Department of Redundancy Department Department

Picard makes some new friends.
"Sure sir, I would be happy to hump around this enormous piece of shit to set up in SKT, its a great idea." I didn't but Baum did.

The boys from 3rd Squad celebrating their time back at the COP.

Ahhhhh back at the FOB for a little re-fit action. The last bunch of days out at the COP weren’t really that bad. Asides from giving you way to much time to think and little enough sleep to let your mind run rampant. When we gave it up to 3rd ID they made some rather nice changes and additions to the COP. The power actually stays on and I’ve already mentioned some of the other MWR additions. The food isn’t that bad it’s for the most part the same as it is at the FOB. To be quite honest I wouldn’t mind just stayin the hell out there and not coming back in except to swap out laundry.

We rotated out to the COP and we set in on COP security, which wasn’t that bad because 3rd ID made improvements in that area too. 1st Platoon went out and set up some small kill teams to try and curb the IED threat. Though the next day the insurgents decided to show us that no matter what we do they will find a way around it, as an IED exploded on a convoy the very next day. No one was hurt except for a concussion. The next night we found ourselves set up in SKT. Iraq has packs upon packs of wild dogs roaming the streets and it becomes a severe pain in the ass trying to snoop and poop into a nice hide site when one dog sniffs you out and he starts barking then every other dog within ear shot starts barking. It literally sounds like hundreds of dogs giving up your position. I can’t stand it dog barking sets me off in a bad way and I wish that we had suppressors, a blow gun something, and I would leave a hundred dead dogs in my wake. (Its not that I hate dogs I only hate dogs that can get us killed.)We wandered around the AO looking for a high speed spot to set up that would allow us to snuff out Iraqi bomb putter inners. The slice of terrain we had chosen looked good from a map but once down on the ground didn’t really afford us good line of sight or concealment for the place we wanted to observe. Like anything else we made the best of a bad situation and waited. The sun came up and we stayed put a little longer, and then moved out. Later that day 2 IED’s would explode where we had been watching. “HAHAHAHHA DOOM ON YOU AMREEKI!!!” What a kick in the nuts.

We took turns with 1st as far as COP security and missions. Our next mission would involve us walking down a major highway looking for road side bombs and some other shit. This idea has become very popular with some commanders. Hey lets walk down the fucking road we are more likely to see bombs, I don’t know if this strikes any of you as a fucking short sighted idea, maybe someone out there is route clearance or EOD out there that is reading let me know what you think of that. I don’t feel to extremely stupid though as I read about some other Soldiers searching individuals before they could enter a market fair. This after 2 suicide bombers blew themselves up in a market. There is definitely some smooth thinking behind that one too. “Hmmmmmm how do we keep suicide bombers from entering a market??? We will individually search them. Yessss yesss super idea, as this will put me in no direct danger because I will have my subordinate soldiers execute this mission whilst I sit in my CP and read SIGACT’s and call for sit reps. While they are there searching for suicide bombers, that will give me time to write myself up for a Bronze Star.”

Meanwhile the soldier is in the market searching people for bomb vests and weapons.
“Hey Sergeant um this guy has a Suicide Vest on what do I do?”

The ‘Good Idea Fairy’ has been flying her ass off like crazy around here. We took a stroll around the neighborhood showing the insurgents that we ain’t skeered. At the end of the day the last thing we had to do was hit a block of some supposed bomb maker guys. We hauled ass up to the target block to find out that the streets were clogged because the 2 of the head honcho’s decided to come out and watch us take down some houses. They were nice enough to park their vehicles in such a fashion that we had to dismount 5 blocks away and run to the target street. We took down the houses and found one guy we were looking for. Day time raid nothing much to talk about there it was quick dry and to the point. The only shitty thing was not being able to pull up close because of operation “Dog and Pony”.

All in all being back in the old sector isn’t too bad the COP is actually a nice place to be. The way our focus is shifting I’m none to happy about that, and we’ve picked up the pace in a serious way. We’re down to under 60 days left and just have to maintain so we can all go home with no more incidents. The cease fire is supposedly due to end here coming up shortly so we will see what happens. Its weird though that I do take some what of a sense of pride in walking up "One of the most deadly routes" in all of Iraq, but at the same time I feel vulnerable and completely retarded. I know better than this but some how a high education enables a man to think that this is an effective idea. It may be for all I know. Remember I never claimed to know a whole lot.

Ahhh who is this adorable medic standing beside me?

Well until next time folks.

DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!!!