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