Burger King

This pic was takin a while back and has nothing to do with this post but I thought it was awesome. We went up in this house to search it and here this crazy bastard is in his tighty whities all burnt up and shit, his house smelled so bad we wanted to leave. He told us we could shoot him if he had anything. Anyway on to the post....

I’m back! I was out for a minute but I’m back. I missed rotation because I had to go to the CSH at FOB Washington. My cheek swelled up and I went to the dentist and he referred me to a specialist in the Green Zone. I took a Blackhawk ride out there and that was actually pretty nice. I always forget how much I enjoy flying until I actually get in a bird. It was really nice. The Green Zone I’m sure you all have heard is this secure zone in Baghdad where all the big wigs stay. It was pretty weird. Most of the people here that I met weren’t combat arms guys that go out of the wire. They had a mortar attack where 28 mortars came in at one time so everyone is pretty freaked out about that. I couldn’t leave the hospital to go down the street to get some heavenly Burger King without a battle buddy and full battle rattle, being my helmet, body armor and weapon. When I was told this I was like are you fucking serious this is the green zone for Christ sakes. The young soldier was offended and told me very matter of factly “Well we get mortared here.” My bad man, I didn’t really feel like getting into it and telling him we get mortared all the fucking time, and blown up, and shot at etc, etc…… It’s all good, though being the genius that I am, I waited for the shift change and grabbed my shit, minus battle buddy and walked my Combat Infantry ass down to the PX. Walk, shit I meant strutted my super duper, dope, ass kicking, hardcore, Infantry self down to that bitch ass PX in the pussy ass green zone. I got there and low and behold was the shrine other wise known as Burger King. I knelt before the house of Flame Broil and strolled into the PX to pick myself up a big Monster energy drink, then went back out and paid homage to the hajji behind the counter. I ordered up thou holy double whopper value meal and took my seat in the pew. I said a small prayer and asked the good lord to protect my soldier’s and my family and me and blessed him in all of his greatness as I sank my teeth into this juicy substitute of a real Burger King whopper, but it had been so long that my taste buds could not tell the difference. They erupted with glorious cheer at every mouth watering bite. Ummmmmmm. I pounded the Monster and after being totally fulfilled for the day I started to walk with a bite in my step back to the hospital. See I had to get back before the onslaught of diarrhea set in…. Anyway. I’m walking back thinking I’m king shit and I’ve just got away with the biggest caper ever suddenly my train of thought is derailed by the Mortar siren screeching through the air. “INCOMING, INCOMING, INCOMING!” BOOOOOOOOOOOM! That mortar landed close enough to shake the ground I was walking on, my hardcore Infantry ass broke into a run for the nearest bunker. “Shit! “ I said out loud. On the way down to the PX I saw a ton of bunkers and at the very time I needed one I couldn’t find one. I saw one down a side street and ducked in. The whole time I was thinking shit, they are probably getting accountability at the hospital and here my dumbass is hunkered down. I noticed that people were walking around so I high tailed it back to the hospital. I got there and I don’t even think they heard that one. I made it. It wasn’t really like I took a big risk but in hind sight had that mortar checked me out no one would have known WTF had happened to me probably for a while. Nice going SSG. Idiot lessoned learned. I know better than that shit, and I need to follow the law to the letter and practice what I preach. Just another moment of lapse in common sense due to the seduction of a Whopper. Idiot!
Asides from that when I was waiting to get seen for my cheek I had an opportunity to talk to a fellow Iraqi vet of 2005. I saw him and his face had about a days worth of growth on it and scratches all over it. His hand was bandaged up. We were mutually bitching about the lack of expedience on the behalf of the hospital staff. He asked what I was in for and I told him about my cheek. Obviously he had been blown up so I asked if he had got fucked up. He told me that just the night before his truck had run over a pressure plate IED and it had blown the front of the truck off. “Everyone alright?” I asked. He said the gunner had been thrown free of the vehicle and was there at the hospital. I saw him and miraculously he really wasn’t hurt that bad. The two dismounts in the back were unharmed, and the driver had been killed. It didn’t really dawn on me until later how nonchalantly we spoke of it. It was just shit that happens in war. I know from a leader’s point of view that he was probably hurting inside about losing a soldier but NCO to NCO unfortunately these are things associated with combat. SSG M was cool as hell. I went to fly out the next day and there he was checking out too. “Headed back already?” I asked. “Ya I gotta get the fuck outta here.” “Be safe brother.” “You to.” That was that, that is another reason why I love the military. You meet a guy and in 4 minutes it’s like your old friends. “Buddies” I think every soldier has a story about a “buddy”. I think every Soldier has like a hundred “buddies”. Then again most soldiers are full of shit and spin tails of woe with nameless “buddies”.

I got back to good ol’ Rusty unscathed and my platoon was still outside the wire at the COP. It felt good to be back and I was weary about not being with my men. My thoughts constantly going between my family and my extended family. I was a little relieved to not be outside the wire and away from possible IED’s and EFP’s waiting for me out there. At 5am the next morning I was reminded that even inside the wire we are still not completely safe as I’m awakened to the sound of the incoming alarm. I stood at my door when I heard the first round impact into the barracks about 100m behind me. Do I run and run the risk of possibly getting hit on the way to the bunker or do I hunker down here and hope they adjust fire the other way. Another hits and the explosion is further away, another lands even further and 2 more explode going away from me. I don’t bullshit when I hear the siren after that. Just this morning at 2am I heard the siren coming off of gate guard and I hauled my ass to the bunker. Mortars the indiscriminate killer. I ran into Setzer as he was just back from leave and was excited to hear of stories from the real world.

The Platoon returned from the COP and as it was it would be the last time we would assume guard at Pathfinder COP. 8 hours after they returned we found ourselves together again pulling security on a gate. Swapping stories of what had happened at the Green Zone with me and what had gone down at the COP in my absence. It’s funny because every time a guy comes off of leave we are all so eager to hear what that person did on leave. We ask all sorts of questions, did you do this, did you do that? Months leading up to RnR we are discussing what we are going to do, and some of the guys say how drunk they’re gonna get and how much food they are going to eat, and what kind of sins they are going to commit. When they get back it’s a question and answer session about the things we talked about that they were going to do. This bit of conversation takes up a good bit of guard duty. The soldier fresh from the world informs us of what was going on back in the world. Our main source of news is Stars and Stripes and the occasional Army Times. I guess we could keep up on current events better using the internet but people are to busy trying to e-mail friends and family.

Today we guarded the gas station again and I’m happy to say as far as I know, nobody stole any gas. We are here keeping Iraq safe one CITGO at a time. The Iraqi’s played the Saudi’s today at Soccer and at about noon, the Iraqi’s I’m guessing took off to home to watch the game. They got ghost quick, so quick I was like oh shit we are about to get hit. Through further deliberation we determined this Soccer game was the equivalent of a Super Bowl or something. Later we learned the Iraqi’s won and they celebrate by firing Ak’s in the air. Setzer and I were in the phone center when we heard a loud pop. We both thought that somebody had a negligent discharge. We looked in the direction of the pop and saw a hole in the ceiling. Apparently an AK round came through the ceiling and hit a soldier in the shoulder and bounced off of him and landed on the floor. He wasn’t hurt, but we were all like holy shit. The guy started laughing and shouted in the phone “This must be my lucky fucking day.”.
Just want to take a second to thank my friends that hooked me up with fine lap top I’m typing on at this time. Thank you so much!
I hope I haven’t bored any of you to bad… Thank you for your support. Until Next time!
RUARKOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!