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.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Riddle me this . . .
Well not much exciting has been happening around here lately.
Is that a good or bad thing?
One thing I am currently having to deal with is that one of my soldiers failed his diagnostic PT test and so now the lieutenant is making me and 2 other NCO's run with him 5 days a week. Now I really dont wanna get into specifics of this, but maybe it will help cause im in a pretty foul mood at the moment. Im not sure why, but I am tired, hungry, and have several things going through my mind all the time and none of them are happy happy joy joy inspiring.
Anyways back during Annual Training in the desert of idaho I was near my 1SGT when he informed someone else that there would be no PT tests during our deployment cause the army was tired of seeing failures. This was good news for us since it would be one less thing to worry about interfering with our mission.
February rolls around and our commander says that we will all be doing a diagnostic PT test. My personal opinion on this is that the commander had been seeing most of us in the gym and making changes in our body shape and in seeing this for a few months was bragging us up higher in his chain of command and decided that a diagnostic was a great way to have numbers to back up his praise.
Now in the mind of the average joe a diagnostic is not a record test and does not require much effort be put into it. Which is exactly what happened and 75% of the unit failed. This set command off and new policy came down that whoever failed must be babysat at the gym 5 days a week and take another PT test every 2 weeks till passing then the restriction would lift but everyone would still have to take a monthly PT test. This pissed the troops off. One really good reason why is because the types of workouts being done to lose body fat and/or gain muscle mass are not ones that help with a PT test, so now everyone is losing momentum on their personal improvement and they all have to take 3-5 days off before the test to give their bodies time to recover and heal from the intense workouts they have been doing in order to be ready to do their best on the PT test.
After a few months of this go by and I would say 95% of the unit is passing now, the commander puts out that if a soldier passes with 70% or better in each catagory(60% is minimum to pass)then they no longer have to do a PT test while they are here. This makes us less angry. So a lot of us kick out our 70% and use that as a big fat finger to command.
Which brings us to the soldier i have to deal with. He has failed every PT test taken and was on the 5 day a week plan up until i left for my R&R. Apparently while i was gone that had been forgotten and not enforced. Well he took another test recently and failed again and this pissed off the LT and in a meeting I wasnt aware of said that all the NCO's in the squad(this includes me) failed and that all of us(me, the 2 other NCO's)must run with the failing soldier 5 days a week till passing which screws up our own schedules for sleep and working out and keeping in touch with family back home. I will say that im glad i wasnt at that meeting cause i would be reduced in rank and pay right now had I been there.
After talking to this soldier about this situation he informs me that his contract with the military is up in November and he will not be re-enlisting and therefor has no disire or motivation to pass and has made this decision long ago. So now we are stuck in a situation that is F'd.
How do you force the horse to drink now that you have him at the river?
Is that a good or bad thing?
One thing I am currently having to deal with is that one of my soldiers failed his diagnostic PT test and so now the lieutenant is making me and 2 other NCO's run with him 5 days a week. Now I really dont wanna get into specifics of this, but maybe it will help cause im in a pretty foul mood at the moment. Im not sure why, but I am tired, hungry, and have several things going through my mind all the time and none of them are happy happy joy joy inspiring.
Anyways back during Annual Training in the desert of idaho I was near my 1SGT when he informed someone else that there would be no PT tests during our deployment cause the army was tired of seeing failures. This was good news for us since it would be one less thing to worry about interfering with our mission.
February rolls around and our commander says that we will all be doing a diagnostic PT test. My personal opinion on this is that the commander had been seeing most of us in the gym and making changes in our body shape and in seeing this for a few months was bragging us up higher in his chain of command and decided that a diagnostic was a great way to have numbers to back up his praise.
Now in the mind of the average joe a diagnostic is not a record test and does not require much effort be put into it. Which is exactly what happened and 75% of the unit failed. This set command off and new policy came down that whoever failed must be babysat at the gym 5 days a week and take another PT test every 2 weeks till passing then the restriction would lift but everyone would still have to take a monthly PT test. This pissed the troops off. One really good reason why is because the types of workouts being done to lose body fat and/or gain muscle mass are not ones that help with a PT test, so now everyone is losing momentum on their personal improvement and they all have to take 3-5 days off before the test to give their bodies time to recover and heal from the intense workouts they have been doing in order to be ready to do their best on the PT test.
After a few months of this go by and I would say 95% of the unit is passing now, the commander puts out that if a soldier passes with 70% or better in each catagory(60% is minimum to pass)then they no longer have to do a PT test while they are here. This makes us less angry. So a lot of us kick out our 70% and use that as a big fat finger to command.
Which brings us to the soldier i have to deal with. He has failed every PT test taken and was on the 5 day a week plan up until i left for my R&R. Apparently while i was gone that had been forgotten and not enforced. Well he took another test recently and failed again and this pissed off the LT and in a meeting I wasnt aware of said that all the NCO's in the squad(this includes me) failed and that all of us(me, the 2 other NCO's)must run with the failing soldier 5 days a week till passing which screws up our own schedules for sleep and working out and keeping in touch with family back home. I will say that im glad i wasnt at that meeting cause i would be reduced in rank and pay right now had I been there.
After talking to this soldier about this situation he informs me that his contract with the military is up in November and he will not be re-enlisting and therefor has no disire or motivation to pass and has made this decision long ago. So now we are stuck in a situation that is F'd.
How do you force the horse to drink now that you have him at the river?
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
DAMN IRAQIES!!!
At 0530 this morning we got another IDF(indirect fire) alarm but it was a shorter one than usual which left me and my battle in total silence waiting for something to hit before we call it up to higher this time.
So we are waiting and waiting and waiting and wondering if it was just a false alarm, then boom boom! 2 explosions. I jump up and call up to higher that we just had the incoming alarm sound off with 2 detonations following it to our west about 600-700 meters away.
These rocket attacks are starting to wear on me. the whole time i was waiting for the impacts, which in reality was about 1 minute or less, with every passing second my tension level was rising wondering where the impacts were gonna be. Are they gonna land on us or somewhere else? With my rising tension level im also waiting for the impacts to happen so i can either jump outta my skin and react if they are close or unclench my butthole and breath a sigh of relief. Thankfully it was the later.
About 0630 we were listening to the AFN(armed forces network) radio station and one of the DJ's reports that a fellow soldier was killed on 16 JUN 2011 from an IDF attack.
RIP brother
A little while later our relief shows up and as we are doing the change over they let us know that the IDF we had earlier had actually landed 150 meters away from another one of our ECPs.
SGT Beautikoffer and SPC Vanleuven both from my squad were manning that post at the time and were unhurt.
So we are waiting and waiting and waiting and wondering if it was just a false alarm, then boom boom! 2 explosions. I jump up and call up to higher that we just had the incoming alarm sound off with 2 detonations following it to our west about 600-700 meters away.
These rocket attacks are starting to wear on me. the whole time i was waiting for the impacts, which in reality was about 1 minute or less, with every passing second my tension level was rising wondering where the impacts were gonna be. Are they gonna land on us or somewhere else? With my rising tension level im also waiting for the impacts to happen so i can either jump outta my skin and react if they are close or unclench my butthole and breath a sigh of relief. Thankfully it was the later.
About 0630 we were listening to the AFN(armed forces network) radio station and one of the DJ's reports that a fellow soldier was killed on 16 JUN 2011 from an IDF attack.
RIP brother
A little while later our relief shows up and as we are doing the change over they let us know that the IDF we had earlier had actually landed 150 meters away from another one of our ECPs.
SGT Beautikoffer and SPC Vanleuven both from my squad were manning that post at the time and were unhurt.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
gettin warm.
this pic was taken about a month ago. since then we have had a high of 122. 140 is not uncommon though. cant wait lol.
20 JUN 2011
Well ive had an interesting few nights.
3 nights ago shortly after shift change we had the incoming alarm go off so i went to the radio to call it up to higher, just as i got to the radio there was an explosion. The other ECPs called in as well and put the impact at about 500-600 meters away from us.
The next night as i was walking back from the shower hut i saw a tree branch that had broken off and landed on a guys roof to his room and had caved half of it in while i was taking my shower. The branch was about 8 inches thick and 10 feet long. So i stopped and ooh'd n aww'd for a bit then went back to my room and got ready for my shift. Got to my ECP and did my changeover and the damn incoming alarm sounded off again, but there was no explosion this time, so either it was a dud or it was nothing.
last night as we were heading out we came upon the IZ police that had blocked off the entrance/exit to the FOB we live on, after we stopped and called it up to higher that we were blocked off, the IZ police came up and told us that the bomb dog took a sit, which means it detected something, while searching a vehicle and that EOD was on scene to check the possible VBID. So we called that up to higher as well and proceeded to wait, after a few minutes we got the all clear and were able to carry on to an uneventfull rest of the night.
3 nights ago shortly after shift change we had the incoming alarm go off so i went to the radio to call it up to higher, just as i got to the radio there was an explosion. The other ECPs called in as well and put the impact at about 500-600 meters away from us.
The next night as i was walking back from the shower hut i saw a tree branch that had broken off and landed on a guys roof to his room and had caved half of it in while i was taking my shower. The branch was about 8 inches thick and 10 feet long. So i stopped and ooh'd n aww'd for a bit then went back to my room and got ready for my shift. Got to my ECP and did my changeover and the damn incoming alarm sounded off again, but there was no explosion this time, so either it was a dud or it was nothing.
last night as we were heading out we came upon the IZ police that had blocked off the entrance/exit to the FOB we live on, after we stopped and called it up to higher that we were blocked off, the IZ police came up and told us that the bomb dog took a sit, which means it detected something, while searching a vehicle and that EOD was on scene to check the possible VBID. So we called that up to higher as well and proceeded to wait, after a few minutes we got the all clear and were able to carry on to an uneventfull rest of the night.
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