News and Personal dispatches from the front lines.
In their own words:
One Marine's View: Satan and Sand Storms - Gang- Things have been going great here in Iraq. Internet is bad but tonight a huge sand storm has hit and BOOOOYA, internet is up and everyone is emailing away. A little action in our area but all has been great. Life is getting better a day at a time. Mail.......well is ok, once or twice maybe a week. The guys got your packages and think you all are angels. We smell. Letters seem to sneak through and I've given them to warriors without mail. VTines day was great as I played mail man for these guys. It made their day. (READ MORE)
Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal: (VIDEO) Crank That in Iraq - SPC Haitian Sensation attempts to teach LT G the Crank That Soulja' Boy dance in Iraq. Hilarity ensues. (READ MORE)
IraqPundit: Obama's Power Ranger - I have a suggestion for people who support Barack Obama: They should make their support contingent on Obama finding a new foreign-policy adviser. His current foreign-policy adviser is Samantha Power, who just told an interviewer that “The next president is really going to have to walk and chew gum at the same time, because no long-term peace in the Middle East is possible until we get some kind of modus vivendi in the Arab-Israeli situation.” (READ MORE)
Yellowhammering Afghanistan: Giving it all away - It's all gone. All of the boxes of clothes, bedding, toys, stuffed animals, shoes and other items many of you donated is gone. Hazara children come out to say "hello." I remember when we packed our storage container full of the boxes thinking that it would probably take the rest of our time here to give it all away. One month later, it's empty. Much of it went to the villages in last week's large humanitarian assistance visit. We held back a few boxes of women's and children's clothes, toiletries, toys, candy and stuffed animals for the Ghazni women's center. We recently dropped those items off there, much to the delight of the women who operate the center. (READ MORE)
ETT PA-C: The Energizer Bunny...well..... bird - That's what its taking to keep us motivated at this point! It's getting tough to keep up the desire to give a crap. I've done well since February of last year but this deployment has worn out its welcome and I'm glad that its coming to an end. The deployments have recently been shortened to 12 months total instead of the 3 month mobilization up, 12 months BOG (boots on ground) and then demobilization. God willing my family and I'll dodge the future bullet and not have to worry about this again. We are all about serving the country but this 15-16 month stuff is for the birds............and speaking of that...... (READ MORE)
Fearless 1st Marines’ blog: CMC steps onto Battlefield, surveys progress - CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Feb. 19, 2008) – Gen. James T. Conway, Commandant of the Marine Corps, linked up with Marines from Personal Security Detachment, Regimental Combat Team 1, for a visit to the city of Karma’s Joint Security Station, Feb. 19. Conway met with Marines from 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, who live and work at the station, and explained to them the importance of their mission and then opened the floor to questions. (READ MORE)
Badger 6: Our Spouses - Military Spouses, it seems to me, have the toughest job in our Armed Forces. Would you rather be hunting IEDs in western Iraq or having your spouse do it and you have to worry about the finances, the dogs, the house, and what ever other mutual obligations you have? If you are doing the former and everything goes horribly wrong, you don't have anything more to worry about. The spouse on the other hand, has one more thing to worry about. In The Military vs. Marriage, Linda Dempsey, an Army wife at Fort Drum, also notes that even when we are at home and blithely going about our business as Soldiers, they still have challenges to deal with that are unique to their situation. (READ MORE)
Acute Politics: A Brief Spot of History - As the last few posts have illustrated, units in recently cleared areas devote a significant amount of time to finding and clearing weapons caches left by dead or retreating fighters. Most of the time, cache sweeps come up empty or find standard AK47s or explosives. Every once in a while, cache sweeps turn up something remarkable. While I was deployed to Ramadi, Bravo company discovered a cache that included a M2 .50cal Machine Gun that the unit we replaced had lost when an IED blew apart the RG31 that carried it. Recently, troops from 5/7 Cav (Bandit troop, coincidently), had a rare find of a different sort. (READ MORE)
Still writing about the front:
Words From Warriors: I'll NEVER forget - June 2005, Baghdad, Iraq- Camp Slayer. Sgt "A" and I were having a conversation about guns and baseball. He was an Army reserve sergeant who, in his real life, worked for the US Border Patrol. I liked him alot... he was also a range master for his "normal" job back home...just like me. We started a conversation one day...I had to go out the next day on a mission that would take me away for a week. He was killed by an IED before I got back...we never got to finnish our conversation.....and we never will. Sgt "A" left behind a wife and a son, who's about 7 years old now. I will never forget him, he was a friend, a good man and soldier who died for his country. (READ MORE)
News from the Front:
Iraq:
MND-B Soldiers seize munitions northwest of Baghdad - Baghdad Soldiers seized munitions northwest of Baghdad Feb. 18. Soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, MND-B acted on a tip from an Iraqi citizen and found the munitions. The munitions consisted of two 132 mm, two 105 mm artillery rounds, one 120 mm round, 17 18-pound bombs, two 90 mm artillery rounds, one 30 mm artillery round and seven speed bump improvised explosive devices. (READ MORE)
Caches discovered from detainee information - NINEWAH, Iraq – Soldiers of 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, Task Force Iron, discovered two caches next to each other in Ninewah Province Feb. 17 after receiving information from detainees. The cache included rockets, washing machine timers, a suicide vest, grenades and receivers, as well as magazines for different weapons systems. (READ MORE)
Female MPs Train Female IPs on Search Techniques - BAQUBAH — Terrorist networks in Iraq have demonstrated their willingness to use women to conduct attacks against Coalition and Iraqi security forces, as well as innocent Iraqi citizens. In Diyala province alone, there have been four female suicide bomb attacks since late November. To help combat this threat, military policewomen with the 202nd Military Police Company conducted search-technique training with Iraqi policewomen at the Iraqi police headquarters in Baqubah Feb. 16. (READ MORE)
Longest Road Project in Iraq a Security Success - AL ASAD — Uranium Road from Hit to Al-Asad is getting a $29.6 million makeover in the longest road project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq. The mission-essential 51-kilometer Alternate Supply Route (ASR), now more than 60 percent finished and targeted for completion in early April, is Phase One of a planned two-stage project. (READ MORE)
Georgian Battalion Takes Command of COP - COMBAT OUTPOST CAHILL — The 13th Georgian Light Infantry Battalion assumed responsibility for al Wehida from the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, in a transfer of authority ceremony Feb. 10 at COP Cleary. Lt. Col. Jack Marr, from Minneapolis, commander of the 1-15th Inf. Regt. passed command of COP Cleary to Maj. David Sulkhanishvili, commander of the 13th Georgian LI Bn. (READ MORE)
Dwindling Insurgent Forces Target of Operation Marne Grand Slam - BAGHDAD — Coalition forces began pursuit of remaining insurgent elements near Salman Pak Feb. 15 with the kickoff of Operation Marne Grand Slam. The operation is designed to terminally disable the dwindling number of al-Qaeda in Iraq operatives remaining in the region southeast of Baghdad. The first phase of Grand Slam involves clearing a peninsula that stretches into the Tigris River, directly south of the city of Salman Pak. (READ MORE)
3 Iraqi children killed by terrorists’ mortar fire while playing soccer, 7 injured - BALAD, Iraq – Three Iraqi children playing soccer were killed during a terrorist mortar attack outside Coalition force’s Logistical Supply Area Anaconda near Balad Feb. 19. Seven other children were injured in the indirect fire attack and were treated for wounds at a Coalition forces hospital. (READ MORE)
Caches Discovered from Detainee Information - NINEWAH — Soldiers of 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, Task Force Iron, discovered two caches next to each other in Ninewah Province Feb. 17 after receiving information from detainees. The cache included rockets, washing machine timers, a suicide vest, grenades and receivers, as well as magazines for different weapons systems. (READ MORE)
Vocational School in Al Kut Expands - AL KUT — Finding a good auto mechanic, air conditioning repairman or electrician in Wassit province just got easier. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is managing an Al Kut vocational technical school expansion and renovation to facilities that will help equip students with trade skills to improve their livelihood and contribute to the local economy, adding to Iraq’s sustainment capability. The $788,852 Commander’s Emergency Response Program funded project at the Al Kut Vocational Technical Center supports the Multi-National Division-Central and 3rd Infantry Division’s objectives for the Wassit province. (READ MORE)
Soldiers Track, Clear Al-Qaeda from Remote Location - BALAD — As the ramp slammed down in the muck, the rain came howling in drenching the men who leapt off the back of the Chinook helicopter. The troopers hurried into the field of sloppy mud where they slipped and slid through the landing zone to reorganize in the pitch black Iraqi night. Not even the moon was friendly on this mission, which would prove to be a testament to the guts of Army Infantrymen and to the determination of Charlie Company Soldiers to make even the most remote hamlets in the Salah ad-Din province safe from al Qaeda. (READ MORE)
Afghanistan:
ANA receive hands-on medical training in Farah - FARAH PROVINCE, Afghanistan (Feb. 17, 2008) — Medics from the Afghan National Army’s 201st Kandak are currently training with Coalition medics in a hands-on environment to better treat their fellow soldiers and Afghan citizens. “I received classroom instruction in Kabul, but here I get to practice what I have learned,” said Abrahim Rahimi, a 21-year-old ANA medic who has been in the Afghan National Army for just over a year. (READ MORE)
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