Catching up

I realized that it has been since January that I last posted. A lot has happened, but then again it has been business as usual for us.

We are currently operating without the last two members of our team to go on leave. This means that we are closer to going home. We are actually under 100 days from being home.



Business as usual has gotten us all awarded with the Bronze Star Medal. Our IA Brigade has been highly successful and effective. Our awards are a reflection of thier accomplishments.

Here with our augments from 4-27, who received Arcoms.

Here newly promoted SGT Chase pushes for his new rank. 50 + 1 for his unit, +1 for the Mitt, +1 for himself.

Our new MRAPs. These babies are highly armored, and smooth riding. Of course they have their flaws: hard to steer and they don't fit anywhere.

The Caiman is quite an ugly ride.

A question was posed to me about our mailing address, the last four of the zip code. Personally I have never used the last four, nor recieved a package or letter including it. Our host unit, 4-27, didn't bother to tell us when our last day for mail pickup or where we could forward our mail. So those of us who have packages on the way will lose them when they are forwarded to Germany or when they are returned to the sender. Typical 4-27.

See you soon

January

Welcome back, and let me catch you up on January...

This is the layout for the clearing plan for Al-Mascar, an area suspected of an abundance of Unexlpoded Ordinance. The US had cleared the area after a sheep herder was injured, but the locals would have felt better if the IA went in and personnaly searched the area. As you might be able to tell, the area is several square kilos large. The mission itself took two days, having found relatively nothing.

The area had previously been an Iraqi Army munitions area, and it is obvious by the large craters that it was one of the US's targets during the early part of 2003.

After several days of training, planning and preparation, the IA gave up the plan after an hour and went in, with their MiTT in tow, to search the area.

Heres a photo we had taken of some of us and our interpreters at PB Dezil. I'm on the far right...

Here is Sgt Abere, one of my counterparts. He seems to think he's cool with my M4. After several vanity shots I had to pry my weapon from his hands.

Things have gotten difficult since we were directed to give no physical assets to the IA. They seem sometimes to want nothing to do with us unless we have stuff for them. We were even asked why we were here if we can't give them stuff. This question came a few days after I showed the commo LT how to use his GPS...

Sgt Abere was angry at me yesterday, after finding out the picture disk I made him didn't work. He told me he didn't trust me anymore... Oh well.

Ah yes, only a few miles into our Al-Mascar trek. This photo was taken atop a bombed out bunker. Here was obvious proof of the US's bunker-busters competence.

SGT Kessinger, one of the most motivated soldiers I've met yet, standing in the way of SSG Crocodile "Crock" and his handler, a SGT. Dogs always outrank their handlers. This cuts down on abuse.

Here is a typical way that American troops treat IA soldiers. This soldier was told that the tab he was given means he is some kind of great soldier. If you can't tell, it says "shit bag." After getting to know the IA soldier, I didn't mind anymore, he was quite a jerk.

Major Brott and KC, showing off their enthusiasm for Al Mascar.

KC, Doc, and myself. Pre-mission.

The elections that were all over the news went smoothly. There was heavy IA presence at all the polling sites. We were now where near the polling sites. This is the way we want it, to have little to do with the execution of Iraqi operations.

Scarface is doing great. He's filled out quite a bit and has made himself our guardian. He keeps all the cats away at night and barks at the wind.

I hope all is well back home. We are all doing fine and eager to come home.

Ode to my mug

Since the new year, we seem to have lost all respect by the Iraqis. Mostly because we can no longer give them material things as of Jan 1. They seem to want very little to do with us since we won't give them anything. My counterpart, after asking my boss for something that I wanted to give him without audience, asked Major Brott why we were here if we won't give them anything. Since he went above my head I plan on giving him absolutely nothing, not even peanuts.
About 70 former Iraqi soldiers take advantage of the opportunity to rejoin the Iraqi Army, when they previously deserted. However, in the IA, it is no problem to merely quit.

My old blue mug. It's been abused, knocked down, spilled, scratched, scraped, the handle is held on with a zip-tie, but to me it's the holy grail.

I get a lot of grief about my mug. Apparently I get quite upset when something happens to it, so I decided to post, "ode to my mug," by jest of Major Brott. I want him and DC to always remember my mug.

All is well, we are getting by. We are busy of course, but I'm sure our spouses are as well. We'll be home soon.

Hold down the home front for us.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Team Jedi!

No Snobby Pup

Here he is, the stray. It really blows my mind how an animal so well behaved and gentle can come from a hostile place such as this. This little guy really is a sweetheart. Not liking him is impossible.
I'm hoping we can find a farmer or sheep herder around here that we can give him to. He reminds me more of an Australian Shepherd more than anything.

He really does cheer us up.

Augments

Two days until Christmas but it is business as usual here. Actually, we have ramped up our mentoring efforts and are now spending more time at the IA compound. As we are planning on spending 16 or more hours a day at the IA Brigade, we are getting 4 additional augmentees for our team to let us catch a break occasionally. Now we just need to move a chu out to Dezil so we have somewhere other than our trucks to hang out in. Getting chow and somewhere to put the discharge is another issue.





My mother says I don't post enough pictures of myself. Well, at least my nephews will like this picture.

Here at COP Meade we aren't allowed to adopt a stray, but a stray seems to have adopted us. We drive the roads everyday and see all the dogs, mutts all, and wish we could have one to guard our compound and cheer us up.

When we returned today, there under our shower chu was a small dog. At first we thought he was injured, but he turned out to be merely terrified of us. After some coaxing and two bags of beef jerky we were able to convince him that we were friendly. He seems to have been abused, as his tail seems to have been lopped off (I'm convinced he didn't receive a tail from one of his parents). He is about 4-5 months old, and seems to never have met a kind person in his short life. Willy, one of our interpreters, named him "Penkish," but "Punkass" works too. It's hard not to get attached to him, and I fear he may just wander off after tomorrow. Perhaps getting attached would be bad since leaving a dog here would be heartwrenching. But he really is a cute little guy, with an excited smile and a constant butt wiggle from trying to wag the tail that isn't there.

SFC Parker couldn't find the back door to his truck, so he went out the escape hatch in the top.

SGT Kessinger is pretty much like me; highstrung with not enough to do. Except SGT Kessinger is quite a bit more hoah than I am and really into the Army. He seems really happy to be with us as we are to have his help and expertise.

SGT Khoubeche (I cant spell my own name sometimes) speaks Arabic and several other languages. It's nice having him on the team, taking away the need for a native interpreter.

SPC Chase, originally from Montana is a great asset to our team since he is a former armorer. This guy is really easy going and a welcome member of the team.

This is the best photo I have taken so far of SPC Huddleston. A cook, he wasn't happy with his job and is not intending on re-enlisting. SGM Clark, the 4-27 FA top NCO sent SPC Huddleston to us to see a different side of the Army. From the Houston area, we all have to listen to Hudd and Maj Brott reminisce about "back home" all day long. From what I hear I could navigate my way through Houston without a map.

We lock our office chu from the outside with a combination lock. After our morning brief and the order to be "red-con-one" in ten minutes we were all, well, almost all loaded in our trucks and ready to go.

After putting on my headset I heard Major Brott call over our internal net for Jedi Fox (CPT Connaroe) to come unlock the door. It honestly didn't occur to me what was going on until Major Brott called a third time for someone to come open the door. I initially thought he needed someone to open it for him (this was before I finished my coffee) since maybe he had his hands full. SPC Chase reminded me that for Major Brott to call over the net he would have to be in the office.

Major Brott was the first person to get locked in the office. I told everyone my truck that perhaps we should move to another truck, but Major Brott took it well and was able to joke about it.

I was surprised to get a package today from my cousin, Jeff, who I haven't seen in several years. I was pleased with the package and even more pleased with how considerate he and his wife are. Thank you Jeff and Lori.

Thanks also to my Mother for the Christmas presents, they will help cheer me up on Christmas morning.

I would also really like to thank Wendy J Jones, Glen and Elizabeth Hammond for the goods.

And as always, my beautiful wife. Without your support I couldn't make it through, I love you.

Well spellchecker isn't working and it's late, so I'm going to post it anyway. Sometimes my attempts to post end up as drafts and I get to feeling guilty for slacking, so forgive my sloppyness.

Stuck

I should have posted this sooner, but as my excuses go, I was busy.

Sometimes our mornings go fast and we can get out the wire pretty quick, sometimes they take a little longer. This particular morning took quite a lot longer. It started out with comms issues, then the quagmire talked KC into directing his truck into it's grasp. Mind you, this was only about 75 yards from where we park our trucks. This particular mission was our routine one to resupply and allow our church goers the opportunity. Needless to say, they were late.

Normally KC wouldn't have posed so proudly for this photo, but I convinced him that I humbly would have. Ha.

The M-88 had some problems but finally got the truck out.

The thing with these trucks is their weight and high center of gravity. Pulling it out takes some care. Our interpreter, Michael, was a little upset. He was due to go on leave.

Now this is how we know when Major Brott isn't happy. He stands apart from everyone with a frown on his face, most likely contemplating how best to deliver an @$$ chewing.

Yep, it's stuck. Here the dirt has a clay consistency and is dificult to dry. It takes a lot for the ground to absorb water, but when it does, it stays there, hiding itself with a dry outer layer.

Tune in next time for more wacky adventures...