Into The City

So in support of a fellow company we traveled into the city for what was my first time. My company AO (Area of Operations) lies outside the city to the south and covers a smaller farming town. In support of them we were to come in to the city at the break of dawn with local IP’s and begin to search a section of the city along with other platoons from the battalion. Our little piece of the pie wasn’t so little, and being in a Tank Platoon we are challenged even with a lack of man power. A tank platoon has only 16 members; two of ours were on leave giving us 14. Now an infantry platoon has close to 40 in a platoon and figure they some on leave of needed else where we will give them 35, which is still twice as much as us.

So there we are in the heart of the city, all fourteen of us doing the work at the same pace as 35 infantry grunts. From 0600 to just after noon my platoon cleared 104 houses; finding several weapons and one HVT (High Value Target). We had divided up in two teams and each team had five IP’s with us. I was the leader of team two and my and my team cleared a total of 71 of the 104 houses. I really don’t know what Teams 1 hold up was but they did catch that HVT so whatever. But it sounds like everything went smooth right?

Well it did, in total there were 7 IED’s that went off, countless burst of small arms fire and then as we headed out of the city we started taking mortar fire. There was only one destroyed US truck and a US solider injured, and I think three IP’s were killed from separate attacks. They usually take the brunt of the attacks around here. They primarily roll around in thin skinned Chevy Trucks and those don’t take an IED blast to well.

Oh I almost forgot, one of the IED’s was three 130mm rounds stuffed in a dead donkey…

We made it though, and I am finally back here on the FOB for a day and go figure there is a blackout. Not sure why but rumor is a soldier from the main body of my unit down south was killed late last night and one more is holding on barely at a nearby Army hospital. We were briefed that attacks pick up as the weather heats up and they couldn’t be more right. Last month alone IED’s were up 120% in our sector. I am not trying to scare any of you; I just want to let you know what is actually going on here. The media talks about operations on a larger scale and it is usually blown out of proportion. I just want to give you a little view of what life here on the ground is really like. Maybe it’s a sure sign that I need a break but I find my self really enjoying these missions. Most have us have a sort of addiction to this adrenaline rush. But I think I just really need a break.

The silver lining in all this is that there is a break coming for me. I finally have a leave date. I am scheduled to be home on May 8th, it probably will be closer to the 10th by the time I get home but really I don’t care what the exact day is, it’s just the fact that I am going home. I only get 14 days but, fourteen minutes from here would be nice.

So there you go ladies and gents, mark your calendars. Cause I am coming home!

Searching through abandoned homes for "squaters"

One of the oldest mosque in world in one of the oldest cities in the world...

Never in a million years did I think I would see a singing "Big Mouth Bass" fish in Iraq...