We fucked them up!!

Well today was the first of many things. It was a crazy, long day, but it was exciting at the same time. It all started with us heading out on our normal patrols like always. I ended up driving for my grenadier so he could have a break from driving and be a dismount. Worst day to do that I later found out!!

Anyways, we got reports of a group of militia that attacked an IA (Iraqi Army) checkpoint so we headed out to go see if it was still going down. Of course when we got there everyone was gone and nothing was happening. We decided to poke our noses around to see what we could stir up and we started hearing from the locals that there was a sniper and they knew where he was so we went to go get his ass. We sent our dismounts out to go check things out while those of us in the trucks rolled around with them for support. They never found the sniper, or a weapon but did find a bunch of sniper sized expended rounds. While they were still looking for this guy we heard a shot from one of the buildings. Well about 10 mins later a HUGE crowd of people come towards us with this guy that has been shot in the leg. They wanted us to help and I dismounted to help control the crowd. A little scary since this dude had just been sniped. It was a nasty wound that tore open the back of his calf and we helped patch him up and sent him on his way to go to a hospital. At this point we were really on the look out for this sniper.

Our dismounted patrol headed down this alley to try to find him. My vechicle was at the opening of the alley for support. About 25 meters down it T-interescted and went off 2 ways. Our dismounts we're right at the T intersection and started going one way when all of a sudden I hear a LOUD explosion. I look to my left down the alley and instead of seeing all the dismounts, I only see 3 and this huge dirt cloud. OH FUCK! I knew this was about to get real bad and that someone had to of been hurt bad if not dead. Immediately after I see our guys come running out of the cloud, one by one until all were back. No one was seriously hurt thank god! One guy caught a tiny piece of shrapnel in his leg, but everyone just got knocked down and dazed, to include my grenadier who was the closest one to the IED when it went off. Me and him now joke around saying that he offically got "Blown the Fuck Up!" haha :) Kind of crazy that would of been me if I wasnt driving for him.

After trying to find out who set it off we decided to roll out of there. We headed to a local IP (Iraqi Police) station and there was a guy there talking of an ambush that was being setup right now to attack US troops back in the same area. We headed out to find these bastards. The streets of Iraq are usually very crowded with people. When we rolled up to the street the ambush was being setup on, it was like a ghost town. Yeah definatly not good. Not to mention that this part of town has a million bullet holes on almost every building! We sent our dismounts out and rolled down the street with them. As we go we see people here and there running back and forth across the streets and we hear the occassional gun shot. Very creepy. Just before this intersection, the Hajji fucks trying to "ambush" us open up on us. The lead truck had a 50 cal machine gun and he starts rocking away with it, laying a heavy steam of massive bullets at the bulding the fire came from, just laying waste to it. We begin to manuever the trucks as the dismounts are shooting and moving to get in a better spot to shoot from. At this point it totally sounds like heaven! There's the 50 cal firing, 240 machine guns rocking, dismounts fireing like crazy, shit being called up over the radios. Its just amazing how it all came together. The dismounts got into a building and kept firing on those guys, and my grenadier even launched a few High Explosive gernade rounds from his gernade launcher! HELL YEAH!

Well about 10 minutes into the fight, I begin to hear some trucks fire very heavy, not like how we normally fire with small bursts. I wondered what was going on and then everyone starts going CRAZY shooting. Im like what the fuck?! I was in the last truck on the right side of the road and all of a sudden I see every truck in front of me haul ass either left or right and all of a sudden there is the red suburban hauling ass straight at my truck! Oh Jesus! After the IED earlier and a VBIED that blew up earlier in our sector that day, I knew this guy had to be wired to blow and he was coming right at us fast. I immediatly threw the truck into reverse as my squad leader is screaming to get the hell out of there. I had nowhere to go but backwards so I floor it. Humvees don't react like normal cars and initially it was sluggish and I remeber thinking there's no way this truck is going to go backwards fast enough and this is it. This is how I'm going to die. As we start hualing ass backwards both me and my squad leader are yelling at our gunner who is pulling rear security. We yelled things like "GET THE FUCK DOWN!" "HOLY SHIT SHOOT HIM!" "OOOHHH MY GGOOOD!!" There was literally no time for anything and I can only imagine what was going through his head. Well as the suburbn passed the other trucks they all layed into it with their machine guns. Because of the angle some of them were basically shooting at us since we were right behind the truck trying to escape! Oh well, so long as you kill the guy and not me, I won't be pissed!

Eventually the suburban stopped, windows shot to hell and a couple flat tires. I knew whoever was inside was dead, but then a minute later, somehow the passenger door flings open and a guy jumps out. As soon as his feet hit the ground the gunner closest to him dropped him with a burst from his gun. He slumped back and to his knees bleeding bad. He continued to move for a little bit but eventully stopped as his life slipped away. This took place about 20 meters in front of me too. We all yelled with excitement at this. "You stupid fuck! Fuck yeah! You're such a fucking idiot!" I remeber yelling. For seeing a man lose his life right in front of me, it was quite an exciting moment. Afterwords the whole thing was exciting to talk about, yet at the time it was probably the scariest moment of my life, Im not even going to lie.

We didnt know if the truck was going to blow or what so we kept our distance from it until it, and the dead guy got taken away by the IA. After about 30 mins of shooting, everything quited down and the dismounts went on the chase of these guys. There had to have been at least 4 from everyone's count. There were 2 in the building to our front and 2 attacking the trucks from the left side. We ended up finding one guy and tested his hands for gunpowder and it came up positive so we detaineed him. No weapons or any other guys tho. I guess we'll have to face them and kill them another day.

We ended up taking that guy to the detainee facility and by the time everything was all said and done we had been out for almost 26 hours! Wow, what a day though. IED's, snipers, ambushes oh my!