This is about a guy I knew who I met over here:
Speaking of lost friends:
Sometimes, the world proves just how small it truly is. As I was talking to chow today, I met a guy I haven't seen since basic. It was this guy named Chow, and he was in the rehab unit at Knox with me. That's pretty significant to me because there were very few people out of that unit that actually rehabilitated and finished basic. Apparently this guy is in the unit I'm replacing out here in Iraq.
Chow's a character; when he talks you can barely understand him and hes a little on the eccentric side. He's a Chinese national who came to America to find a better life and joined the Army to earn his citizenship. His wife and family is still in china waiting for the opportunity to come over. He hopes he can get his citizenship when he gets back to do so.
This is a guy who moved to another country vastly different than his own, and fought in a war that many people question just for the chance at a better life for himself and his family. To me that's amazing and a testament to what some people are willing to do for a better tomorrow. It's a shame that I don't even see a fraction of that drive in my peers across America. Just a little
Saturday, October 23, 2004
Today
Wrote this this morning:
Well things change pretty fast around here. About three hours after I wrote the last post we got alerted for a mission and have been going full speed for the last 2 days. As soon as we returned from the one 24 hour mission we got tasked with battalion QRF. Which is where you have to be ready to go within 15 minutes and relieve anyone with issues such as recovering a mired vehicle or doing casevac for a a platoon. If nothing happens it's not too bad except for the fact that you can't go anywhere or do anything.
In the Army theres this rule about publicly making disparaging remarks about the army, your unit, the country or its leaders. I try to adhere to that rule for no other reason than I enjoy my free time, pay and other benefits associated with not being in trouble. . I just thought I'd say that.
In something completely unrelated to my preceeding statement, the last few days attached to the infantry has been “Interesting”. There hasn't been any casulties as far as I know, but there have been 3 accidental discharges, 1 “test fire” at a stray dog and 1 rolled over vehicle. ... and I've been on one mission. so...yea...
We're finally looking at some down time for the first time in a week so hopefully I'll be able to get to the Internet and post all these and keep em updated on a semi regular basis. We're supposed to be homesteading out of where we are at for a few months at least. I still don't like the prospect of actually getting any mail because our address has changed for the 5th or 6th time since the week prior to deployment. We'll see what happens.
Well things change pretty fast around here. About three hours after I wrote the last post we got alerted for a mission and have been going full speed for the last 2 days. As soon as we returned from the one 24 hour mission we got tasked with battalion QRF. Which is where you have to be ready to go within 15 minutes and relieve anyone with issues such as recovering a mired vehicle or doing casevac for a a platoon. If nothing happens it's not too bad except for the fact that you can't go anywhere or do anything.
In the Army theres this rule about publicly making disparaging remarks about the army, your unit, the country or its leaders. I try to adhere to that rule for no other reason than I enjoy my free time, pay and other benefits associated with not being in trouble. . I just thought I'd say that.
In something completely unrelated to my preceeding statement, the last few days attached to the infantry has been “Interesting”. There hasn't been any casulties as far as I know, but there have been 3 accidental discharges, 1 “test fire” at a stray dog and 1 rolled over vehicle. ... and I've been on one mission. so...yea...
We're finally looking at some down time for the first time in a week so hopefully I'll be able to get to the Internet and post all these and keep em updated on a semi regular basis. We're supposed to be homesteading out of where we are at for a few months at least. I still don't like the prospect of actually getting any mail because our address has changed for the 5th or 6th time since the week prior to deployment. We'll see what happens.
next one
From about 5-6 days ago:
Well, time to chalk up another experience I'd rather not replicate ever again. We spent about 15 hours driving from Mosul to outside of Baghdad. The smell emanating from my body afterwards was far from pleasant. Sitting in a drivers hole for 13 straight hours when its 105 degrees is not conducive to smelling good. The aggravating part is that it shouldn't even have taken that long, but ol Murphy is a motherfucker.
Other than that things are going great. Our platoon got attached to another infantry company in our brigade and we are totally independent from our troop and squadron. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with the way that worked out. Hopefully, that'll be for the remainder of our time here, but that would be too good to be true.
The only bad part is that the infantry guys just got here and we'll probaly have to wait a couple weeks while they do their right seat rides and take over their AOR. After that we're supposed to be getting into it pretty thick. I just wish I knew what exactly that entailed.
I haven't seen much of Baghdad yet, but its definitely a lot different than I expected. The countryside is a lot more green than I expected. There are trees and fields everywhere. I used to wonder how this place was the “cradle of civilization” but I can see it now. The camp they have us on is huge, theres at least a whole division here and it's hooked up pretty sweet like; it's definitely better than anything we had at Lewis.
Well, time to chalk up another experience I'd rather not replicate ever again. We spent about 15 hours driving from Mosul to outside of Baghdad. The smell emanating from my body afterwards was far from pleasant. Sitting in a drivers hole for 13 straight hours when its 105 degrees is not conducive to smelling good. The aggravating part is that it shouldn't even have taken that long, but ol Murphy is a motherfucker.
Other than that things are going great. Our platoon got attached to another infantry company in our brigade and we are totally independent from our troop and squadron. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy with the way that worked out. Hopefully, that'll be for the remainder of our time here, but that would be too good to be true.
The only bad part is that the infantry guys just got here and we'll probaly have to wait a couple weeks while they do their right seat rides and take over their AOR. After that we're supposed to be getting into it pretty thick. I just wish I knew what exactly that entailed.
I haven't seen much of Baghdad yet, but its definitely a lot different than I expected. The countryside is a lot more green than I expected. There are trees and fields everywhere. I used to wonder how this place was the “cradle of civilization” but I can see it now. The camp they have us on is huge, theres at least a whole division here and it's hooked up pretty sweet like; it's definitely better than anything we had at Lewis.
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.
____
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.
____
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.
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Sorry
Things have been pretty hectic and online access is quite limited. I've been keeping updates on my laptop and when I get the chance (which *should*) be within the next 3-4 days I'll post em all. Otherwise, everything else is fine.
-Daniel
-Daniel
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