Another Lazy Day

This is a pic of I guess you would call it the gates to tikrit....... Another day with really nothing to do so me and Jake came down to the MWR where I purchased a bootleg DVD and now I'm on the comp to post a couple more pics.. I'm going on leave soon and I'm pretty stoked about that.. I get to see my son for the first time in 9 months last time I saw him he was 2 months old... My girls are getting so big I just can't wait to see them.. I should be in Florida either Monday or Sunday.... Ok here are so mo pics... Remember if you have any requests or even pics that you would like me to post let me know in a comment or e-mail me at dco5thplt@hotmail.com or if you know it then hit me at my AKO account.....
This is the nice welcome sign for Tikrit
This is a Palace at FOB Dagger which we recently just gave back to the Iraqis.
Can't remember where this was or what it is but its cool... I think this is at FOB Omaha...
This too....

Hodgie Pics

This pic was takin at a FOB hand over ceremony in our A/O this little crazy dude was running around with a sash on him and my gunner dubbed him Ms.Tikrit... He is seen here posing with 7RU the first pic we got of him he jumped up on our hood and about got smoked... Pretty funny though...
This here is Hassan. Good guy he showed us some pics of his family and stuff. We were actually pretty impressed with these Iraqi Soldiers. On the way in there security was pretty tight and one of the hodgies actually cleared his weapon before he let me see it... One dude was gayer then a 2 dollar bill and wanted some figgy figgy time with ol' Drake... Well and me but who doesn't I'm one sexy bitch baby ya.... Sorry fellas I'm only down with chicks... I'm spoken for....!!!!
This is a picture of some of the Sheiks that showed up...
This one was taken awhile ago at a JCC in Baquba these turds were little bastards... You see here that he is reppin the Shocker... He actually tried to talk me into giving him 9mm ammo so he could give it to his brother who was Iraqi police so that he could shoot "Ali Babba" Ali Babba is known as a thief, but also what some use to describe the insurgents... This kids father was an Iraqi soldier at the JCC we were at.

This is a family of Iraqis that came out to wave at us when we were driving past.. A lot of the children will here the trucks coming and run out to the side of the road and wave at us and give us the thumbs up.. Mostly they are looking for us to throw some goodies from the truck... This is a good sign usually when kids and people are out like this it means that you most likely aren't gonna get blowed up... Now if your traveling down an area that is usually populated like this and there is no one out chances are your gonna eat one...

On the lighter side of things........

Howdy friends, I'm on phone duty and I'm bored and its late.... Well this here is my pal Jake he drives the boss around... He is actually where I got the idea to a blog from.. I waz reading in his blog how I don't really have any pics of him so here they are... Good ol' Jake is partaking in the smoking of the huka.. No there isn't anything illegal in that boys lungs its just some Apple Medley Tobacco that stuff is really good.. Though Jake is a aspiring politician you can plainly see he is not inhaling....
Isn't he cute??? He will probably kill me for this one but I just couldn't resist... Jake is recently seperated from his spouse and is currently on the market.. If your interested please send me one pack of Newports... Kidding.. Jake has his own blog if your interested in Jake or just a different perspective on what its like to be here his is www.jakedsnake.blogspot.com
Jake n Gary... Don't be fooled Gary is mine!
Here is all us jess a chillin outside in da shade...
Here is me hangin out with an Iraqi MP (remember folks you can't spell WIMP with out MP)- sorry Wade but your a Corpsman now... This guy was actually pretty squared away.... this was takin at the change over ceremony at one of the FOBs in our AO... I'll post more pics of that in a minute cuz I can only post 5 pics per entry.... so stay tuned

A sad trip to Summerall

We went to Summerall today. One of the units there the 1/103 Armor out of Pennsylvania recently had 6 soldiers killed in IED attacks... Here are some pictures of the memorial monument..


I think this is one of the saddest things that I've seen since I've been here. As you can see they placed the flag and a helmet with a cross wrapped around it to honor their fallen comrades.. Everyone in this vehicle was killed except for the gunner he was blown clear of the truck and was later found walking around without his helmet or body armor on and he believed he was home... I couldn't imagine losing my whole crew guys that I've been with for a while or in that Soldiers case day 1......
That used to be a humvee.. As you can see it was blown to pieces.
To those Soldiers that died in these attacks God Bless and God Speed and thank you for your sacrifice, your efforts will not be forgotten...
Semper Fi!

A moment of silence for 6 Soldiers of the 1/103 Armor

WAR IS AN UGLY THING, BUT NOT THE UGLIEST OF THINGS. THE DECAYED AND DEGRADED STATE OF MORAL AND PATRIOTIC FEELING, WHICH THINKS THAT NOTHING IS WORTH WAR IS MUCH WORSE. THE PERSON WHO HAS NOTHING FOR WHICH HE IS WILLING TO FIGHT, NOTHING WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HIS OWN PERSONAL SAFETY, IS A MISERABLE CREATURE AND HAS NO CHANCE OF BEING FREE, UNLESS MADE SO AND KEPT SO BY THE EXERTIONS OF BETTER MEN THAN HIMSELF!


JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873)

How it be sucka....

This is a little informative bit for yall who don't know what it is like to drive around this dump- I mean.... Shithole... Here is a pic of us driving down the road.. We drive in the center of the road because of all the goodies that hodgie likes to plant on the sides of the roads.. Hodgie plants these things in animal carcasses, craters from the previos IED his ass dug in, boxes, trash, you name it he will rig it... Even donkeys that aren't dead yet.... So traffic is forced to get over and make way... oh did I tell you about the land mines too that could be on the side of the road as of recent they are using a lot more mines and the smart little buggers can rig them in the middle of the road.. you would like to think these bastads were stupid but they are not... So just driving down the road can be pretty taxing your always looking for something that could possibly blow up or be an ambush or what ever... Who would have ever thought especially after living in upstate New York that an animal carcass on the side of the road would make your asshole pucker... So as I was saying traffic gets out of your way or else.........................
.....they magically land on their sides... No just kidding sirry... This dude decided to swerve at an oncoming patrol.. This is bad cuz at the time this was going on we thought it was a VBIED (vehicle born improvised explosive device) it wasn't the guy just turned out to be stupid or something... because he swerved at this......
A big ol' Stryker... Y? We don't know.
Then he got out of his flipped ass car and charged the patrol so they put him down... don't worry ladies and gentleman though because we treat enemy WIA as we would or own.... So as you can see here he is getting the best medical treatment we can provide... Ask me about this later cuz this was funny.... Though I've seen videos of the best medical treatment that insurgents can provide and it just makes me derned proud to come from such a civilized nation such as our own... Blast those prisons in Cuba... So we actually escorted these guys to the nearest FOB so that this scum bag piece of shit could go to the hospital... Scum bag piece of shit I mean "Local National"!

With this pic I'm trying to give you an idea about how nasty it is and what you have to be weary of... Like that nice big drum there could hold a lot of goodies in it... In some places there are just piles and piles of garbage that hodgems can just throw a "Burlap Boom!"- lil joke there you probably won't get it if you weren't in the truck.... This is a good sign though- the traffic you see to your left... Now say that it was rush hour day like this and that lane was empty then most likely your going to have the seat cushion sucked between your buttocks and your teeth clenched cuz something is bout to explode... No nothing exploded on the day that this particluar pic was taking and no hodgies were hurt during the creation of this post....
Thank you for your support... If you have any questions about things that go boom ask my gunner but speak up cuz Gary? dont hear so well now a days...

Sum mo pics fo you

On this one I figure I would find some pics that are kinda funny.... These are the best PG rated ones I could find for now.... This Picture is I took out at FOB Oryan. A lot of the people at our FOB complain and stuff about being here but we live in palaces and what not and there are a few air conditioned trailer bathroom thingys around here but some of the FOBS in our A/O don't have anything hence this is a pisser. Ya they have porta johns and stuff but for the most part if your Porta Johns aren't emptied on a regular basis they will get that coning effect where in part you have to hover over the cone pertruding from the tolilet. Much like the cherry on top deal.. Ok I'll stop it is pretty gross.... Ya so anyway this is a pisser......
War is hell ain't it?
Iraqi gas station... See how hodgie has his little barrel of gas and his 2 liter bottle with a hose attatched... There are a couple of gas stations that I've seen with pumps and stuff but the lines for those can be up to a mile long and 3 cars wide...
Wow who is the sexy piece of man flash on top of the Red Dragon?????? I should send that one to maxim cuz damn I have it goin on.....
Here is our fearless leader standing in front of the TATA truck... Funny story behind this but I told Gotti I would come back and edit this post and omit the story.... But it was funny... Well not for him.... I love you homie....

Some mo Pics main...

These are some pics of some dirt devils.. These things get friggin huge they almost look like tornados....




Here are some of the guys hangin out with Rocky the squirrel I was just kinda tripped out to see a squirrel here.
Here is me chillin by the Tigris..
This is 7Ru the boys of 7bu got a new truck cuz well 7Bu got blowed up and they thought i was leaving and in my honor named it after me...

The Bird Incident

One day we were jest chillin and the Admin Specialist for our section "AJ" comes and sees me and Gary and tells us there is a dead bird in the bosses office... Gary who is much like that Steve Erwin dude, goes in there and we decided to have a little fun with it.....
Crikey look at the size of those teeth.... I mean the bird.... You know I love you Gotti...
We were about to pull an Ozzy!
This is how we found it.......

Some F-ed Up Shite

This is my friend Jimmy... Hes old... Just jokin, not really he's old... Jimmy was the gunner in the truck that had 2 IED'S detonated directly on it. If you look at the previous posts you can see the damage that it did to that truck and the turret, shit a piece of shrapnel went through the feed tray cover of his machine gun... A big piece of shrapnel hit him in the back of the helmet and he got his face peppered with shrapnel.. But guess what he ain't getting no Purple Heart. Personally I think that, that is some fucking bulllshit.... We are all pretty lucky to be alive, my truck cuz the IED was to deep in the crater and these guys cuz their armor held up... And my man can't get a PH.... Thats so f-ed I can't even begin to spout the curse words that would rate the shittiness of this event... Hopefully we will keep working on it and he will get a PH. Hell if you get a concussion you can get one.. My man puts his ass on the line for the Division gets blowed up and peppered with shrapnel and can't even get a PH. Thats just plain ol shitty....

IED Demonstration Day

Jimmys eye protection... It works... So wear the shit....
Jimmy's shield see the nice little scrapes on that stuff....

Jimmy's face got a little peppered but I think that actually helped him out a little bit.......

IED Demonstration Day

Lucky 7Boo

Lets see how small pics look

I decided I try out the small pic option and see if I could fit more in a post but I cant so that blows... If you click on the images it will blow them up but I think I will go back to mediums.. Well anyway here are some shots of FOB Danger in Tikrit. Sadaams birthplace and our FOB consists of a bunch of his palaces I don't know the history to much behind any of these structures but I really don't care cuz this country is a shit hole and once we give it back to them it will be even worse... This particular picture is one of the Waterfall palace this little pool over flows into one of the many man made lakes around this joint.. Though we can't swim in them because of some kinda critter that will supposedly swim your arse and make you sick... What ever...
This is a mosque... Hurray.
This is the Water palace I got a pretty cool shot of the inside.. I'll post that later if I remember.
There is the Palace I work in and I live in the one to the right... Where that green thing is thats a bridge that runs through our fob... Dont worry though cuz we got that shit covered with interlocking sections of fire....
Another shot of the big palace....