(no subject)
Dec. 27
Mostly, an uneventfull day. I had to get the starter and fly-wheel replaced on my humvee. Therefore, missing the mission to go find a weapons cache. It got found, and three scout trucks were left to guard it for the night. Very unusual. Usually, some engineers are brought out to take care of it.
Dec. 28
My guard shift starts at 0001. At 0100, I go down to wake everyone up. Three trucks are needed to go and relieve the other three at the cache. My squad leader, for some reason, wanted me to take out the trash and leftover chow. It could've waited, but I have to. The bag is heavy, so I needed to be quick about taking it to the fire-pit. So I'm outside with a flash light, trying to find the wooden path to the fire-pit(we laid wood out because the rain turned all the sand to mud). While trying to find the path, I trip and fall in the mud. The bag ripped a little, so I try to hurry. I only make it about 10 feet until the bag brakes, and I'm now covered in mud and mash potatoes. I just leave the garbage there, since I don't have time to take care of it. I go inside and change into a new uniform.
At about 0200, we head out. The cache is right against the Tigris River and near a small village. It takes awhile to get there, just because of the visability, and the fact we have to take nothing but farm roads to get there. Horrible roads. Usually, when we go to that area, we keep our lights out and use night-vision. But the fog was too thick. When we get there, we try to get ourselves in good positions. I'm not tired, but I try to sleep anyways. It's too fucking cold to sleep. Even though I'm wearing thermals, a jacket, gloves, and a scarf, I'm still freezing my ass off. The fog is incredibly thick and fogging up my night vision goggles. Plus, there's no moon out. I can barely see 10 feet in front of me. I sit around just waiting for the sun to come up. Eventually, my feet start to freeze, so I walk around trying to warm up still waiting for the sun and the engineers. When the sun comes up, I go and check out the cache, and see that it's a bunch of missles. They seem to be the small ones you fire from helicopters. We find out later that there is about 600 of them. around 0730, the engineers come over. Finally. I was getting tired of pestering the villages cattle. Stupid cows.
Anyways, long story short, it took until 1200 to go back to my bunker and regain feeling to my toes.
Later that day, we got briefed on a mission for the next day. It was called Operation Simpson's. There was roads like Route: Bart, Route: Homer, Route: Selma. And things like phase-line: Itchy, phase-line: Scratchy, and Zone: Kwiki Mart. My task force, along with C co., 2-3 Infantry were involved. 2-3 Infantry are part of the 2ID out of Fort Lewis. They're new to Iraq. Infact, this was there first raid.
Today
I wake up at 0445 to get ready for the raid. My platoon's part is simple: Stop all traffic in and out of Zone: Moe's along Route: Selma. I could definently tell I've been there to long. Whenever we heard gun fire from the town near by, us scouts wounldn't care. We just kept going on with our conversations. In the past, we'd get all jumpy and start flippin. Now, if the bullets aren't comming our way...we don't care. I lot of weapons were found. Along with a baby in the trunk of a car. That surprised me. I didn't get to see it, but I heard it being talked about over the radio. Apparently, the baby was still-born, and the parents just threw the baby in the trunk of their car. I know what you're thinking..."great country". We don't get back until about 1730.
Well, that was my day so far. If anyone has read it this far, I'll be surprised.
Mostly, an uneventfull day. I had to get the starter and fly-wheel replaced on my humvee. Therefore, missing the mission to go find a weapons cache. It got found, and three scout trucks were left to guard it for the night. Very unusual. Usually, some engineers are brought out to take care of it.
Dec. 28
My guard shift starts at 0001. At 0100, I go down to wake everyone up. Three trucks are needed to go and relieve the other three at the cache. My squad leader, for some reason, wanted me to take out the trash and leftover chow. It could've waited, but I have to. The bag is heavy, so I needed to be quick about taking it to the fire-pit. So I'm outside with a flash light, trying to find the wooden path to the fire-pit(we laid wood out because the rain turned all the sand to mud). While trying to find the path, I trip and fall in the mud. The bag ripped a little, so I try to hurry. I only make it about 10 feet until the bag brakes, and I'm now covered in mud and mash potatoes. I just leave the garbage there, since I don't have time to take care of it. I go inside and change into a new uniform.
At about 0200, we head out. The cache is right against the Tigris River and near a small village. It takes awhile to get there, just because of the visability, and the fact we have to take nothing but farm roads to get there. Horrible roads. Usually, when we go to that area, we keep our lights out and use night-vision. But the fog was too thick. When we get there, we try to get ourselves in good positions. I'm not tired, but I try to sleep anyways. It's too fucking cold to sleep. Even though I'm wearing thermals, a jacket, gloves, and a scarf, I'm still freezing my ass off. The fog is incredibly thick and fogging up my night vision goggles. Plus, there's no moon out. I can barely see 10 feet in front of me. I sit around just waiting for the sun to come up. Eventually, my feet start to freeze, so I walk around trying to warm up still waiting for the sun and the engineers. When the sun comes up, I go and check out the cache, and see that it's a bunch of missles. They seem to be the small ones you fire from helicopters. We find out later that there is about 600 of them. around 0730, the engineers come over. Finally. I was getting tired of pestering the villages cattle. Stupid cows.
Anyways, long story short, it took until 1200 to go back to my bunker and regain feeling to my toes.
Later that day, we got briefed on a mission for the next day. It was called Operation Simpson's. There was roads like Route: Bart, Route: Homer, Route: Selma. And things like phase-line: Itchy, phase-line: Scratchy, and Zone: Kwiki Mart. My task force, along with C co., 2-3 Infantry were involved. 2-3 Infantry are part of the 2ID out of Fort Lewis. They're new to Iraq. Infact, this was there first raid.
Today
I wake up at 0445 to get ready for the raid. My platoon's part is simple: Stop all traffic in and out of Zone: Moe's along Route: Selma. I could definently tell I've been there to long. Whenever we heard gun fire from the town near by, us scouts wounldn't care. We just kept going on with our conversations. In the past, we'd get all jumpy and start flippin. Now, if the bullets aren't comming our way...we don't care. I lot of weapons were found. Along with a baby in the trunk of a car. That surprised me. I didn't get to see it, but I heard it being talked about over the radio. Apparently, the baby was still-born, and the parents just threw the baby in the trunk of their car. I know what you're thinking..."great country". We don't get back until about 1730.
Well, that was my day so far. If anyone has read it this far, I'll be surprised.