Resistance Is Futile

Nothing too significant has been going on since my last post. Still just doing the same shit. Only one thing I am sure you all would be glad to know (I am sure some assholes wont). But the other day a Stryker was targeted for an attack and its the kind we all feared. Some dumb ass decided to pack a car full of explosives and driveit into a Stryker. The car bombs out here are no joke. They screw alot of shit up and sadly produce far more civilian death's and casualtie's than Coalition ones and often there there are little if any Coalition ones. Well anyway, the car bomb drove straight into the Stryker and detonated we were at our FOB at the time and we could definatley hear and see the huge blast from a few miles away. The guys that were in that Stryker were left unharmed except for some scratches and scrapes. The Stryker took little damage even though the blast flattened all eight tires. The guys just drove the damn thing back to the FOB! These Strykers have proven themselves to us abouttheir ability in an urban environment. I dont give a two-penny damn what the hell others in the military have to say with their criticism, this is a great vehicle for what we do here. I know it would likley suck ass on the conventional battle field but that shits over. Tanks are too big for the city streets and Bradleys too. And Humvees? No fucking way. I seen how a single IED just tears them to shreds. Up-armored or not, those things are a freakn death trap and its vulnerability just screams for attention to be attacked. Urban combat is what the Stryker was apparently made for and urban ops is our job. We seem to do it alot better than anyone else. It is kinda funny to think about what the bad guys think when they throw all they got into the damn thing and it just keeps rolling or stops, fires back, and a bunch of angry grunts jump out and rock their world. You should know what happened to that asshole in the car HaHaHa! One less bad guy!

-Keeping My Ass Off The Walls

Iraqi Soccer

While I was at dinner chow last night I happened to catch the soccer match between Iraq and Australia at the Olympics. Iraq won 1-0, and they were playing pretty furiously. I found myself rooting for them because it is pretty awesome that they play so damn hard. I believe it is primarily because they feel they have alot to prove and they also want to represent their country as a strong one. They are no longer under the oppression that Saddam put them under, they don't have to worry about themselves or their families being tortured and/or killed just because they lost a match, and there are so many more reasons. They now just have alot to play for in short. Well as soon as the game was over all hell seemed to break loose downtown. I was stading outside the chow hall in the dark and could see green tracer rounds cutting the darknes in the sky accompanied by the explosive bursts of RPG's in the air. It all turned out to be celebratory fire. Hmmmph, I guess they take soccer quite seriously.....

-Keeping away from Iraqi soccer hooligans.......

Been A While Eh?

It seems to have been a while since my last post, I have just been quite busy latley. We are pretty much making appearances around the town more frequent although not much has happened latley. When I do have time off my priorities are going to the gym, talking to my wife, andgetting plenty of rest. Because there is no telling when things will go to shit like the 4th......
During our frequent patrols we get a chance here and there to stop and socialise with the locals. Working on a little hearts & minds, looking out for something to shoot, and getting info from the locals. There are so many freakn' kids here! I would say there are about 3 kids for each adult! Soon as we dissmount the Strykers our ears are flooded with excited voices calling "mista! mista!" I often like to hand out Jelly Beans to them. They stock the chow hall here with small individual packets of "Jelly Belly". I will grab a couple handfulls or so at breakfast for the sole purpose of handing out. Holy shit do those kids like that stuff! Being from Louisiana, I like to toss handfulls out to crowds of kids like I am on paade float during Mardi Gras. I figured I better stop doing that when they all pile on the ground tackling eachother and shoving like a frenzied crown in a pit at a hardcore Oi! concert.

-Keeping my ass off the walls......

The Run Around

This morning we conducted a raid with the ING and nabbed a few numbskulls. No fighting though, I would say it went just how we always hope a raid goes. That is swift, quiet, and no problems. When it was all over we loaded up our detainees. They brought one to my vehicle and then asked for anything that they could use as a blindfold for the detainee. I looked around and found A cravat that was still in its package. I thought it was funny when I tossed the damned thing to my bud on the ground with the detainee. My aim was off and it smacked himin the face. I know it did not hurt him but the reaction was priceless. Well we brought them to the drop off point and had to guard them for a while ( damn pogs decided to sleep in ). Yea if any of you pogs are reading this I would like to say "Good job getting out of bed this morning, serving your country well". Guarding them sucked donkeyballs because we had to go right back out there for a patrol. Regardless or how grouchy I was due to lack of sleep the night prior and knowing I would not have time for a cat-nap before we rolled out. I treated the detainees quite nicely. I did not make it an enjoyable experience but I made sure they would not honestly be able to tell tell anyone we mistreated them if they are released back to their normal lives. Ever since that Abu-Gharib shit happened a few months or so back I feel like those stupid asses involved in that shit tarnished our honor and integrity. So whenever I get a chance to make a difference and/or prove people wrong I will. I made sure I offered them one bottle of water, shit it was like seven in the morning and already in the high 90's. We would not wanna have them fucking pass out from dehydration or anything before their processing. Also for some reason they had the green apple platters so fuck we led them to the port-a-shitter before they shit themselves. Goddamn! If a man has got the runs he deserves to relieve himself! If he just had to take a casual shit I would have just smirked and told him to stay quiet. Well when that whole nutroll was over we went out on our patrol. We speantthe first two hours fucking driving around and the longer you sit inside a Stryker on a hot ass day the more irritable you become. We later stopped at a good location and dismounted and watched the surroundings a while then mortars hit nearby. Then a few minutes later a few more hit in rapid succession. By now we already had a good idea where they were coming from. So we mounted up and took off to the location then the locals gave us the scoop on what they saw. Then the choppers reported they they spotted the suspects and were following them. Our faces lit up in joy when we decided to follow in pursuit as well. The chase was on! We finally caught up with them in about 10-15 min due to heavy traffic and fuck! They have been on the run for nearly 15 min now! We kept getting updated on the assholes on the way there, "Be careful! They have AK's!" then we were even more excited. I was dying to dismount after cutting them off the road and fucking aerating them with a heavy spray of 5.56 from my SAW. So finally we get them to stop, the ramp drops and as we are running out we see two cars together and packed full of several wives and who the fuck knows how many kids. Fuck.....That's just like some girl teasing a guy and leaving him with a case of the blue-balls. We went ahead and searched their cars and sent them on their not so merry anymore way. We get back to town and they tell us we need to stay out longer because while we were on the chase there were more mortars fired......damnit.......We then mounted up and went to the same hood as before and freakn' kids are everywhere as usual. One even remembered my name from a past patrol of ours and called out to me. Then this gang of kids wanted to show us something. "This had better be good" someone muttered, and all they wanted us to see was an old trench with barbed wire in it and a few empty shell casings, after that we called it a day......

Hell Hound

Doomed

Hell yea! I received my package today! Getting packages here are great even if it is just something you ordered off the internet for yourself. It seems as if the essence of my homeland is radiating from the package. But anyway I will get to what I received. I finally got my copy of Doom 3! In case you haven't checked out my profile yet, I like to play a PC game here and there. I thought the thing would do my laptop in but it runs like a charm. I have never seen such realistic graphics in a game. The game starts you off as a Marine in the 22nd century just assigned to a research facility on Mars and when everything seems peaceful. All Hell breaks loose, literally. The whole atmosphere of the game is creepy enough but they throw in demons and shit that rivals anything that Clive Barker or H.P. Lovecraft would frighten us with in their works. Not to mention it's such a blood smearing and horrific gore fest it would drive most liberal morons out there bent on banning all violent games deeper into insanity than they already are. I think its funny when I play this game I remember when I was younger playing the first Doom in the dark on my computer. Feeling so uneasy that I would look over my shoulder like there was a damn Cyberdemon or Imp waiting in a dark corner of the room. Looking for the right moment to pounce out of the darkness and gut my ass so bad it would make Vlad The Impaler cry. Well, nothings happening downtown yet. Until then we all like the time to relax and just chill out with our buds. We would rather chill out than have to fight our way through a gauntlet of RPG and small arms fire like a couple weeks ago. Although when the time comes we all just get fucking pumped up and charge in screaming wanting to just rip their fucking heads off.

Too Calm

Been kinda slow since my last post all we have done was a patrol with some guys that needed a grand tour of our battlespace. Nothing significant happened although the feeling that something was lingering because there are always folks out there conspiring against us. They can conspire all they want and we will just have to come charging like an angry ass rhino pissed to Hell, then they will all just go running and seek cover in their security blanket of humanity (the ones that get away that is). There is a good quote that an Iraqi government official made the other day. I saw it while checking up on the news on the net. I forgot the name of the fella but he said "A terrorist is like a fish swimming in a sea of humanity". That seems true when I think about how easy it is for one to blend in with the populous here and also gain the support and sympathy of those ignorant bastards that do not realize what sacrifices the U.S. and our allies are making for this country. It gives me a little more hope for the future of Iraq when I see the many folks here that actually are glad we are here and offer a warm smile and a wave. Some don't even wave or anything until I just go ahead and send a greeting and a wave their way. Then they go ahead and offer a friendly wave back. Sure there are those that give us dirty looks, the finger, and a few other negative gestures but you know what, fuck-em. I just send the same gesture back and that's that, no biggie. One thing I enjoy doing is whenever we happen to drive by an ING (Iraqi National Guard) headquarters and I see a few ING's standing around, raise a fist in the air and cheer very loudly (sorta like good-ole beer cheer) and see them wave back and/or do the same. But after everything it is still quiet around here, perhaps too quiet. I have a feeling it is the calm before the storm. I will be sure to keep you folks posted.

Here's To My First Blog

Well here is my first entry. I guess I will just start off with a small introduction.

I found out about this place through a buddy of mine and thought it would be a good idea to start my own as something else to do, make time go by faster, share my experiences with others and such. I am an Infantry soldier deployed to Mosul, Iraq. Been through a few crazy situations here and there and I am sure it is well known and old news by now so I will leave all that out of it. But from now on I will be posting my experiences here to kinda let you all in on a combat arms soldier with no bullshit added, just solid and point blank.

Keeping my ass off the walls- ROTS