Morning Heat

It's 2AM Sunday morning in Tal Afar and a Stryker patrol is making it's way cautiously and quietly through the streets. All has been quiet during the sultry August night and very soon this four vehicle patrol will be heading back to the FOB. Civilians have moved from the sweltering heat of their homes to the relative cool of the roof tops and lay sleeping on cushions and mats.

The line of Strykers moves down the street between the mosque and the nearby police station. Suddenly a total of eight rocket propelled grenades streak out of the night. A well coordinated ambush has just been sprung on the Stryker column. One RPG streaks out from the police station and the others from the mosque. None of the RPG's fired hit the Strykers but explode in the street and against nearby homes. 37 civilians, sleeping on the roof tops, are injured by shrapnel, glass and debris during the RPG explosions, 26 of them women and children.

The Strykers return fire "appropriately and proportionately" as stated in the Rules of Engagement. They direct fire away from the mosque and try to target only the attackers on the police station side of the street. As quickly as it started the skirmish is over, the Stryker commander radios the incident back to headquarters, "click marks" the map on the computer GPS system for this location, assists with security as the local emergency authorities transport and treat the wounded and then they continue on home. It's now 5 AM.

Not to be out smarted by a rag tag group of Iraqi insurgents the Stryker patrol outbound from the FOB drops off a sniper team at 6 AM just before entering the area of the mosque that saw the earlier action. The team silently and quickly establish themselves in an over watch position near the mosque. As the four Stryker vehicles move down the street towards the mosque a second attack is initiated by the insurgents as a single RPG narrowly misses its target, striking a home on the far side of the street.

Again, the Stryker team uses "appropriate and proportionate" force against the attackers. The sniper team, using a Remington sniper rifle, "pops" the RPG gunner and his loader as they are loading the second round in the RPG launcher. The Stryker Soldiers dismount and do a search of the area, question local civilians and ask for any assistance or information which would help security forces apprehend the attackers from earlier in the morning.

The Iraqi civilians are extremely valuable sources of information and will do their best to give the translators as much information as possible. This Sunday morning is no different and the HUMINT (Human Intelligence) team, which also accompanied the Stykers returning to the vicinity, is able to gather enough information to warrant a cordon and search sweep of the neighborhood.

A bit later, the cordon and search by Iraqi National Guard forces, with Stryker support, detains 6 suspected insurgents and results in the capture of several RPG launchers and AK-47 rifles. (The official documentation says "suspected" insurgents. Hmmm?) The ING forces take credit for another capture which brings about more trust from the civilian population of Tal Afar.

No US forces were injured and no vehicles damaged in Sunday morning's action - which is always a very good thing.

Olympic Coverage - "Take Cover!"

Iraq was up one to nothing. The Iraqi soccer team was battling Australia in Olympic Soccer. That single score in the third quarter by Emad Mohammed was enough to cause a stirring of people in the streets. Iraqi’s listening to the game on the radio or watching it on their new satellite TV dishes decided that it was time to celebrate. And when the game ended and that score hadn’t changed it caused a riot.

People went out into the streets by the hundreds and began to sing and dance in jubilation – waving the new Iraqi flag above their heads. Many more decided to celebrate with their AK-47’s. They loaded their weapons and took to the streets, firing into the air as they danced about. These people were definitely happy about their soccer team’s play.

Lying in their bunks Stryker Soldier’s heard the beginning of the celebratory fire. One, two, three rapid shots. Four, now five, six shots. Losing count at 75 and the gunfire continued. Loudspeakers on the mosque towers that usually are used for calls to prayer now boomed out with music and celebratory shouts. The celebration continued on into the night. It’s hard to sleep with all the noise but what is most difficult is trying to sleep when spent AK rounds ping off the roof of your sleeping hut like so much hail. The danger is real, all too real. He sat in the doorway of his hut with his buddy and watched rounds strike and some go through the roofs of the buildings around them. As each round would strike a roof it would send a puff of Iraqi dust up from the point of impact. One Stryker Soldier, a friend of his, woke up to a hole in the roof over his bed and a spent bullet lay next to him on his bunk.

And not to miss out on an opportunity to inflict a few American casualties a group of insurgents used the activity of the night to send a few mortar rounds over the wall into the FOB as well. That action brought a Stryker reaction which meant sending the on alert Stryker patrols into the crowded streets in search of the “Olympic attackers”. Streets crowded with innocent civilians providing cover and escape for the mortar teams that attacked the FOB.

All he could say was that he’s thankful Paraguay ended Iraq’s quest for Olympic Gold. He doesn’t think he’d like too many more nights of Iraqi celebration.

No News is Good News

I want to thank everyone who emailed and asked if we had heard from him when I had expected to. He contacted me via email this morning, Friday 9/24, and everything is fine - well, as fine as it can be I suppose. He sent me two email.

And to let you know how the entire scenario "goes down" here's a breakdown.

When we hear of a death related to Stryker Brigade we know immediately that we won't hear from him for a minimum of two days. And as I said the anxiety level goes up a thousand fold immediately. You worry, you're apprehensive, you get emotional. Your mind starts to do some strange things with your thoughts.

First I check for a location - that piece of information tells me a lot. Then I search for anything additional - if I can find anything to indicate a unit it may be enough to eliminate the possibility that he was involved. Even the time of day can help. If there's little additional information we continue to worry.

After about 24 hours of not hearing any "news" from the military you begin to calm - things return to "normal". At that 24 hour point we know that he's safe. Then it becomes just a matter of waiting until he can get back in touch. The waiting is still hard but if at least we didn't hear from the Army it's a really good thing.

And here's a little side note that may be interesting to you. Our youngest had looked into the Army as a career but decided against it. So for a long time he would get phone calls from the recruiting station. Imagine this - the news media reports killed and wounded in Iraq and the phone rings that evening. A glance at the caller ID shows the caller as "US Government". You pick up the phone expecting what could be the most devastating phone call of your life only to find out it's the Army recruiter wanting to talk to your son. I finally asked that they PLEASE stop calling the house.

This most recent incident was sniper fire, a single shot, that took the life of a single Soldier on a dismounted patrol in a Mosul neighborhood. Dismounted patrols are one of the most dangerous duties the guys perform - they are at their most vulnerable.

Soldier Killed Today in Northern Iraq

Now the waiting starts. Waiting to hear the name on the news or read the name in a military press release. I know from past experience that I won't hear from him for a couple more days. Probably not before Friday. They won't let him talk to us until the Soldier's family is notified of his death.

It becomes unbearable. The angst. That feeling of insecurity, anxiety and apprehension. You start to pray - praying that he sends an email, calls you on the phone - something... anything. You pray that the Soldier is a name you don't recognize, someone that he doesn't know either.

You can't help but think to yourself what it would be like to have that car pull up in front of your home. You imagine your reaction. A lump forms in your throat as you think about it. Feelings become so real that they well up into your eyes and then slide warmly down your cheeks. You know that someplace, for someone, it's happening - probably just as you are thinking about it.

You think about the pain they must be feeling. You think about it and you want to withdraw, you want to leave and go someplace far away. But you know you can't. You can't because you know that he's going to need you and you have to be there when he does.

Quote of the Day

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."-Albert Einstein

Wounded! Sort of...

I had heard on the radio that a civilian truck driver working in Iraq suffered second degree burns to his thighs and rear from sitting on a too hot toilet seat in an Army issue porta-potty. The trucker’s brother phoned the incident in to the rock-and-roll radio station I listen to.

Thinking that the incident was too humorous not to tell him about, I related the story to my son in an email. And he responded to it a couple days later.

“As soon as I get the cable back for my camera (I borrowed it to a buddy), I’ll send you a picture of MY second degree burns.”

First a little background information. Stryker drivers are responsible for their vehicles. If it needs to be repaired they have to handle getting the repairs completed – whether they do them or they take them to a maintenance shed. Some repairs are minor repairs that the driver and maybe an assistant can complete out in the field. Major problems have to be diagnosed and the vehicle taken in to the “pros” for repairs.

He was taking care of some minor problems with his Stryker and made one serious mistake. He left one of his tools lying out in the sun on a 130 degree summer day. Not thinking, he reached for the tool and wrapped his fingers around the handle. The tool was so hot that it burned the palm of his hand.

He has second degree burns to the palm of his hand.

We all joke about how “it’s hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk” during hot summer days, probably never thinking that it can actually get that hot. It appears that he learned the hard way that it can in fact get that hot.

He’s still working, he’s still driving and he’ll send me the photos as soon as he can.

The Puddle

The days aren't as hot. And the wind doesn't blow like a blast furnace any longer but yet there is still no rain in sight.

So what are the puddles? What is it that runs down the gutters along many of the streets? There's absolutely not a single house with grass in the front lawn so it's not sprinklers. The cars and trucks you see on the road look like they haven't been washed in years. So it's not people washing their cars in the driveway. And for that matter, what's a driveway. And heck, many homes don't even have running water

None of the Soldiers doing their day to day routine have ever stopped to determine what the "fluid" is or what it contains. Most of it is the color of cocoa but doesn't smell like it. Most of the guys surmise that it's sewage. Raw, unfiltered, unadulterated sewage.

A patrol of Strykers were cruising down a street in Mosul the day before yesterday. The patrol had so far been uneventful. The "pounding" insurgent locations had received, from the ground and from the air, over the preceding days sort of took the fight out of the bad guys.

Things on the streets had somewhat returned to normal. Cars and trucks were out on the road. Pedestrians were out walking, shopping in the markets. The old men were sitting in front of the cafes sipping their tea. Things were peaceful.

The line of Strykers rounded a curve in the road and there it was. Laying in wait in front of them stretched across the entire street. The biggest ugliest most foul body of water imaginable. A street puddle of monstrous proportions. It looked like it could swallow small dogs or young children whole. It's surface had no reflection - it seemed that the puddle absorbed every bit of sunlight that struck it.

On the far side of this puddle a single Toyota approached. The Stryker patrol and the Toyota were converging at a rate that would cause them to meet almost exactly in the center of this murky dark liquid. And so it was. The Toyota entered the puddle and produced a wake as it started across it. The Strykers entered the puddle from the opposite side. But there was no wake. There was only a spray that leapt out from the eight tires of the Strykers. The Toyota entered the spray. With it's windows open!!!!

A check of the rearview mirror on the lead Stryker revealed a single brake light burning brightly through the onslaught of cascading "water". The Strykers passed through the puddle in a line, each in turn bathing the Toyota with the foul looking liquid. The driver of the lead Stryker brought his eyes back to the street in front of him, a slight smile lifting one corner of his mouth. A vision of an Iraqi sitting in his little white Toyota totally drenched in that liquid with something brown resting on his nose passed through his mind.

Went Somewhere... Did Something...

Right. The subject line of this email sort of tells it all.

Generally, the lowly Soldiers in Iraq have no idea where they will have to go next and absolutely no idea what they have to do once they get there. It's a new surprise every day. In my last email I asked him to let me know some of the things that have been happening over there. His response?

"Yesterday we went somewhere and did something. It was boring. That was my day." (End of email.)

I sort of felt offended. Didn't he want to let me know what was going on? Was he upset? Was he mad? Was he depressed (more so than usual)?

And then, I read an excerpt from a letter that a Soldier in the SBCT sent home to his family. (Some of the newsgroup publish this sort of thing.) There it was. Right in front of me in black and white, almost the same exact words. "The other day we went someplace, and did something. When we got back..."

Ha! What he had told me was probably exactly what he was told to say. "We are going someplace and we are going to do something." The reason they went where they did and did what they did was on a need to know basis. And we didn't need to know.

And to be honest, learning that yesterday was boring is sort of a good thing. Excitement is something we don't need.

Not Even Close

Here’s what CNN posted on their website after the incident in Mosul on Wednesday.

"Mosul clashes leave 12 dead. Clashes between police and insurgents in the northern city of Mosul left 12 Iraqis dead and 26 wounded, hospital and police sources said Wednesday. Rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire as well as explosions were heard in the streets of the city. The provincial governor imposed a curfew that began at 3 p.m. local time (7 a.m. EDT), and two hours later, provincial forces, police and Iraqi National Guard took control, according to Hazem Gelawi, head of the governor's press office in the Nineveh province. Gelawi said the city is stable and expects the curfew to be lifted Thursday."

Here’s what actually happened.

Two Stryker Brigade Soldiers seriously injured, fifteen more suffered minor wounds. A force of approximately 100Iraqi insurgents wearing black attacked from multiple points within the city. Twenty-two mortar rounds impacted on the FOB in Mosul. Every available Stryker Soldier and Stryker vehicle swarmed out of the FOB likes hornets from a hornets nest. Nearly two thousand US troops hit the streets of Mosul that morning. As the Strykers rolled out other Soldiers were laying prone at the perimeter firing back at the insurgents who attacked the FOB.

Stryker Soldiers in Mosul describe the “clashes” as something right out of Black Hawk Down. Black clad insurgents scurried between buildings and down alleys. One Stryker at the front of the counter attack survived three RPG strikes in rapid succession – and kept on fighting. Another Stryker Soldier described the streets as layered with brass shell casings from 50 cal machine guns and M-14 carbines. Three and four story buildings on one Mosul street looked like Swiss cheese after the battle. Apache and Kiowa helicopters hovered over the city adding their steel to the rain of fire. The “clash” lasted almost nine hours.

Peace was then returned to the city as Iraqi National Guard and police assisted SBCT with a mopping up operation.

After the “clashes” Stryker Soldiers who were at the front of the US attack picked mushroomed AK rounds off their Strykers like bugs from a radiator after a hot summer’s night drive in the country. The Strykers returned to the FOB only after they had completely expended all of their ammo and water. There was no report of how many insurgents were killed. The killed and wounded in the CNN report were all civilian.

The CNN report doesn’t even come close. So much for factual and truthful reporting…

Harder Than You Expect

It's harder than you expect it to be, having a loved one in Iraq. The worrying. It's in the back of your mind every waking moment. And at night it spills over into your dreams and a restful nights sleep is something you only vaguely remember. A peaceful night seems so long ago and so far away.

The situation you and your family are in can bring you closer together but also has the potential to tear you apart. Little things that bothered you and you bore without complaint now cause discomfort and anger. Maybe it's the lack of sleep, or the stress of having someone you love in harms way each and every minute, of each and every day. But whatever it is it can cause you to lash out when you normally wouldn't, to say things that you normally couldn't. Those around you have trouble understanding your emotions and you'd have trouble explaining.

But through it all you put on the best face you can and go about your day. But sometimes simple things, seemingly unimportant things, bring your emotions to the surface. Seeing a father fishing with his son, watching a mother push her child in a swing, these things trigger an emotional response which more often than not brings a tear to your eye just as quickly as it brings a smile to your face. There are songs on the radio you can't listen to and some movies you can't bear to watch. And even laughing sometimes leaves you feeling guilty.

The Star Spangled Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance also bring about a new emotion. You feel a pride you've never felt before when you hear those words. It affects you like never before. You get a lump in your throat. And you are painfully aware of the lack of respect you see for the flag of our great nation. People who take the hard won liberties and freedoms they possess for granted. Our flag is not simply colored cloth any more. It's pain and suffering. It's blood and sacrifice. The flag is held together by those threads. The threads that hold us all together as the greatest nation on Earth.

You realize that when you place your hand on your heart in front of Old Glory you do it not to honor the flag or the nation but to honor those who have sacrificed, suffered and died to keep us free. And until you come to that realization you can't possibly know the depth of our worry.