels back to base. Luckily it broke down right next to an IP station, so we were pretty secure. As soon as I drop my gear, one of our translators (Kevin, a pseudonym we've given him to keep his real name a secret from the insurgents in an attempt to keep both he and his family safe) comes into the aid station saying he's been cut. I never got the full story, but apparently he and an IA soldier were playing around, and he managed to get stabbed in the shoulder blade. Its not my job to figure out what happened, I just fix them so they can do more stupid stuff. He's got a good 3/4 to an inch long cut over his shoulder blade that definitely needs stitches. We've been given the "green light" by our PA to do sutures if the need arises, so long as the cuts aren't too complicated. So, no time like the present to work on my technique, as well as teach the other medics there. I did the first one, and they did the last 3, each one taking turns putting in a stitch. I must say, after we were done, it looked like a doctor did it. Pretty much pros! We were all happy with the way they turned out, and everyone learned something in the process. Thankfully this was all for the day, and I was able to get about 5 hours of sleep before we were up and at it again.
Thursday we spent several hours finishing up some of the cleaning we didn't get to the day before, and did a couple of classes on meds and anatomy/physiology. My platoon was given a 24 hour observation position (OP) that night, so that afternoon I was in briefings, and I spent the evening refitting my gear for a day-long operation. Normally, we don't worry about what we carry, as we're either not out that long or we have the Brads close at hand. However, now you have to carry 3 meals ready to eat (MRE's) and water to last the whole day, as well as anything else you'll need, i.e. snacks, poncho-liner (which is like a blanket, affectionately nicknamed our "woobie"), toilet paper, etc. We strip down the MRE's, taking everything out of the packaging that we can in an effort to conserve weight; I left everything I thought I might not eat, even went so far as to bring only one spoon. My kevlar, body armor (stuffed with medical supplies and 210 rounds of ammo) plus weapons and aidbag are very heavy, and I didn't want to add more than I needed to. After getting everything ready, its about 11pm, and I need to be up at 2 am so we can roll out at 3. I figured I'd be able to grab at least 2 hours of sleep; this, however, wasn't to be. One of the IA's came in after having fallen down a flight of stairs, spraining his knee. Took a while to figure out what was going on, but in the end all he needed was a couple of tylenol and an ACE wrap for his knee. Now its almost midnight, and apparently one of the interpreters had been acting funny, so they searched his room for drugs. One of the NCO's came in wanting to know what this blister-pak of pills contained. Oh great...they're Valium. No, they're not used for knee pain, and no, thats not how we dispense them. Yeah, so he's on drugs, and now everybody is bringing me pills to figure out what they are. After this stampede dies down, its 1:30am, and I'm supposed to be up in 30 minutes. No sleep for me tonight.
Thursday morning around 2:20 we do final gear check, last minute route-briefing, and determine the order the teams are supposed to leave. Since my team, consisting of 5 other Soldiers along with 2 IA's and a terp (interpreter), will be farthest from base, we leave first; off into the city again, in search of a house to take over. Besides the dogs, our trek is uneventful, if not a little straining on the shoulders. We find a house we think looks good, and after half a dozen attempts get the gate open. We pile into the courtyard, shut the gate behind us, and look at the door; this thing looks like its about to come right off the hinges, so we assume it should be easy to break open if need be. No one answers the knock, so they attempt to kick it in. Another lesson in why not to judge a book by the cover; this door was reenforced with steel, and wasn't about to budge. The owner of the house eventually comes to the door (after we broke out most of the glass) and says "Yes yes, I open." He opens the door, and calmly sits down on the couch. Hmm..something tells me he's done this before. No weapons in the house, so we put the family back in the bedroom and set up our guard posts. I'm left downstairs to watch the family with the terp "Mike" and the two IA's. Its cold in the house, and its even colder on the roof two hours later when I'm on the radio. Freezing on a roof, teeth chattering wishing I had some hand warmers isn't exactly how I pictured my February in Iraq. Could be worse, though. As we switched out shifts, 2 of us could sleep for a couple of hours, which was really nice, but not nearly long enough. Thanks to some screwed up rotation, I ended up pulling more guard shifts than the infantry guys, but I didn't mind. I ended up talking to the IA soldiers, or at least trying to. I'm starting to pick up some Arabic, but there was still a lot of gestures, confused looks, and lots of laughs. Oh well, it helps pass the time. The insurgents are getting smart, and now are giving kids candy to walk up and down the streets, looking for us on rooftops and in windows. Thus is the mindset of our enemies. As it got dark, we stopped sleeping and put more eyes on the roof watching for activity. My last shift on guard found me peering through a hole in the stone railing at a large open section of road. At one point, I thought I saw 4 guys walking down the street; however, it turned out it was only a couple of bushes. I could have sworn these bushes had gone strolling down the street, but no, they were definitely stationary the whole time. After we hit our 24 hour mark, we gathered our gear, payed the family for the broken glass and for missing work, we once again headed into the night, back to the security of our base. One of the NCO's told the other guys he didn't want to hear any complaining cause "Doc pulled more guard than anybody, and ya don't hear him gripin'." Got back to base just after 3, called home (and probably sounded like a zombie) and climbed in bed shortly after 4:30am Friday morning for some much needed rest, with the added bonus of having a completely blank schedule for the day. My platoon was finally off our mission-status rotation, and only had to pull guard on the base. My duties, however, keep my in the aid station, and won't be on guard much, if at all, since we need a medic there at all times. But, since the other line medic is out on an OP right now, I'm back on QRF, but hopefully nothing comes up. If it does, it'll probably only be for a couple of hours.
So, there was my week. Sorry it was so long, but it'd been a while since I last sent out an email. No injuries, and really the only "booms" were controlled detonations of IED's that were found by our bomb squad . One was REALLY close to our base walls, and nearly shook me off the litter I was sitting on...I think the bomb squad had a little too much fun with that one.
Life is good, and for now don't need anything specific. If you survived this email, grab a drink and let me know how you're all doing. Thank you all for your letters, emails, thoughts and prayers.

Best wishes from far away,
Troy