To move or not to move...

Since my last post we have been incredibly busy. Our progress has left us trying to avoid the temporary move to Aztec, which wouldn't bother me in the least. The last thing I want is to be an unwelcome guest, which is the way 7-10 Cav has made some of us feel already. They don't seem sure what their future has in store for them and seem reluctant to help us much.

A lot of the past few days has been involved with laying out our perimeter at Mustang. We've had to escort cranes from a few of the other camps and some heavy equipment from Stryker. Moving the massive slabs of concrete, called T-walls, from Aztec to Mustang has been one of the two major events of the past two days. Each T-wall is about 12 feet high, weighing 6-7 tons. The Rakasaan unit out of Fort Campbell did an outstanding job in assisting us.

Lucky me, my job in placing the t-walls was to sit on top and unhook the chains. I enjoyed it though, remembering my years in the Seabees. There will be plenty of work in the future on Mustang for me to draw from my experience.

We all seem to be enjoying building our patrol base. Despite all the hard work and late nights we are all in good spirits and still getting along well. When we move out to Mustang we will likely get a PSD, personal security detachment, who will have a hard time putting up with us I'm sure. The PSD will probably consist of a squad size element who will help bulk up our security situation. While escorting the engineer unit to Mustang for the earth work we had to use their comm frequency. It was all we could do to not be our normal selves with our usual banter. Some might find us offensive, but what does anyone expect from 11 soldiers stuck together for a year?

We all made suggestions to name our patrol base. The obvious choice was "mustang," since that is what it has been known as until now. My suggestion was "Shelby" after my daughter. Thanks to SFC Montes and CPT Dresh, my suggestion got 3 votes. Patrol Base Mustang is the winner unfortunately. But it will save us a lot of grief since we all know it as "Mustang" already.

Lt Alaniz missed our first day out, and he wasn't happy about it. Lt had to go get his left thumb checked out because he nearly lost it raising one of our counter measure devices. He is fine, and will be back to normal in a few months. We had to pick him up in the "green zone," where he was supposed to get a wire put in his thumb. He lucked out, not needing the wire.

My last trip to the green zone was in 2003, and I must say, Baghdad is really a beautiful place. It would be a lot prettier if the t-walls, concertina wire, and sandbags that are everywhere were removed. But that is the price to pay for staying safe I suppose. We were all happy to see the markets up and running and construction everywhere.

My father asked me which province we are located in. This was a good question, kinda making me embarrassed that I don't really know. We don't refer to our AO by province, but many who watch the news might reference actions and events by province. The province we are in is the Baghdad province. Iraq is divided in provinces, much like counties or states. It is very unlikely that we will ever leave Baghdad.
Let me point something out. In the US, it may take some of you about 15 minutes to drive 15 miles. Whether you are going to the grocery store or work or whatever your destination may be. Here there are checkpoints everywhere. To travel 15 miles takes us an average of 45 minutes, depending on how long it takes us after prepping our trucks and preparing to "roll out." For the average civilian here, traveling 15 miles can often take hours. Nearly every overpass is now an IA checkpoint, many overpasses not open to civilian traffic. Nearly every intersection has an IA or SOI checkpoint. Many fuel stations that seem to have once had life are abandoned. Black market fuel is rampant due to the long lines at the pump, and vendors of black market fuel line many of the routes. But hey, good news is that gas here is about a dollar a gallon (so said one of interpreters). We've been here for almost six years now, and I'm not sure it's gotten better.

Oh yes, I forgot to introduce our interpreters who have become Jedi's themselves. All are Iraqis themselves except for Sammy who left us to go get his Visa to the US. Sammy is from Jordan or Qatar, we aren't really sure because interpreters are reluctant to disclose their true identity and origin. Many interpreters have bounties on them and apparently one of ours has even been kidnapped. We are authorized 5 interpreters and now have 3 since Sammy left. We have Michael, William, and Evan, all local nationals. They are all good guys, a welcome part of our team. We will soon pick up a fourth interpreter.

Having introduced our terps, I realize I never officially introduced the entire team. I will do so in my next post since I've already added way to many pictures here. Well, apparently I can only post 8 photos at a time. So please see the photos in my photo album of the team members.

Please feel free to ask about the photos. I don't have enough time in the day to label each photo unfortunately.

Well that's it for now, gotta make it to chow. Hold down the home front for us...