28 Jul 2004 - Alright!!! Stop pestering me. That's for my wife folks. I know I said I would write on Sunday, but I took my day and spent it reading and relaxing, so I didn't touch the computer once all day, which in my job position, is generally an impossibility. We've had a little excitement, as well as the usual stupidity here in the past few days. First, the drama. We have EOD team here who is responsible for destroying all the unexploded ordnance and IED's that we find in and around the city. Occassionally, as the contractors turn up the soil on this post, a UXO will rear it's ugly head. Sometimes it's a mortar that was launched at us, and didn't explode, but more times then not, it turns out to be an American artillery shell or mortar that the 101st Air Assault had lobbed into the base when they first touched ground, or an Iraqi shell that never was shot off the base. See, we occupy an old Iraqi military base which the 101st had decimated when they came into Mosul. Back in the US when this war kicked off, we didn't hear a lot of what happened in Mosul, despite the imbedded reporters. But some of the local nationals who work on the post were also shop owners on the base under the Iraqi regime, and they have stories to tell. From what I've gathered, the 101st moved in so fast and with so much firepower, that the Iraqi Republican Guards that were in this compound were forced to retreat into the ASP in the back side of the post before they could even begin to mount a defense. And honestly...when you drive around, you can see where some of them tried to make stands b/c there are piles of spent shell casings and artillery shell casings still sitting there. So, the other day, a 155mm artillery shell (American made) was found in the ground when the contractors were digging up the soil to prepare for new buildings, so EOD was called in to destroy it. The round was found about 200m outside of our living areas, which is really close. EOD, like normal, made a call to let all those who monitor the post radio nets know that they were going to blow up UXO, but that message is only good if it gets disseminated out to the subordinate units. Our TOC has a problem with putting out info like that, so many of the soldiers didn't know about the EOD controlled explosion. I was aware of the controlled explosion b/c I was in the TOC when the call came in. I can't go into the details of how the EOD destroys these UXO (mostly b/c I'm not sure), but I do know that they use twice as much C4 as the actual round requires...as a means to ensure that it is obliterated beyond use. About 1700, with most of the soldiers beginning to wind down from their hard work days, there came such a loud explosion that it literally shook some of the living quarters connex doors open. I was sitting in my CHU when it went off, and it scared the hell out of me...more then any explosion has done since I've been here, even though I was expecting it. Mostly b/c it was so loud I think. I jumped up from my desk and ran to the door to look out to see what was left of the explosion (since that's one of the cool things to see here), and what I saw almost made me laugh, but it also made me feel sorry for our soldiers. Outside my door, lying in the rocks, were two soldiers, heads covered with their hands, trying to find some type of cover. Another soldier was actually trying to crawl under one of the connexes, and I think he would've succeeded if I hadn't started telling everyone that it was a controlled blast. At the time it wasn't amusing; the amount of fear on these kids faces was horrible, but afterwards, it was worth laughing about. I do fear how we all will react when we get home and we hear a car backfire, or someone drops a plate in a restaurant, or someone launches off a firecracker when we least expect it.

Well, now for the stupidity. The base had another logistics convoy get hit last night. This makes at least the 18th time in July that they have been hit. And believe it or not, all the attacks have been within 2 km of each other. Although the convoy always leaves at different times of the day or night, they have done the one thing that any force protection officer will say is complete suicide...they stay the exact same amount of time at their destination and then return to home base. So, basically, any insurgent who is watching just has to time how long it is between when the convoy passes on the way out and when it returns, and no matter what time of day it is, they know when the return trip will be. I mean, our soldiers are told they have a specific timeframe to do their business, and if they're not done, then the convoy leaves them. It's all about the time. Well, I think the insurgents are smarter then our intel weenies are giving them credit, b/c they have all figured this out and have made it a regular practice to hit these logistics convoys. I mean, c'mon...how hard is it to just double the wait time? Or request air cover to change the signature? Or do something?!! Add some heavy firepower into the convoy and instead of running through an ambush...go on the offensive and chase the bastards until you kill them! I know this will make my father's blood curdle. Everytime before these guys have been hit, they've always noticed that there is a large dead space where there are no people around, whereas on days they don't get hit, there are lots of people hustling and bustling around. I only know this b/c I've questioned the soldiers we send on these convoys and after some tweaking and questioning, they have all come to agree that generally there aren't any people around...or civilian traffic is further behind the convoy then is normally seen in a city, etc. When I talked to the 2 lieutenants who run these convoys, they both said that they hadn't seen anything like what I had described, and that no one had brought it to their attention. I still remember a story Dad told me about a visit to the Tuzla Airbase in Bosnia when the US first went in there...after questioning some of the lower enlisted soldiers, it became apparent that there was enemy surveillance of the base, and the people watching were sitting right out in the open, outside the wire. None of the soldiers noticed or thought anything of it, so they never reported anything to their superiors. The superiors never were on guard watch, so they never noticed it either. Somehow, I feel like the military hasn't come any further since 1996 when this happened. It's such an easy concept...get to know those things which are ordinary over a period of time, and then take special note when this picture changes. I see it all the time when I go out on convoys, which is why I don't like going out on convoys much anymore if I can help it.

Well, we're getting the moon illumination back. I'll tell you, even when we lived in Haymarket (back when it was a quaint, small town, I never noticed the moon's illumination as much as I do here. The week period where there is less the 15% illum throughout the night is always an unsettling time since many of us don't have night vision goggles. Those are reserved for the combat engineers. So, trying to observe light discipline, and move about the camp with all the barriers randomly placed, it becomes a hell of an experience trying not to bump into things. I was talking with some of the officers from the 1-23 Infantry camped next to us, and they were telling me how, when they return to home base, that they're never going to run firing ranges the way they used too...following the old military doctrine for ranges. No...when they run them from now on it's going to be hard, fast, and furious. They're not going to do live fire exercises like before...now they're going to go steaming ahead with all guns blazing instead of doing the sanitized, slow as a snail, boring and unpractical live fire ranges like we went through while at Ft Dix. That type of training is useless, and soldiers will only learn how to fire from a moving vehicle when they actually practice firing from a vehicle bouncing along at 40 miles per hour. How the heck else will they know what to expect from their weapon?

Ok...enough ranting. Hope all is well in the states. Still haven't decided who I'm going to vote for. Remember this people...if Bush wins this election, then there is a VERY good chance that Hillary Clinton may run in 2008. However, if Kerry wins, then it'd be wrong for the DNC to choose another candidate over the incumbent. Realizing this makes it that much harder to decide who to vote for. Anyone seen my absentee ballot yet? I know I sure as hell haven't!

Laters!

24 July 2004 - Ok...so my wife has been hounding me for quite some time to post another entry. It's hard to think of things to say when I talk to my wife almost every day and tell her everything. Sometimes, I just forget that there are others who are reading this. So I've got a bit to talk about for the month of July. We're nearing the end of the second hottest month of the year and are entering the hottest month on average. Anyone who has lived in the greater Southwest I think can sympathize. We averaged highs at or around 115, with the highest we recorded at 118. Average lows have been in the mid 80's. Plus the perpetual breeze that comes out of the southwest...it's just miserable. I open my living connex's door, and my 65 degree temps flood out the door and my room heats up quickly to just under 80...and it only takes about 5 minutes. My eyes burn if I take off my WileyX Ballistic glasses (what I wear in all my pictures) b/c the heat dries them out fast. We've been having a lot more dust storm lately...the type that hit fast and reduce visibility down to a paltry 10 feet. I wish I had my camera, but the standard is to jump inside and button up until it's over. If not, then you get sand in every crevice on you it can find...and anyone who knows me knows how much I dislike having sand on my body when I've been sweating a lot. And believe me...you sweat just by sitting outside. Heaven forbid you should have to walk anywhere between 1000 and 1700 when the sun and heat are the worst...I know that during the day I can drink about 80 ounces of water (10 cups) and never have to use the restroom b/c I'm sweating it all out. Yucky, but true.

I want to send a thank you to Leanne F., a close friend of mine from college. See, I received an email from a gentleman named Paul. Leanne and Paul happened to be on the same plane together flying back from Las Vegas (must've been nice). They started talking and Leanne happened to mention that I was in Iraq. Paul emailed me and I found this one thing he wrote something I wanted to share with everyone. "Just wanted to send you a bigtime  note of encouragement and thanks for what you folks are doing in Iraq.  You are truly a hero to me and my wife and family.  Thank you for defending our great country from terrorism and the likes of Sadam Hussein (probably mispelled).  I pray for your safety and effectiveness in accomplishing your goals over there." It's emails like Paul's which I love to get. Most soldiers (at least all the one's I've ever met) are embarrassed by this type of compliment, but I have never heard a single soldier say that they don't appreciate it when a person thanks them for what they do, even if that person doesn't agree with the politics of it all. I shared this email with my commo section and a few other soldiers I'm good friends with, and they all were smiling when I finished reading that quote. Paul...to you and your family I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making a group of soldiers smile amongst all of this which we are forced to endure.

As a soldier, there is one thing that I personally feel everyone can do to show their appreciation for the soldiers here...please get out and vote. I know it's tough to believe that your single vote counts, but I feel that it does. Imagine if all the millions feel that their single vote will makes a difference...in the end...they all will. After seeing how the Iraqi people here have been suppressed by the government form expressing their political views, I cannot imagine why anyone in the US would ignore one of our greatest rights...the right to vote. I've had to battle that mindset with some of my soldiers, and it's infuriating to believe that they don't see this. That they believe that their vote is absolutely worthless...even at the local level. Hard to believe that some people go through their life with the blinders on and don't care what decisions others make that affect their lives.

July has been an eventful mortar month for me. Generally, when the mortars start to fall, I'm nowhere near them, or they're out of my sight (but you can certainly hear them!). Well, about two weeks ago, that changed. Me and my soldiers were moving our two vehicles across post, and we had come to stop at the four way intersection on our base. Suddenly, without any warning, this mortar landed about 150 feet directly in front of us, missing the road by a few feet. I was sitting in the second humvee. The driver of the first humvee froze when he saw that. One mortar isn't an issue here...it's the subsequent ones that we all fear. If one hits, no one jumps or worries about it...but we all stop and wait to see if there is a second. Well, in this instance, there was a second. It hit close...maybe 80-100 feet directly in front of the vehicles. It was walking towards the intersection. Still, the first driver was frozen. My driver was staring out the front window...either mesmerized or scared shitless...I don't know which. I grabbed the mic to my squad radio and yelled at the first driver as much as at my driver "MOVE!!!" My driver heard me, b/c he slammed the gas and tore around the first truck. Even with our engine screaming, I could still hear the second truck gun it and come tearing around that intersection. Not sure much after that, other then we heard another mortar hit, but it was somewhere behind us. Humvees are resilient and we pushed these two pretty hard up the hill, sliding on the gravel as we careened around the corner leading into our compound. I don't recommend you do that at the 30 miles per hour we were doing, but mortars have a way of making you do things you normally wouldn't do. No one was hurt in this attack, and we all made it to our compound without incident. We've also had a couple of rockets land right next to our living areas, about 100 feet away. Now those were loud!! No injuries, a chance to do some crater analysis, and physical fragments for Intel to go over with a fine tooth comb.

July has also been the month of complacency and old internal arguments to rear their ugly heads. We (the officers) have noticed that there is n increase in our soldiers losing equipment, mouthing off to superiors, etc, which we didn't see before. Well, this is the 5th month and I believe that the 5th thru the 9th will be the hardest months. About the 9th month, missions will change which should change some of the attitudes around here. But, we are battling soldiers who have fallen into a rhythm and whose heads aren't into the game as they once were. We've sustained a number of non-combat related injuries, but nothing that is life threatening or would force us to send people home. We have been terribly fortunate that everything is considered minor. Plus, we're starting to see the Battalion XO and the HHC Company Commander go at it. Mostly, the HHC CO is annoying the heck out of the XO by making less then rational decisions. I think this is just normal when you have two very different personalities, but I've gotta admit that I can't stand some of the decisions the HHC CO makes. He's not exactly a soldier's commander. I just pray that he doesn't do something so asinine that he gets a soldier injured or killed. Speaking of asinine...when you pull a vehicle up to a train track...what's the first thing you do? STOP!! Before you reach the tracks. What's the second thing you do? LOOK BOTH WAYS!! Well, we had a driver who did neither of those, stopped his HEMTT on the tracks, and didn't see the train baring down on him. It was luck that he was driving off the tracks when the train clipped the rear of the HEMTT, destroying the cargo area, but the soldiers in the cab sustained only minor injuries. See....complacency! Or stupidity...not sure which, but I'll pursue the complacency b/c we can fix that. Stupidity is a little harder to fix. 

I "hang" with a small group of officer, the XO (MAJ Zollar), the S1 (CPT Doss), the S3 (MAJ Strobel), and the Maintenance Officer (CW3 Seay). These are my movie watching buddies. We get together after hours at least once a week and watch a movie together. It's a nice break from the official duties, especially since some of these guys I have real issues with professionally. Thankfully, I get along with them all personally and I do have the ability (learned over many years) to separate the two. Well, since July started, we've seen at least 17 movies (some really good...some not so good). Let me tell you, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly with Clint Eastwood seemed like such a good movie when I was younger, but now when we watched it, it was just corny. I have seen some really good movies too (old and new) like 50 First Dates, Out of Time, American Wedding, Rambo, Open Range, etc. Maybe we'll all come up with the list of movies we've seen and just make a review page out of them....maybe. We play Monopoly at least once a week, inviting in other officers to try and unseat the "Real Estate Baron" who won the previous week. It's fun, or at least a nice distraction. We've also introduced the game of Risk into our regular weekly unwind times. CPT Doss won tonight with complete world domination. It was long, but definitely something we're going to play again. Heck...I think we all really look forward to our time playing the games and watching the movies...it's our time to openly bitch about work, about our co-workers (not each other), and to devise strategies on how to move our ideas and suggestions to the forefront of the Commander's decisions. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.

Well, tomorrow is Sunday. Mass as usual...yep...that's right. I do go to mass on a regular basis. And yes Hon...I intend to continue this when I get home. Time for bed. I have more to ramble about, so maybe I'll do that during my rest and refit day. Still need to go to the gym though...gaining weight with all the good food they keep serving us here.

8 July 2004 - Today we traveled out to Badush ASP (Ammo Supply Point). We were driving around some contractors who have been hired to clean up all the unexploded ordnance at the ASP's that the Air Force bombed in the initial part of the war. We drove out with Stryker escorts. Lots of firepower to protect the civilians. The drive out was uneventful as my biggest concern was staying awake as I scanned my sector of the convoy watching for any attacks. You might be surprised at how boring it gets looking out at a landscape for an hour or two. Here...try this. Have a friend drive a car for you. Sit in the back seat, and go down I-95 or I-81. Just look out at the side of the road...don't look up the road or down the road...just out the side at the shoulder. Try to remain focused. Now you'll know what our convoys are like as a passenger. Terribly boring. When we got to Badush, the heat of the day had finally crested to a point that was almost unbearable. I think everyone who I talk to on a regular/semi-regular basis knows that I mention the weather here a lot. To be honest, I'm not sure all of you who live in Virginia really understand. I think my brother, Jim understands pretty well b/c he lived in Oklahoma for 4-5 years. The temps there soared over the 100's regularly, and there was always a perpetual wind. The same here. The temps have started to average about 110, with the highest we've encountered at 114. August averages around 116 with highs in the 120, so I don't know how to handle that. Here's the best way to experience the desert heat...turn your oven onto broil and let it heat up all the way. Then when it's heated up, open the door and stick your face right in front of it. Feel that huge blast of hot air that hits you...that's what it's like here all day long. There is a perpetual wind, not breeze, but a 10-15 knot wind all the time. Well, were I'm going with this is that I don't think I have ever sweated so badly before unless I was doing a hard workout. This time, I was sweating so much just sitting and walking, that my uniform literally was soaked through...like someone had sprayed me with a garden hose. Drank over 3 liters (100 ounces) of water in about 2.5 hours, and I was still parched. With the Kevlar helmet, there's no way for the heat to escape your head. I think we need to develop a better cooling system for the helmet. Of course I say that and I haven't tried the new Miche helmets. Supposed to be cooler and lighter, but just as strong. I got pictures of the ASP, and will post them here or on the pics page. I think everyone will be interested in seeing the handiwork of our Armed Forces. There are actually people living at the ASP, and the children came out in droves to see us. Some of them actually brought out the coloring books that we had given them before...and they had been coloring in them. Great moment. Then the realization set in about how us soldiers are causing a problem. The kids now have gotten to think soldiers always have candy and gifts to give them. They're like a pack of ravenous wolves at feeding time whenever the trucks stop and they can get near us. But...I have to admit...the children are so innocent and cute. They're more curious of us then afraid or angry. And I guess the equipment we wear is odd to them. None of the Iraqi soldiers who used to guard the ASP's had equipment like ours.

So, after about 3 hours of walking and driving around the ASP, we finally headed back to the base. As usual, I was sweating buckets. It had gotten so bad that my feet were so hot that I could feel them sweating. I know...yuck...but it's a fact of life here. Thank goodness that we have crates of foot powder. Anyways...as we neared Mosul, we started to get some very odd drivers trying to cut into our convoy. Mind you, this isn't normal. When we drive the roads, most cars stay in their lanes or pull over for us...they don't try to pass...they don't do anything erratic...but today we had two of them that did. We had heavy firepower on every vehicle, so a few .50-caliber rounds into the pavement in front of these cars certainly gave them the message. They swerved to the left side of the road and drove on ahead of us. When we got within the city limits, we were forced to take an unplanned detour b/c of a huge truck carrying bedding materials or something like that. The Strykers were too wide to pass, so we took an alternate, less used route. People...nothing wakes you as fast as seeing a mortar round dropped in on you. Well, this one wasn't ON us, but it hit close enough that the noise made us all jump...and it caused the Strykers to sit up and take notice. I mean, really, what type of an idiot tries to drop a mortar round on a convoy driving at 50 miles an hour? Sheesh! Oh then...when we get back to the base, less then 15 minutes we're back and 2 rockets land right next to our living compound. AND I heard these ones come in...that distinctive whistling sound...an then a BOOM!!! Funny thing is, in the split second I heard the whistle, my first thought was "Oh man...I just got back!! Why now?!" Then I scrambled to put my sweaty IBA back on and head out to the bunker. After that...I just felt like going back to my room to pass out. I was drained.

Other things I found myself thinking about while we were out driving. We passed through a small village with a narrow road and high buildings. All the kids in this village came out to give us the thumbs up and wave (I still wonder about the thumbs up, b/c we were told that the thumbs up and OK signs were offensive to Iraqis). So were these kids happy to see us, or were they telling us to go to hell? Who knows. But it made me wonder...was this what it was like to the Germans as they crossed into countries that they had conquered? I know that all the Germans weren't ruthless bastards...many were just regular soldiers like us fighting for what they believed in. But...did the European children do the same thing? Run out and watch convoys pass and wave to the soldiers? What do the Iraqi children really think of us? Also, I found myself thinking about an article I read online the other day...January is when we're supposed to have stabilized this country's democratic system. Well...I think we all agree that the US and England are the two most democratic countries in the world...so think of this...it took England 900 years and a civil war to reach it's current democratic state...it took the US almost 230 years and a civil war to reach where it is now...how the heck can anyone expect Iraq to be a full-fledged democracy in 7 months? Anyone have a suggestion? If you do, please speak up as we ALL would like to hear it. How can we stop these insurgents? What do we need to do?

5 July 2004 - Yesterday was Independence Day, and as expected, the holiday was a tough one. The FOB tried to do some nice things for us. They had an apple pie eating contest, a hot wing eating contest, a hot dog eating contest, they had a lot of patriotic music, played patriotic movies all day long (like the Patriot, Green Berets, etc.). They couldn't do too much, but it was still a nice day. The insurgents said they would bring the "fireworks", but thankfully they forgot. For those who wonder...no I didn't do any of the eating contests. I'm not in my college youth where I could polish off 40-50 wings without blinking. Now, I can barely eat 20 and that would've been embarrassing. Besides, I guess I'm not much into the competitive eating thing. They had other games going on, but I didn't stick around to watch them. Spent a good part of my day yesterday doing what I normally do...sleep...eat...go to church...and play volleyball. I'm not great at volleyball as I have terrible eye-hand coordination...but it's such a nice distraction to go play a couple of hours of volleyball with the soldiers.

I got to talk to Kathy as well. It was a great conversation, but it was a sad one. I always have these great conversations with my wife...like we used to before we got married. I felt so bad  that I wasn't home with everyone enjoying the festivities. It's the standard "soldier on deployment feeling bad for himself" thing. I just wonder what Christmas will be like. Ugh...don't even want to think about it. I hope everyone has had a great 4th of July!! I miss you all, and God Bless America.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!
Wish I was there with you all!