3 Aug 2004 - I'm finally sitting down to write about our trip to Dahouk, the northernmost city in Iraq. Some people may say so what, but let me first give you some background about Dahouk, and you may just see why this trip was a big deal. Dahouk is a primarily Kurdish city, where the city flies the Kurdish flag (not the Iraqi flag), there is a viable police force which actually is visible and appears to try to protect it's citizens, the city has a fully-functioning power system, the telecommunications network there is comparable to a city like Richmond, and it's the only city which has embraced western culture. There is a large University there which draws foreign instructors. After the 1991 Gulf War, this is the city where the Kurdish fighters amassed, since it is surrounded by mountains, and projected out to attack the Hussein government. The Kurdish residents, despite their anger over the United States not fully supporting their uprising, still seem to love Americans. With the US imposition of the no fly zones after that war, Dahouk was allowed to flourish under the protection of the UN. The Iraqi government was unable to stop the Kurdish from importing anything they wanted thru Turkey.

Now, having said that, Dahouk is not like a western city, despite their technological advancement over the rest of the country. I'll get to that later. Saturday was the first trip we've arranged to go to Dahouk, although other units regularly go there, and almost all of our local purchases come from there. We were going up there b/c our last purchaser quit due to increased pressure from his family to stay out of Mosul. Hey...who can blame them? So we had a long list of critical items we needed. The drive from Mosul took us an hour and half, and anyone who has ridden in a military humvee knows how much that sucks. Despite the creeping mercury, the truck I was in had one of the air conditioning systems installed in it, so I didn't pour sweat as badly as I normally would. The a/c doesn't get cool, but cool moving air is still preferable to hot stale air. The first 20 minutes were a little tense since that's how long it took us to clear the Mosul "ring", which is what we here call the area around Mosul where all the IED's placed have been contained in. Once outside that ring, we were able to relax a little. The first thing were greeted with when we pulled into Dahouk was that they had working stoplights...and the people actually obeyed them. In Mosul, about 10% of the stoplights work and no one obeys them at all! There was a noticeable bus transit system which it appeared many of the working class used as all the bus stops we passed were filled with Iraqi's all dressed in suits and business casual, more or less. Surprising was that there were so many women who appeared to be going to work, and were not wearing the traditional black head to toe clothing as we see in Mosul all the time. They were still dressed in traditional outfits, but they were fashionable. I don't know if I have any pics yet, but if I do, then you'll see what I'm talking about. We got to Mosul and had to search a bit, but we found our rally point...a store called Mazi-Mart. I think it's closest to a Super Wal-mart, just not as big or with as cheap prices (although the prices were low by US standards). We parked out vehicles there, and were instantly mobbed by kids who wanted to be our guides as we did our shopping around the city. Some of the kids didn't appear to be any older then 15 or 16, but they spoke some English and seemed rather knowledgeable about the area. We dropped our body armor, and drove into the city with just our weapons. Intel told us that there was no threat to US interests, so we decided it would be alright. I was on the first of three groups to venture into the city.

First impressions...it was nice to see the police in the city patrolling, and very visible. The city looked clean, as there were workers cleaning up the trash that was on the streets. Drivers were more courteous then down south. We did get a lot of looks as we entered the city with 2 humvees and 1 5-ton, and a total of 16 soldiers spread amongst the trucks. We drove by at least 40 shops that were lining the main street, and came upon the outer rim of the market place. Now...how to describe this scene. How about utter chaos. The roads around the market were busy with cars. The road is narrow, barely able to handle the 2 lanes of traffic and have room to park on the side. There were more people walking around the shops then I've seen since I got to Iraq. I'm told the market reminded some soldiers of the German markets, which are huge. This one was at least 20 city blocks. I can only liken this to the marketplaces in the Bahamas, or one of those small Caribbean Islands. Each shop has over half of it's products outside in the walk, with a good portion of it hanging from hooks and what not so it's at eye level. There were trinket stores which I didn't go into due to time, there were food stores and restaurants that served kabobs right there outside the walk. The market is a maze of narrow alleyways connecting the whole thing. Easy to get lost in, but if you keep walking one way, you're going to intersect the main road since it encircles the whole market. There were bootleggers everywhere, as well as legitimate businessmen. Of course, my goal was to track down electronic equipment and computer related stuffs. So, off me, CPT Doss, and SGT Mosley went with one of the young guides to look for our stuff. I wish I had brought up pictures of everything I needed, b/c this guide spoke minimal English. We ended up going through much of the market place before we discovered the computer store...a mere 50 feet behind where we parked our vehicles. Now, that sucked, but it was also a blessing as I dropped $700 dollars of the government's money and we had to haul all that to the truck. Like I said...a blessing. Otherwise we would have had to return to the trucks before CPT Doss could do any of his shopping. Alas, as in the US, I realized that I still hate shopping. Many of the store owners, like good businessmen, were trying to get us to buy everything in sight. We did get a lot of looks, especially from the children, young women and all the older folks. Not sure why it was just these demographics, but the gentlemen there didn't seem to pay us any mind. I know why the women....what can I say...I'm a dashing looking soldier! HA HA HA!! Ok...nuff of that! Seriously, we actually had some people, men and women, come up to us as were standing around waiting to buy our stuff, and thank us, shake our hands, and then move on their merry way. When the three of us had returned to the trucks, we noticed that about a dozen children had arrived and were meandering around our trucks, touching and talking to the two soldiers we left behind to guard the vehicles. These kids were almost mobbing them. CPT Doss and left SGT Mosley behind with my purchases, and went to find all the MWR stuffs that he wanted to buy. Took us a lot of running around the market, but we got some things. Here's the funny part. When we returned to the trucks, we found SGT Mosley sitting on the cab of the humvee trying to get away from the kids. Apparently, he felt like they were smothering him. There were more of our party present and they were sitting down chatting with the kids, which had now grown to over 20. What I saw next was horrible...this little girl...probably about 8 years old, wearing torn and tattered clothes, was asking us for money...for a dollar, b/c her family was poor. She just walked up, grabbed your arm, and said "Dollar?" all the while looking up at you with those child eyes. In the US, it would melt butter, but here the other kids obviously don't appreciate this as two of the boys there pushed this girl away, and no matter what they did, she just kept trying to come back. It even got to the point where one of the boys actually hit the girl in the chest. She backed off then. It was sad, but we were warned not to give anything to the kids unless it's to buy something. Don't just offer them anything. So we didn't. After a couple of hours we went back to the Mazi-Mart and grabbed some chow from the local soda shop. It was kind of like a market side deli crossed with a Baskin Robins. They had all types of ice cream there, all types of sodas (nope, no root beer). They had sandwiches and pizza. Despite their efforts though, it was all a far cry from home. I had a pizza which was more like a homemade deal. Good crust, but it was with ham, green peppers, tomato sauce, and a smattering of cheese. Anyone who knows me knows that I like my pizza with the cheese dripping off it so when you eat it you get a 2 foot long dangler of cheese. This didn't quite cut it.  After that, I hit the Mazi-Mart store itself. Nothing much to say other then the lamb they had in the meat section was sooooooooooo inexpensive. A full leg of lamb was marked at $0.45 a pound!! I was almost tempted to buy it, then try to grill it when we got back, but I don't think it would've lasted long sitting around in the 116 degree heat at that time. So, I spent the next couple of hours sitting, talking to soldiers and Iraqi's, and just people watching.

I did notice that there were a number of 20-somethings that were walking around wearing western clothing...jeans, t-shirts, tank tops, etc. A good sign if I ever saw it. But, being a soldier who has been away from my beautiful wife for 6 months, I guess I noticed the women more. And I can't say that I was the only one. We had guys who just sat and drooled on themselves watching the women. Since this male pastime consumed so much of our time while we were sitting there, I feel I can expound on this topic a little (I'll try not to be too  much of a pig Hon!). All the women we saw were slender build, of average height by US standards, and all looked young. I don't think we saw any women who looked to be in their 40's or 50's...most of them in their 20's I would say. Most of them wore what I assume is the traditional style of dress in Dahouk for women...they all wore ankle length skirts or nice slacks, what I consider to be a business-casual blouse, and then of course a headscarf. As it was explained to me, if you see a Kurdish woman wearing a headscarf, she's Islamic (don't know which sect though), and if you can see her hair and all of her face, then she is unmarried. If she has all her hair covered or part of her face covered, then she is married. Just a tidbit that was explained to me. Most of the outfits were black, white, blue, or white. There was one wearing red, but it seems that the majority don't wear outlandish colors like in America b/c they don't want to attract attention to themselves. Goes back to what we were told when we first got here...don't talk to any of the women if they are with a man...and don't complement a man on how beautiful his wife is as it's considered rude b/c a complement such as that means you wish to have sexual relations with her. HEY! I don't write the rules...I just obey them. So as I was saying, all of the male soldiers there were having a grand ole time just female watching. NOW...it all wasn't eye candy. We did see a lot of examples of open homosexuality amongst the men, or what could be perceived as homosexuality by US standards. Grown men holding hands as they walk down the street, kissing each other on more then the cheek, just sitting and hugging each other. Now, I'm trying to be more open to other cultures, and even towards my own emotional side....but I am American...I am heterosexual...I have friends who are gay....and it still skeeves me to see two men kissing, or walking down the street holding hands like I do with my wife. It was explained to me in this fashion by one of our interpreters...traditionally, women are for making babies, and men are for pleasure. Uh...does anyone see a problem with this picture? Maybe I'm still too conservative and closed minded then. Mind you...it wasn't all of the men. There were a lot of men who walked in with women, but we did notice that none of the married couples came in holding hands, or even touching each other, whereas in America we want to have physical contact with our spouses as much as possible (at least I do even if you don't). We all also noticed that all the women always walked behind the men when they were together. Some things may never change in this world.

Whew...talk about a lot of writing. We had to venture into the city again, and we got mobbed by the kids again. This time we went in with a security officer who used to work with the 101st when the were in Dahouk. He showed us better shops in the market where we got great deals. It wasn't bad. One of the soldiers we were with was looking to buy a Breitling replica watch. For those who don't know about Breitling, they're comparable to a Rolex and cost a little more. So, this security officer took us to a couple of shops, and somehow we ended up at a small tailors where his girlfriend was working, holed up in the backside of one of the markets alleys. This was weird, and I wonder why he brought us there. As is customary, she offered us some Chi tea, which was very tasty. But while were sitting there talking with her and the officer, he started to grab his girlfriends butt and to rub her legs while she sat on the table next to him. Uh....ok....not quite what we thought we had come into the marketplace to see. It was a little uncomfortable, and I could see the same look on the other guys faces. Well, he didn't pull up her skirt or anything because before he could do anything like that (if that was his intention), we heard a few muffled booms. Like someone had dropped something VERY heavy upstairs, or like an explosion. The two Iraqi's didn't seem to notice, but it made the three of us stand up and move outside the shop. We had been sitting there for about 10 minutes, so I think we all were jumpy and ready to move on, and the sounds gave us a reason to do just that. I'm sure that the officer was trying to be hospitable, or something, but I don't think understood that Americans are an untrusting people, and for him to take us to a place so out of the way, would require us to know him better. Hell, I even took out my magazine, and actually locked it into my rifle so all's I would have to do in an emergency is release the bolt, and fire (since I can change the safety to fire and shoot all in one motion). We briskly walked back to the truck, which thankfully I had remembered the way out since I paid extra attention to the way in. The other two were like "Where the heck are we?" Again...Dad...you're teachings have helped in what could've been a sticky situation. We still don't know what the booms were, but the trucks were fine and no one else had heard the sound outside of the shop. Like I said...probably someone dropping something in one of the residences above the market...BUT 3 times? Either way, I'm still alive so I don't care.

Trip back was as uneventful as the trip out. We conducted our usual briefing, and if I didn't know better, many of the Iraqis who were there that we were talking to looked sad for us to be leaving. We had actually hooked up with the 133d Engineer Battalion who had a convoy up there, and we all convoyed out of the city together, until they went to their local base as we headed back to Mosul. Despite a little misdirection on the overpasses, we managed to find out way back to the base. You know that feeling when you've been driving from somewhere and you drive into your city and are glad to see the end of the drive? Well, believe it or not, I felt that as soon as we got into the heart of Mosul. I know the city, and I know who to call and how to react in the event of an emergency. It's the familiarity, even in a city where some of the residents resent the US presence.

So that was my trip to Dahouk. It was an eventful Saturday. I got a lot of the computer equipment that I needed so it was successful. I'd like to go back if we get a chance, but we'll see.

Police checkpoint on the drive up to Dahouk	Look at that traffic. It's nice to be going in the opposite direction. This traffic was at least 12 km long.	Good picture of how the city leads down into a valley. There is another mountain on the other side of the city just like that one.	Another shot of the mountainside.	Not sure if this is a home or business, but it is by far one of the nicest I've seen in Iraq.
No idea what this is of, but it was very prominent as you drove into the city.	Looking to the North towards the other side of the city.	Part of our convoy when we stopped to reconsolidate.	This the Mazi-Mart where we parked at.	CPT Bentley, me, and SFC Grimsley receiving our breifing before heading out to go shopping.
:Locals at the Mazi-Mart. The girl in the background is actually British, visiting relatives in Dahouk.	SGT Mosley and some of our shopping guides.	More local helpers.	Entrance to Dream City next to the Mazi-Mart. It was closed.	The carousel at Dream City
Yup! That's a Ferris wheel.	A local worker at Dream City.	This is tough to see, but these two ladies are dressed in the style of dress that the majority of women were dressed.

4 August 2004 - Lot's of attacks today. All is well now since the city-wide curfew went into affect. As I heard it, all the bases in Mosul were attacked in some fashion. We received mortars (lots of mortars), small arms fire directed mostly at our guard towers, and some RPG's. The Infantry guys sent out almost an entire Battalion's worth of QRF to clear the immediate area around the base. I have not heard how that went, who they killed, or what the final outcome of it was. But, there was a twist in the fighting today. The Infantrymen used their TOW missiles for only the second time since getting in country, which means there were vehicles involved in the fighting, and our small contingent of OH-58D Kiowa helicopters were forced to use Hellfire missiles for the first time. Something to do with destroying a building that insurgents were in.We were told before that Hellfire missiles were prohibited without the Brigade Commander's permission.

The fighting here began sometime around 1300, and I don't think we heard the last of it until about dinner time. No one on our base was killed, and injuries were small. Did hear about one soldier who was shot in the abdomen just below his body armor, but he'll live. He wasn't in my unit or the 133d as I've been told. Must've been an Infantryman on patrol. The base lost a HETT (Heavy Equipment Transport Truck), which was moving some of our heavy Engineer equipment. It apparently got hit square on by a large mortar and the entire engine compartment has been melted into a big block of metal. Minor injuries in that one, but the truck is a total loss. Wish I had my camera, but we had to bring out a heavy bulldozer just to pull it off the road b/c none of the wreckers here are able to lift a HETT.

Anyways, for me, the radio nets were congested by all the chatter, but I must admit that they performed well. No hiccups like I would expect when they're needed the most. Everyone here is fine, if not a little more pissed b/c now we're forced to wear our body armor anytime we leave the living areas. Heck, just two days ago, they had lifted the directive due to the pattern of violence being down to nothing for the past 3 weeks. Someone on this base must've been telling the insurgents to now aim for the DFAC again b/c we don't have to wear the protection like before. AND if any of you have worn a Class IV (able to stop armor piercing rounds) extra-large ballistic vest, then you know that having to wear it whenever you go walking anywhere is a real pain. The entire armor system, with my full combat load of ammunition adds an extra 60 pounds of weight to my already overloaded frame. No wonder my back problems have returned.

Well, I'm alright. Things could be worse.

7 August 2004 - Yesterday, at 3:21 PM, Leah and Shawn weelcomed their first child, Amber Mackenzie, into this world, weighing in at an even 8 pounds and a long 22 inches. My wife has been friends with Leah since they were little kids, and Leah and Shawn are a part of our "extended family", as are the few people we both call trusted friends (my friends are her friends and vice versa). Never being one to miss an opportunity to be by her friend's side, OR miss anything related to a baby, Kathy willingly and diligently acted as cameraman for this momentous event!! As all who know Kathy are aware, she is an emotional sap, and seeing her friend in such pain from the contractions must've been agony to her.

Amber Mackenzie (Isn't she cute?!!)

Let's be honest. As a guy, I try not to get to emotional with these types of things (of course, I'm not a parent, so ask me again after we have kids), however the idea of Leah now being a mom is both exciting and...well...weird. I've known Leah for over 10 years now, and I never imagined her as a parent. Now she is, and all I can say is WOW! I know that other's around us have had children (Jan & Trev, Rich & Kristen, etc.), however this one is just...hard for me to explain. Maybe it's because Kathy and I wanted to start a family this year. Maybe because my twin brother and his wife are pregnant (now that's going to be weird). Maybe because I'm coming to realize that it's time to grow up and be what I always said I wouldn't be...my parents. Of course, that was then when I was a child. Now I see things differently, and I admire and look forward to being like my Father. But until just recently, I could still be like a kid with little ramifications for some of my immature actions. I could eat Cocoa Puffs for dinner if I wanted to. I could still jump in my car on the weekend and go anywhere I wanted. 10 second rule...oh you know it!! Me and Kathy could sleep in on Saturday past 10AM if we wanted to. If I didn't want to mow the lawn, then the heck with it. I didn't (at least until Kathy began to nag me about it...but as long as she does the painting I'll do the mowing). And my personal favorite...if I wanted to watch football all day Sunday and not do anything at all...then I could!! Somehow, I think all that will change with kids, and Kathy and I are the last of the married couples in our little mafioso (except Chris and Laura who will never have children unless someone drops one off on their stoop) to have kids.

So, I was surprisingly excited to get the email from Kathy about Amber's birth. Made me nervous to read it and excited that they're finally parents. This deployment has been a serious inconvenience in my family's future plans, but like Kathy always says..."If anyone can make it through this it's us." and "It'll make us stronger as a couple." And I agree. As much as I am pissed that we're both now going to be in our 30's when we have our first child, I think this deployment has given me a much better perspective on what is important and allowed me to mature more. Family is more important then anything, and close friends I think are one of the lynchpins to helping keep a family fun and close. Without them...what is there. I only say...look at how my Father and Stamos have remained close friends over the many, many years. And everyone in my family knows him and enjoys being around him...mostly b/c he inspires us to be happy, to be fun loving, to eventually grow into an old pervert like him. But mention Stamos around any of my family (extended too), and all those who know him will smile. I remember we used to look forward to going to his Christmas Party every year...as a family. Oh the memories...and all this b/c of one baby.

The family has changed, but in my opinion, things are better now (except for Chris...we still miss him at home). With a new mother and a new sister (I don't call Shannon a step-sister b/c I'm willing to protect her like my brothers, and that's good enough for me to call her my sister), plus grandkids in my Father's future...things are good. I feel that the family is tighter then it has been for many years. Of course, being an adult and now seeing that all that crap that our parents used to say "You'll understand when you get older" was all true, may have a lot to do with the change of heart towards the parents and what they went through for us.

Oh yeah...nothing of interest happened on the base today. I know that there were some car bombs yesterday in the city, but the Iraqi Police and the Iraqi National Guard as doing a relatively good job of reacting to these problems and the US has been mostly hands off except to provide minimal assistance. So, I hear and see very little of that aspect of this war now. I do a lot more helping on force protection, regular admin stuff for the unit, reading intel reports and assisting in their analysis...you know the usual stuff. There are some serious missions still going on that his Brigade has decided to do, however as the Engineers, our missions don't vary much b/c there are no traditional foxholes to dig, no traditional berms to build, no traditional minefields to clear, etc. Our mission sets focus more on the reduction of UXO's and demolitions. Oh well.

If anything more comes up, then I'll happily share it with you all. Until then.....

22 August 2004 - Today is a Sunday again, and as usual it's my "personal maintenance day." We're not allowed to give a day off to our soldiers in a combat zone because, as we all know, there is no such thing when you have to be ready to fight 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Yeah...right. Like I've said before, this is really a garrison war, where we all get to sit in our little connexes with A/C, TV, internet for those willing to pay for it, and only have to fight the war if/when we're on guard duty, on a convoy, supporting the ground-pounders (Infantry), or running a mission. Our bases we consider to be our little safe havens, as if nothing can touch us here. Honestly, in a round about way this is true. If it wasn't for the insurgents absolute horrible targeting with their mortars, we'd have something to be very concerned about. This past week, I can think of at least 22 rounds fired at our base....only 2 of which have actually hit within our wire. 2 out of 22!! That's a success rate of less then 10%. My brother, Jim, who is a Field Artillery Officer is probably cringing at such pathetic percentages, while also being quite happy about it (for obvious reasons). So, as I was saying, I am sitting in my connex, cool and comfortable. I was trying to get some sleep before heading out to mass, but I keep getting called on the radio, so now I'm up. I figured I would start this and see where my thoughts take me. I know Kathy has been hounding the living crap out of me to keep this updated. I do owe her an apology though. The other night, at about 1am my time, her and I were chatting over IM, and she mentioned the website in jest of course. I knew she was joking, just trying to bust my balls about it, but for some reason I blew up at her. I think it was one of the few times in the past 5 years when I've actually gotten really pissed at her from something she said. Despite her insistence that she understood why, I still have to say, "I'm sorry." I thought I was angry due to lack of sleep (being 1am and all), but after some thinking, I've come to decide that a number of the rumors filtering around had an impact...rumors which Kat knows about and I can't say yet. Since my last posting, there have actually been some things that have happened to me...all positive.

About a 2 weeks ago, I was tasked with running an M16 familiarization range, and I was given less the 4 days to prepare it from scratch. Our HHC Commander has been told by the Battalion XO for the past 3 months to schedule ranges so our soldiers can get out and stay in practice with their firing. He has dropped the ball every month. So, the XO got fed up, and came to me asking me if I could run this range. Well, knowing I am one of those kind that can make things happen at the last minute (par for my job I guess), I said "Sure, no problem." I coordinated for, planned, and somehow even managed to secure ammunition in a matter of 3 days. The range went well. We had fewer firers then I expected, but, in my humble opinion, we had a model range. We started it at 7am to avoid the heat of the day, and I planned on us finishing in about 3 hours. The firers got out there, and we had a short 15 minute class on safety, and the proper firing positions. I had all the firers familiarize themselves on firing from the prone (laying down) position, the sitting position, the kneeling position, and then the standing position. In a qualification range, you're given a set amount of rounds to hit a set number of targets. For my range, we had paper qualification targets set-up downrange at 25 meters. I gave each firer 20 rounds to hit as many as they could into the target. Catch was that they had 30 seconds to do it, to simulate the stress of being "under the gun". We learned that it's not so easy to put 20 rounds downrange in 30 seconds, when you're firing in semi-automatic mode. We did this for each position, allowing each firer to experience what it's like to fire form each position. Sitting and kneeling aren't standard firing positions for the Army, so this was a good way to familiarize themselves. The pinnacle came at the end of the range. I still had over 100 rounds per firer, and we let them practice firing with their non-dominant hand...right handed firers firing left-handed and vice versa. Talk about difficult. Then...and I love this one...I let them each practice firing off a couple of magazines on burst (since we don't use full auto anymore). Almost no one was able to hit the target anywhere near center of mass. Burst is a useless tool other then to keep the enemy's head down. SO...think about that when you watch the news and see these 3rd world countries where people are firing on full automatic, from the hip. The chance of them having hit anything is absolutely luck of the draw. This is why the US military is able to kill so many enemies in a head to head firefight...we pick our targets and carefully place a round into it...they just shoot from the hip on full auto and end up missing everything. We've even seen this with the Iraqi National Guard. Man, these people can't shoot. It's taken a lot of work to get their Special Forces even close to the shooting caliber of our regular Army. Anyways, when we got back, I received such positive feedback from the soldiers on my range, that it's been decided that my template for firing will be used in all our M16 ranges from now on. I'm looking forward to running my next range...I'm going to throw some barriers out on the range and have everyone practice running to a barrier, hiding, firing, and then moving onto another target/barrier. Give them the experience of firing with an elevated heart rate, around obstacles, etc. Should be fun!!

Shortly after that, the XO came to me and asked if I was still interested in going to the Reserve Engineer Captain Career Course (RECCC) in Kuwait. In my heart, I'm a Communications Officer, but I'm also a realist. For me to advance in rank in the National Guard, I need to be flexible. So yeah, I'd be willing to change branches if the opportunity arose. Well, it did. I was picked up as the 49 person out of 216 in Iraq who get to attend the RECCC this October. I thought I had been passed over for this slot. The BN S3 told me before where I fit in the rotation of officers that were being submitted, and I was last in our Battalion b/c I wasn't already an Engineer. Well, somehow, as luck has been on my side through most of my military career, I was the second officer in our battalion chosen to attend. Guess the Engineer School didn't agree with the Battalion Commander's Order or Merit list. Harkens back to when I was promoted to Captain ahead of all the highly qualified Infantry officers back in the 101st. Feels just like that, and you'de be surprised at how jealous these Engineer types get. Hrmph! Tough is what I say. Suck it up and be happy you were even picked!! So, the kudos from the range and being chosen for this both happened in the same week. making the week one of my most enjoyable since getting here. Talk about riding high.

There is a third thing, but it hasn't fleshed out yet, but once it does, you can bet things will change a lot for me. Once I know more about it, I'll spill the beans for everyone. I'm also working on my fifth investigation since having gotten here. I'm dragging on this one as I'm still not sure who is at fault on this, but it's a testament to the trust my leadership has placed in me...I've done more investigations into soldier negligence then any other officer in the Battalion. Or maybe it's just b/c I'm ruthless in my recommendations. Who knows. Either way...things are working out well.

As most of you have probably read, there have a number of attacks by insurgents in Mosul. Still at a historical low compared to the rest of the country, there does appear to be a shift in what the insurgents are after. Lately, many of the kidnappings have been against traditionally Muslim countries who have workers in Iraq, which leads me to feel this is shifting away from being about Christianity vs. Islam, but more of a criminal thing. Also, the insurgents are now asking for ransoms, and they've been hitting banks and other high money areas. Hmmm... anyone think they're starting to feel the money pinch? I certainly do. This does present a shift in the traditional insurgency we've had to battle here, and it places more responsibility on the local police, or it should at least. The problem is that the local police seem to be the favored attack target of the insurgents, which also plays into the criminal aspect of this shift. If there are fewer police, or more corrupt police, then the criminals have a better chance of getting what they want. Anyone feel like this harkens back to our days when the mafia and gangs ruled America? Maybe, maybe not. I see the similarities, it's just different how they came about. 

29 August 2004 - Was supposed to go to the palace today on one of our regular convoys. We make 2 runs a month to the palace to get COMSEC keys, and today was the day chosen for this month. We were cruising through Mosul like normal, and we hit a ING checkpoint, and some local man comes out and tells us  that he saw a person leave an IED on the route we're intending to take. Ok, there was a language barrier issue, but once we showed him a map, he was pretty good at drawing what he saw where he saw it. So, we had three options: Press forward and find an alternate route, press forward and secure the area around the IED, or scrub the mission. Now, whenever I run convoys, I hate to be slowed down, to be kept out in the open longer then I have to be, but I also hate to not complete a mission such as this one. I had chosen to find an alternate route, but when I called into the Intel Officer, he gave me news which didn't sit well with me. Another IED had been seen, right on my alternate route. AND, as I was sitting there in my truck talking to the S2, a call came in and a third had been spotted on my original route, well past the first one I called in. Hmmm...something was up. EOD had reduced or exploded two other IED's earlier in the morning before we ever left the base (before 0800)...that made 5 IED's all before 0830. Well, that did it for me. I decided, smartly I think, to scrub this mission and plan an alternate date. It kind of sucked though, b/c I've been told by other units that my COMSEC convoys to the palace are some of the best that leave the base. For the first 3 months in country, I rode with other units to get the COMSEC, and I noticed that they had a tendency to meander through the city, like they were on a tour. And once at the Palace, they stayed there all day, so that a lot of people could do multiple missions/taskings. Issue with that is that the Palace is one of the highest mortared areas in the city. Heck, my section's only injury was while he was guarding vehicles at the Palace for another unit he rode in there with (did I mention that before...the Wigglesworth mortar shrapnel?). So, when I run convoys, I follow the philosophy of boot and scoot...move fast through traffic, gunners control cars around us or they shoot at them, never sit for longer then 2 minutes (an average stop light) anywhere for any reason, and always have the vehicles changing lanes as the drive to reduce the predictability of what lane we're traveling in. Once at the palace, I set what I believe is the bare minimum amount of time to draw keys based on the number of other units with us. So far, it's worked well for the past 2 months. It's flattering to have the civilians who ride with us to comment that they feel safest in my convoys, and then to have all the units commo personnel on post who need keys refuse to ride in their own unit's convoys and ask me for a ride. But today, I was disappointed b/c I didn't want to have to reschedule and waste soldiers time, plus it also puts them in danger b/c they need to go out into the city one more time then needed. Of course...even I understand the implications and possibilities of what could've happened had we proceeded ahead. I thanked the Lord today for that civilian stopping us at the ING checkpoint.

The week has been uneventful tactically. We have had a lot more melodrama in the Battalion, such as it has been since we got here. It has become very evident that there is a huge rift forming between our senior leadership and staff within the Battalion. There has been a specific Company Commander who has been a total screw-up...he's been reprimanded twice for making racist comments, for failing to follow orders, for refusing to coordinate some things, etc. What I would consider to be the worst type of commander possible. Well, this company commander is the pet child of our Battalion Commander, and for those who have kept up with my logs, know that I have a a certain level of disdain for our BC. I know this sounds bad, and as a Captain, I shouldn't be saying anything to anyone about what I think of my Battalion Commander, but I've finally reached my patience with this man. He has so little true care for the welfare of our soldiers. He is a typical low self-image, has to be in charge of everything, micro-managing, always right, refuses to listen to subordinates, petty, man who somehow managed to kiss enough butt to make it as far as he has. Anyways, whenever the staff have tried to work with this Company Commander, he has shunned any of our offered help. He has, on more then one occasion, outright said he doesn't have to listen to any of us staff officers b/c he's in charge of the company. He has more soldiers who hate him and have wanted to file official complaints against him then don't, yet he still insists that the soldiers love him and everything he does is to benefit the troops. Uh...no!! Well, the rift between the staff and this Commander has translated into my boss, the Battalion Executive Officer, battling it out with the Battalion Commander. After 3 long weeks of the two battling it out, the BC has decided to be petty in this "war". As many of you know, the Battalion Staff has had it's own connex which was used as the place for all officers to go and relax...to let their short cropped hair down without the prying eyes of soldiers (we used it to play games, watch movies, etc). The BC has decided, in conjunction with this Company Commander, to take away this connex from us stating that they need the room for living space so that one of the new units coming in can take some of our connexes. Never mind that the BN XO had already come up with a plan that would allow us to fit all the new soldiers, and still maintain the Officer Connex, maintain our Mail Room Connex, the Connex where Ice Cold water is stored, and the Chaplain's Connex he used for counseling.  The argument being that these connexes would be used for soldiers, but when all has been said and done these connexes are now empty and no one is living in them. These empty CHU's are going to be used to house "transient" soldiers from other bases when they come back for things like leave, pass, etc, or so we're being told. Ugh...it's been about a week since we had to close our connex, and now the officers have nowhere to go to relax other then our sleep containers. Not quite good enough...don't get the social interaction like with the guys. I realized today after that mission was cancelled that this lack of a place for us officers (primarily staff) is going to have an adverse affect on us. Me and my crew of staff officers get together and play Monopoly and Risk as our games, and they provide us a lot of relaxation and fun. Ok...it's small, and considering what is happening down South, this is something that shouldn't be a concern, but since the basics are taken care of such as food, lodging, no real threat of death, time to focus on other things, and our redeployment home is too far away to worry about that.

Also, a huge thank you to my wife, and my brother and sister for the birthday gifts they sent. Especially love the iPod so I can now listen to music at the gym. How did Bill and Ted say it? Oh yeah...EXCELLENT!! The little things make all the world of difference here. And although I won't be home for my birthday, I know you all will have a great time celebrating with Jim. He's a regular party animal!! Happy belated birthday to my father as well, who's birthday is just a few days before mine and Jim's. I know he's enjoying himself out in Vegas, so I hope he had a fun, and lucrative, birthday (need that huge inheritance). Also got to talk to Terry Higgins, aka T$$ for those who know him. Been a long time since I talked to him, and it was absolutely great to hear from him. He has a great website about himself and his family. Ok, time for me to go and do something to de-stress. Maybe I'll go club a seal and blame it all on the lack of de-stress avenues available to me. Naw...I like seals too much to do that. How about a movie? Yeah, that's more like it. In fact...everyone, stop what your working on and go relax. We all need to de-stress even in our daily lives. PEACE!

31 August 2004 - It's my twin's birthday, and although I can't be home to spend it with him, I just wanted to wish him a great day and all my best wishes. Jim - I love ya man! Oh yeah...it's also my birthday too. It's a milestone...we've both just turned 30! And let me tell you, it's been a very regular day for me. I started it out by convoying to the Palace (again) for a mission briefing for a huge mission we're prepping for, of which I had very little to say or do in the meeting. My part hasn't changed much in the 8 years I've been doing this SIGO stuff, and it's pretty much a given when I have to plan something since I've been in many of these types of situations. I got back to Marez, and then spent the next few hours typing up awards for my soldiers. See, with the 3/2 Arrowhead Brigade getting ready to leave, we're submitting awards requests now, since the next brigade will not have been on the ground long enough for them to be able to adequately evaluate us and our performances. Wanna hear something ironic? Somehow, during the night, I must've pulled a muscle, b/c one of my hip flexors has been hurting all day. So much so that it's actually made me wince a few times while I was walking. And it's been over 2 days since I last worked out so I can't see how that would be the culprit. Isn't it ironic...on the day I turn 30, I manage to injure myself. Go figure!!

To all who sent me well wishes, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. There's this great email thread that my best friend, JoAnn, started titled "Why we love John Monihan". It's perhaps one of the nicest things I've ever received over email. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me miss my friends soooo much. Take a read, and you'll see why I consider myself one of the luckiest men in the world...b/c I have friends who write stuff like this. Talk about a great bunch! LT Wheeler got into the act and bought me M&M's for my birthday sweet. We caked them all over our ice cream and it...was...good!!! Of course...now I'm on a sugar high and I feel nauseous...but that's the price we pay for indulgence.

One thing I did not do before...and that was wish my father Happy Birthday. His big day was less then a week ago, and I never had a chance to call him due to the phones being down/up/down/up/down...so to my father, the greatest man I know...Happy Birthday!! And I won't even say how old he is! But I still love him!! He's my Dad!