okay back up

Alright, well finally got the chance to sit down for a little bit and add those old posts. We'll see how long I can keep it up.

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This is my first one from Mosul:

Anyway, things are going well up here in case anyone was worried. We hit ground in Kuwait and 2 days later we were running missions in Mosul with the unit we are replacing. I've seen a lot of Mosul and the surrounding country in that time, and its a lot to take in.
For starters, the country side is simply unbelievable. I never imagined that there was still tons of people still living in mud and brick houses with thatch roofs. You can't help but feel bad about the things we as American's take for granted when you look at these villages that look like something out of national geographic or pictures of America pre-industrial age.
The city, while not very big (at least as Chicago goes) looks like the projects on a much grander scale. There are people living in crumbling houses with no walls, there are bare-foot little kids everywhere and the whole power system looks like it was jerry-rigged with clothes line, along with other miscellaneous pieces of junk.
It's a little weird saying all the people waving, smiling and give thumbs up signs as you roll down the street. It's certainly different than anything I've ever experienced in my life. That's not to say that all the people seem happy that we are there. Most of the people just seem to want to go about their daily business without interference from either side, and of course there are plenty of people who give us dirty looks or flip us off as we roll by. Then there is the attacks..
For the most part it seems that back home a lot of the attacks are over sensationalized. A lone mortar round indiscriminately lobbed in the fob, or someone chucking a hand grenade as vehicles roll under an underpass to little effect. However, there are highly coordinated attacks, that do produce casualties. They usually seem to hit the HMMVEEs or other lesser armed vehicles, in fact the only major attacks on Strykers appear to only happen after we (the US or the ING) do something that significantly disrupts the day to day lives of the people living in Mosul.
Keep in mind, this is only two weeks in. There's no telling how things will be in the future, but if it's any indication the unit we're taking over for said they had minimal amounts of contact up until the last few months. Our unit has already suffered a few casualties, as far as I know none have been fatal but some people have gotten pretty messed up. I'll refrain from talking about any particular incident for op sec and out of consideration of the people involved.
Overall, things aren't so bad here (yet) the living conditions are pretty good, and seem to get better as we adjust to life in a combat zone. Some people are having a harder time adjusting than others, but thats understandable. It certainly hasn't turned into the most stressful situation in my life, but again its only two weeks in. That's about it for now, hopefully I'll be able to update things a little bit more when we move to another camp.