WHAT'S SO CIVIL ABOUT WAR?
Sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote, but things here have been picking up quite a bit lately, you probably have seen some of it on TV actually. In fact we have been busy enough that lately sleep has been “catch as catch can”, so needless to say keeping up with regular communication and emails etc has been basically impossible. In my spare seconds of free time I have been trying to figure out why we are suddenly so slammed and I have concluded that there are several factors. First is the new unit here. The 101st, or the “Band of Brothers” is running the entire northern portion of the country. With their take over of the responsibility there came a great deal of change. I am not sold that it is all good… but they seem to think very highly of how they are doing, so that is something at least. In any case some of their policies and procedures have changed just slightly, enough that our average mission has gone from taking 1 ½ hours outside to about 3 hours. I am good at math so let me tell you… that adds up fast. I am not complaining, just saying for the record. Besides I have tried complaining and it doesn’t seem to do any good. In fact when ever I question the logic behind some of their more asinine (in my humble opinion) policies I am usually greeted with blank stares as if to say… Huh?? So, while painful, we have more or less had to adapt to their style and just suck it up. C’est la vie! Non?!
Also there is the weather. It is what I guess you would call spring over here, so it is warming up during the days but still chilly at night. Occasionally the rain comes, like the kind of rain I read about in the bible with Noah and that boat thingy. But this country, being the giant clod of dirt that it is, has no ability to absorb the water so it pools stagnant on the surface of the ground and generally makes a mess out of everything. You might be thinking that these pools of water sound familiar… that they sound a bit like puddles… well that is partially right. The only difference is that Iraqi puddles tend to be a bit bigger than normal, in fact there is one in the parking lot behind our bay, or I should say one that used to be the parking lot behind our bay. It is now become ‘Lake Brassfield”. The “lake” at its deepest was about 3 ½ foot deep and roughly 1 or 2 football fields in surface area. At its biggest it was actually large enough that it had waves when the wind picked up. But the lake is beginning to recede and the sun is coming out earlier and staying up longer which brings me to the next reason that we are getting busy.
I may have mentioned previously that the “bad guys” don’t like the cold weather. Conversely they seem to thrive in the heat, so the warming trend seems to have thawed out some of the grumpy insurgent types and they have dutifully returned to their surly lot in life, that of blindly lashing out at the people who are the only hope they ever have of building peace and civilization here. They have also seemed to find time in their busy schedules, some where between shooting at U.S. convoys and planting IEDs, to actually kill each other and attempt to inspire a civil war here. You may have seen something about the Golden Mosque being blown up here the other day. That was interesting. Here’s how it went down for us.
The day before it happened we were all kinds of busy. We were out and about for most of the day, returning to the FOB just in time to catch some of that yummy chow you all read about (lies lies!), then back to the CHU for several hours of paperwork to complete the day. Finally after we could take no more we tried to get some personal time and some shut eye. We tried. Back out we went again for another 3 hour mission in the middle of the night. Yeah. 3am … finally some rest! We were awakened by the usual sound of our radio going off blaring our call sign shortly after sunrise. An hour later we were in the city, working away when we started noticing something very different about the day. Often there are people that come out and watch U.S. soldiers as we go about our business in the city, but today there seemed to be many, many more. Each minute that passed brought another gaggle of civilian onlookers, only they were more jumpy than usual, and not to mention very interested in what we were doing. Finally we took our cue and wrapped things up and retreated to a patrol base on the edge of the city, about 3 city blocks from the destroyed mosque. Once we arrived at the patrol base we were told that everything was being locked down for the time being and that we should come in a wait for a while. After a short time of “smokin and jokin” in the mess hall the information changed. They came back and told us to gear up and to fortify the perimeter. Goody. Intel had informed us that there was a credible threat against the patrol bases in the city, there was an armed Shiia militia enroute from Baghdad with about 50-100 trucks full of angry-type people. So as we positioned our vehicle on the front line and checked our ammo stores we listened as the local Imam’s came over the loud speakers for the call to prayer. The call to prayer seemed a little longer than usual and we heard the shouts of thousands of angry-type people and the crack of their indifferent-type firearms as the crowds gathered in the city streets a couple hundred meters to our south. A couple minutes later a “net call” informed us that the call to prayer had also included statements that indicated that all Americans are the enemy and those who could, should kill us. Ahh.. no wonder. This was in harmony with the first official statements released by the local religious authorities just moments earlier that the mosque had been destroyed by none other than… the Jews and the Americans of course. At that point it seemed inevitable, we would finally have to rely on all that high speed army training we got and soon waves of angry-but-soon-to-be-dead types would come into view. As the minutes passed and we shared a few jokes followed by a few nervous laughs when SGT J commented that the tension was so thick you could cut it with some sort of “tension cutting device”. Minutes turned to hours and tension receded to acute awareness and then to stand by. Finally word came that the new official stance was that the Sunni’s had targeted not only this Mosque, but several others and therefore the angry-types, while still angry weren’t likely to come flooding the streets on a kamikaze mission to overrun the patrol bases. Whew. So as is standard these days, several hours later after some burgers and, I won’t lie, a few cigarettes it was decided that we should return to Brassfield. I found it ironic that I had made that very same decision hours earlier and only now did the powers that be come around to seeing it my way. Go figure.
So that is our story, at least as told by me. Currently the city is a bit crazy so we have been ordered to stay out for the time being. So not to disappoint, but there is no need to look for us in the crowds of people pictured on the evening news, we are back at Brassfield, finally getting some rest and probably watching some movies too. I miss all of you and think of you often. Please forgive my stiflingly belated or non existent correspondence, I promise that I still am getting your letters and emails and that I love getting them. Till next time.
Also there is the weather. It is what I guess you would call spring over here, so it is warming up during the days but still chilly at night. Occasionally the rain comes, like the kind of rain I read about in the bible with Noah and that boat thingy. But this country, being the giant clod of dirt that it is, has no ability to absorb the water so it pools stagnant on the surface of the ground and generally makes a mess out of everything. You might be thinking that these pools of water sound familiar… that they sound a bit like puddles… well that is partially right. The only difference is that Iraqi puddles tend to be a bit bigger than normal, in fact there is one in the parking lot behind our bay, or I should say one that used to be the parking lot behind our bay. It is now become ‘Lake Brassfield”. The “lake” at its deepest was about 3 ½ foot deep and roughly 1 or 2 football fields in surface area. At its biggest it was actually large enough that it had waves when the wind picked up. But the lake is beginning to recede and the sun is coming out earlier and staying up longer which brings me to the next reason that we are getting busy.
I may have mentioned previously that the “bad guys” don’t like the cold weather. Conversely they seem to thrive in the heat, so the warming trend seems to have thawed out some of the grumpy insurgent types and they have dutifully returned to their surly lot in life, that of blindly lashing out at the people who are the only hope they ever have of building peace and civilization here. They have also seemed to find time in their busy schedules, some where between shooting at U.S. convoys and planting IEDs, to actually kill each other and attempt to inspire a civil war here. You may have seen something about the Golden Mosque being blown up here the other day. That was interesting. Here’s how it went down for us.
The day before it happened we were all kinds of busy. We were out and about for most of the day, returning to the FOB just in time to catch some of that yummy chow you all read about (lies lies!), then back to the CHU for several hours of paperwork to complete the day. Finally after we could take no more we tried to get some personal time and some shut eye. We tried. Back out we went again for another 3 hour mission in the middle of the night. Yeah. 3am … finally some rest! We were awakened by the usual sound of our radio going off blaring our call sign shortly after sunrise. An hour later we were in the city, working away when we started noticing something very different about the day. Often there are people that come out and watch U.S. soldiers as we go about our business in the city, but today there seemed to be many, many more. Each minute that passed brought another gaggle of civilian onlookers, only they were more jumpy than usual, and not to mention very interested in what we were doing. Finally we took our cue and wrapped things up and retreated to a patrol base on the edge of the city, about 3 city blocks from the destroyed mosque. Once we arrived at the patrol base we were told that everything was being locked down for the time being and that we should come in a wait for a while. After a short time of “smokin and jokin” in the mess hall the information changed. They came back and told us to gear up and to fortify the perimeter. Goody. Intel had informed us that there was a credible threat against the patrol bases in the city, there was an armed Shiia militia enroute from Baghdad with about 50-100 trucks full of angry-type people. So as we positioned our vehicle on the front line and checked our ammo stores we listened as the local Imam’s came over the loud speakers for the call to prayer. The call to prayer seemed a little longer than usual and we heard the shouts of thousands of angry-type people and the crack of their indifferent-type firearms as the crowds gathered in the city streets a couple hundred meters to our south. A couple minutes later a “net call” informed us that the call to prayer had also included statements that indicated that all Americans are the enemy and those who could, should kill us. Ahh.. no wonder. This was in harmony with the first official statements released by the local religious authorities just moments earlier that the mosque had been destroyed by none other than… the Jews and the Americans of course. At that point it seemed inevitable, we would finally have to rely on all that high speed army training we got and soon waves of angry-but-soon-to-be-dead types would come into view. As the minutes passed and we shared a few jokes followed by a few nervous laughs when SGT J commented that the tension was so thick you could cut it with some sort of “tension cutting device”. Minutes turned to hours and tension receded to acute awareness and then to stand by. Finally word came that the new official stance was that the Sunni’s had targeted not only this Mosque, but several others and therefore the angry-types, while still angry weren’t likely to come flooding the streets on a kamikaze mission to overrun the patrol bases. Whew. So as is standard these days, several hours later after some burgers and, I won’t lie, a few cigarettes it was decided that we should return to Brassfield. I found it ironic that I had made that very same decision hours earlier and only now did the powers that be come around to seeing it my way. Go figure.
So that is our story, at least as told by me. Currently the city is a bit crazy so we have been ordered to stay out for the time being. So not to disappoint, but there is no need to look for us in the crowds of people pictured on the evening news, we are back at Brassfield, finally getting some rest and probably watching some movies too. I miss all of you and think of you often. Please forgive my stiflingly belated or non existent correspondence, I promise that I still am getting your letters and emails and that I love getting them. Till next time.
posted by SSG.FEL at 5:59 AM
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