Movement to Boom

Murrdawg holding an RPG round that they found off an anonymous tip.


I gotta make some double time now because I was lazy last time in and didn’t post. Now that shit is biting me right in the damn ass. Well the days all blend together anyway. “What’s today?” “Who gives shit? Its groundhogs day!”
Well 2 xs out ago??? Whatever. The day started off gay enough. We played soccer mom and took people from point A & B. That was fun. Because driving around in Iraq is such a recreational high. Then we had to go do ‘Happy Town’. Happy Town is when somebody fucks up we have to go out and kiss some serious ass. This particular incident is the result of another unit getting blown up in our sector and then got attacked by small arms fire. Well they turned to and started lighting up the area and apparently hit a little girl and killed her. Who bares the brunt of this? We do because it’s our sector. Though it wasn’t our unit we all wear the same uniform. We rolled to the block and went house to house looking for the family. I don’t think that we actually confirmed that it was our guys that hit the girl though. Later that afternoon- our LT usually waits until the hottest part of the fucking afternoon to do this- we went and conducted SWET assessments. These little gems are the shit. Our task, conduct SWET assessments, our purpose to build trust with the local populace and make buddies. SWET is where we go out to the local Iraqi’s and fill out a survey about their sewer, water, electric and I really don’t know what the T stands for. Honestly I really don’t give a shit either. This is how it works out, we roll up to a block, and we dismount and knock on a door. “May we come in and ask you some questions about the neighborhood?” “Well geez meester armed amreekee do I really have a fucking choice since you are parked out in front of my house with a platoon of armed soldiers in front of my fence? Sure!” “So how is the sewer?” “Well meester amreekee since you had to wade through a foot and half of it outside my home and then stomp it all around inside my house I would say it’s not that great eh? Its fine.” “How’s the water?” “Well since I have offered you some water and you watched me pour it out of a bottle into a glass and you and your men won’t drink it I’m guessing your thinking it’s probably bad. Its fine.” “How is the electric?” “Boy oh boy meester you are a master of the obvious aren’t you. There are no lights on and you see the AC unit in the wall there and it’s not on and its 115 degrees outside what do you think. Its fine.” “ You ever see any bad people here?” “No this neighborhood is fine, though were scared it’s good no terrorists here.” “Great that’s good to hear.” “So meester what are you going to do with this questions you have asked me?” “Well hajj we’re gonna give this to our higher and its gonna go up to their higher and then its gonna go to their higher and so on and so forth until it’s so lost that nothing is going to get done about your problems. Have a nice day. Alrighty men next house. HOOAH!!!!” Meanst while outside in the searing heat on a wobbly knee where they have been for 45 minutes are your favorite heroes. Swet assessment, no shit sweating our asses off in the open waiting for a hot sniper to poke holes in us. Sometimes we’ll do this shit for like hours. Man it fucking sucks. I’m sure they serve a greater purpose but on mine and the men’s level we don’t see it so we don’t appreciate it. Later that night we conducted ‘Movement to BOOM’, meaning we drove around. No seriously we just drove around. No really. Really!
We assumed COP security the next day. It was chill we had gate and along with gate comes the JSS where we go to the Joint Security Station and hang out with IP and IA. It’s such a warm reception there. This time we had the MP’s with us which made things even more chill. Later that night we had to prep for a raid. I was at the gate bullshitting with Setzer when our conversation was interrupted by one of the 240B machine guns opening up. I look up to see incoming SAF as well with tracers impacting one of the OP’s on the roof. I hear Murray come over the radio saying he had taken SAF and returned fire to let them know he meant business. Later Murray tells me that he looked up to see tracers headed right at his face. He dropped down and squeezed off a burst in the general direction of the SAF. We didn’t get to sleep much, because we had QRF (Quick Reaction Force) duties for the raid that night. No joy it didn’t go off. Oh well. Night turns into day and we move from gate to roof. Too much fun. Good day though nothing happened. Once again night turns into day and we move to patrol. We conduct a raid once again coming up with jack and shit. We roll to the FOB with minimal sleep under our eye lids. The men are tired. I’m tired. I’m fucking tiiiiiiiired. Change of Command coming up though so we have to inventory everything and conduct a layout. We get in and conduct the 3 S’s. Shit, shower, and shave. Throw on PT’s and take all of our shit down to a tin roofed building with no AC. The layout takes 6 hours some of the men have been going since 3am and before that doing 3 on 3 off. Once complete we can chill. Next day there is no sleeping in we have another inspection, and right after another layout. It takes the better half of our day off. We get together at the end of the day to finish Soprano’s season 7 and guess what? Fucking hajj only has 4 episodes on it.
Next day we are cut a break and don’t roll out till later. It was pretty nice. We had some lay out shit to do out at the COP and then waited for it to get 112 before we went and conducted SWET my balls off assessments. This time it wasn’t so bad, we only did a couple and rolled back to eat. I was surprised. We then went on stand by for a raid. Who is on assault? 2nd squad YAAAAY. You would think that but I was a little miffed as far as the conditions. Going into that would be giving you too much information but let’s just say it was retarded. As we are waiting a rocket slams into the side of the COP. We had fueler's there putting gas into the tank for our generators. Ol’ boy freaked out and jumped off the tank and left the hose running in the tank. It then shot out spraying JP-8 everywhere going crazy. I was laughing my ass off. It was like a movie or something. Most of us are just numb to it now and don’t even do anything when explosions go off. During rehearsals a fighter jet flew low over the COP and there was a bunch of people that ducked and hit the dirt. Thank you for the show you guys gave me a good laugh. Thankfully the raid didn’t go. The next 2 days we pulled security with nothing further to report. Nice and restless. Our AC in our sleeping area went out so finding a place to sleep for 2 hours before your next guard shift is a little difficult. If you have ever tried to sleep when its muggy ass 100 degrees out you know it’s next to impossible.
Blessed patrol day comes to us to break up the monotony of security days. Our first task of the day is to take detainees that 1st Platoon apprehended back to the FOB for in processing. This was pretty nice we got to go back in and eat. We went back out and broke up into sections. The PL’s section went out to scout sites to set up surveillance kill team. They got an anonymous tip and hit a house and found some rockets and other goodies. They detained 2 local nationals. We hauled ass to the FOB to in process them into the D-Ha, with hopes of staying in and not having to go back out. Fat fucking chance. We roll back out into sector. We stop and myself, Picard, Garrison, the PSG, RTO, and DOC I think, dismount. Garrison, Pic, and I walk through the shadows and into a small meadow next to some houses. We use the wind to cover our movement through the tall grass and set down in a little swampy area over looking one of the main roads. There is a house maybe 10 meters to our south. We are separated by tall reeds. I set my team up in a 360. Picard and I overwatch the road and Garrison with the SAW watches our 6. The purpose of this is to make sure nobody is planting IED’s on the main routes. If they do then we waste em. We wait (and hope) for 3 and a half hours. Mosquitoes having a feast upon us. We probably contracted some high speed malaria. Only time can tell. We pulled out and mounted up and headed back to the COP. We try to stay off roads that are targeted with EFPs and IEDs. We come off of a side street and make a left on to a wider street. I’m thinking this street is a lot like the other one we get hit on its nice and wide. Hmmmm. Bright light, smoke, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. It happened like it usually happened the other times. Time slows the truck rocks, the heat of the blast comes into the truck through the turret, the acrid smell of cordite and smoke burns the nostrils. The ringing in my ears is loud. The last two times we were hit it was the truck in front of us. I knew immediately it was our truck this time. “Is everyone alright” I say the words but no one replies. The truck starts to slow. I think to myself “Fuck somebody’s fucked up and the truck is immobile.” Once again and louder I repeat myself “Is everyone ok?” Kumbier, Hancock, and Droll tell me “Roger we are good.” Seconds have gone by. “Drive!” I say when I realize the truck is still mobile. “2-7 this is 2-2 we are good we are mobile we are driving through.” We link up with the trucks in front of us. I take my gloves off and run my hands over the gunner making sure that he is alright. “Good thing I had my ear pro in.” my gunner says. “No shit eh.” We say fuck it and roll back to the COP. I get out and look at the truck. It was a good aim but shitty timing thank god. Another EFP, meant for Hancock riding in the gun. They missed and it tore up some shit we had on our back hatch and fucked up our AC. Nothing to bad though. The guys go and get checked out by our medic to make sure everything is good. No sooner do we get done and are still counting our blessings. Kumbier gets a Red Cross message. His grandmother passed. “I think she was looking out for us brother.”
We roll back into the FOB and our here for 20 min when there is a commo black out is put up. Another Soldier from FOB Rusty is killed. The day before that Bravo Company lost a soldier. Charlie is again lucky for another day.
RuarkOUT!