At 1335hrs it is currently 123 degrees out.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
pics
time to share some pics ive taken recently. A couple pics of me and some IA guy that says i smell like a rose. The crossed swords parade ground where Saddam would parade and berate his army. And pics of the Tomb of the unknown soldier.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Gettin jumpy
A few days ago we started training the IA(Iraqi Army) to take over for us in protecting the UN compounds because we are leaving soon and everything is getting turned back over into Iraq's control.
Needless to say everyone was pretty apprehensive about it and for good reason. We all know the way things are around here and in the week prior there have been 3 seperate stories in the Stars and Stripes of US units getting gunned down by their local counterparts. Granted these stories were in Afghanistan but just as likely to happen here.
Our first night was a tense one. We were plused up on personnel and weapons and took every precaution available to ensure things went smoothly. There was 4 Iraqis, 3 of us and 1 interpreter on every shift at every point. With space at the ECP's already at a premium before, it was really crowded now and I saw a potential for everything to go wrong with the over crowding and everyones tension already spiked.
We show up for our first shift and during the turnover the previous NCOIC(Non Commissioned Officer In Charge) and me are exchanging info and he tells me that the IA are pretty cool and to use the terp in swapping stories and BSing. For about the first hour things were very quiet and somber and im just waiting for a GREASE knife fight to happen or an altercation thats turns it all into a blood bath. Finaly I started utilizing the terp and talking with the IA.
sidenote: our interpreter sucked! He is a lot like the terp Meesh in the HBO mini series Generation Kill. If you havent seen it then you should, its pretty good.
After awhile asking questions back and forth between the IA and us, everyone gets into it and the next thing you know everyone is involved with swapping stories, telling lies to each other having a blast and laughing our asses off. But we still maintained our guard and will never allow our backs to be turned to these guys.
At 0534hrs that morning one of the US soldiers that was new to ECP's and was there to help plus us up asked me when the booms start? So i looked at the clock and tell him that they are usually either at 2330 or 0530 and that it looks like we might be in the clear today.
At 0600 sure as shit a morter hits,boom! All 8 of us clam up and start looking around when we hear a very strange sound and I start thinking to myself, you know that sounds really familiar to the sound I heard just befor the first explosion, OH SHIT INCOMING! Everyone else must have been on the same wave length cause we all dived for the nearest bunker and make it in before the next boom. As we are standing in there i stated that it was really strange that the morters were close enough to hear them coming in but yet we never got any warning from the IDF alarms. After a few minutes of waiting for something else to happen, but didnt, we all came out and finished up another normal day.
The past 2 nights have been really quiet and both the US and IA have scaled back their troops to just 2 of each per shift per point and no terps. Its been pretty entertaining having a conversation with the IA without a terp but somehow we make it work. I have been teaching them some english and they have been teaching me some arabic.
At 0600 this morning BOOOM!!! I mean this explosion was so loud and/or close that I damn near jumped out of my skin and pissed myself at the same time! This stuff keeps up and Ill be just like my buddy SGT Grivet. He is one skittish dude with the 2 deployments before this one. The slightest sound and he was up and running for cover before HE even knew what was going on. Im talking prison bitch jumpy. I always used to laugh at him and have fun with it, but now im starting to feel his pain and im not one to ever startle easily.
Needless to say everyone was pretty apprehensive about it and for good reason. We all know the way things are around here and in the week prior there have been 3 seperate stories in the Stars and Stripes of US units getting gunned down by their local counterparts. Granted these stories were in Afghanistan but just as likely to happen here.
Our first night was a tense one. We were plused up on personnel and weapons and took every precaution available to ensure things went smoothly. There was 4 Iraqis, 3 of us and 1 interpreter on every shift at every point. With space at the ECP's already at a premium before, it was really crowded now and I saw a potential for everything to go wrong with the over crowding and everyones tension already spiked.
We show up for our first shift and during the turnover the previous NCOIC(Non Commissioned Officer In Charge) and me are exchanging info and he tells me that the IA are pretty cool and to use the terp in swapping stories and BSing. For about the first hour things were very quiet and somber and im just waiting for a GREASE knife fight to happen or an altercation thats turns it all into a blood bath. Finaly I started utilizing the terp and talking with the IA.
sidenote: our interpreter sucked! He is a lot like the terp Meesh in the HBO mini series Generation Kill. If you havent seen it then you should, its pretty good.
After awhile asking questions back and forth between the IA and us, everyone gets into it and the next thing you know everyone is involved with swapping stories, telling lies to each other having a blast and laughing our asses off. But we still maintained our guard and will never allow our backs to be turned to these guys.
At 0534hrs that morning one of the US soldiers that was new to ECP's and was there to help plus us up asked me when the booms start? So i looked at the clock and tell him that they are usually either at 2330 or 0530 and that it looks like we might be in the clear today.
At 0600 sure as shit a morter hits,boom! All 8 of us clam up and start looking around when we hear a very strange sound and I start thinking to myself, you know that sounds really familiar to the sound I heard just befor the first explosion, OH SHIT INCOMING! Everyone else must have been on the same wave length cause we all dived for the nearest bunker and make it in before the next boom. As we are standing in there i stated that it was really strange that the morters were close enough to hear them coming in but yet we never got any warning from the IDF alarms. After a few minutes of waiting for something else to happen, but didnt, we all came out and finished up another normal day.
The past 2 nights have been really quiet and both the US and IA have scaled back their troops to just 2 of each per shift per point and no terps. Its been pretty entertaining having a conversation with the IA without a terp but somehow we make it work. I have been teaching them some english and they have been teaching me some arabic.
At 0600 this morning BOOOM!!! I mean this explosion was so loud and/or close that I damn near jumped out of my skin and pissed myself at the same time! This stuff keeps up and Ill be just like my buddy SGT Grivet. He is one skittish dude with the 2 deployments before this one. The slightest sound and he was up and running for cover before HE even knew what was going on. Im talking prison bitch jumpy. I always used to laugh at him and have fun with it, but now im starting to feel his pain and im not one to ever startle easily.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Captain Planet, saving the world one pack at a time!
The other day me and my battle got relieved from our shift, so we grabbed our gear and loded up in the HUMVEE. I was driving and as we were approaching our FOB we came up on a bit of a traffic delay. There was a string of KBR service and delivery 18wheelers on the right side of the road and on the left side at the front of the line was an MRAP(mine resistant ambush protected) vehicle with a U.S. soldier on foot signaling for traffic to stop. The traffic consisted of a white haji car and me behind him.
The white car either wasnt paying much attention or didnt care becuase it didnt seem to want to stop for the soldier, but it finally did. I was paying attention and where I stopped there was a good 2-3 car lengths between me and the white car. Once that was over the soldier started waving the KBR convoy on, after half of them had gone by he stopped them and signaled for another MRAP to move in the middle. Then he signaled for the rest of the convoy to proceed and he jumped in his MRAP so that they could take up the rear.
At this point we have just been sitting there minding ourselves when I see the white car throw an empty pack of smokes out his window. I look over at my battle and say: I should make that guy pick that up. To which my battle replies with a laugh.
After sitting there for a long second I say F this, jump on the gas and as i start moving another car tries passing me on the right. So I hit the horn and swerve right pinching him off and pull up short behind the white car. I throw the HUMVEE in park, undo my seatbelt, jump out and close my door then jog over and pick up the pack of empty smokes and throw them back in the white car which scares the crap out of the haji driving. I then stare at the driver for a long hard second then I say with a pointed finger "KEEP BAGHDAD BEAUTIFUL".
I return to my vehicle put on my seatbelt, put it in gear and almost take off the white cars bumper getting around him cause of how close i parked. Once we were on the FOB and driving back to our ready room, me and my battles conversation went like this
battle: so what did you say to him?
me: I told him to keep baghdad beautiful.
battle:(laughing) that was freaking awesome! I think you are my new favorite hero.
me: I should have had him pick it up at gun point.
We both have a good laugh after that.
So of course my battle has to tell the rest of the squad what happened and later on in the gym one of my troops comes up to me and says "hey Captain Planet". For a sec there I was huh? then I was aaahhhh BWAHAHAHAHA goooooooOOOOOOOO PLANET! with my fist in the air.
The white car either wasnt paying much attention or didnt care becuase it didnt seem to want to stop for the soldier, but it finally did. I was paying attention and where I stopped there was a good 2-3 car lengths between me and the white car. Once that was over the soldier started waving the KBR convoy on, after half of them had gone by he stopped them and signaled for another MRAP to move in the middle. Then he signaled for the rest of the convoy to proceed and he jumped in his MRAP so that they could take up the rear.
At this point we have just been sitting there minding ourselves when I see the white car throw an empty pack of smokes out his window. I look over at my battle and say: I should make that guy pick that up. To which my battle replies with a laugh.
After sitting there for a long second I say F this, jump on the gas and as i start moving another car tries passing me on the right. So I hit the horn and swerve right pinching him off and pull up short behind the white car. I throw the HUMVEE in park, undo my seatbelt, jump out and close my door then jog over and pick up the pack of empty smokes and throw them back in the white car which scares the crap out of the haji driving. I then stare at the driver for a long hard second then I say with a pointed finger "KEEP BAGHDAD BEAUTIFUL".
I return to my vehicle put on my seatbelt, put it in gear and almost take off the white cars bumper getting around him cause of how close i parked. Once we were on the FOB and driving back to our ready room, me and my battles conversation went like this
battle: so what did you say to him?
me: I told him to keep baghdad beautiful.
battle:(laughing) that was freaking awesome! I think you are my new favorite hero.
me: I should have had him pick it up at gun point.
We both have a good laugh after that.
So of course my battle has to tell the rest of the squad what happened and later on in the gym one of my troops comes up to me and says "hey Captain Planet". For a sec there I was huh? then I was aaahhhh BWAHAHAHAHA goooooooOOOOOOOO PLANET! with my fist in the air.
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