"They are all fucking militia!" - My first patrol

OK! So with that said, today was my first time leaving the wire and going out on patrol. And what an interesting day to pick. Today was the end of some 10 day Shiate pilgramiage holiday, which these days tend to be bad ones. Dont worry. Nothing bad happened.

Myself and a few guys from my company headed out on a mounted patrol with some MPs that have been here in Iraq for about 7 months. Basically we would see what they do, learn about some of the routes and then they would show us the area that we will be operating in.

We started out driving and my god I have never seen a city SO trashed. Even New Orleans after Katrina doesnt compare. Just nasty. Not to mention there are a million stray dogs. Well anyways we are cruising around and we come across this one area that is normally packed full of people. There was not a person to be found, which is usually a sign something bad is going to happen. Had the pucker factor well into effect! We got through just fine and our first stop was at an Iraqi Police Station. While others we're doing what they had to do there, a few of us decided to go up on the roof. They have taken fire here from the neighborhood across the street several times and we basically were up there trying to get them to fire at as! haha I know crazy! It was exhilirating though. Nothing happened other than some explosions off in the distance and some Iraqi kids giving us the Iraqi "fuck you" hand sign. Then the little bastards had the nerve to ask for a football after that. FUCK THAT!! hahah

After that we stopped at another police station. Nothing exciting there so I stayed in the truck. Once the MPs finished their business there we went to a nearby base for chow. They we're supposed to hit up another police station after lunch but they didnt want to. They wanted to take us down some of the bad areas that we will be patroling in. HELL YEAH! Right as we are getting ready to head out we get a call that the Iraqi Army is asking for coalition help because they have a group of 20-30 armed militiamen in the streets. We excitedly take the call and head out. I remember thinking, "Damn Im getting in the shit on my first patrol." We end up setting up a blocking position and block them in while we wait for the IA (Iraqi Army) to get authorization to go in and fuck them up. Mysteriously we dont hear from them anymore. While we were waiting there another IA patrol came up and told us they had an illegal armed checkpoint up the road. Instead of wasting our time waiting for some other IA that would never show, we decided to roll up there and check it out.

Sure enough there were the guys fitting the description and they had a road block. Didnt see any weapons but we were on high alert. Basically the plan was pull up fast, get out fast and take them down. Radio chatter was going off the wall as the plans feel into place. As we approached them and I began to unlock my door I felt the rush of adreneline enter my blood stream! WOW! Bam! Out we go like lightning running up on these guys, rifles up ready to fire if they make the wrong move! They ended up having no weapons so there really wasnt much we could do except to continue mission. Its amazing the high you get from the adreneline tho. And it last quite a while! What a rush!

After that we patrolled all around where my company is going to be and ended up in some really crowed areas. It was pretty scary because there have been a lot of incidents of people dropping gernades inside the turrets of the trucks, and where we were going through people were all around us. They could have easily thrown something in the truck and blended in to the crowds and alleys. Most people seemed friendly and happy to see us but every so often you'd see the "death" look as I call it. You can simply tell by the look in someone's eyes that he is thinking how, if he had the chance, he would kill you. None of them had the balls today to test us.

Well thats about all I feel like typing. I've been up since 0530. Got back from my patrol in the afternoon and went straight into a 6 hour radio guard! So I am exhausted!

Mortars falling like rain!

Oh yes, where I am is the 2nd most mortared base in Iraq. Where I will be soon is the 1st most mortared base in Iraq! But its ok because Hajji cant fire mortars for shit. 1/2 the time they dont even hit in the base and when they do there is no real aim to it. Just luck as far as where it goes. Its not everyday, but most days that they lob mortars at us.

Today they sent a few our way in the morning when I was getting my hair cut. Luckily right after i just got done. But it landed about 100 meters away or so and that shit was LOUD! Went to check out the damage and it hit right by the building one of our companies stays in and damanged one truck and flattened tires on another. Not to mention it totally destroyed a water tank. I got pictures I have to put up of what a mortar will do.

But yeah thats about all I have to say about that. Nothing really special about it and in fact Ive totally gotten used to the sound of them going off. Kind of crazy huh?

News video of me and my unit training in Kuwait!

http://www.bragg.army.mil/82dv/Videos/Falcon%20Kuwait%20MOUT%20TRNG_100k.wmv

You've got to check it out! At 1:40 in the clip there is a line of guys and Im the tallest guy that is pointing up at the building. Also the very last frame at the end Im standing in a group of guys and again im the tallest one in the middle.

Check it out and tell me what yall think!

82nd Airborne Division arrives in Iraq

[Removed for screening]

News on going to Iraq

This was taken from the Stars & Stripes Middle East Edition

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Military lists combat units bound for BaghdadStaff and wire reports
Mideast edition, Friday, January 12, 2007
As part of the president's increase in the force levels for Iraq, 17,500 additional U.S. soldiers — five combat brigades — will be going into Baghdad.

The first brigade, from the 82nd Airborne, is to arrive Jan. 15, the next on Feb. 15 and the remainder in separate waves every 30 days.

The list of units was released Wednesday night. They are:

The 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C. (*we're attached to 2nd BDE btw*)
The 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley, Kan.
The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Fort Lewis, Wash.
The 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, Ga.
The 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Benning, Ga., will deploy to Iraq early.

About 57,000 troops from those units were notified in November that they were headed to Iraq in early 2007.

OK this was weird!

Alright, well i had the craziest dream the other night and Im still trying to figure it out and make sense of it. I was at some kind of drop zone back at Ft Bragg and I was watching this unit jump. It was a VERY windy day, like unsafe conditions kind of wind. Well the first pass only a couple people jumped out and they had trouble with they're chutes opening but eventually they did, and they drifted WAY off into the trees. On the second pass about 30 or so people jumped out and they're chutes opened, but as soon as they did they oscillated so much that everyones chutes collapsed. Everyone on the ground was screaming for them to pull reserves, but not a single person did and they all hit the ground from about 500 feet up. I freaked out and started running out there to help. It was weird because there were stands to watch, then some grass, then more stands with more people, then more grass and a final row of stands, then i ran across the drop zone. There was already a huge search and recovery operation going on and as i went from soldier to soldier I found out they were all dead. WTF?! No survivors. Right then and there I woke up. It was 2:59am and I had my alarm set for 3:00am. How fucking weird.

I'm gone!

Just wanted to let yall know that I am walking out the door to head to Iraq! Ill keep in touch the best I can.