Deployment and Initially in Iraq
Evening or Morning (I can't keep up with what it is back in the states anymore)
Well I am finally here and my unit has finally taken control over our entire area of operations (AO.) Let's start back at the beginning:
On August 11, 2006 I drove my car into a storage shed and caught a cab to my office on Fort Drum. I ordered pizza and coke and put on Band of Brothers on my office TV, after a few hours of movies I fell asleep on my desk. At 4am the rest of my Troop started arriving with their families and their girlfriends to say final goodbyes. I was alone at this point so I took the time to recheck all my gear and take some photos of those families that seemed to forget to take pictures. At around 7am the buses pulled up and we all boarded for the Fort Drum Airfield. Then we waited, we waited 12 hours to be exact before we boarded a commercial jet to take us to the Middle East. The flight over was not to bad; I had a book and my iPod. We stopped in Germany for an hour to refuel before the final leg into Kuwait. Upon
arriving in Kuwait I eagerly awaited that "blast of hot air" that hits most soldiers. Ever since Vietnam every war book has talked about that blast of hot air that a new soldier has gotten when getting off the plane and I was awaiting my initiation. Sadly though after living in Arizona it felt like I was in Phoenix and I was thoroughly disappointed.
From the airport we were taken to an Army base in and spent two weeks waiting to actually go to Iraq. In this time we got all of our weapons ready and our equipment. I was able to get my FIST team out and
call in artillery strikes onto the desert floor. Now while the initial heat blast from the plane didn't happen the daily heat in Kuwait was nearly unbearable. From 10-5pm I could barely stay outside, it approached 130 daily and one of my guys burned his hand on his weapon after staying outside for an hour. But soon enough those two weeks passed and we boarded our next flight that would take us to Baghdad.
The flight to Iraq was uneventful and we soon were on our first FOB. I only stayed there for one night before I was moved yet again to my current location atSouthWest of Baghdad. I got here on September 1 and since then have been learning my job from the guy that I am replacing. He actually went to OBC with Nick Allen and we had met once while I was at Fort Sill. Small world, but he explained my job to me and I began to follow him on patrols and in the office.
In a nut shell my job is the Intelligence and Operations officer for my troop. I help the commander determine what and where we should focus our energy and our patrols. I take the notes that the platoon leaders gather and I figure out what the enemy is going to do. I also decide what civil projects we should try to accomplish while we are here such as rebuilding schools or roads. In order to gather intelligence I go with the platoons on about one patrol a day to talk to the locals and see their side of the story. I enjoy doing this because I get to actually see change in our AO and I get to help these people. We have mostly farmland to patrol but there are some small villages and the population we cover is around 30,000 people. As a result we have been able to build a good reputation with the locals and they continually help us with finding the bad guys. I really want toys to hand out to these kids when we patrol, beanie babies, just little stuff. That?s my next goal is to set up some sort of supply system to help these kids out. The pictures cover basically everything that has happened over the last month I hope they help paint a picture and I appreciate all the emails of support I have received. I could not do this job as effectively with them.
Pictures:
http://uga.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111072&id=4920303&l=d9806
