Semper Gumby

Setz, Me, my hardcore SAW gunner Garrison, and Droll the serial killer, getting ready to come down off the hot plate- I mean roof.
The premission prayer.
This one is for my un-sung gunner Sartor he doesn't get to dismount much but when he does he definitely proves he is on it. Be safe and have fun on leave brother.
I think they need tobacco laws here!

Wow, have we done a whole lot of shit since my last post. I fucked up this time around and didn’t keep a running journal of what the hell was going on. Things were going at such a fast pace and still pretty much that most of the shit we did run together like a huge jumble in my mind. Our task and purpose can change at a minutes time, and sometimes even on the ground. I tell the guys Semper Gumby, which means ‘Always Flexible’. Be ready to bend and flex to accomplish the mission, and we will. It’s Groundhog Day every damn day with minor tweaks and twists. I’ll try to put it together the best I can and in the future do a better job of writing down what the hells going on.

August this month is so damn hot the word ‘fuck’ can’t even put it into perspective. It’s a nasty heat that even after you get back in the truck and put your face in the vent of the AC you still feel overwhelmingly hot. Your body is soaked from head to toe. Sweat runs down your face and leaks into your eyes burning them and obscuring your vision. To get a taste of the heat one would have to go outside in jeans and a jacket and a 60lb back pack run around the house and up and down some stairs come back inside and instead of trying to cool down by the fridge or the AC have the oven on and stand in front of it and open it. The heat is inescapable.

The first mission I’ll start with was the barrier mission, what a cluster fuck if something could go wrong it did. We in the military have a logical excuse for this and it’s called Murphy’s Law, what can go wrong will. Murphy tends to show up and turn a simple task into an epic of biblical proportions. Murphy is like the Gremlins of WWII. An example is when we set out to do this shit our route turned out to be impassible and we had to take a different route taking us next to an area that was really shitty and shady. Then one of the monstrous trucks toting the barriers became lodged in a shit pond breaking an axle and shredding a fucking tire and dumping the barriers off of the back. Through all this we still accomplished our mission, which was only supposed to be a couple of hours turned out being a lot of hours. Later we would find that one of our sister units decided to drive their fucking tanks over the damned barriers destroying them…. Hoooah!

The next one we set out on a 3 hour to deliver medical supplies to some of the clinics out in town. A little good will gesture to the local populace. Fucking Right? We reached a certain point and left the safety of our vehicles to walk the route. We walked and walked and walked a little more. One of the clinics didn’t even want the stuff we were bringing. They said that they would just get stolen. We reached a neighborhood where the kids decided to through rocks at us, then they followed us for a little while hiding behind shit and throwing rocks. It’s a good thing that my gunner is a crack shot with a sling shot… Right? Maybe throwing rocks is there way of telling us thanks for the medical supplies and medicine! At one point I think the temp peaks 130 and a little over. Walking now has become a tedious chore. We are directed down one street walking in front of the vehicles and suddenly the people get ghost. The street becomes barren and empty and the obstacles in the road are reminiscent of some war movie where the star platoon is about to walk into a sick ambush. The only people out, are those out of the suspected kill zone looking on like spectators in a blood sport. The point man Murrdawg looks back to me and at the same time we both utter the words “Fuck that!” We back track and take a different route. We hit a road intersection with an open area to our left front. The point man on my side of the road steps over a plastic bag looks down, looks up again, and yells for everyone to get back. We all run back and assess the situation. Running yet alone yelling at this point becomes a matter of endurance, it is so hot and the heat has bled the energy from all of us. The point man had seen wires coming out of the bag and going out into the open area. At this point we are all smoked, a short walk has us breathing hard, myself I’ve already drank 7 bottles of water. I suggest getting on the roof of the building on the corner to get better eyes on the suspected device. We hop the gate and take the house by force clearing to the top. Thankfully it was only a three story home and there was a lot of stairs because at this point we really needed that shit. We got up top to look down on the device and immediately started taking small arms fire. The guy sucked obviously after 3 shots and he couldn’t hit shit. We panned out for 360 degrees security on the roof. We had guests also on the roof; about 3 sheep were up there. Setzer runs around the corner then comes back and he says “SSG Ruark you gotta see this shit!” meanwhile shots are still cracking over our heads. “What?” “I just saw the funniest shit.” “What?” He is laughing so hard he can’t even tell me. CRACK! “This fucking sheep straight jumped off of the roof.” “What?” “I’m not even bullshitting right now that bitch jumped off the roof.” “What onto the next roof.” “NO straight off the side like down 3 stories.” CRACK! “No fucking way.” I went with him to the other side of the roof to look down. It was a long way down and he said that the sheep flipped upside down on its way over. The neighbors must have thought it a gift from Allah or some shit because there was no sign of a sheep. I don’t know maybe the little fucker made it.
Unable to see wires running out of the bag we went back down stairs and made a short run undercover back to the trucks. At this point this short run felt like a marathon. My muscles began to cramp due to the never-ending heat. Did I tell you that this mission was only supposed to last like 4 hours or so? We called EOD to come check out the device. About 4 hours later they arrive with Dco and begin clearing the device. They had set explosives down on the device though later they deemed it to be nothing. BOOOOOOOOOOM! “Did they blow it?” “I don’t know?” No it was Dco getting hit with an EFP about 100m from our position. No one was hurt but the truck had to be towed away. We went to the scene of the blast and started clearing houses and asking questions. I began to wonder how much more my body could take. Everyone was sucking. I honestly didn’t know if I could climb anymore fucking stairs. We found the initiation device and rolled that up and after 14 hours of straight suck we returned to Rusty. That fucking shit sucked hard and was a lesson in endurance. I guess they really appreciated the medical supplies and celebrated with explosives. These people are so nice.

Nope not done yet long post did a lot of shit so bare with me as I ramble on o’ ye faithful reader. At this point you might want to grab a Red Bull or a Monster, I would. Like I said all the days mix together like some kind of perverted Martini, if those who where there remember it different feel free to comment but here goes.

If memory serves then pretty much the day after the craziness as above stated we went on another mission to look for 3 guys. It was a hot no joy day and we just walked around silly and hot going into houses. Later that night we would get a brief for a raid that would kick off at 0 dark thirty. We punched wire and rolled up to the target block, we dismounted and hauled ass up to the house. My guys were the assaulting element directly behind the breach team. The chain on the gate was too heavy for the bolt cutters so we had the humvee ram the gate open. We flowed in to the front door. The door was a metallic door locked from the inside. Setzer unslung the universal door opener (12 gauge sawed off Mossberg) pumped 2 rounds of 00 goodness into the lock kicked it open and we were in. Surprise the LBG, (little brown guy) we were looking for was not home. We went next door and woke up the neighbors and he wasn’t there either. My guys set up a 360 on the roof while the other team searched. I noticed 2 cars driving down the street with there lights on when suddenly the trail vehicle turned off his lights and made a turn and stopped at that corner. I brought Young up with the 203 (a 40mm grenade launcher mounted on the underside of his M-4 Carbine) and had him launch a flare right at them. The flare has to be shot at a high angle in order to allow it time to flare up and burn. The cars were down far enough where he had to fire in a flat trajectory to get it there. The flare didn’t spark up until about 15m from the ground, then getting caught in power lines, then starting a trash fire, but it did the trick and those cocksuckers rolled out. Young got to shoot his 203 so he was happy. We didn’t find shit and rolled home to go to bed.

Now I know I’m missing shit but we’ll keep going and I promise to start taking notes after this debacle. Here goes. At some point I went to FOB Liberty to attend an intermediate search class. FOB Liberty is huge and has a Taco Bell, and Burger King, so you know I was munching down on some whoppers and burrito Supremes, give me a break I had no choice. Mean while back at the ranch or Rusty or what ever you want to call this high speed avenue to hell. A big ass indirect rocket came into the FOB and decided to land under my truck taking it out of commission. No one was hurt thankfully, the guys were on their way out to the trucks right as it happened. On the day I was coming back from this class, Cco went out to investigate a douche bag that had been seen shooting an RPG or something. At some point during the patrol they got a change of mission. 2nd PLT was off searching another area of the sector and 3rd was dismounted when an explosion set events in an entirely different direction of what was originally going to be a monotonous mission.
3rd had dismounted and was shielded by their vehicle when insurgents touched off an EFP packed with explosives. The explosion was so intense that my guys on a roof about a block away felt the blast and said that it blew out the windows of the building that they were on. The guys from 3rd were blown off of there feet the vehicle destroyed, but everyone was still alive. A couple of there guys had been on the side where the EFP had actually gone off. A majority of the guys down had been 15 to 20m away from this blast. Some were dazed and some had taken shrapnel. My platoon reacted and went to assist 3rd. The guys from 3rd that weren’t affected started setting up security and taking control of the situation. 2nd arrived at the scene and the 3rd Platoon PSG also the acting 1SG had set up his casualty collection and had begun initiating there medevac sequences. He directed the 2nd Platoon guys to a house where the blast happened near, they went on to clear 3 more houses. The guys were then called to a possible cache that 3rd had found. It was a great find and they were able to take a lot of shit off the street from grenades to EFP’s. They ended up detaining 4 guys and one of them was an upper level bad guy on someone’s wanted list. Everyone involved from what I’m told reacted without hesitation. The 2nd Platoon guys went to the aid of their 3rd platoon comrades not knowing what the casualty situation was like, and the 3rd platoon guys expedited there wounded to the nearest aid station. From all the training and preparation the situation was quickly under control. The streets were on lock down, coalition killing weapons were taken out of the hands of those who threaten the security of Iraq, and our friends were alive.
I flew back to Rusty later that night un aware of anything that had taken place. I got back to the trailers and didn’t see anybody. I happened upon one guy who gave me the skinny. I finally saw some of my guys and they were like “You missed it Sergeant!” I was just glad that everyone was ok. It had been a big day for Cco and an eye opener for some. SSG Ume told me that he was very proud of the guys. That they were on it. Setzer was leading the squad in my absence and he and Droll were both commended for their actions by SSG Ume. No hesitation, just reaction.
Now that would probably be a great place to leave off and let you stew, no were not done yet. Grab another Red Bull we’re almost done.
If memory serves, which a lot of times it just doesn’t. We went out the very next day and tried to look for these douche bags that fired this RPG. We were told to look for a dark colored sedan. It shouldn’t be that hard, there was only a dark colored sedan in just about everyone’s driveway on this fucking street. No worries though we searched an ass load of houses got hot as all get out and didn’t find shit. The next day we were on standby for a mission that didn’t go down that was great, or maybe we did do something but it was just gay enough to the point that I’ve suppressed the memory. I do know on the 3rd day I was wearing the same uniform just out of hardness, which I would later regret due to some serious chaffed on my helmet. We rolled to try and find some bad guy, and after taking a knee for aboutn2 hours then rolled to a suspected cache sight were we found some more bad shit, like RPG’s and EFP’s and such and a lot more. Another stellar find. My guys and I were on the roof slowly roasting to a tender crispiness when we got the order to head back down and look for Mr. Shithead. Mr. Shithead was definitely off his game as we rolled up hopped the hell out kicked in a gate rolled in and started fucking people up. We entered a house with at least 20 folks in there cleared up to the roof, and took 4 guys in for questioning. It was actually pretty badass there was Apache gunships flying around in support of us, it was almost like something out of a movie. We would later learn that one of the men we grabbed was the Mr. Shithead we were looking for. A numero uno on someone’s wanted list. It was actually in yahoo news, not our unit or anything that brought him in but just kind of a broad big bad guy was grabbed in eastern Baghdad, type deal. Well if you read it that was us! Cco has been kicking some serious ass lately, and also sweating some serious ass lately. In about 25 more days it should be cooling off.
Here is an update to one of my previous posts. 1st Platoon went and grabbed the piece of shit who sniped our brother. Good night bitch!
Ok man that’s it for now you can actually get the hell off of the computer now and get back to your jobs because I know that you read this shit at work! That’s it. ROODAWG OUT!!!!!!!

A couple of Pics of the COP!!!

Here are the shitters, or sweat box, or pleasure palace if you will.

Here is the sweat box the little red crate is for those who are vertically challenged.

Yaaayy its the COP!
the chow area the cooler in the backround that didn't work.
This is where we would get our swoll on...

This is the hot box in which we attempted to sleep.
Setz, Kum, Hanjob, burning the poo! And Garbage as you can tell these guys love fire!

The Price is Fucking Right

Ready to fight. 2nd Squad 2nd Platoon. DEUCE DEUCE!


The days of the COP are long behind us at this point. We relinquished our responsibility for it at the end of July. I think for the most part I miss the COP. It was a place to go and get away from all the bullshit that goes on here at the FOB. I know one thing we didn’t get mortared at the damn COP. The beginning of this month hajj was mortaring the shit out of us at all hours of the day and night. They are getting pretty damn close. One day I was running like hell to the bunker and I can hear the round sailing through the air so I know it’s gonna be close and BOOOOOOOOM! That shit blows up like 50m away from us. Just the other night one blew up down by the phone center and wounded some soldiers. I was pretty glad that my beloved wife and I were having a bad day and we mutually decided it be better if we spoke when both of us weren't so grumpy, and we said goodbye about an hour before that round impacted. 2 Soldier’s that had only been here for 2 weeks decided not to make a run for the bunker and paid in full for that mistake. Mortars suck!

I want to send out props to the genius that came up with the word ‘fuck’ it just fits everything and it pretty much describes Iraq to the K. Its always ‘fucking hot’ , and fucking sucks, fucking smells, is fucking gay, fucking stupid, fucking pointless, fucking lost …. I could go on forever. As soldiers holding detailed and intelligent conversation we repeatedly call on this great word to describe everything. Like going into the chow hall and seeing the mainline serving something that looks like it was scraped out of a shit trench the simple description is “Fuck NO!”

Well since the COP we have been in disarray. We don’t really have a schedule, its constantly changing. At the COP we knew who was patrolling and who was on guard duty and who had to burn shit and so on and so forth. At the beginning of the month we had gate guard which was good times, coupled with serving as gas station attendants. These missions call for us to sit in the trucks for 8 hours or more at a time. Oh the joy of conversation and how it helps the times pass by. We talk about everything from music, food (it will always turn to food at some point) , and other Soldiers in the squads family members, other Soldiers, and how if we were in charge how we would win the war in Iraq. On guard duty you always seem to have an idea that fixes everything. Our recent genius innovation is that when we get back we are going to score tickets to the Prices Right and roll up in there as a squad, on the way we will stop in Las Vegas but since Garrison is to young he will either have to stay in the car, go to Circus Circus, or just hang out at club Jenna. We talk about this so much like it will really happen. I think half the time we are so fucking bored that we can actually see ourselves there in the audience. We talk about who will listen to the crowd about bidding and who will just go with their gut feeling. You know you’ve made it if you get to spin that wheel. That would make the whole trip worth it just to spin that damn wheel. It doesn’t matter if Bob is retiring and Drew Carey is the new host as long as we get a chance at that damn wheel. A new twist was thrown in when Hancock got back off leave and we found out he was going to get married, we are going to have the wedding out there too and sponsor it through a web site we figured that Garrison can do so we can raise money for the trip and the wedding.

Another source of new found fun is the Google game. Soldiers are full of shit all of the time and every soldier has a piece of information that they try to spit like they are overly intelligent, or something crazy that they heard like an urban legend or something. Now when these nuggets of information come spewing forth and it sounds too good to be true or maybe to far fetched to be true, or causes an argument, the immediate solution is GOOGLE. Fuck it we’ll Google it and by the end of the mission or shift we have a list of things to Google. Garrison is our official Googler. The next day the bullshit will be dispensed. For instance, we had a running argument that just writing your name on the ACT was worth 14 points, the argument was that Picard only scored like a 16 or a 6 or something on the ACT. To settle it we put it to Google and low and behold you don’t get points for just writing your name on the test!!!

Where the fuck was I going with this again??? Oh ya!! We left the COP and we are now in a new zone. This zone is like the Wild West and a lot of bad shit happens there. Boy we sure got excited the first day we went there. We did a lot of walking and it was hot, guess what kind of hot? [Now everybody sitting in front of your computer play along and say it aloud with me FUCKING HOT!] No you’re not crazy you’re just reading the Angry American. Shame on you if you didn’t play along. Fortunately nothing happened but that too can be misleading. Some Soldiers can get a false sense of security that nothing happens and one day you’re fucking off and before you know it an EFP will make you a contestant for wheelchair basketball. I think the funnest thing we’ve done in a while is go on this 14 hour mission that I won’t give you specific details on but lets just say we were in the heart of Indian country. Last time our battalion was in this place they had a huge, long fire fight blowing up all sorts of shit. The place is mainly full of squatters people that just kind of settle down in a mud hut and a shit trench. The kids love to throw rocks at the last vehicle in the convoy. The men of Deuce Deuce were pretty fortunate though. We took a cue off of some PSYOPS guys that the Iraqi’s like music. My truck has a PA system and Kum has an IPOD speaker system so we let old hajj rock out to some gangster rap and Justin Timberlake, and when we were the last vehicle nobody through rocks at us. They seem to really like AKON ‘Smack That’. Iraqi’s old and young were soon bobbing their heads and dancing and smiling as we drove by. It was pretty damn funny.

June as you well know if you watch the news and July were really bad months for us and it has quieted down some. Except for the mortar attacks, I hate those fucking things. It is actually pretty unnerving and no one really knows what to think or expect. We all just hope it stays on the low. A couple of high points Setzer finally got promoted to Specialist which was long over due. He is a fantastic leader and deserves to wear the rank of a Sergeant but I’ll take what I can get at this point. Now I just have to wait for my other high speed team leader Droll to get promoted which should be going down this month too. Once again long over due. These two Soldiers have been leading troops in a combat environment since we got here. The rest of the guys of the Deuce are doing great and have exceeded my expectations of junior Soldiers but that is for another post. Thank you for your support. Have a great day. What kind of day [say it aloud with me] FUCKING DAY!!!!!
RUARKOUT!!!!!!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!

TO BE OR NOT TO BE??????????

In one of my last posts I told you to tell you rep to send us home. Someone then asked if I believe the US should pull out. I'm not a politician, I'm just a Soldier boots on the ground for the 2nd time in Iraq. I shouldn't bitch cuz there are some Soldier's out here doing a 4th year. Everything I write in this blog is personal opinion based on my personal experience and views. I'll tell you straight up I want to go the fuck home and with this extension pending for 15 months here I'm not down with that. I personally don't feel like we have progressed at all since I was here in 05. I do feel the enemy has made leaps and bounds in their ability to kill us though. I don't have all the answers and I can't tell you how to fight and win this. There are people in lofty positions paid ridiculous amounts of money to determine that. I don't see the whole picture at my level. All I see is a street littered with trash as I drive down it hoping that it is not hiding an EFP or IED, that might kill me or my Soldiers. I see the people scowl at us in some neighborhoods and wave at us in others. I wave at Iraqi Army soldiers and they don't wave back. I do know that Soldiers have been killed by EFP's blown on them within eye sight of Iraqi Army check points. I just read in Stars and Stripes how some bank guards made off with 282 million dollars worth of AMERICAN cash. If that doesn't make your asshole pucker I don't know what will. You think its easy to keep up motivation and a positive attitude towards this deployment when in 6 months you haven't seen a single change in your area? When top level leadership is quoted in news paper saying that the solution in Iraq must be a political one. Even the Prime Minister of Iraq was quoted as saying they don't need us here and can do it on there own. Then that makes me think what the fuck are we doing trolling around for IED's or EFP's?
Don't get me wrong I love to Soldier, I love Soldiers and I love to lead them. They are really the only people I like to associate with. They have hearts of gold and balls of steel. Willing to lay their lives on the line for the man to the right and left of them. They are my second family. I love my job I love serving the United States of America. I swore to defend her from all enemies foreign and domestic, I will. They say progress in this war will take a long time to achieve. If you worked on something that took you out of your families lives for over 2 years now and had nothing really to show for it would you support it? There are many other factors to the way I feel but I'm not going to get into them at this point. The question is do I think we should pull it out. Yes and no. I would hate to pull out and say it was all for not. I would love to see this thing through. I would like to pull out and go home and spend time with my family and watch soccer games and see them grow up and be a part of that. At the level I'm at right now I just don't see the difference and a lot of it just doesn't make sense to me.
I raised my hand and took the oath so I'm here now. I love my job! I love to get shot at nothing gets your heart going like rounds flying at your dome piece. I love near miss IED's and EFP's. There is nothing like knowing that a huge piece of copper meant to dismember you and kill you has over shot your truck and landed in someones living room. The reason I do it is for my Soldiers. I will go out and perform my duties and I will continue to motivate them and prepare them to fight and lead them into harms way and do my damnedest to bring them home alive. I know that they will do the right things, and pull the trigger when they have to and put themselves in harms way whether it makes sense or not. I know they have my back and will be there for me and eachother when the time comes. The men I serve with are my heroes they are brave, compassionate, and emulate selfless service. Should we pull out? That's not up to me. Will SSG Ruark and his men continue to accomplish missions in order to promote security in Iraq? Your damn right. Will we bitch about it? You bet your sweet ass we will!

A couple of Pics

The men from 2nd Squad 2nd Platoon minus 2 who are on leave, from left to right Droll, Young, Picard, Garrison, Kumbier, kneeling Sartor, and me.
Young having a Coors before we roll out.
At the gas station on the outside mostly women dressed in the black dress wait to get Kerosene. Its like 115 degrees out.
Kids do the damnedest things?

Authors Note

I know that some of these posts are getting long as hell. Just bare with me. With the last 2 rotations we got screwed and had to go back out on our refit days. I was using a friends laptop to write the post and then once complete I would get online and transfer it onto the BLOG. Now my friend is gone on leave and I have no laptop to use so I have to goto the hajji computer center and get online and post. The down side to this is that sometimes we will come back in and there will be a "Commo Blackout" which happens when a Soldier from the FOB has been killed. I will try to update as often as I can with content that I hope keeps you interested if you have any requests then feel free to leave me a comment. If you happen to have an extra laptop laying around that you would like to send to me I will be glad to give you my address! The other downside to having to post on the fly is not being able to get my thoughts in order. There is a time limit to the computer influenced by how much money you want to pay. Thank you once again for your support, and passing the blog addy to your friends and relatives.
RuarkOUT!

Till the Wheels Fall Off

Garrison, Droll, and me on the roof.

.....So anyways there we were sweating balls on a roof top trying to over watch a road that was known for taking Soldiers lives. We were nearing the end of the mission and from this particular roof top we couldn't really see shit. It was Garrison, Droll and me up there hunkered down within the cover of the walls around the roof. "Fuck it! Just stay down until they call us to exfil. Ain't no use pokin are heads around and gettin hit by a sniper right at mission end." I said reflecting on the week prior and events that had led us to this day that we were supposed to be on refit but were instead nearing the end of a 10 hour bullshit clearing mission.

We were supposed to be on refit this day but actually refit was supposed to have been the day before and on this day of Operation Clear Retardedly was supposed to be our day off. Not for 2nd Platoon Cco. We had come in the previous day after 6 long days of COP. We were in long enough for us to conduct the 3 S's (shit, shower, and shave) pick up laundry eat hot chow. During this time I'm waiting around after completing the list above trying to get my chill on and suddenly I hear WUMP BOOOOOM. Oh well lahahahahlahhah. Then I hear a rocket scream in and explode. I go over to my roomate and I'm like "Ume wake up man incoming!" I run outside and head towards the latrines to make sure no one is in there and is headed to the bunker. BOOOOOOOOOOOOM. Holy fuck that one was close. I stop short and run my ass to the bunker. Everyone from the platoon is in there. A total of 9 rounds hit the FOB during that attack. Just another day in Iraq, shortly after we made sure everyone was ok and started getting ready to head back to the COP. 0300 rolled around and we woke up and made final preparations for the mission. The purpose of the mission was to find an IED cell to Facilitate freedom of movement in AO Ranger. We rolled out and our first objective was a school that insurgents had used to fire at CF (Coalition Forces) along the main road, and also command wire had been found used to detonate IED's and EFP's. We searched the school and the playground (if you could call the trash laden field that). We kicked in a couple of locked doors and popped locks on lockers. Nothing. We didn't find shit. In the distance we could here small arms fire. Bravo company to our flank was already engaged. We moved out to our next OBJ (objective) and began to search neighborhoods and houses. We searched a big ass apartment building which supposedly someone saw a guy grab an AK out of a water container on the roof and hide it. So my men and I moved to the roof and looked. Mental picture- 5 soldiers exposed on a roof checking water containers for a roof in a neighborhood known for enemy Sniper activity. I radio down that its clear and we didn't find shit. Well that just wasn't good enough for the command so they had to come and check. Well buddy if you don't fucking believe me then don't send me and expose my men and I to possible sniper fire not to mention smoke our balls out on the roof. We spent a ridiculous amount of time on this one fucking building and didn't find a damn thing. We actually probably pissed the tenants off and made some more terrorists. We then moved on down the road to the next house. Since we had taken so long pumping the neighbors cat on the apartment building we were now behind the time line. What happens now you ask? Well in order to maintain the time line we rush. The process goes as so- We enter the house and clear the house from bottom to top of possible bad guys get the family into one room and then begin searching the house for evidence of possible anti coalition force activity. Wellllllll once you fall behind the time curve certain Platoon Leaders rush you through. "2-2 you need to hurry up we need to move to the next house!" "Roger Sir!". This shit pisses me off. Instead of trying to do good searches and maybe run the risk of finding some shit now your just bullshitting and quite frankly its a waste of fucking time if were not gonna take the time to really search and find shit then why bother. The men and I have sweated our asses off doing these half assed searches, searched over 500 homes and have found jack shit. During this mission we didn't find shit. I don't know if the other companies found shit but we didn't. In order to facilitate freedom of movement throughout A/O Ranger! 5 days after this big mission actually 2 days ago from the time I post this another Soldier from Bco is killed and 3 WIA. IED in AO Ranger!

Well during the days leading up to the most HOOAH mission ever we did Small Kill Teams, COP security, and Gas Station Babysitting! One particular SKT Droll, Garrison and I were set up on a berm right across the street from an Iraqi Army check point. "Well SSG Ruark why are guys overwatching a road right next to an IA check point?"you ask. Well young grasshopper listen up and I'll tell ya. See the IA are doing such a great job policing their own country that just at the beginning of this month Aco lost a soldier from an IED strike 100m in between to IA towers. Now I've been up in the Towers and you can see a great distance along the road and could possible pop someone a new asshole if they decided to try and dig in along the road side. So anyway we were helping them out without letting them know we were there you dig? Man we layed in the prone there for like 3 fucking hours and let me tell you about laying in the prone with IBA (Improved Body Armor) on for 3 hours. It sucks like slamming your dick in the door, or for the ladies like stubbing your toe. Its getting close to time for us to leave when this nice stray piece of shit dog rolls up on our position and starts barking. BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK. For 20 minutes, then bam-pop. "2-7 this is 2-2 did you just fucking shoot?" "Nope wasn't me." Then again bam dirt flies up 3 feet in front of me and the dog hauls ass. Bam-POP! That time the round flies right over our heads. "2-7 this is 2-2 we are taking fire." I recognize the familiar sound of rounds flying past my face from previous encounters, now we are trying to find out where its coming from. Again the shot passes over. When your being shot at and its close you can here the round breaking the sound barrier as it flies by you. I look and I can't make out any muzzle flashes. A convoy rolls by and the fireing stops. I'm so proud of Droll and Garrison because this is the first time that they had been shot at and I got to be there. I felt like a proud father. I looked back at Droll and said "That shits HOOAH 'eh?" Droll gave me a kinda funny look and shook his head. I'm guessing the IA at the check point may have been suspicious of the dog barking in regards to our location and decided to pop shots at us. They didn't know we were there and we didn't reveal ourselves afterwards. Shortly after we maneuvered back to the trucks and headed back into the COP.

Once again I realize that we are so much more reactive then proactive. We wait till a couple of Soldiers die on the MSR before we set up and over watch it. The shitty thing is, is that the IED or EFP detonations happen within sight of the IA towers, and check points. Even with the over watch we are reminded of how crafty these little bastards are. We assume COP duty and later in the night an IED detonates just down the street from our COP on the MSR and the convoy thats hit shoots wildly into the night. That same spot would blow up again just a day later. Our last patrol day before the mission and our lack of refit, would be going to a gas station and hanging out there for 7 hours to make sure that ACF (Anti Coalition Forces) aren't stealing gas and taking it back to their neighborhoods and selling it for cheap. You have to understand a legitimate gas station in Iraq will have at least a line 2 miles long or longer of people waiting to get gas. The government is trying to cut back on people buying gas and selling it on the roadside like a lemonade stand.

Well this last 6 days kind of blended together we went and did some more gas station action. Which is really fun because you sit in the truck for 7-8 hours and hope nobody has laid any I love you bombs on your egress route. Watch hajj get all pissed off waiting in the sun all day to get gas or kerosene, and drink ice cold waters out of your cooler and try not to fall asleep because just the day before you had COP security and did 24 hours of 3 on 3 off. Its about as much fun as a prostate exam! We ended up the rotation with escorting a General through the market. A market that right before we got here had a VBIED (vehicle born improvised explosive device) detonate on a street corner killing a bunch of people. That was fun. I sweated my ass off really hard there, I got played by a little girl. She was laying on the ground with a bandage on her head with a blanket over her and her mom fanning her so I gave them like 10 bucks. About 10 minutes later and a 100m up from where I first saw them Picard calls out to me "Hey Sergeant you got played!". He then pointed to the little girl and her mother passing me up looking all happy. She smiled at me and all I could do was smile back. "You little shit!" I said.

Today is another refit day but its not. We are heading back out to the COP later on. So we will have done 22 days pretty much straight. HOOAH. Please encourage your house representitive to get us out and send us home if you could be so inclined. Once again Thank you for your support!
Ruark OUT!

Luck Worn Thin

“PATHFINDER MIKE THIS IS PATHFINDER ONE-SEVEN”- the initial call was quick and frantic. I could barely make out the transmission; regardless it made my blood chill and the hair on my neck stand up. “PATHFINDER MIKE THIS IS ONE-SEVEN!” This transmission came across a little more clearly. The urgency in his voice was mixed in with a little fear and sounded frantic. Now time began to slow down. The call was made for Pathfinder Mike a couple times until someone else had to relay. After what seemed an eternity but was actually only mere minutes the communication started to flow more smoothly. “Pathfinder 1-7 this is Pathfinder Mike go ahead.” “WE NEED EVAC NOW- REPORTING ONE CASUALTY GUN SHOT WOUND TO THE FACE DUE TO SNIPER FIRE OVER!” His voice is cracked and urgent almost pleading. “Fuck!” I think it’s happened it finally happened. The worst scenarios are running over and over in my mind. It was mid afternoon and I had just assumed guard duty in an OP on the roof when I heard the frantic call over the Radio. The name of the soldier comes over the radio. This soldier had recently come back from r-n-r. He was home for the birth of his daughter. “HE IS CONSCIENCE HE IS TALKING BUT HE IS BLEEDING BAD WE NEED EVAC NOW!!” The other platoons that were down go into reaction mode. A QRF is mobilized in minutes and they blast out the gate and haul ass to rescue our down comrade. “WE ARE TAKING SMALL ARMS FIRE!” To the guys on the roof watching their man bleed out it must have seemed like an eternity but things were moving rather quickly. “WE NEED TO GET HIM OUT OF HERE NOW!! WE NEED EVAC!!” The QRF reach the location and speed the soldier away to the nearest FOB. From there he is flown to a higher treatment facility. From what we’ve been told he was moved to Germany and is waiting to go home but he is going to make it. The bullet was of small caliber and entered and passed through his neck thankfully missing vital arteries. My good friend who was there told me the incident later, and a long with another good friend who was there this is what happened.

That Platoon was set up in an OP overlooking a road. My friend and the Soldier were talking about what they were going to do when they got home. A shot rang out and everyone hit the ground. My friend looked over to see the Soldier down holding his neck. “FUCKKKKKK” the Soldier yelled. My friend jumped onto and began to administer first aid, reaching into the Soldier’s first aid pouch to put a dressing on the wound. The entry wound was in the neck and it had a solid stream of blood pouring out if it. “Ah fuck!” my friend was thinking. “He got hit in an artery!” That wasn’t the case but I wasn’t there and if I had been in that situation I would’ve thought the same thing. They moved the Soldier down to the stairs and as they exited the building onto the street they began to receive small arms fire. They returned fire, and waited for evac. As they waited my friend noticed that the collar of the Soldiers body armor was frayed. That’s when he noticed the exit wound. He then applied a bandage to the other side of the soldier’s neck. The medevac arrived and sped off with the wounded soldier. The other Soldiers had to wait for the QRF to arrive to leave the sight of the ambush. The QRF pulled up seconds behind the EVAC. The Soldiers then mounted up with the QRF. The command called out that the shot had most likely originated from across the road which was a good 500m. My friend told me he believed it was a ground shot from no more than 50 meters. The thing is we always think that snipers take their shots from a good distance but this is not always the case. Along with this short sightedness we fail to look any closer than 300m so the sniper actually has time to get away. The sniper’s here tend to shoot from ground platforms like vehicles from distances within 50m of the target. Regardless the QRF went to the building in question and cordoned it off and searched the building and came up with nothing.

The rest of the time at the COP went by slowly. We stayed for 5 days this time. The men were tired and miserable. I guess that’s why they call us Grunts. We all knew that what had happened to that Soldier was bound to happen sooner or later. I was wondering myself when our luck was going to run out. It seems like we still have a little left. The incident brought that thought to the fore front of everybody’s minds. When will it happen? Who will it be? All of the other Companies in the Battalion have lost Soldiers. Charlie has been fortunate as of yet. We lost one but not forever he was lucky. I hope that he gets to stay state side with his second lease on life. Though from what I have been told about him he won’t want to. But who knows? We can only hope that Charlie Company can make it through the rest of the deployment unscathed. We all knew the inherent risks of the profession in which we voluntarily chose to perform. Until next time.
RuarkOUT!

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!

Happy Fuckin Birthday

Me and Setz ballin. Hell no we didn't take any the shits worthless anywho. I'd rather use it to put bad guys in jail.

4 out 2 in, a lot of shit can happen in 4 days. I celebrated my 30th birthday during one of those 4 days. It was spent doing 3 on 3 off in a guard tower. At least there was a breeze. My men hooked me up with a piece of birthday cake with a napkin rolled up and set on fire to represent a candle. I snaked out of my birthday ass whipping by telling them I didn’t feel good. I’m not stupid. I’ve been doin this for a while. I noticed that sometimes the 4 days blend together and it is hard for us to distinguish what happened during which 4 day excursion.
On this particular 4 day it started out great. We went out on an actual raid. No soft knock here. I briefed my men on the plan and we rehearsed. We rolled up to the target house dismounted and stacked outside the wall. We beat on the door. No answer. The humvee drove up, my platoon sergeant hopped on the hood to pull security in the court yard. I then hopped on the hood and over the wall and opened the gate. I barely had the gate opened and it was like a dam opening flood gates, my men did as trained and pushed through with weapons at the ready. I jumped back into the stack between my two teams, we moved swiftly across the courtyard to the front door of the house. A military aged male came out of the front door and was greeted by my men yelling “Get the fuck down!” shoving him out of the way and passing him to the breach team who was in charge of detainee ops. We entered the house, cross talking, the #1 man calling out “DOOR FRONT! ROOM LEFT!” I go into traffic directing mode “Alpha take the room front, Bravo lock down the open room to the left. My Alpha team leader calls out “5 women and 1 child comin out!” “Get out MOVE!” I yell. I call out to the detainee team more civilians coming out. Everything is like a choreographed mayhem. It is flowing smoothly. My teams are moving in and out of rooms. “1 up, 2 up, 3 up, ROOM CLEAR! Coming OUT!” “COME OUT!” An old woman is pushed out of a room with a younger lady, she is trying to argue with me, and I’m guessing about giving the younger lady time to put her head dress on. We argue back and forth neither one of us understanding what the other is saying, so I try a different approach, I raise my voice and tone to that of a Marine Corp drill instructor and tell her to get the fuck out and point at the door. She complies and leaves. We clear the 1st floor, and move to the next floor, with that floor clear we move to the roof. I call down house clear. It takes us no longer than 10 minutes to completely clear the home. Now the searching of the house and tactical questioning of the personal found in the house begin. We find large amounts of money, and other evidence. The man we are looking for is not in the house. An explosion shakes the house, I immediately move my men to the roof to find the source of the explosion. It’s an IED that blew up on the Main Supply Route (MSR) about 400m away from us. It was a big one. We go back down and exfil. We hit 3 more homes, no joy. I honestly can’t remember what took place for the rest of the day and night. The next morning we roll into COB security and man guard towers. I turn 30, it’s hot.
Later we are told that the Golden Mosque in Samarra (my old stomping grounds) has been blown up and Moqtada AlSadr is trying to blame the U.S. like it’s our fault. The night is filled with sounds of Apache Gunships shooting and blowing the shit out of something in the distance. I can actually see them firing rockets and bullets through my night vision goggles. It’s pretty far from us though. I see the flames then hear the report seconds later. The next day the Mahdi army is in full swing, attacking Coalition outposts throughout Baghdad. A curfew beginning at 3pm is employed throughout the city. We are told to hunker down and wait for attack. Bring it! What I do know is that taking our patrols off the streets for 24 hours will only give them free rein to employ IED’s throughout the AO. I’ve seen this before its nothing new to the combat vets that have been here before.
Finally it’s our turn to go back out on patrol and come off that gawddamned roof. I tell the boys expect to get blown up today. They ask me how I know. I tell them that 2+2 is always 4. They find 11 IED’s before noon on the MSR adjacent to our sector. I hear reports of fire fights from our sister companies. It seems like AlSadr’s militia are trying to fight from mosques and schools trying to get us to destroy them and then blame us for the destruction of infrastructure. That’s not an official report that’s me analyzing the situation and then again who am I? Later that day we respond to a report that insurgents have fired an RPG at our COB. The RPG was fired from a corner and sailed through one of the positions and impacted safely away from the Soldier manning the OP. We hauled ass to the location of where the RPG was fired. “Dismount!” “Stack up 2nd move!” The gate opened and my Alpha team burst through the gate, an Iraqi man stands between us and the door. “Get the FUCK DOWN!” He is run over and we enter the house. I tell the men you can’t get hung up in the fatal funnel. I realize how good they remember these things as they don’t hesitate and just pummel the man and get through the door. We clear to the top and inspect the home for RPG’s. Nothing. We go through the damn block questioning the residents. Amazingly enough no one has seen anyone shooting RPG’s in front of their homes. Nobody will talk they are afraid of the militia.
After coming up with jack shit, we mount up and roll out. We start heading towards the same road that we got hit on last time. I tell the boys “If I was a terrorist I would hit us here.” 24 hours of no patrols like I said 2+2 is always 4. We make that right turn, 50m from the original blast sight; an explosion ends the silence of the night. Once again the vehicle in front of me is hit. The air is acrid with the smell of explosives and burnt metal. Our view is obstructed by smoke and dust. This explosion was a bit bigger than the last, but not as big as I’ve seen them. My good friend SGT. Murray an Iraqi combat vet was driving for me. He hit the brakes and we immediately put distance between us and the kill zone. “Fucking pussy ass IED” SGT Murray says coolly as he backs the truck up. I go into assessing and calling our sitrep up to the PSG. “This is two-two; we are still mobile backin up!” I then assess my men. “Everyone good?” I run my hands over the gunner to verify he is alright. While all this is taking place we are trying to figure out the status on the vehicle that got hit. The initial report was that they were all good-initial reports are usually wrong. The smoke had cleared and I followed a trail of fluid that veered off to the right where the truck had come to rest. The vehicle that had been hit their radio was hot mic’ed. Which means the transmit button was down. “Gunner! Gunner are you alright! Our gunner is down and he is not moving!” “Calm down and assess the casualty” “He’s not moving- wait he is coming around, I think the blast knocked him out.” We can hear the gunner moan and groan that he is alright. “Put your hands on him and check for bleeding” “He is good, it just knocked him out, he’s good” “Roger!”
We then went into recovery ops and towed the vehicle back in. The vehicle was hit with an EFP. You can Google that I won’t talk about that to much. You can get all the info you need from Google on an EFP. It passed all the way through the engine of the truck. Fuck that. You can have an EFP. I hope never to see one again. Those guys were lucky. Three men within the battalion were not so lucky this month we suffered 9 causalities 3 of them KIA. 6 will never return to duty. Our Alpha Company had some pay back and killed 20+ insurgents in a fire fight. They lost 1 and had 6 WIA. This EFP is the 2nd that our Company has had. One hit 1st Platoon a little over a week ago. Those soldiers only suffered minor injuries and were returned to duty. Our Company has been pretty fortunate and has suffered no KIA or WIA that aren’t RTD.
God bless those soldiers that paid the ultimate price. They gave all for their country.
RuarkOUT!!!

Days of our Lives

I really need to get better at updating but truly there really isn’t shit going on here, furthermore I really don’t know how much I can tell you without violating operation security. Basically what I did was look up certain keywords online to see what’s in the news and what’s not. Wow what a boring opening line so I guess I owe you readers some pictures and exciting stories. Let’s see….
It was another quiet night of patrol. We were rolling down a street that we had rolled down a bunch of times before. Hell we had even walked down this street before. Everyone scanning their area for IED’s and anybody lurking after curfew. An explosion ripped through the night, directly in front of us, a fireball then smoke and dirt engulf the vehicle in front of us hiding it from view. Immediately we clear the kill zone. All vehicles begin calling over the radio and giving status reports, everyone is ok. I check my gunner to make sure he is ok, and he is. I’ve been blown up before when I was here the first time and from experience I know that the IED that detonated on us wasn’t a big one, big ones suck way worse than that especially when they keep blowing up on you on every turn you make. We then observe movement outside the house in which the IED exploded. Myself and another vehicle maneuver on the house. My driver parks the car close to the courtyard wall outside a house nearby and my team and I dismount and hop on top of the hood of the humvee and then over the wall. We knock first; with no answer we begin to kick the door open. It’s a steel door that won’t budge. Fortunately I possess a big muscle head in my squad, he moves to the front of the stack, one kick and the whole door shakes violently and dust comes down off of the frame, the second kick blows the door wide open, he rolls out of the way as the rest of the team enters the team with speed, surprise, and violence of action that they have spent a lot of time training on. We clear the initial home and move to the roof. In Iraq most of the homes are connected or so close you can jump from roof to roof to move to a different home. We moved roof to roof to the target house, and enter from the top down. We meet up with two middle aged men and begin to question them, the windows in their home and car are blown out, and after further questioning it’s quite obvious they didn’t have anything to do with the detonation and they are pretty pissed off about the whole thing. We didn’t find those responsible for the IED and that’s just how it goes. Thankfully no one was injured though. My men performed with the violence of action that we have trained for and reaffirmed my belief that when the shit goes down they will be able to perform their mission as Infantry Men and close with and kill the enemy.
Not all nights are like that though. The other night a woman came to our trucks and apparently their home had lost power so her son went out to the generator to check and see if a wire had become disconnected and had not returned. We think he saw our vehicles and since it was after curfew he bolted. None the less we searched the area and questioned a few people. On the way back to our COB we were stopped by a man whose daughter had diabetes and her blood sugar level was really low and the insulin they had, had spoiled. We went into the house and let our DOC try and help her, the rest of the men in the platoon gave up treats and snacks to help her out. We stayed with her and the family until the Iraqi Police showed up and rushed her to the hospital. We then RTB and chilled out for the rest of the night. If you can call trying to sleep in the muggy heat with no AC chilling out.
So there is a glimpse into the day of the life of 2nd Platoon. That was a fun day. Sometimes they aren’t so fun and filled with home searches in the heat of the day while wearing 60lbs of gear coming off 48 hours of 3 on 3 off guard duty. We spend most of our time in our Company Operations Base (COB) out in sector and occasionally come in to the FOB for a couple days of rest and refit. This is where I get to see the true resilience of our generation. Young men straight out of high school who come into the military and come to Iraq and for the last 5 months endure sleep deprived nights and then move into 24 hours of patrolling pounding energy drinks to stay alert and water to stay hydrated maintaining security to keep themselves but especially their buddies from getting hurt. Snipers, IED’s, and small arms attacks are always a constant concern. When shit goes down they perform with a violence of action that you wouldn’t think the hollow eyed, pungent smelling young men could possess. It’s amazing. Yes I said pungent smelling. Imagine 4 days in 112+ heat no showers and only a change of shirt and socks…. Yummmy.
Thank you for your support and know that even through the negative press you can be assured that my men are out here doing what they got to do and they are good at it. Day in and day out through the heat and exhaustion they drive on. They bitch a little bit but that’s how you know your soldier’s are happy.
Until next time. Ruark OUT!!!!!!

Indulgence

5 months down and what I wouldn’t give for a fucking fat greasy cheese burger. We have cheeseburgers here at the chow hall. But I’m talking about fat ass, fast ass food. Those of you from the valley what do you know about a nice thick old school Effie’s burger. The kind so big it made the bottom bun soggy. But for you, who have no idea about Effies then a fat huge Wendy’s quadruple stack with bacon, I’m talking three bites and you’ll need stints. Or maybe some friggin Taco Time my favorite, the crisp meat burrito with the Taco Time hot sauce. I would eat crisp meat burritos, go to the bathroom throw up, and come back and eat more. Sometimes the food out here is good but other times it straight sucks, and if we are at the COB sometimes they give us some shit that dogs won’t even eat. If I could just go to a drive through and actually at this point I would stop at like 4 or 5 and get a value meal from each and pump that food into my face like it was life support…… No Roo, that’s bad for you its high in cholestoral. A lot of things are bad for you, hmmmm like driving down the street in Iraq. I don’t care man I can see it in front of me grease dripping down the side, ketchup and mayo and cheese squeezing out the sides. A nice fat side of fries, and a cold soda with the condensation on the side of the cup.
I like franchise restaurants as much as anybody, but if you grew up in the valley you can remember when we had only a couple of those. I grew up with the 410 that’s still there and me and my old man roll there every time I’m home to get a 410 burger and an order of curly fries, those greasy, greasy curly fries. I can’t forget Burger Ranch, I love me a ranch burger with some special sauce, once again throw the curlies my way. Anyone recall that Frosty place in Lewiston back in the day? Fazzarris, who doesn’t love that pizza? I don’t think you can be from Lewis Clark Valley and not love that pizza. When I’m in the valley I’m pretty food orientated. I grew up with grandparents and aunts that could cook like no other. The restaurants like BoJacks, and Zany’s, man I love those places. I’ve been around the world and coast to coast and my favorite places to eat are Italy, and home. What I wouldn’t do for some bite size steak, an Effie burger, and a couple crisp meat burritos. Anybody remember going to Taco Time or anywhere with a soda fountain and getting the swamp mix? Speaking of soda fountains what about Adams pharmacy on 6th street in Clarkston and getting phosphates???
Wow now that I’ve worked myself into a rabid frenzy, I guess this post was mostly for my people from the valley. Over 3000 miles away and the best food I’ve ever had lay in a valley where its 2 lane roads to get into and out of. Where you go to fly in and you actually fly over the damn town so you can hit your connect into the little airport. You usually take this shit for granted and I bet that most of you in the valley just drive by these great eateries. When was the last time you had you some bite size steak from BoJacks, or nice greasy cheesy cheeseburger because you’re watching your cholesterol??? When is the last time you indulged? Mine was 5 months ago. So if you go to any of these places send me some pics. I’ll appreciate them. If anybody makes it out to SoCal hit up some of the Alberto or Roberto burrito stands, the best burritos (next to crisp meat) reside in SoCal but that’s a different story.
Well I’m gonna go to chow and I’m expecting something brown runny and not to enticing. Until next time.
Ruark OUT!

Ahhh more new friends, future terrorists, lets hope not.
This was one of the nicest houses that we had searched, I do have more pics of it and maybe will post later.
Pulling guard... Nice little Iraqi machine gun.
Where do they learn this shit?
A couple of Iraqi soldiers in a pretty nice front yard....

NEW PICS!

A couple of little girls going to school wearing there little barbie back packs.
This is 2nd squad 2nd Platoon after a day of COB clean up and throwing eachother into a burned out room....
I decided I wanted to gun that day and it was pretty fun.
A nice little family we met while pulling a blocking position.
A pretty nice pistol we confiscated from a house

In Country!

Here it is I've been in country for about 2 months or whatever. Our Battalion as a whole has only suffered one combat loss. Not from my company though. Some other soldiers in a different company where hurt when their vehicle rolled over. I did watch an engineer die right in front of me due to non combat wounds. When we first got here we did a 12click dismounted movement through one of the sectors near or FOB. It turned out being closer to 18 we walked down a road called dead carcass road where I'm guessing they take the animals they know will die and leave them. I'm talking big ass water buffalo just laying there rotting to nothing. We pulled a security halt there and I made my men get in the prone next to rotting carcasses. Talk about dicipline. We recently moved into our Company Operations Base COB. I call it the Death Star because all I think about is when Vader's commanders tell him that the "Death Star is nearly fully operational." Inside joke I guess. Nothing to much to report though. the 2nd day we were there I heard gunshots after I put my guys up on the roof to pull security I ran up and we made a premature determination we were being shot at from a building adjacent to ours. We put together an ADHOC squad due to everyone pulling security and went and raided the building. It started out cool enough. We kicked in the gate took down the 2 very old guards, searched their room, went to the main office which was secured by a heavy wooden door. It took 2 shots of 00 buck from a sawed off 12 gauge and a kick from a very large Samoan to break the door in. Nothing behind door #1 lets move on. This was fun until about 4 or 5 doors later and about 3 floors of up and down steps trying to get to the roof. Then it turned gay. Whatever we hit the roof searched, dry hole. Our patrols are filled with knock and searches and I've been surprised at the number of christians we are running into. On easter I searched a vehicle and the guy was like happy Easter and in the trunk he had Easter stuff for his kids.
Whenever we search a neighborhood we maintain inner and outer security and by doing this the kids come out and beg for stuff. Chocolata, money, water, or the #1 request football. "Meester give me football." I won't even be standing next to the truck and they will ask me for the football. Kid look at me where am I hiding this thing in my ass? Occasionally we will pass out candy and stuff and it will turn into a mob seen. Even after they see us pass out all the shit they are convinced we have more and will not go away. These are the fuckers that get on my nerves. Some of the kiddies are pretty good and watch from the safety of the courtyards or their front doors. I entered one house where there was like 8 kids in there and they looked pretty scared. I have one of my squadmembers carry the "Goodybag" it has toys and candy and stuff in it. This being the last house I just emptied the bag. They didn't come runnin though. We when we left I heard them dash for the stash. We have been giving them english lessons though and teaching them songs. Its pretty funny. Most of the kids love us. They come to the sides of the streets chanting for us to throw them chocolata and footballs. Oh ya and pencils. Meester give me pencil. Other than that not to much going on that I really would like to voice my opinion on anywho.
Thank You to all of you who send e-mails, letters and care packages. They are all very much appreciated. It hasn't got hot yet but it will soon. Can't wait. It definitely is warming up though. One day I think I climbed at least 800 steps. Most Iraqi homes are 2 stories with access to the roof. Have to tell you this though. We enter a home and this guy comes to the door in his tightie whities and white stalkings around his legs. Apparently this jack ass set himself on fire some how. He was fucking crazy to boot. Great photo op though and hopefully soon I will start posting some pictures and stuff.
My oldest daughter wrote a poem about me which was read on fox news and posted on their website. I don't have the link on hand but I think my beloved wife sent the link out to most of the Family.
Well Iraq smells like complete shit and in some neighborhoods they have little shit trenches dug and the sewer just goes right out side. It is quite nice to walk in this grey sewer matter. Life at the COB is good we shit into 50gal drums and burn em when they get full. We have a nice MKT out there complete with cooks. You can imagine how tasty those meals are. Well if there is more shit you'd like to know feel free to e-mail me. I'm sure this post was dry and uninteresting not intentional I think maybe just my mood. Thank you again for all the support.
Semper Fi!
Roodawg OUT!

Direction?

I was thinking what direction I'm taking this whole thing. In seriousness as a place to vent or informative as letting folks know back home about whats going on. I reread my last post and realized I don't want to come in here and go off on a tangeant and spew things about my day that made my v------a hurt. So changing subjects rapidly. Now that I have the BLOG up and running again I want to congradulate (my spelling is horendous but I'm limited with time) my cousin Angie on her first baby! That was pretty cool. My lil bro serving in the gan is getting ready to have one to. 2007 year of the baby I guess. Yes I'm still in Kuwait leaving very very soon for the land of raw sewage and car bombs. One of the shitty things about blogging is that you can't give up to much info cuz your enemy reads these things too. I limited I guess to the things that I can tell you. There is a lot of shit I don't tell you only because I know family reads this and I don't want anybody to be upset. I guess mostly what I tell you is about when I have runny butt or the crud or whatever. I would like to keenly spew rethoric about my feelings on this great Odyessy but the powers that be would cinch my coin purse up and hang me by it.
Its funny how deployments go, because Soldiers are the same on everyone. Already our bantor and shit talking and momma jokes have reached new levels. The spades competions and eyeing of potential partners has taken place. New technology has found its place. Last time I was here only a couple people had laptops, PSP's and IPODs. Now pretty much everyone has somesort of MP-3 player, and hand held gaming device, even myself have been blessed with the Sony's PSP, and Apples IPOD. I have over 3,000 songs in that sucker to keep me busy for awhile. The resident computer genius Crookston is in my squad and can hack and burn just about anything with a CPU. I'm proud to say that I have Every single Legend of Zelda from NES, to super nintendo on my PSP.
I'm also reading a book called Gates of Fire about the Spartans. I'm not done yet but so far its a pretty bad ass book.
I apologize if the posts seem a little bland but fear not faithful followers (if there are any) they will ramp up once I get into country and I will let you hear the true filth of what you all know me so well as to spew forth.
In closing I would like to say thanks for reading and they will get better. I'm just in a rut right now in Kuwait as nothing to interesting has happened, well besides PFC Baumgartner drinking a bottle of Soy sauce for 50 bucks. That wasn't inspired by me.
Ok times
up
love you
Ruark OUt!

Back again

Originally I started this blog when I was here the first time. I haven't really wrote in it for awhile so I figured I would start up again. I'm in Kuwait for the second time at the same place I was the first time. Once again I've contracted the Kuwaitey crud, a wicked sinus infection that makes me feel like my left side of the face should blow out the side. Things that I really disliked are brought back to my attention full boar now that I didn't think about before. I miss my family thats a given, but what really pisses me off is using the porta johns. Once again no flushable toilets for a year. Usually when you have to piss real bad in the night you just get up and walk down the hall to pee. Here you have to put your shoes on your pt belt, your eye pro and run to the porta jon, come back and fall asleep. It wouldn't be bad if I didn't keep doing this an hour before I had to wake up. I'm here about the same time of the year I was last time, so its cold in the mornings and evenings and really nice during the day. They have given me more unecessary gear that really hinders my ability to move and ways me down and will most likely make me hotter than shit when the temp starts creeping up around 120. The base has expanded adding more PX's and chow halls and eatery's they actually have a chinese food joint here which is pretty wild, its actually pretty good. The internet is pretty slow again but hey they get their 5bucks out of me. It won't matter in a few days I guess when I cross the border again into Iraq. I have a really good squad, and platoon, the guys are young but excited and willing to learn. Shit I mean who wouldn't it only means their lives. I would try to upload some pics but like I said the computer is enough to make me freak out and start juggling moniters and stuff. Oh ya and another thing that annoys me is that we have to go in buddy teams to the creature features which means you really cant go out and stay on the computer or fone for hours at a time incase your buddy gets done early or what ever.
Hopefully I will end up getting a laptop or something which will make posting these a little easier. I'm kinda writing on the fly and under time contstraint and I don't know wether I should keep it raw as in before with all the colorful langauge that an Infantryman usually speaks or hold back and keep it respectful and clean for the family. If thats the case you will probably miss out on some of the rotten humor that goes on over here. Which is what keeps one sane. Thats why I chose a porta potty for its graffitti and not its cleanliness. I'd rather be entertained than having a clean bum. I can always wipe it off when I go.
I really apologize for the blandness the computer took forever to bring up the page. So send me your quirks and comments what you want to hear and what you don't.... I will try to post pics on here but for the most part you can see them at www.myspace/truark.com I think is the link. Comments and concerns can be directed here or to my e-mail. E-mail me if you know it.
Ok I got some folks waiting on me so now that I remember my password I will try to write better and more next time.
AngryAmerican
OUT!