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