Fire Mission Trailer

Downrange

Downrange: The Deployment Films of Casey J Porter from Casey J Porter on Vimeo.

E-mail 30 Nov 2007

Mom,

Since I’m not there anymore… If you ever wanted to know what it is like there for the grunts the real news/video is at the below link. Someone recently told me about the site.. pretty crazy. I saw things like that and at the time I was never scared.. it was exciting.. Looking back sometimes it’s kinda surreal.. guess maybe because I was in a tank.

http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=firefight&s=Search+All

--Shoegazer

Free At Last!

Shoegazer was honorably discharged from the United States Army on March 8, 2007.

Welcome Home Shoegazer

Shoegazer returned from Iraq Thursday, November 30, 2006. In 90 days he will be a civilian again. He served in Iraq from April 2003-July 2004 and again from December 2005-November 2006.

I thank all who have visited and especially those who took the time to leave comments.

If you feel this war and occupation of Iraq is a noble cause and you are 18-42 years old, then I urge you to join up and to re-up until the job is finished.

If you feel this war and occupation of Iraq is wrong and based on lies, then I urge you to actively join those who are working to end it.

"I have recently had my contract in the Military extended beyond what I had originally agreed to serve. Thus I am on my second vacation to the place where time began. The wonderful fertile crescent with it's lovely palm trees, flowing rivers and roadside bombs. A place I believe will be a defining part of our generation and the future of a new thinking in foreign policy. Joy, oh joy."

--Shoegazer

The following letters are best read from bottom to top. Scroll all the way down to begin. It will give you, the reader, a better perspective on Shoegazer's experiences. Thank you for visiting and feel free to make comments. You are welcome here.

Marty

Shoegazer's mom

NOTICE: Any opinions expressed in this blog are those solely of the Author, and do not reflect the opinions of the United States Army, the Department of Defense, or any of it's subcomponents.

Shoegazer on the Re-enlistment Upswing

The U. S. Army has stated that re-enlistment is on the upswing.

Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey said back in January of this year that re-enlistment by troops in Iraq "was the best measure" of the Army's health. For example, he said, the 3rd Infantry Division, now in Iraq, recently exceeded its re-enlistment goal by 36 percent." Morale is high. The soldiers in theater know they're making a difference, and the soldiers in theater are proud to be part of this effort," he said..

Also see this Fox News story this past August designed to make you think soldiers are "gung ho" to re-enlist.

E-mail: 11 October 06

The reason why the Army is able to press the fact that many soldiers have "re-enlisted" which "shows that the morale is high and soldiers enjoy doing their jobs", is that they're forgetting to mention how they are getting those high numbers. The fact is the majority of soldiers re-enlisting are not doing it because they want to, but because there really isn't any other option. With stop-loss keeping so many soldiers in beyond their dates, Retention is selling the fact that since they are going to get stop lossed anyway they might as well get a bonus by re-enlisting. An example is 4ID. Currently 4ID is slated to return to Iraq in Oct/November 2007. Yep, less than a year away. Stop loss for that deployment is scheduled to be in effect in July. So soldiers that fall into that window are being ecouraged to re-enlist since no matter how you look at it, they will be extended anyway. So why not just re-enlist and get the bonus. The Army has made the process so convincing that many are doing it because they feel if they are going to get screwed they might as well profit from it. Thats something you won't hear coming out of the Army's mouth tho :)

Shoegazer

E-mail 05 October 06

.........we have been in "blackout" for almost 1 month straight now. We've had 9 KIA just this last week. Getting real nasty here.........

I'm using a contractor's computer right now so I don't have much time. I'm kinda breaking the rules lol........

E-Mail: 02 September 06

We been in commo blackout almost a whole week, it just ended today. Last week our Brigade had 4 KIA and 12 WIA, of which 3 were seriously burned. I hate to say it, but the bad guys are winning and the stress and frustration shows on our Brigade comanders face during the briefs. Not only that but the morning briefs they do with General Thurman keep getting longer and longer in duration. It's getting ugly over here and quickly. I'm thankful of where I am, If I was in a line unit knowing what I know working for Brigade I would just refuse to fight and let them dishonorably discharge me. No way I would risk my life in this mess.

Army Gets Nosey

I suppose we've heard the last from Shoegazer on Iraq, unless he e-mails me with something interesting to post. I doubt it. I've asked him several questions in recent e-mails about his opinion on this or that related to Iraq. He replies to everything I write him except Iraq. He ignores me. He set up his own place on MySpace a few months back to keep in touch with friends while he is deployed. I've been cutting and pasting his blog entries into my blog here. He just recently made the following entry into his blog:

"I've deleted all blogs that have anything to do with my deployment with 4th ID. I was recently required to register my blog with my unit. I don't like being "monitored" or distrusted to not post sensitive materials. So I have decided to remove all posts so I don't have to deal with it. I hope they go suck a big donkey #$%^"

So I guess that's all folks!

14 April 06

Well it's good Friday so the stock market is closed. Now I can catch up with emails and write a new blog. Yes, I have become obsessed with stocks. Well maybe that's a harsh term to use but I do feel I have found something I am good at.

Well for those that don't know I've been focusing on learning as much about the market and stocks. I've read so many books on the subject now I sound like a stock broker when I'm talking to friends about it. I've been working on a trading strategy and "paper trading" it with some decent success. I'm still a big investor in GamezNflix ( http://www.gameznflix.com/ ) so please check it out. It's a great deal and if this company gives Netflix some competition I might not have to ever work again ... seriously lol.

Well there's not much to tell ... other then getting fat out here there's not much else for me to do. I hope everyone is doing great !

-Shoegazer

Danish Cartoons Tell It Like It Is

Sunday, February 05, 2006
Current mood: amused

I've been following the media circus around the Danish cartoon pictures. Watching all the Muslims scream, holler and pout like children as if they had their candy taken away and then slapped. I'm not Muslim, in fact religion has driven me to become Agnostic. It's no surprise to anyone that Arabs and Jews don't get along. If anyone has been beaten and spat on because of their religion it would certainly be them. Anti-Semitism cartoons about jews, beheading people live on camera, Imans preaching violence during prayers, shit.... I think the cartoons are quite fitting. Infact, look at how they have reacted to them ? Burning Embassies, shooting guns in the air, calling for executions. For what ? A FUCKING cartoon ?? I mean hell I was pissed when I got "stop lossed" but you don't see me trying to burn down the Dinning Facility !

Muslims are doing exactly what we expect them to do, at least the very vocal ones. It's really just simply politics. The very vocal are guided by those seeking opportunity, unkowingly most of the time. They're making it so much easier for us to hate them. Even news reported with the best intentions can be used as a twist of politics. Keep burning flags, posing for pictures with your faces covered and guns in hand. Keep fullfilling the exact images the cartoons mean to emulate. Before long the men in power will have sway over the people. The people looking down their noses at the way Muslims, the vocal ones, behave. Before long you won't be taken serious. That's when the men in power will use that to their advantage. As long as governments have enough support from it's citizens it can almost do anything. Hitler almost took over the world and tried to wipe out a race of people with his political machine. Don't you think after 60 plus years the men that play politics have gotten somewhat better at it ?

--Shoegazer


Currently reading:
The Shadow Rising (The Wheel of Time, Book 4)
By Robert Jordan
Release date: By 15 October, 1993

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Ground hog day
Current mood: anxious

I swear, I am stuck in a never ending rotation of the same day over and over. I wake up at 7:30 am, I head out to Cinnabon and grab me a large coffee and a cinnamon roll. Then I walk over to the AT&T call center. I show up to work at 9:00am. Then I procceed to read my book. I'm currently reading the "Wheel of time" series by Robert Jordan. At 11:00 am I head to the chow hall to eat lunch. I then go back to work at 12:pm where I proceed to read more of my book. At 4:30pm I head to the internet to check my mail and then head to dinner at 5:00pm. I get back to work at 6:00pm and continue to read my book. I get off work at 9:00pm and then head to the internet to check mail. I then head out and go to bed around 12:00am. Rinse, wash and repeat. Tho some days I don't make it to the phones or internet it's pretty much the same thing every day. I have read two of the ten books and am halfway thru the third now. Thats a 700+ page book every four days.

Why on earth did the Army deem it so important to "stop loss" me, deploy me with a "non-deployable" profile, only to read books ??? I do maybe 30 minutes of actual work a day. Well, if anything, I will be a book worm extraodinare by the time I leave here. It boggles my mind it does.

--Shoegazer

Currently reading: The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, Book 3)
By Robert Jordan
Release date: By 15 October, 1992

Thursday, January 19, 2006

19 JAN 2006
Current mood: sick

I'm getting sick and it sucks. I have never been one to tough out a cold. I have slept in the cold rain. I have gone weeks without a shower and living in 130 degree temps. I have been subjected to many things most people would scream and flee in fear. However when I get sick I turn into a whinning, complaining, grumpy old man. I'm too stubborn to go to the Med station , as if thinking I'll wake up and tommorrow I'll be fine. I know I won't tho and I'll wait until I can barely swallow and have to keep constantly blowing my nose before I'll do anything.

My job so far in Iraq has been about the most boring thing I have ever done in my life. My last trip here was filled with many intense moments and excitement. This time around I sit at a desk, behind a phone and stare off into space for 12-14 hours a day. Sometimes I get startled out of one of my daydreams by the phone ringing. It's either someone with the wrong number or someone whom I have to forward to our office phone. I've got a large stack of magazines I've read 100 times each. I've thought about painting eyeballs on my eyelids, maybe no one would notice ? Sometimes tho something exciting happens, but about the time the excitement dies down you start to realize that your moments away from a "comms blackout". I hate working in the TOC "Tactical Operation Center". It's full of a bunch of Captains, Majors and assorted minions of the Commander. They run around as if something is on fire, but yet nothing is happening. I guess it could be worse. I could be out there on the streets like I was last time dodging bullets and hoping an IED doesn't blow us to kingdom come. My life could be worse.... I suppose I shouldn't complain.

On to to better news. I have recently become engaged... tho not of the traditional sort. To none other than my high school sweetheart. I have had several people shocked by this news and others just happy to see me with a grin on my face. I guess sometimes it takes years to figure some things out. One of those being you can never have a better relationship than with someone you consider a close friend. I guess only the two of us can really understand one anothers decision to get married. It just feels right.

Well, I'll be going now. Back to my tiny little room to cough and wheez all nite. They don't sell cold medicine at the PX here for fear soldiers will abuse it ... haha .. yeah like I'm gonna down a few bottles of Nyquil so I can get a buzz. I guess maybe I'll break down and go see the Doc tommorrow. Anyways everyone have a safe day and stuff.

--Shoegazer

Email 21 January 06

We are safe on this base mom. I'm more worried about slipping in the mud or having some jackass run over me in their truck cause they're not paying attention.

As for the war, my opinions haven't changed. I do, however, get to see how the military "thinks" since I work in the Tactical Operation Center. Everything I do is either secret or classified so there's not much in the way of "this is what I did at work today".

What I will say is that the Army has shifted it's thinking. They are doing everything they can to replace us with Iraqi forces. But the truth is, most of them just want a paycheck and until they start taking some pride in their jobs we're never going to get out of here. They want to run their own country, but every time we give them a chance they screw it up. Corruption is high in the Iraqi government and police force. We rebuild their infastructure then they tear it up by not taking care of it. Truth is, I don't think we should have come here. What's done is done tho and crying over the past won't change the future. If we were to pull out, this country would fall apart rapidly and be consumed with corruption and probably wind up in worse hands than Saddam ever was. The Military is trying.... it's the people of Iraq that are not helping themselves.

--Shoegazer

The Body Armor Issue

I had posted on my Blog On the Homefront about body armor from this source . I decided to delete that post and instead post my son's opinion on the body armor situation here.

Marty

E-mail dated 15 January 2006

Let me explain something about "Body Armor". It seems the only people pushing the body armor issue are families and anti-war folks. I can tell you us soldiers do NOT want anymore body armor. It's bad enough wearing just the vest, throat guard and helmet in 130 degree weather. Now they are wanting to add shoulder and side guards. Imagine having to play football with 80 pounds of ceramic wrapped around your body. Now imagine a fire fight, Haji is running around in tennis shoes and t-shirts .. your fumbling around with all the gear on. Does it protect ? Yes, but at the sacrifice of mobility. What we have now is good enough, the more you add the less mobility you have. Look at it from that perspective versus the added protection.

-Shoegazer

E-Mail 09 January 06

Mom,

............ Don't worry too much about me. I sit in a bomb proof building for 12 hours a day and stare at the walls. I work in the tactical operation center. It's like the command center... we joke about it cause it looks like a NASA control room haha. After my last visit here, this place has been built up alot. It's almost as nice as Qatar and thats where they sent us for R&R. So life is not too bad. There hasn't even been one mortar fired at us since I have been here. They have all this fancy radar and stuff up now that scares the bad guys. Lots of IED's tho but I won't be going out the gate so no worry there. We did loose our first soldier tho , to suicide.... Don't understand how anyone can get that down.... just doesn't make sense to me..................

Talk to you later, I'll get down to the phones soon and give you a call. I work from 9am-9pm so when I get off work, I tend to just take a shower, watch the news (I have cable TV haha) then go to bed. Things are so much different here this time around. But I feel it's going to make it go by real slow..ugh :(

Thursday, January 05, 2006

My second Tour...
my first blog
Current mood: calm

Well I figure within about another day or so I will have my laptop so I will be able to start writing about day to day life. I'm not going to focus this time on the Military aspect or the job we do here. I'm going to write about how my last deployment and my current deployment have affected my life. The things I look forward to and maybe recall some of my bad as well as good decisions during my time in the service of our country. For those of you that have read my letters from my previous deployment this will be just more fodder to feed on. For those that haven't, I highly suggest reading them in order. That way you can get a feel of how being here can change your mentality over time. Tho I don't feel as harshly as I did when I left the first time, I still do believe that even if the mistake was in our doing, the Iraqis have a chance to make something of it. The question is will they or will this truly go down as the pet project of a corrupt administration and greedy corporations. Only time will tell I suppose.

--Shoegazer

Blog Comments 2005

I'd like to post a couple of comments my son made on the blog Mainstream Baptist. The subject of conversation was Iraq. Some supported the effort, some not. Here are his comments:

July 2005

I was asked to give my opinion by someone, so here it is. I spent 15 months in Iraq from May 2003-July 2004. I was in a combat unit based in SW Baghdad with 1st Armored Division.

The problem is our Army is simply not up to the task of fighting this war. Our numbers are too small and our structure is not set up to fight a "guerrilla" war. Lack of support from the people of the United States, low morale in the Military, and our policies have already lost this war.

The simple fact is we are not fighting "terrorists". We are fighting people who truly believe in what they are risking their lives for. Our propaganda is to focus on the loss of innocent life by the acts committed by "terrorists". The fact is they are doing exactly what we do, they are targeting infastructure, government and combat power. I can honestly say that we have killed more innocent people thru collateral damage than the "terrorists" have. Doesn't that make us "terrorists" then?

I have no solutions, but until we understand what we are up against, we will never have the upper hand. The Arabs have been fighting off oppressive nations since the crusades. To them nothing has changed but the flags being flown by the enemy. To them this is a fight of beliefs and ideals. To us it's about money, power, and control.

-----------------------------

On more thing...

Many of the points brought up by Anon are in fact true. It just depends on what side of the fence you are on.

Pulling out would indeed create a vaccum that would send the region into chaos. A mistake the U.S. made by dismantling the Iraqi Army and not including former Baathists in the current government. That's the reason for Iraq's current problems.

If we want to win the "fight" we would need to triple the number of soldiers in Iraq. That would require the Military to focus every asset it has towards the Iraq conflict. It took many Divisions to occupy Germany.....and guess what? Hitler had done us a favor by taking away the right to bear arms. Every Iraqi is allowed one weapon for self defense......do the math.

*************************************************


I was asked to come read this forum. I have been to Iraq, 15 months to be exact. I rolled into Baghdad while vehicles were still burning from the push by 3rd Infantry Division. I was extended twice and was there during the uprising by Al Sadr.

I tried to read the entire thread, but I've lived the arguments you all are fighting from the safety of your computer screens.

I'll sum it up in one thought. I joined because I wanted to be a part of a fight I felt was just. Almost 4 years later and my 15 months in Iraq, I can safely say we have done nothing but make the world a much more dangerous place than it was. We have given the "enemy" a much more larger reason to fight.

As to the argument of staying or pulling out. I have no solution and to be honest I don't think there is a viable one. After many conversations with Iraqis and seeing first hand thru untainted eyes what is happening in that country, I sometimes feel maybe we are the "terrorists" fighting for global ambitions.

Every great Empire has collasped when it's desires and ambitions out-stretched it's ability to govern thru Military power. Maybe what we are seeing is the start of our own downfall from our desire to push our ideas on foreign countries. Just like the Romans, we have stretched our Military too thin to protect our ambitions. Our Enemy sees this and he is determined to slowly drain us.

Beginning a New Year With a Second Tour of Duty in Iraq

This is the end of my posting "Letters From Baghdad". My son is now on his second tour of duty in Iraq. I am happy to report that he is not supposed be in a combat situation. He should not be going out on patrols or in convoys, but rather working in an administrative position. His back injury in April 2004 prevents him from wearing the combat gear necessary for his protection. I would still appreciate your continued prayers for his safety and for the safe return of all our troops. I am hoping he will be able to continue to receive the therapy that was begun before deployment.

I have started another blog "Letters From Basic Training". Posting will begin there soon. My son survived the rigors at Ft. Knox, Kentucky even though he had some pretty serious stress fractures that left him in a cast for six weeks after his arrival in Germany. He was determined to overcome the challenge. He did. These letters kept us laughing. He definitely has a way with words. I hope you enjoy reading them.

The Great "Coalition of the Willing"

United Kingdom: 11,000
Poland: 2,400
Italy: 2,700
Ukraine: 2,000
Spain: 1,300
Netherlands: 1,100
Australia: 1,000
South Korea: 700
Romania: 700
Bulgaria: 470
Denmark: 496
Thailand: 460
Honduras: 370
El Salvador: 360
Hungary: 300
Dominican Republic: 300
Nicaragua: 230
Singapore: 200
Mongolia: 180
Azerbaijan: 151
Norway: 150
Latvia: 121
Portugal: 128
Lithuania: 105
Slovakia: 105
Philippines: 96
Czech Republic: 80
Japan: 75
Albania: 70
Georgia: 70
New Zealand: 60
Estonia: 55
Kazakhstan: 29
Macedonia: 28
Moldova: 24

Total: 26,500

So much for wide-spread world support. I know some of these countries have pulled out. I have no idea which ones are left. Not very many I would guess. If anyone knows, let me know.

Support the Troops

Support Our Troops and Their Families

Army's 1st Armored Division Prepares to Leave Iraq After 15-Month Tour

The Associated Press
July 5, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Army's 1st Armored Division stowed its flags Sunday and prepared to head home after the longest tour in Iraq of any American combat command = 15 months.

Even though it arrived after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, the Germany-based division saw 135 of its soldiers killed - mostly fighting Iraqi guerrillas. It was in the midst of pulling out of Iraq in April when a pair of violent guerrilla uprisings halted its departure.

The division's dead make up about 16 percent of the 858 U.S. troops killed since the war started in March 2003.

More than 1,100 1st Armored soldiers were wounded.

The division is packing and shipping its mountains of gear to Kuwait, then to Germany. The entire unit is expected to be out of Iraq by July 15.

Soldiers are eager to see family and friends, relax out of danger and drink beer - since U.S. troops are banned from drinking in Iraq.

The heavy division known as "Old Ironsides" rolled into Baghdad in late April 2003 - just before President Bush delcared major combat at an end. The troops occupied the capital until March, when they handed control to the Army's Texas-based 1st Cavalry Division.

While in Baghdad, the 1st Armored was engaged in an counterinsurgency war with more than a dozen guerrilla cells, successfully dismantling some and capturing many rebel leaders and financiers.

The division also trained Iraqi police and national guardsmen, renovated schools, established neighborhood councils and spent $60 million on these and other projects.

E-Mail 20 June 04

This is the last written correspondence I received from my son while he was on his first tour of duty in Iraq. My niece's boyfriend "T" was considering joining up because of the financial incentives being given and because he wanted a change. His recruiter was filling his head full of all kinds of things and even telling him he wouldn't be sent to Iraq because he was an only son (ha!..so is my son). He had a friend in the military and that friend was certain that he himself was not going to Iraq.

Here is my son's advice to "T".

I did get a 10k bonus for my initial enlistment. You can tell M and her future husband that he WILL come to Iraq. The he WILL be here at least twice during a 3 year enlistment. His 3-year enlistment WILL get stop lossed and probably end up being more like 4 or more. He will spend 12 months (or more) tours in Iraq. If he thinks he won't come out here he is just plain stupid. There are no more safe spots in the Army. Both Fort Erwin and Fort Knox which have always been "non-deployable" units are now being mobilized. The 11 ACR which is who trains the Army at the National Training Center are being mobilized as well. It doesn't matter what MOS he is getting either. They are all here. It does not matter whether he is a combat MOS, mortars are killing just as many people in support units as IED's are killing combat soldiers. His recruiter will LIE, CHEAT, and tell him anything he wants to hear to get him to sign up. If he loves M he better be ready for year long separations not to mention months of separation due to training.

The Army is desperate, yes. They are trying to increase the number of soldiers to 50,000. They don't do that by enlisting more people, they do it by stop lossing. Once you join you are stuck by law for 8 years whether you signed a 3 year contract or not.

No matter what his recuiter says he DOES NOT have to keep his obligation until he arrives for basic training. If he has signed up, but has not left, he does not have to go. More info is available at GI Rights.

Oh and "T's" friend......he ended up in Iraq.

Instant Message 27 May 04

I'm mulling over the idea of extending my overseas tour to finish out my remainder of Army service in Germany

We'll have been in Iraq for close to 16 months once I leave. This unit won't be coming back for at least a year. If I got to another unit besides this one I'm going to probably wind back up here within a few months

Units are begging people to stay

I'll just be extending my tour with this unit, not my total time

Things have changed

All new personnel are being sucked up by units getting ready to deploy here so they want to keep their experienced soldiers if they can

(I mention that I hope things will change in November with the elections)

What's a new president going to do? The shit is too deep to just wade out of now

Have you heard Kerry say "I'll bring home our troops!" No you haven't

Things are going to keep getting worse and worse as long as we are here

(I mention bringing in help from NATO or the UN)

They're just as flawed as our own govn

We need to just leave and let the vaccum suck them all up

Fighting terrorism, yeah whatever, All we did was beat the bee's nest and now they're all pissed off and swarming everywhere

I gotta go, love ya, bye

E-Mail 27 May 2004

Thu, 27 May 2004 04:07:36

The heat is starting to make our tanks break more often again. We have 5 tanks in our platoon and we are struggling to keep 2 running at any given time. We have 2 that are completely dead since they need parts we don't have and we've been robbing good parts off of them to keep the others going. It's a nightmare ! Last summer was rough, but now our tanks are worn out after a year of hard use and it's even worse this time around. The Army is suffering a logistics nightmare they can't handle. Needless to say, I probably won't be online as much as I was. It's 7:30 am right now and I've been awake since 6:30 am yesterday ! We had to work all day just to get our tank up and running only to have to go out on a night patrol. Lucky for us it didn't come back with any problems this time. So maybe I can get some sleep now.

Talk to you soon.

E-Mail 15 May 04

15 May 04 30:23

You probably won't find it on a map. It's very small. But yes, that's the area (Yusufiyah/Mahmudiyah) where those 8 got blown up. If they hadn't probably been standing around bullshitting with each other and being alert they probably wouldn't have gotten killed. The number one killer here isn't insurgents, it's complacency. We are doing patrols again, but in Cav teams, 2 tanks 3 Bradleys. Our entire troop is responsible for 2 patrols a day which means we only go out once every other day. So you could say we still have a lot of time on our hands. We don't do anything we don't have to. Our mission is to provide Armor support and presence patrols. The Major from the Artillery unit wanted to go out with us on a patrol one day. When we got into town he and the civil affairs guys decided to show their smiles and hand out their propaganda. He walked up to my tank and asked my Lt. if he wanted to come with him. Lt. B told him "Death before dismount, Sir". I almost cracked up laughing. The point is, if they need our big tanks and Bradleys to keep the bad guys at bay, so be it. But none of us are going to get out of our tanks and play the "humanitarian mission". We are there to kill if the bad guys show up and that's all we're going to do.

On May 18th I'll be going on R & R to Qatar (guess this means no 2 weeks leave). I hope everyone is doing fine, tell everyone I love them and miss them. Talk to you soon.

E-Mail 13 May 04

Thu, 13 May 2004 17:35

My mom is turning into a tree hugger save the whales type! OMG ! Next thing you'll be going to demonstrations and getting arrested ! What are we going to do ! Things may be getting worse here but I couldn't tell you. Seems pretty dull to me. We have a new mission in Yoshafia. I probably spelled that all wrong. (Correct spelling: Yusufiyah)

The unit that went down there was a 1st Armored Division unit that had been stationed in the Green Zone and had spent the last year getting lazy, and living large in the very very luxurious Green Zone. Guess after the extension they got sent to do a real soldier's job and got their asses handed to them. This is the same unit that lost 8 people in that car bomb and something like 13 seriously wounded. After working with these people, I can now understand why they got their asses handed to them on a regular basis. I have never seen such stupidity by soldiers. Just because they are not front line soldiers (Artillery) doesn't mean they should be so dumb. Anyways we have been attached to them to basically keep them from getting raped. We did a raid in the town and the unit that had been responsible for the town gave us the brief. They made it sound like it was going to be some tough fighting and insurgents everywhere.

Well, we made our first appearance the night of the raid in the town. Guess our way of doing things has had an effect on people. We are not one of these units that practice "consideration of others" or politics like most other units do. In fact, all this hype about these prisoners photos I almost think is hilarious. Though, I've known of no prisoners ever being "violated" or made to stand naked (none of us care to see Haji naked) and humiliated.

What I have seen are Iraqis who have tried to kill, maime or destroy our brothers and the ones that got caught would cry and beg for forgiveness like little whining bitches. Now ask yourself, do you think the soldier on the ground who just got attacked is going to nicely handcuff this guy and give him a cigarette and tell him 3 meals and a nice cot awaits him? Well, if that's what the media and the American public want to think then they can think that. Last time I checked, we weren't fighting an enemy of honor, we were fighting sinister cowards and that's how they will be treated. Anyways back to Yoshafia (Yusufiyah).

We rolled into that town with a thunderous hello. Enough combat armor to level the entire town if we so desired. The mission started at 1am and lasted thru the night into the morning. Our Scouts went door to door. If they didn't answer the door after 3 knocks and within 2 minutes, we opened the door for them. Haji says "no mister, no mister...good...good. Bush is good, no ali baba. We say "Endek is la?" (Do you have any weapons). Haji says "Oh no mister, no...good, Bush is good". Ten minutes later a Scout yells from a back room, "I got 3 RPG night sights 2 AK47's and some ammo." Now Haji lied, he's going to pay the price. While his wife and children watch his house gets torn apart. Nothing is sacred. He lost his chance. No stone gets left unturned. No corner unchecked. That's how it is. I have ZERO pity for these people after being here a year. When something happens in a busy market, no one, not a single person saw anything. Everyone loves the US. It must have been foreign fighters. We were even told one time that it was the work of "Jewish radicals from Israel" even tho there were pictures of Al Sadr everywhere. As long as I have to be here, not one single Arab or anyone not wearing a Coalition uniform will get my respect or consideration. They're all suspects. Needless to say after we left that town the next morning all has been quiet since. Our subsequent patrols have had no contact with enemy "insurgents". The Artillery units think we have saved the day. The truth is you can't be nice anymore and expect to win. You have to roll in with force, display true aggression and cut no one slack. This pussy foot, activists, humanitarian bullshit has got to go or we will lose this war.

The people of America may be appalled at seeing poor Iraqis being humiliated on TV, but no one mentions whether or not the interrogations that followed that "humiliation" saved American lives. I've never told you this, but it happened some time ago. I wouldn't be talking to you right now had the "conditions" and actions of one Iraqi prisoner not have taken place. The information that was "squeezed" out of him saved my entire section's life. They had planted 5 155mm Artillery shells and daisy chained them on a dirt road that we took everyday. Our patrol got stopped short because of that information. EOD dug up the munitions and said that that combo would have blown both our Humvees into orbit. Instead one slightly bruised Iraqi kept 8 soldiers from dying.

Just know that things may seem ugly over here, but we have good leadership in our platoon now. A bunch of seasoned pros. We take our tanks out and that's the bottom line. So always know your son is surrounded by many inches of heavy Armor and is driving the most deadliest ground weapon in the US arsenal.

E-Mail 04 May 2004

Tue, 04 May 2004 10:39:18

Well we went down South to the town where everyone's been getting blown up. We did a large operation which involved over 80 combat vehicles. We went in about 12 a.m. and didn't get back until 1 p.m. today. I'm beat and gonna go take a nap soon. They told us to expect resistance. We thought there was gonna be some fireworks. Boy were they wrong! The people in the town were scared shitless. The town is only about 1 kilometer square and we sent in almost 2 full brigades worth of armor and infantry. Nobody fired a single shot. Our scouts along with infantry guys went busting down doors and going house to house looking for bad guys and weapons. Our sector proved to be dull, only a few weapons were confiscated and a few people were detained. In my opinion it was a big waste of time. If we did anything, it was to piss off more Iraqis. Especially the ones that didn't answer their door within 2 minutes of the first knock. The guys on the ground were told if no one answered, bust the door down, and bust em down they did. ha ha. They're a lot of broke doors in that town now.

I haven't heard anything else on leave. In fact, I'm pretty sure I probably won't even get it. I'm telling myself I won't so at least if they do give it to me, it will be a treat. :) But I'm not holding my breath. There's too many people on the list for the slots available.

E-Mail 27 April 04

I received the following e-mail from a family member. The validity of it has been checked on snopes.com.

I forwarded it to my son before I actually checked it out to get his take on the situation. I will post the e-mail first and then my son's response.

Monday, April 26, 2004 10:06 AM

Subject: News from Iraq

From: Ray Reynolds, SFC 234th Signal Battalion

This letter is from Ray Reynolds, a medic in the Iowa Army National Guard, serving in Iraq:

As I head off to Baghdad for the final weeks of my stay in Iraq, I wanted to say thanks to all of you who did not believe the media. They have done a very poor job of covering everything that has happened. I am sorry that I have not been able to visit all of you during my two week leave back home. And just so you can rest at night knowing something is happening in Iraq that is noteworthy, I thought I would pass this on you.

This is a list of things that has happened in Iraq recently: (Please share it with yuor friends and compare it to the version that your paper is producing).

*Over 400,000 kids have up-to-date immunizations.

*School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.

*Over 1,500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons stored there so education can occur.

*The Port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off-loaded from ships faster.

*The country had its first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.

*Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.

*The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.

*100% of the hospitals are open and fully stafffed, compared to 35% before the war.

*Elections are taking place in every major city, and city councils are in place.

*Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.

*Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.

*Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.

*Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side with US soldiers.

*Students are taught field sanitation and hand washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs.

*An interim constitution has been signed.

*Girls are allowed to attend school.

*Textbooks that don't mention Saddam are in the schools for the first time in 30 years.

Don't believe for one second that these people do not want us there. I have met many many people from Iraq that want us there and in a bad way. They say they will never see the freedoms we talk about, but they hope their children will. We are doing a good job in Iraq and I challenge anyone, anywhere to dispute on these facts. So, if you happen to run into John Kerry, be sure to give him my email address and send him to Denison, Iowa. This soldier will set him straight. If you are like me and very disgusted with how this period of rebuilding has been portrayed, email this to a friend and let them know there are good things happening.

My son's response:

Tuesday, April 27, 2004 5:54 AM

Just another person with a blurred vision of the truth. This guy is in Signal, he probably has spent most of his time sitting at BIAP doing a whole lot of nothing. I'm not so lucky. I'm not in a support unit, I'm in a combat unit. Combat troops make up about 30% of forces deployed to Iraq. Granted everyone runs the risk because even support units must sometimes run a convoy for supplies or send a soldier to another base. However, combat units are out, on the streets, in the alleyways, patrolling at nite and day every day. Somebody in signal whose job is to stare at a computer screen or fix a radio or set up a satelite dish DOES NOT see what the grunt sees on a daily basis. Those cute kids that smile and wave at you yelling "mister mister!" throw rocks at you the minute your back is turned. Those nice Iraqis that tell you they're so thankful you're here are the same ones that you see on TV jumping up and down on a burned out Humvee after it's been hit with an IED. Those nice Iraqis are the same ones that when 12 motar rounds are launched from an apartment parking lot nobody saw or heard anything. These nice Iraqis must be the same ones I see going down the road giving me long stares, yelling in Arabic with their thumbs pointed down. Yeah, whatever. I have no love for these people anymore.

As for the things he said had been done. Yeah, that is true, but what he failed to mention was how the U.S. had imposed 12 years worth of sanctions. How the U.N. had some scam going on with the oil for food program. How France made billions off loop holes in trade. We're not making it better, we're just fixing what we ruined. Sure they have pretty newly painted schools, but their children are getting killed in the crossfire between U.S. and freedom fighters....yeah that's right....terrorists... that's a nice propaganda term.

These people are blowing up military targets, destroying supply and government targets. Yeah innocent people get killed when car bombs go off, but nobody ever mentions the thousands of innocents that have died to our attacks. On patrol we saw buildings bombed out, streets with huge craters, and shopping malls leveled. These were not military targets. That was war and the poor civilians that died were "collateral damage". The truth is we may be doing great things, but only a small percent of people are truly benefiting from it. I'm sure this SFC was probably stationed in the "Green Zone". Yeah, I'm sure every Iraqi there is happy, money is pouring into their pockets from all the military people there. Out here... where I'm at... suburbia... it's a different story.

E-Mail 16 April 04

I will try to use the internet when possible, but right now our schedule is very unstable. I just returned from the west side of Baghdad. Abu Garbi I think is how it's spelled. We spent 4 days down there mopping up after 2-12 Cav. It was ugly. The place got shot up pretty bad. We had no one injured, but a lot of Iraqis got messed up. They thought they were tough when they were up against 2-12 Cav which is a light unit. We rolled in and with all our armor pretty much just squashed whatever rebellion was left. It's gotten ALOT more quiet since we rolled back in. They just don't have the will to fight against our Tanks and Bradleys (which is why they need us to stay).

Right now we are back at Camp Slayer and we are now the Division reserve. C troop and A troop will be going down south to secure the supply routes from Kuwait. We will pretty much be just sitting at Camp Slayer doing a whole lot of nothing. We might be called down at some point to relieve one of the troops, but by that time I'm sure the area will be tame again. Also some good news! They are starting back up environmental leave so since I didn't go on leave I'm at the top of the list now. So you might be seeing me for 2 weeks within the month.

There's not much else to tell really, be prepared when I come home on leave. I'm going to be spending a lot of time at Mexican food restaurants. he he

In fact, you guys can take me to Felix's for my first meal! I'll try to keep you informed as to when I'll be coming home. It's official that the leave program has started, it's just a matter of when I'll get the slot.

E-Mail 08 April 04

Maundy Thursday 2004
5:12 a.m.


I guess you've seen the news. We just got told a few hours before we were suppose to fly that, well, we're not flying anywhere. We are going back to Camp Slayer some time today and our vehicles and personnel in Kuwait are on their way back. No one seems to know any details or time frames, but looks like we're stuck here for a bit longer. Word is going around that we will be moving south on April 20th to re-take/secure the cities down there. Evidently the units they sent to replace us can't handle the job. I'll let you know what I can when I can.

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday is the Thursday before Easter. Christians remember it as the day of the Last Supper, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and established the ceremony known as the Eucharist/Communion/Lord's Supper.

The night of Maundy Thursday is the night on which Jesus was betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The word "maundy" comes from the command given by Christ at the Last Supper, that we should love one another.

The irony of receiving this e-mail from my son on Maundy Thursday. Everything about this war, as far as I was concerned, was a betrayal.

I was devastated.

I could not be comforted.

E-Mail 06 April 04

Tuesday April 6, 2004
2:00 am

As of right now I should be back in Germany early Friday morning.

Instant Message 15 March 04

My son and I had been on line together just a couple of minutes when the following happened:

Whoa ! big boom

It's a nightly routine

I hear the helicopters flying over now

It was pretty far away, probably a mortar round aimed at BIAP (Baghdad International Airport) that fell short outside our perimeter

It rattled the bulding tho

They usually throw the motars between 9pm and 11pm. They don't shoot them late because there isn't any traffic out so they would be easy to find

Well I gotta go check into my platoon, several more explosions just happened pretty close so I need to get "counted"

So they know I didn't get blown up

Love ya....call you tomorrow

Instant Message 02 Feb 04

Excerpt:

This is R & R ... a place we get pampered

I signed up for 4 years active duty, but the way things are going they may keep me in forever. ha ha

There's been 3 stop-losses since I've been here. As of now I can't leave Germany till July/Aug...my bud L was suppose to get out of the army this week, but they're keeping him until that time.

Problem is no one wants to be in the Army now....everyone is leaving and the big wigs are starting to get worried they're not gonna have enough people.

Year long deployments are too much for most people....they really didn't think this one thru

I would probably go AWOL before spending another blasted year here...bah who cares....no one else will when this thing is said and done

I would just sign a "conscientious objector" status....there are legal ways to get around it. I'm not so much sorry I joined, however they really screwed up on Iraq

I would be all for it, but our guys are getting killed for nothing....the truth is we are protecting the Iraqis from a threat we create

When we patrol we're not looking for the enemy...we're there to draw them out in the hopes that we get one....problem is, that's not working

We joke about being nothing more than a moving target

I wouldn't say we should pull out, but we don't need to do about 90% of what we are doing

Iraq need to do its own policing...we might be needed to protect infrastructure, but we sure don't need to be patrolling neighborhoods...that just pisses em off more seeing us around all the time

Pray I don't puke on the ride back to Baghdad...riding in a C130 really sucked

They have to pull evasive manuevers when flying in and out of BIAP (Baghdad International Airport) and I thought I was gonna loose my lunch on that thing when we left

A few people actually did

I'll probably have a hang-over....we are allowed to drink here

Got to eat at Chilli's and Pizza Hut... yum yum

Twenty-first Letter 23Jan04

23 Jan 04

Mom,

Sorry it's been so long since my last letter :(

They have us going crazy lately. The 82nd Airborne has left the stage and took their props with them. So since we're the theater janitors we're having to clean up after them. Our area of responsibility has almost tripled in the last month. We are now covering almost the entire southern half of Baghdad. For the last week we've been doing patrols and the like. I made a picture CD and as soon as I can I'll get down to to the post office and mail it.

For some breaking news. April 8th is our scheduled date to leave Iraq for Kuwait. We'll probably spend 2 weeks in Kuwait outprocessing and waiting on a flight. On our return to Germany we will have 7 days of recovery and on the 8th day all soldiers will be given block leave. As soon as I touch down in Germany, I'll be able to give you hard dates.....buy tickets to Houston :)

I plan on spending my entire block leave in the states. I'm going to push for 40 days of leave, but I may only get 30. Damn lights flickering, some pogue probably forgot to fill the generator. Anyways, I'll try to call you tonite, so by the time you get this it might be old news. I'll mail out that disk asap.

Twentieth Letter 04Jan04

4 Jan 04

Mom,

Well so far 2004 sucks just as bad as last year. I sat here for an hour debating whether I would walk to the phones or write a letter. I might still go to the phones. As of late, the line for the phones is nonexistent. It would seem I'm not the only person who has lost the desire to call or write loved ones. I'm not quite sure where it stems from. Maybe it's a way to try and use free time as a way to escape reality instead of doing something to remind yourself of where you're at. There's not one person in this platoon that won't admit he has slacked in keeping in touch. These days free time is spent watching movies, listening to music (sleeping) and toying with our computers. The stuff you sent me has made 3 other guys day. Hours spent drowning out the humdrum life in Iraq playing computer games. :) Pretty soon the reality will start sinking in that we're going home soon. I'm sure when the light is visible at the end of the tunnel we will all start keeping in touch more.

My "holidays" have been quite the experience. I was promoted to E-4 (Specialist) on Jan 1st. On Christmas morning after having spent all nite guarding the only fuel point in our sector, some Iraqis alerted us to a missle on a roof across the street. Come to find out there was a 60 mm anti-tank rocket pointed at our tank and set on a timer. The bad guys, however, didn't check their batteries in the timer 'cause it was found dead with 9 minutes left. Guess God was looking down on us that morning.

Now for the big story.......

On the 23rd we were heading for our gas station duty. We were heading north up the south bound lane of traffic at about 10 pm. We had been taking this directin to avoid a traffic jam on the inbound side. Anyways, to make a long story short a car with a group of drunk Iraqis decided they could squeeze past traffic and around my tank. Problem is the driver didn't quite judge the distance when he pulled out in front of me going head on. The sound of breaking glass, crunching metal and a slight bump is all I recall. It happened so quick that even my tank commander was like "what the hell was that?!" A 70 ton tank versus a tiny 2 door car is no joke. All four passengers were squashed. Two died on the scene, the other two died at the hospital. I officially now have the most kills in the squadron. ha ha!! These people are unbelievable. I have never witnessed such stupidity in my life.

I felt sorry for these people at one time, but now that I've seen them up close and in action, they are idiots. They don't seem to understand anything until you point a gun at them. Then all of a sudden they understand everything. They have no regard for anything including their own safety. I have hundreds of stories to tell about the stupidity of Iraqis, but I'll save them for when I come home on leave.

We are suppose to go back to Butler range (gunnery) on the 11th of January. It's our turn to guard the range while our scouts shoot their bradleys. When we get back we should start cross training 1st Cavalry Division who will be replacing us. Hopefully we will be out of here by late March, early April.

I've received a ton of mail from friends of yours at your new church. Also we get tons of "fan mail". Sometimes I can't figure out who is from who. I barely bring myself to write anyone much less a whole bunch of people. So be sure to tell everyone I have received their letters and am grateful for their prayers. We sure need them, even tho we have lost not a single soldier from our troop. I will confess I've been shot at more times than I would like to admit. There's definitely a war still going on here and as long as the idiots running the show keep up their current strategy we'll probably lose this one. I guess every generation needs a Vietnam, maybe this will be the next one. There's no way to beat the bad guys with conventional warfare when you can't tell the difference between the bad guys and ordinary Iraqis. One minute they're smiling at you waving, the next they're throwing rocks or even worse shooting at you. They blend into the crowds only to be lost in a sea of people that all look the same. It's pointless. We should just leave Iraq and let the political vaccum suck them all down. It's the oil we're after anyway, right?? Don't believe the hype on the media. They're getting more organized and bolder in their attacks. I'm glad I'm leaving soon and I'll tell someone to go fuck themselves if they ever want me to come back. :).....talk to you soon.

Nineteenth Letter

No Date

Mom,

Here's some pictures I took yesterday to give you a look into everyday life here in Iraq. It starts out with pictures of our building, the inside of our house and rooms. My room is the one that's a single cot in an old bathroom. I took some pictures of the area surrounding our building, our motor pool and the palaces around us. I also took some pictures of us doing our daily "training" on crap we already know by memory. Busy work. They can't stand us just relaxing. There's also a picture or two of some of the guys working on the tank engine. In reality, being a "tanker" is basically a mechanic with a big gun. The training we are doing in the pictures is called boresighting. It's how you set the sights on the main gun of the tank. We all know our boresight needs to be good, who knows when an Iraqi tank is gonna try and attack us. (There's no reason for a tank in Iraq any more). Not to mention it's about 125 degrees and around 3 o'clock when I took the pictures. Notice our long sleeve shirts and miserable looks. Yes, the Army is more worried about appearance than comfort. We are not allowed to take our shirts off. Some general might drive by in his air conditioned blazer and be appalled at soldiers out of uniform. The rest of the pictures are us at our guard post (gate 3). Our shift is from 7pm-7am. Anyways enjoy the pictures and send me some copies.

P.S. Added another camera, not sure what's on it. I've had it for a while now.

P.S.S. Well, it's been over a month now and I still haven't been to the post office. Today I should get it mailed off tho. I included another camera with pictures of the surrounding area around our compourd as well as pictures of the "crossed sabers" where Sadam would have his military parades. We took a trip to the "4 Heads of Sadam" palace which is his main one next to the "July Bridge" and Iran War monument. We spent a day of R&R at the pool there. I didn't take any pictures of the pool or anything. All the pictures are of Baghdad itself. So you can try and get an idea what it looks like here.

Eighteenth Letter 14September03

14 Sep 03

Mom,

We were finally released from "restriction" or whatever the hell it was being called. Our platoon Sgt. said he was impressed with our teamwork in the past few days and so he decided to give us our freedom back. Leadership in the military is so inept, if you ask me all that was achieved by our 2+ weeks of hell was nothing. No one is acting any different and if anything the crack in our platoon's overall goodness has cracked even more. Well, I guess it made him feel more powerful in the long run. On a even greater note our platoon Sgt. said within the next 2 months he'll be leaving the platoon for another assignment. Thank God. It's time to break out the beer boys, it's celebration time!! Sometimes trying to be an over achiever in such a manner as our platoon Sgt. was causes everyone grief except for the over achiever. Good riddance, farewell, and don't let the door kick you in the ass on the way out.

Nothing much has changed in our mission since we moved back to the palace. We are still guarding gate 3 on the nite shift from 7pm-7am. We are still working 24 hours on 24 hours off 'cept now that our restriction has been lifted we're actually getting the 24 hours off now. As for comforts the army is finally getting somewhere. The buildings all have AC now even tho the temperatures outside are getting to a more reasonable level. We have working showers in both buildings. Thanks to me, of course. We have several stores to buy food and knick knacks, a movie theater, swimming pool and soon internet and better phones. Overall life is quite bearable now.

The big craze was portable DVD players at first. Every Joe wanted one. Now that half of the Army has them, people are starting to get laptops. Since they finally got us a steady supply of electricity (for weeks it was off more than it was on), people are starting to invest in things to make life more normal here. I have yet to jump on the bandwagon, however a digital movie camera has been on my mind a lot lately. Must........not........must.........fight.........the urge.........to spend!! By the way where's my Helmet CD? Hopefully, tonite I'll be patient enough to wait in line for the phones. With this new found freedom it was quite hard to choose between a 2 hour wait for a 15 minute phone call or go to the MWR for a big screen movie. :o

Rumor has it that there will be no more trips to Quatar. We had 2 soldiers from our platoon get to go. Basically it's a large military base on an island. Soldiers go there to spend a few days to unwind. Now I'm hearing that since I'll be pcs'ing (changing my duty station) towards the end of this deployment that I may be ineligible for the two weeks leave. Bah Jackasses!! My date to leave Germany is 28May04 so technically I could be leaving Iraq in 120 days before that day. We're not scheduled to return from Iraq till April so that would mean I might leave early. I also have put in paperwork to try and stay in Germany, however with the Army wanting to downsize Germany it might be hard. Anyways, I'll write some more later (now that I have my free time back!!)

Seventeenth Letter 08September03

September 8, 03

Mom,

Oh my paper with no lines. This might get messy. We just finished up about 5 days worth of annual services. We had to basically go thru our tank and make sure everything is working. I've been working about 15 hours a day for the last 4 days. M, my loader, had been in Quatar for R & R during services, so I had to do a lot of the maintenance with other crews. We got the job done in half the time it usually takes, but no pat on the back. That's the norm in this platoon. Life here could actually be quite easy, but our platoon Sgt. has managed to make everyone's life miserable. On the good side, rumor has it that he will be leaving in a month. God I pray he gets moved. Jackass.....

There's not much to write about really. Maybe if our Platoon Sgt. would give us some free time I'd have some stories to write about. The one good thing about the "Jackass" is that his schedule has made this deployment fly by. I guess when you get screwed constantly the light at the end of the tunnel is all that more sweet.

Now to add insult to injury we start "red week" tomorrow. That means our troop is scheduled for all the details that need to be done. So now our work schedule will double. Hopefully, I'll find the time soon to write more.

P.S. I'm up to box 3 now, I think. Got the pictures of the cats. I haven't written anyone if close to a week. So let everyone know I've been swamped. It took me 4 days just to finish a letter to T.
I will probably get a chance to use the phone tonight. :)

Sixteenth Letter Postmarked 25Aug03

Postmarked 25Aug03

Mom,

I just got your box #1 yesterday and the one from the church also. Don't send any more food right away. Maybe once a week is gonna be expensive. Hmm..we'll figure it out. As for army food, it just recently got edible. They are now getting food from KBR (Brown and Root). Before we started getting food from them it was horrible, almost unedible. It's bad when people would rather eat our C-rations (MRE's) then hot chow, but that's how bad it was.

Lately our platoon Sgt has been a real jackass by not letting us have any free time. He even went as far as to impose lights out at 10pm which just got knocked down to 9pm since some other jackasses decided not to follow instructions. I don't feel like writing about all the crap again so ask M to fill in the blanks. Let's just say that because of a few individuals who can't keep from fucking up, everyone is having to suffer. Sorry for the foul language, but it sucks that bad. :(

There's not much else to tell, I could go on for pages about how stupid our leadership is, how immature a lot of the soldiers are and how much unnecessary stress they impose on us. But it's not worth my ink and paper. Hopefully soon I'll have something worthwhile to write about. I'm not supposed to be writing letters now, but I said screw em....hope I don't get caught. ha ha

Anyways talk to you soon.

Fifteenth Letter

My son dated this letter 9 Jan 03...However I assume he meant 9 Aug 03

Mom,

After months of living like squatters I finally feel somewhat like I'm living a life normal again. Well, as normal as one could expect in Iraq. We now have a house to call home. It's just one of the many houses probably used to house Iraqi military officers. It's a two bedroom house but we're using the living room, storage room and kitchen as rooms. There's no fixtures in the house. The looters pretty much stripped it clean. Currently we have one AC unit that keeps the hallway cool which is our living room. ha ha Everyone has a fan now. It was the best 25 bucks I've spent so far. It's nothing fancy by any means, but it is our home. We just got a TV and DVD player, the guys are getting it up right now. :)

We had a change of mission as well. Now our platoon is responsible for guarding gate 3 of the compound. Also we are QRF (quick reaction force). Since gate 3 is only about 2 km away our maintenance is almost none now. We are working 12 hours/24 hours off, 12 of our off hours are for QRF which basically means we're on standby. We can relax, we just have to be ready to roll out in an emergency. So basically this is a big break for us. Everyone's spirits are doing so much better now. For once I don't feel worked to death every day. How long this will last I'm not sure, but right now I'm enjoying it.

I'll be able to use the phones a bit more now. The last few days the temperature has been in the high 120s with an index of about 130. So walking 3 km to the phones has not been a high priority of mine. Hopefully the temperature will break soon. From about noon till 5 pm it's almost impossible to be outside. Thank goodness we have the 7pm-7am shift at gate 3 so we spend most of our time inside during the hot hours.

We lost one of our staff sargeants. Evidently he had been a bit rough on some soldiers and finally after complaining enough about it they removed him from the platoon. I always liked the guy and never had any problems with him. Unfortunately he did mistreat some soldiers, so he's getting re-assigned somewhere else.

Not much else to really write about. We haven't done anything exciting in a while. Sitting in a guard bunker for 12 hours all night isn't a lot to write about. I could tell you how I sit and stare off into nothing, looking at nothing all nite, but that wouldn't be fun. he he

We're being told that we might get 2 weeks leave in October/November. Might wanna save money for a trip to Germany cause if I get leave I don't want to waste 4 days of it trying to get to and from the states. However, I do plan on going to the states after the deployment is over. Tell everyone hi for me and let them know I'm surviving, even tho I honestly believe I'm in hell and George Bush is Satan. :)

Fourteenth Letter Postmarked 8August03

Mom,

Iraq in August is no joke. You can see the heat. The wind feels like that time you stood too close to the camp fire. To add insult to injury the sand decides to become buddies with the wind. It's been five straight days of insanity. We made our move back to the main base at Baghdad International Airport. We have power, a PX, phones, Burger King, portable shitters and air-conditioning. Yes, we finally have AC!! But there's no running water. I guess the inconvenience of having to take a shower with water cans is trivial compared to a cool place to live. The enlisted have their own building with our NCO's in the building next door. I quickly jumped to claim my spot, the remnants of the bathroom. It's kinda small, but it's private and has the tile which keeps the cool in. Even with all the amenities of our new home only time will decide whether or not it helped to improve our life. First off you have to have the free time to visit Burger King or use the phone. The last 5 days have proved nothing has changed in the free time department. I have had - none - nada, zero free time since we moved. Maintenance has become horrendous, almost non-stop. The heat is tearing up our tanks. We're putting entirely too many miles on them. The M1A1 tank was designed for combat not police patrols. It was built to battle the Russians during the cold war not to operate in the hottest region on earth on a daily basis. One mission may only take 6 hours, but it usually means 12 hours of maintenance to get it ready for the next day. Hopefully we will get up-armored humvees soon. The army is gonna go broke if they don't.

Chow hall food! Yes, with our move back to Camp Slayer we now have a mess hall. No more MRE's for all our meals. No more nasty T-rations sent to us. We get army food. Whoot! Not exactly a real treat, but far better than what we've been getting. With chow halls come details and I was the lucky first guy in our troop to get KP duty. Doing dishes and taking out the trash did suck! However, when surrounded by cooks and tons of food it does have its benefits. Oh my, ice cold tomatoes. I never gave tomatoes their true respect until coming to Iraq. I ate about 6 huge juicy crisp tomatoes with salt!!

There's a lot of things you take for granted in life. Not after a deployment to Iraq! I would beg, borrow, or steal for fresh vegetables. Fruits were easy to get on the Iraqi economy until someone decided soldiers were no longer allowed to buy from Iraqi vendors. Guess someone important got a case of gas from an Iraqi Kaboob and decided the vendor tried to poison him. In fact after doing KP duty, I would bet money that the Iraqis are more sanitary than our own cooks. Once again tho the brains behind our military blew morale by passing the "no buy rule".

I've heard rumors we might get 2 weeks leave in September, but I'm not sure yet. :o

Ugh it's time to roll out. I'll just end this letter here, I'll write again soon.

P.S. Don't believe the news, morale sucks in Iraq. Our army can't even coordinate to get a dumpster for our defac (mess hall). The government dropped the ball on this one. Idiots run our country.

Thirteenth Letter 30Jul03

30Jul03

Mom,

Nothing much new to tell the last few days. We are suppose to move back to the airport today. Might get a hair cut today. Whoot gotta love having your fellow soldier buzz your head.

We've been having a lot of problems with our tank's road wheels. It seems the army's new improved lighter road wheels are not doing so well in this heat. We just recently started receiving the newer road wheels and the rubber on them suck. We change a average of 2 road wheels a day. Guess I'll be pretty darn good at changing road wheels when I leave here.

Mulling a one year deployment kinda sucks a bit. Guess the money makes it worth it, hmm. Not really. It's been pretty quiet this last week. I haven't heard of any attacks in our sector for a while now. Heck even Scania hasn't been hit in a while and it use to get attacked every nite. Hopefully with this recent slow down in our sector we might get a break.

I been thinking about what to do to pass the time of a possible year long deployment. I haven't been able to really enjoy reading much. Playing cards with the guys is not my thing either. Something I can do to keep me occupied, have time to myself and pass the boring periods. Build models!! he he. This move to the airport should ot only increase our free time, but finally provide us with a more permanent living arrangement. So far we've been living like squatters. Supposedly we are getting 2 main rooms, electricity and running water.

What I need you to do for me in this endeavor is to go to a local hobby shop or to a book store and send me the latest copy of FSM (Fine Scale Modeler). Instead of trying to explain to you what to get me it would be easier to just use one of the many mail order companies listed in the magazine and order the stuff myself.

Also the "care packages" I requested. They don't have to be huge shipments. A lot of the guys are getting shoe box size (even smaller) from their wives weekly. I'd rather get small weekly packages than large monthly ones. Simple things such as smoked oysters, tuna fish kits, and crackers go a long way to make life more bearable here. Find out where you can get large cans of gatorade. Right now food is the big morale booster. :)

Twelfth Letter 27July03

27 Jul03

Mom,

Not much else to write about the past few days. We've settled into a new routine that's given us a bit more free time. However, maintenance issues with my tank has kept me and my crew busy while everyone else chills out. We broke a torsion bar arm several days ago and ever since then we've been chewing up road wheels left and right. The mechanics are suppose to look at it in a few days.

Still no word or when we're moving back to the airport, hopefully soon. Also looks like we're getting conflicting rumors. One says we're leaving in early April, the other says Dec/Jan time frame. At some point it will be too expensive to keep a heavy mechanized force here. Hopefully international peace keepers, Iraqi police and the new Iraqi militia will be taking over our burdens soon. Right now we are responsible for nite patrols off our sector of Highway 8.

Life sucks here, mostly because our squadron sucks, not so much the army. Other units have a life of luxury compared to us. Our leadership doesn't give two shits about us line soldiers. All the headquarters people have the life of luxury while the guys pounding the ground are getting shit. We are lucky to get hot meals very often. For a while there was a shortage of bottled water. We still, for the most part, are no where near where other units are as far as perks go.

Here's a more exact list of items I could use. The biggest thing people want now is food. MRE's are getting a bit old after 3 months eating them.

Items to send:

smoked oysters, canned salmon, tuna fish salad kits, crackers, hot sauce (no tabasco), gatorade, koolaid, spicy pickles, pickled peppers/vegetables, canned foods. Did I mention spicy pickles? Also could ya send the CD by a band named Helmet, album name is Betty. AA batteries...oh need some tang. As for the hot sauce, be imaginative...don't buy a big name brand, get something with pizazz!

Food is basically the biggest thing right now. The army sucks at providing decent food to us. So everyone is having family and friends mail it in. It's sad the world's most powerful army can't even provide it's soldiers with an edible meal. Also don't believe the hype on the news, the morale DOES suck in Iraq. I keep seeing on Fox news all these "analysts" telling the American public it's troops have high morale. Our government has done nothing but continue to squash morale in Iraq. Either thru bad logistics, mismanagement, or sheer stupidity.

Now I'm not saying it's all depressing here and everyone's ready to crack. It's just you get the feeling that a lot of troops are wondering why we are here now, why we came in the first place, and the smart ones are figuring out it was all political. With neo-conservatism growing in the U.S. , political corruptness and just down right suckness, western Europe is looking more and more an attractive alternative. Well enough rambling, love ya and I'll write soon.

Eleventh Letter 24Jul03

24Jul03

Mom,

This gonna be short and sweet letter. Just some quick updates for friends and family, basically a news flash. :)

We're moving back to Camp Slayer (Baghdad Airport). Hopefully with this move we will be able to have ALOT more time to make phone calls and write letters. They decided that being at a forward base was too risky with all the attacks lately. Not being at a forward base will relieve us of guard and radio watch shifts greatly adding to our free time. Also Camp Slayer has 24 hour phone and internet available along with all the other nice things to make life easier!

At about 10pm or so two nites ago Arab news reported UDay and that other dude (Saddam's sons) had been killed in a raid. We had heard a few hours before it went local. We were outside when all the excitement started changing some road wheels. At first we heard a few gun shots, no big deal. They're always shooting. Then the gunfire got closer, and before we knew it the whole sky lit up with tracer fire, flares and anything "Ha-Jee" (nickname for Iraqis) could throw up. We thought for a split second we were under attack. It turned out to be celebration gunfire :) . Guess they didn't like Saddam's sons too much.


25July03

Yesterday an IED (improvised explosive device) blew up about 1 km away on our base camp road from the highway. "Ha-Jee" has been setting out crude bombs on roads hiding them under trash. Looks like someone wanted to blow our vehicles up. Needless to say they blew up the Iraqi that sells us cokes and stuff outside the camp base. He was on his way in this morning when he ran over the device. It pretty much blew the car up, they both survived tho, barely. Thank God I'm in a tank... ha ha, that little bomb wouldn't have even put a scratch on our tank. However had "Ha-Jee" not ran over the bomb, First Sergeant and log pack convoy would have hit it when they came in that morning.

Nothing else really going on right now.......

Things I don't need....
Nuts, anything with nuts or anything that looks like nuts
Hygiene items
(candy is fine but I don't really need any)

Things I need.......
You can never send too much Kool-aid or gator-ade
PICKLES!!! spicy ones lotsa pickles!!!
Food!!! - crackers, tuna salad kits, canned food, smoked oysters
Junk food!! Pace Picante (medium), corn chips etc.

Tenth Letter 21July03

21July03

Mom, & friends, family,

6 Days of insanity!! I got lucky before the madness started tho. I got sent to the rear (Camp Slayer) at the airport for a day and a half to do some paper work for my son. It was the first time since leaving Germany that I got to enjoy ice cold AC for most of the day. I also had time to use the phones! Twice!

This is our first "day off" in what seems like forever now. Why our troop always gets the shaft I don't know. What's even worse is my platoon gets the biggest shaft in our troop. So in a way I'm lucky enough to be in the most pain in the ass platoon in our whole troop, hell the squadron for that matter. When everyone starts to get short fuses and starts bitching we are reminded of how special we are. Well, quite frankly, I'm sick of being special!!

It seems that our squadron, nah it's bigger than that, our division has a fancy for B Troop, 1-1 Cavalry. Trained to be the tip of the spear, trained for stealth and recon, high intensity conflict. We are constantly being "hand picked" for high profile missions in southern Baghdad. Not our troop mind you, our platoon. Just this week we captured key players in an arms trade. Shut down a group known in English as "Holy Warrior", closed down and captured a group of militants that were about to ambush a convoy. All of this in conjuction with our daily responsibilities, guarding the Red Cross, Al Rahsyd Market, patrolling Highway 8, guard mounts and radio watch.....Oh and when we got some time to breathe, we had several days worth of maintenance piled up for us to do. Oh joy!

So far we're the only armored unit in southern Baghdad that has worked with Navy Seals, Special Forces and the Rangers. Right now we have a company of the 82nd Airborne Rangers staying at our camp....they're attached to us!! The most notable operation we did was the capture of "Chemical Ali's" sons and brother. As far as I know that's the only operation we did so far that CNN was told about.

Now this sounds all dramatic and dangerous, but it's not. Basically as a tank platoon, we provide "overwatch" and block roads to and from the target area. If something goes wrong we roll in and level everything. To date we've had no injuries related to the enemy in our Squadron. We've only had one instance where we took direct fire and it was from a group of militants who had been chased into a compound. They ambushed a Marine convoy, but didn't realize the Marines are no pussys. The Marines returned fire and chased them almost a mile into an old military compound.

We were called in to rout them out. We were second in the compound. As the first tank made the corner the group of about 30 militants thought their AK47's would scare a 70 ton tank. We returned fire with our coax machine guns spraying the entire area with about 6,000 rounds in about 15 minutes. Needless to say, we only hit one guy in the leg. ha ha That was a good joke for the next few days. Lucky for the bad guys there was a wall they hid behind. They dropped their weapons and ran. We chased 'em down and they fled into another building. The infantry moved in and captured them.

It's funny, whenever we do a "combat mission" being in a tank kind of puts things in a weird perspective. We got our CD tunes blaring over the intercom talking about world politics, girlfriends, what we're going to do when we get back. From the safety of our depleted uranium armor we watch the infantry guys, crunchies we call 'em. They love having us around tho, we're their guardian angels. I guess us tankers are very useful. We can level an entire building or take precision shots into a crowd of people. The resistance has gotten a tad bit stiffer lately. The Army, however, isn't very good at "peace keeping" missions. Our training, equipment and tactics are all about mass mayhem and destruction. So when a group of Iraqis start throwing rocks at you, your first instinct is to "return fire", however, that wouldn't go over so well on CNN.

Last night we were told over the net not to go into a few zones. In fact, no coalition forces were allowed. They had over the 2 nights received motar fire at one location. They Army doesn't play nice. They ordered "Arty" (artillary) to be fired at the location of suspected motar fire. If the Iraqis fired a motar at us and we responded with "Arty", that's basically like using a ball pion hammer and responding with a sledge hammer.

Democracy will never work here. It will take a hardline government or even another dictatorship. These people are wicked, their culture almost seems to revolve around self-destruction. They need a tough person like Sadam was. I hate to say it, but crime, murder and greed will engulf this place with our weak sense of government. Democracy works for a civil people, these people are far from civil.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of really nice Iraqis here. Arab hospitality is probably the best of any culture. However, there are far too many wolves in sheeps clothing here. You can't trust anyone. They want us gone, they want to run their own country. I've been here long enough to say give it to them. Let the tribal leaders fight each other for territory. Let them kill each other instead of focusing their hatred toward us. I feel sorry for these people and the way they must live. Let them fight their own civil war and bring about what they want. There's no lower morale bummer than to be "liberating" a unthankful people.

At some point the military is going to tire of loosing soldiers to ambushes and snipers. We'll probably roll entire brigades into each section of Baghdad and go door to door. Suffocate the Iraqis with overwhelming force. It's at that point ,I believe, the hornets nest will have been stirred. We are running a fine line between calm and open revolt. The quicker International Peace keepers get here the better for everyone.

Whoot!! "Contact, Contact!!! Black two under fire" . Sounds like something is heating up over the loudspeaker next door............

Well it appears our mortars section with an engineer team came under fire from a house off of Highway 8. These people never learn we have radios, air support, and quick reaction force teams. In a matter of minutes gunships came buzzing over our roof-top at break neck speed heading toward Highway 8. We watched them circle overhead in the distance while listening to the radio.

A dismount squad from "Black two's" armored personnel carrier just raided a house. They have two males, one woman and a child in custody. They also have found one AK47. I lost interest in the goings on while they were waiting for an interpreter. I'll admit there's never a dull moment. It's just like the movies. I am still in awe over our military's power. The building we stay at gives a clear view for miles also. So when the fly boys come in it's a treat to watch.

Well we're about to start our patrols of Highway 8 now. We'll be doing 2 on 1 off all night. Oh joy!
Be sure to pass this along to everyone. I haven't much time to write as usual. Let everyone know I love them. Don't let the news scare you either. I watched Fox news last night. Almost everything they said was way off mark to a certain extent. Yes, they're shooting at us, but 1 or 2 soldiers a day when you have over 5 divisions here is nothing. Hell they lose that many to training accidents in peace time. I love ya mom, tell the old folks I love them too, I'll write more when I can.

OMG!! No One Knows the Date

The date on this letter was scratched out several times. At the top of the letter my son made the comment "OMG!! No one knows the date". Then in a box he wrote...

9July03

The last week has pretty much drug by. Nothing new or exciting to report. In fact, I don't even know what day it is. ha ha. Going to have to ask someone so I can date this letter.

We've been working 18 hour days the last 3 days. Today was the first day we've had off in a while. Well, it's not really a day off, but we haven't done much today. We're supposed to be getting real AC soon and electricity soon. The Iraqi engineers have begun working on the power plant again and should have our building up and running soon, I hope. I have been craving Taco Bell lately. Ugh a normal cooked meal would be sooooooo good!! I'm a toothpick now so you'll have to fatten me back up again with I get back.

Sorry I didn't have much exciting things to tell you in this letter. Guess it's better not to have "exciting" things to tell anyway. Better to be boring and safe. he he. I've been using P's CD player. As for reading, it's been too hot to enjoy a book. And the flies bother you as well. When we do get free time usually I'll grab someone's CD player, put my shorts on and lay half naked on my cot. After about 10 mins you pass out. lol Then you wake up in a pool of sweat. God I can't wait to get a real AC. The one we have now doesn't cut it.

I wish I could say there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately there's not at the moment. I think I've reached the "dead zone" the time when being homesick is at its worse. The good thing is time does seem to be speeding by quickly for the most part.

Eighth Letter 30June03

30June03
14:15

Mom,

Looks like we made headlines on CNN. I haven't seen or heard anything, but our commander announced to us that we were on the news. It was our tank, our wingman, the commander's tank and 1st Platoon's scouts with 6 Bradleys. We assisted a group of special forces and navy seals on a mission. We provided security and fire support in the capture of "Chemical " Al's sons and brother.

The operation was over in about an hour total. We encountered no resistance at all. One of the people captured however, did get wounded. We had been briefed that possibly over 60 paramilitary forces would be guarding the brother and sons. I guess either there were no guards or the sound of our tanks deterred them from attacking.

The 82nd's headquarters down the road seems to be a favorite target for Saddam loyalists. It's been attacked several times over the past few weeks. Even tho it's only down the road, we haven't had a single attack. I would assume first that because of the nature of our compound and its large open area that it's too hard to sneak up on us. Not to mention we've got a lot of fire power at our base.

It's been really rough the last week. We've been averaging about 3 hours of sleep a nite. Between missions, patrols, and guard duty we're pretty strung out. Any free time is used up sleeping and lulls in missions are great cat nap times. Being a driver has the advantage of extra sleep tho. When we set up screen lines or check points I usually take a quick cat nap in my driver's hole.

Overall it's been bearable. At times you feel the drain but for the most part it's managable. We operate in Southwest Baghdad. We have one hotspot in our sector, but overall we're in one of the more calmer parts of the city.

I'm about 30 mins from having to be ready to roll. We are going on a presence patrol and also to take a peek at the market. Basically we just drive around to let people know we are here and we are in charge. After we drive around a bit we'll head to the market and just sit there to intimidate would be bad guys.

There are people here that are genuinely glad we are here. However, most of the time it's a thankless job. These people know that the real oppressor was us, Saddam just didn't help matters.

I miss the real world. It's funny what little things you miss. God, I would kill for some Taco Bell or just one hour in the A/C. A full nite's sleep without waking up to distant gun fire and realizing your sleeping bag is a sauna. That there are flies buzzing around in hordes. Or that always annoying high pitched buzz of a mosquito looking for a juicy soft spot on your head. It's funny watching National Geographic and making sour faces at the living conditions some people face. Well, I have first hand accounts of that lifestyle. Right now I have 3 flies on my hand, 2 on my head, and a few buzzing about. You get use to it after awhile. The trick is when you're eating to be careful not to accidently eat one that's landed on your food. ha ha!!

Compared to other units here in Iraq, we got the shit end of the stick. While most people have electricity, water and even A/C in some places, we still only have running water. That tho is out of a hose. We have a room cleared that we let the hose hang from the ceiling. That's our makeshift shower. Well, I'm going to pause this letter. Off to get ready to roll out. Let's see how long it takes till I get time to finish it.

01July
18:35

Ugh, that was a rough last day! Well we went on our presence patrol. We got back about 9pm. At 10pm me and M had guard shift till 11pm. About 10:30pm we heard the ever more common large boom coming from down the road. Yep, Scania got attacked again. It took about 15 minutes before we were alerted to red con one. B section were out on patrol. It was just our tank and another. We started patrolling the perimeter fence. B section got word that scania had been hit. They went to help out the 82nd with security and to look for the culprits. Anyways to make a long story short, we were up till 4am. We got back and me and M got first guard shift again. Got to sleep at 5:30am, woke up at 7:45am to refuel our tank at log pack. Then we headed out for our 9 o'clock patrol. We got pulled from our patrol to do a raid on a suspected location where the attack the night before had originated. Basically we had 2 hours sleep in over 24 hours......ugh.....just another day.....

3July03
07:45

I just got around to finishing this letter.

Things I need....
CD player
Kool-aid/gatoraid
disposable camera

Things I don't need....
anything with nuts
toiletries

Seventh Letter 25June03

We went on another raid last night in a nearby town. There were 14 people that they were after. Mostly Ba'ath party members and a few Fayaden members. Since not all 14 people were at the same location, they had to do a surprise attack on several locations. Our job was to set up a roadblock outside the town and keep people from leaving or entering.

We started the mission at 12:30am and executed the raid about 2:00am. Over 200 soldiers from 82nd Airborne stormed the small town and went right after their targets. There was a small firefight and two Iraqis were killed and they caught 9 of the 14 and about 30 other people.

Me and P were watching the northern road into the city. Our job was to stop any traffic and direct them to the inspection point. Since there is a curfew we didn't expect many cars. We did have one scarey moment tho.......

It was about 3:50am or so. Curfew was getting close to being over. We had our first car approach. I was going to be P's cover while he stopped the car. The guy evidently didn't quite understand what was going on. As P was signaling him to stop, he started toward P. The guy didn't look like he was going to slow down. P drew his pistol and aimed it at the car and started yelling to stop, but the guy kept coming. I took aim with my M-4 (machine gun), moved the selector to automatic and was going to give the guy a few more feet before I fired. In that instance the guy stopped. I was almost about to shoot at the driver's window.

We couldn't see who or what was in the car since he had his lights on. It turned out to be an elderly man. He was just confused and scared. He was only a second away from possibly being killed.....The stress is so overwhelming at times. You don't know who is the bad guys and because people have used car bombs and the nature of our mission that nite, it could have been an attacker. I don't know how I would have been able to deal with having killed an innocent man, simply because he failed to stop in time. At the same time, if I had hesitated to fire he could have ran over P. Not knowing is the hardest part. Kids that come up to us selling ice cream, you don't know what's in that cooler....ice cream or a bomb.

I'm not going to lie and say it's not dangerous here. The bad guys are out there and they shoot Americans every chance they get. We have our training tho, our superior weapons and our desire to keep each other alive. Even if it means making a mistake and shooting first and asking questions last.

I will not allow myself to loose my guard here. I plan on coming back home in one piece, and I'll do whatever it takes.

There are rumors we will be moving North of Baghdad. Unfortunately that's where most of the bad guys are. The war may be over in the media, but it's not over for us as long as the bad guys are still shooting at us. I have yet to be directly shot at or had to fire my weapon at anyone and I pray to God I won't have to. Killing is a horrible thing and I hope I won't ever have to experience that.

Sixth Letter 20June03

20June03
16:21

Well I still have my letter from yesterday sitting here. We got pulled for another mission and I was asleep when they came to get mail. Today was a major treat. We got to sleep in this morning. They also brought steak and eggs for breakfast!!! We only get hot food bout every other day and it's either dinner or breakfast, never both. They finally started rationing our water. We have tons of Iraqi city water, but our platoon Sgt. won't let us drink the bottle water. We are having to drink the "treated" Iraq city water. At first the water had a real bad chemical taste, but I've gotten use to it now. I hope I remembered to tell you to send stuff like kool-aid to mix with the water.

The days are starting to blend together now. We no longer have a schedule anymore. We've been doing actual missions for about a week now. We've done two raids and a couple of traffic check points. The times vary and are usually not told to us till the last minute. Overall we've had more free time tho.

I don't know if or when I'll ever get a chance to use a phone again. We are staying at a forward base. It doesn't have phones or electricity. There's a place down the road with another unit that has phones and internet, but half the time you can't get thru or you don't get the chance to go down there.

In a week we get a new troop commander. Hopefully things will change for the better with Captain K. Right now it sucks.

Fifth Letter 19June03

We caught the people that stole our stuff. They turned out to be kids. One was 16. They had the balls to try and come back when everyone was here. They evidently started a fire in one of the back buildings to create a diversion. It almost worked, but one of our guys went back upstairs and caught them in the act. They tried to get away, but there was too many people after them. Some of the people that had personal effects, such as family pictures and mementos, took out their frustration on them. They got roughed up pretty good, nothing serious tho. They hog-tied them, which is basically when you tie their hands and feet together and put a bag over their head. They came and picked them up and took them to a detention center. I still haven't heard anything about my camera or CD player. I don't expect they'll find it.

Last nite we went on our second raid. This time it was a pretty big one. They had a lot of journalists and TV people there. We raided a very large market place just outside Baghdad. The gloves have come off is what our supervisors are saying. They gave the Iraqis several weeks amnesty to turn in weapons. Now we're setting up raids and confiscating them.

Being in a tank, no one tends to mess with us. However, I'm sure you hear the news all the time of soldiers getting killed or injured. We had some guys from the 82nd Airborne get killed yesterday right down the road from us. Being in that tank is definitely a relief. We haven't even gotten off our tanks at any of the raids yet. Nor have I had a single shot fired at me or anyone in our squadron. It's not exactly a safe place here, but it's not near as bad as people say it is either.

We have a layout in a few for our change of command. Whoot!! A new commander. Maybe things will get better now. Maybe our new senior leader won't be such an asshole. Well, I'm gonna try and get a quick nap in.

Fourth Letter 15June03

15June03 19:15

What a day it's been!! Not only is it my B-day but it's also turned out to be a bad day as well. Guess B-day stood for bad day today.

This morning at 1:30am we were woke up. Our very first real "mission" since coming to Iraq. Finally, something besides guarding an empty building. Our mission was to raid a suspected weapons dealing point. Also there was rumored that ex-Baath party and forces loyal to Saddam may be present. The objective named "Bourbon" use to be a weapons manufacture site that had been bombed in the war. We were to take a platoon of Airborne Infantry and our squadron was to provide security overwatch. Our platoon was tasked with breeching the compound and providing the infantry armor support.

We rolled out at 03:45 and made a 20 minute trip to our target area. Our recon had flown over the objective and reported no people around. It was pretty exciting at first. Our tank was the second one thru the wall of the compound. The infantry guys came in and took cover behind us. This was the moment, if there were any resistance we would see it soon. As the rest of the squadron surrounded the comound to keep anyone from escaping, we moved slowly thru the compound. Stopping here and there while the infantry entered one building at a time and checked them for people and weapons.

10:15 we finally had cleared the entire compound. We had a total of 5 people in custody and had managed to scare the crap out of a family who had taken up residence in one of the bombed out buildings. Three of the five people were stealing plywood and the other, a father and his 9 year old son were taking sheet metal. There was some weapons found and a few old bombs, but nothing special. Our mission was a waste of time. We managed to catch a few petty thieves doing nothing that every other Iraqi hasn't been doing. The family was a bit pissed at being woke up and scared to death. We found a few mortar tubes and a few 1000lbs bombs. No great weapons cache was found and no Saddam loyals anywhere.

We get back to our camp only to find that while we were on our "raid", the local peasants had "raided" us. We had only left a few people back guarding the post. No one was guarding our building and "Ha'Jee" made out with stereos, CD players, cameras, and anything that looked valuable. I got my CD player stolen and my camera :(. No more digital pictures for me now.

What a crazy turn of events. We go on a raid and end up getting raided while we are gone.
ROFLMAO!!!!!

Opinion Letter 13June03

The push into Baghdad had taken only 21 days. I had written a letter to my son detailing all that I had seen on the mainstream media with regard to the fall of Baghdad. Iraqis dancing in the streets, smiling faces, joy, the toppling of the Saddam statue, the whole works. His reply was an "opinion" letter.

The Third Letter Arrived
Dated: 13June03 18:45

There's a strong wind blowing from the east. A nice break from the hot winds coming from the desert in the west. Looks like rain as well tonight, over all nice weather for a letter.

Looking out over onto highway 8 for miles all you see is burned out warehouses. The ones that aren't burned up are just skeletons. They're metal looted by the greater public. To the other side large piles of trash and makeshift houses built from cardboard and bricks taken from bombed out buildings. The view isn't too bad from atop our building at the power station. It's just that the view is filled with neglect, oppression, and waste.

My stay in Iraq has opened my eyes to just how brutal a country we are. We came into this country like a football player back handing a 2 year old for his lollipop. We left nothing untouched that had even the slightest effect on the outcome of the war. Weapons of mass destruction, yeah right, whatever George.

Baghdad from what I can tell was at one time a flourishing city. Highways, markets, industry, and neighborhoods. They say it's the most westernized city in the Arab world. That was until economic sanctions were brought to this place by our country. The power plant I call home had been under construction for over 4 years. It was only about 30% complete, being built by a French contractor. That is what economic sanctions do, they bring a country to its knees.

Everywhere you look industry is a rotting corpse in Baghdad. No, it wasn't the war that killed them either. These skeletons of what was once a modern city have been dead for some years now. A product of, yes once again, economic sanctions. What better way to sway opinion of the stupid gullible American public. Let's kill them with years of economic sanctions, put the country into poverty, drive its industry into the ground. Now let's throw in accusations of weapons of mass destruction. Sounds like a great mix. Now let's feed the propaganda to the gullible American public. Saddam is a bad man, he keeps his people in poverty and oppresses them. Looks to me like the U.S. was the oppressing power. Now don't get me wrong. Saddam was a bad man. After all, he did invade Kuwait and gassed some Kurds in northern Iraq. How could someone do such horrible things. That's exactly what the American public thought as more tons of bombs were dropped on Iraq than all of what was dropped in Europe during WWII. So who is the bigger bully??

Okay, so what about the cheering crowds of people? After all, we just liberated the Iraqi people from a horrible dictator. Go ahead and let your newspapers and television news tell you all the latest and greatest propaganda. The only people smiling for the cameras are the children and the people that got left with nothing after years of oppressive sanctions. Even a dog that's been beaten still wags its' tail when his owner brings him food.

I'm sorry, but I don't see a happy people. We've had to do a few patrols thru the local market. Sure you get the children and younger people who are fascinated by our high tech weapons, cool uniforms, and tough look. Children hold up pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger and other famous American action heros. We're something straight out of a science fiction movie. The older ones, the ones that probably had a nice cush life before the sanctions, they don't smile. Their eyes stare at you like daggers, piercing you deep with hatred.

Will things get better for the Iraqi people? Well of course!! We will lift the sanctions, pump billions into rebuilding Iraq, then put people in power that we have puppet strings attached to. Wow!!! Everyone is now happy! The Iraqis now again have a prosperous country and the U.S. has low tarriff oil prices. Isn't it great. We just stomped a large producer of terrorists off the planet and liberated an oppressed country!!

Well my friends, I hope we were right. I hope to be proven wrong in every detail. However, I think all we did was throw gas on an already hot burning fire. Only time will tell.

One thing is for sure though. We made a big statement. North Korea isn't being such as ass and Iran's butt is puckering. The rest of the world is in awe. Yep, we just rolled under 3 divisions into a country and toppled it in weeks. We are without a doubt the world's super power. All hail the "arrogant Empire".

Please be sure to pass this along to all my friends and family via e-mail. Felt like writing an opinion verses a dull "how ya doing" letter.

Second Letter 13May03

Letter dated 13May03

Whoa! 130 degrees in the shade, now that's hot. The desert sucks, if there were hell on earth then the devil himself must be staying in the tent next to me. We got delayed 4 days for our push into Iraq. They have us leaving in 2 days now and I can't wait. At least Baghdad is a major city in between two large rivers. It's also cooler there than where I'm at now.

We are at a base camp about 50 miles from the Iraq border in Kuwait. Smack dab in the middle of nowhere in one of the hottest deserts on earth. Our tanks are ready to be trucked. It will take us 3 days to reach our destination. We were told we're staying at one of the Royal Palaces when we get there. Hell, as long as it has running water and showers I'll be happy.

This was our first real good day to relax since coming two weeks ago. I'm about to go do some laundry in a bit. Yep, the old way with a wash bucket, soap and water. ha ha

Anyways I need to wipe the sweat off of me and get a cat nap in for a bit. I'll write again once I've settled into our new home in Iraq.

First Letter 2May03

On May 1, 2003 President Bush announces major combat operations in Iraq have ended.


Postmarked 2May03

Mom,

Our first day in Kuwait we were put into a holding facility to wait on buses. A few hours of chaos and we were packed like sardines into a convoy of buses off to our new temporary home. You sleep when you can where you can so we all tried to grab some sleep.

Bang!! my head flopped over and hit the seat in front of me. Not exactly a wise way to wake up. Thank God they told us to wear our K-pots (helmet). Just as I got back up in my seat..Bump!! What the heck! they must be driving thru every pot hole in the road. I took a peek outside and what I saw was beautiful. The sky was crystal clear with a pink hue. We were in the desert. As far as you could see...yellow sand. A trail of dust was kicking up from our convoy. We entered our camp about 7am. It was like a small town in the middle of nowhere. A tent city of enormous proportions.

We spent most of the day resting. About noon the wind picked up. You could see maybe 50 feet or so. With goggles and a scarf wrapped around my face I braved the wall of sand and at that moment I realized that this was real. Things you only see in the movies, I was living it. The desert is a harsh environment and the awe of it is still foremost in my mind.

It was hot, but not too hot. Some of the guys were cursing the day they joined the Army. Sweat and sand, the almost choking dust kicked up everywhere. Nothing new to this Texas boy tho. Years of working in the dirt in those Texas summers, it was a picnic for me.

The most annoying thing isn't the heat, it's the dust and sand. It is everywhere!!! On everything! and in every crack and corner. You can't escape it.

There's not much else to say and my hand is getting cramped. We will be leaving in the next few days to get our vehicles. Within the next week we will be headed to Iraq to relieve those already there.

Permission Granted

I will post the letters as soon as I receive permission to do so.