Super MOM

My wife wrote this blog on her MySpace so I thought that I would share it with you. Its not so much a glimpse into the average day of the Army Wife but just like out here not everyday is an average day.



Sophisticated Dance Productions

So...We went to Kansas City this past weekend so the girls could dance in a competition. I have to admit, I always seem to get so stressed out and I worry that they will fall on stage, or get scared and run off (well, I worry about our youngest daughter getting scared anyway...we all know the oldest girl isn't afraid of getting in front of people and doing her thing..lol).

Well let me tell you all- it was one of the most stressful competitions yet. You all know Tristan is still in Iraq so of course I made yet another trip to a competition alone. (My mom did fly in from Florida to help with our son, but the dance stuff still gets left up to me!) We arrived in KC on Friday night and by the time dinner was over, the boy had a fever...of course. What would an already stressful weekend be...without a sick three year old? I basically prayed that the girls wouldn't get sick before Sunday and we went on with the weekend.

The girls have been trying very hard to save their money that they earn so on Saturday, I took them to the mall for some real shopping! In case you don't know..we don't exactly have the greatest shopping in the Kansas area! It was a long exhausting day, but they both some how managed to spend all of their hard earned cash....and their Dad's too! lol

The night however, seemed to be less successful. Our son was up almost the entire night crying with a fever and I was so tired and stressed the next morning I almost skipped the whole damn competition and drove home! Okay- I wanted to go home, but I always say those things and never really do it! I'm pretty much a push over when it comes to my kids!

Imagine- a blizzard....a three year old with a fever...no sleep...hair...makeup...costumes....lots of props to transport in the blizzard... don't forget dropping half the props in the mud....and......another sick kid...my seven year old dancer who was supposed to dance her very first solo on stage in approximately one hour...ya- wasn't exactly the enchanting morning I had prayed for.

I told her she didn't have to dance (even though there would be no refund on the funds....:(, but my little princess pulled it off anyway!

Our youngest daughter danced her very first solo, Broadway Banana, not long after showing us all what she had for breakfast in the parking garage and wouldn't ya know it? She won a Platinum Award...and even won...get this...THE TITLE!!!!!!! She won overall high score for the age category of 4-8yrs and she got a trophy half as big as she is! She also won a beautiful purple sash and fifty bucks! When they called her name, I cried...I couldn't believe that she won after all the throwing up and every thing! I was the proudest Mommy in the whole theatre!

Our oldest daughter did awesome also! She won a Platinum Award for both of her solos, Letters From Daddy, and New York, New York! She also received two special awards...The Liza Minelli Award and The Tribute Award for her lyrical for Daddy! She got second runner up for the Jazz (9-10yr old) Division and I swear she was beaming for her sister when she won...even though most of the time she pretends to hate her!

My girls made me so proud this past weekend and I have never felt so excited for them. I can't believe my youngest daughter is getting so big...and what a trooper! Our oldest daughter never ceases to amaze me with her spirit and pizazz! Although the weekend started out to be the worst weekend ever...it ended on a positive note, that I'm sure none of us will ever forget! My little Liza and my Broadway Banana....I am so proud!

Only one thing could have made it better.....Daddy. We love you and we miss you! These were for you! We can't wait to see you! xo, "your 3 girls"

PS. Thanks to Miss Samantha for these awesome dances and the love for dance she instills in all of her students! I am so thankful to you for being the first.....and our constant! Thanks also to Miss Jewel for letting us use the studio and to our Studio J Family for taking us in...we love you and miss you lots!

Leisurely Stroll

We made a turn on the road just before the one we were about to walk on. A bright spot light from a tank signaled the lead vehicle to stop. The unit in front of us was "interrogating" a possible IED. Communication between our convoy and theirs told us it would a moment until the EOD team planted a charge on the possible IED and detonated it in place. 30 minutes went by and we got the 5 minute warning. Some of us broke out our cameras and begin to video hoping to catch the explosion. I held mine up to my night vision believing I would film the bright flash. I stopped taping for a minute to conserve memory space on my camera and wouldn't you know it they blew that fucker. It was a pretty lack luster explosion and we weren't able to see a damn thing.

The IED defeated we pressed on and faced down one of the deadliest routes in all of Iraq. We were given the word to dismount. D-Roll and myself left the comfort of the humvee (if you can call it that) and moved up to the rest of the dismounted element. The road was deserted since it was sometime after curfew. The air was cool and crisp with a hint of burning in the air, a combination of many things burning, trash, tires and whatever burns in the wee hours of an Iraqi morning. We posted up to the sides of the road in some meager hope that we would be able to spot an IED before it detonated on our exposed bodies or vehicles. For some strange reason I feel safe outside of the truck than I do in it. Technically we (the Company) have never actually seen an IED before it has detonated, during my last trip here I never saw an IED unless it exploded. Where we get the idea that we are going to see them, I have no fucking clue. I have seen the devastation an IED can create, I've seen it a couple of times. I've felt the heat and the power from 155mm artillery rounds, and various sized EFP's. I try to keep my mind from drifting into the realms of what one might do detonated on a lonely exposed soldier. I focus on the ground around me and the surrounding rooftops. I forgot to mention that this stretch of road is known for its RPG's and precision small arms fire.
I try my best to put in perspective and make sense of what we are doing, but it doesn't. I try to come to some common ground and recall the old addage- "Is it worth the loss?" No matter how I try to trick myself into agreeing with the logic behind this mission I can't. It doesn't matter though, we've been walking for about thirty minutes now. The silence is broken by packs of dogs barking at us, and that spreads down to the full length of our convoy. We only cover a couple of klicks and cross over. We dip into the familiar muhallahs of our sector and cruise back to the COP still weary of the possible EFP threat. We know that no route is safe as we've been hit in residential neighborhoods before. Its always the same, we get back into the vehicle and bitch about the mission we just performed but as we get closer to the COP the chatter becomes silent as our senses become accute to every abnormality in the road around and area around us, until we are safely behind the closed gate of the COP.
Another day down, another day like so many other days when we've done the same or similar thing in a few days we will forget about which time it was that we walked down some stretch of road devining for bombs. It will all become a tangled memory of our trip to Iraq. If everyday is groundhogs day then we only one more day to go. One day at a time hoping and praying for nothing to happen between now and the one day that won't be groundhogs day that will find us on a bird in Kuwait.
DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!

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!!!!!

A Transmission from the Death Star

The Death Star is now fully operational, due to being busy as fuck and walking down major IED laiden thorough fares I have not had time to really sit down and BLOG. Once I get back to the FOB I will sit down and let you know all about the serious fucking dumb shit we've been upto, I'll post some pics and all of that fun stuff.
Life here isn't really to bad we have some new ammentities like showers, and this high speed MWR room with really fast internet and phones and such. The food is a l0t better though it wasn't tonight because we had pizzaghetti what ever the hell that is. All I know is that very soon I'll be able to shit through a straw. We still have the old wooden shit houses which are a far cry better than porta johns. Its not as hot as hell right now (which by the way thats where the Spear's mother is gonna burn because of her piss poor parenting) so its not to bad. We still burn poo though I haven't had a turn yet but hopefully its coming soon. The gym is still a little shabby but I think were close to 60 days now so that shouldn't be to much of a problem. SHOWERS we have showers out here now. Water is limited so you have to conserve water so I'm conserving I took a shower about 3 days ago when we stopped at the FOB for about 3 hours of sleep so my uniforms a little crispy but not full blown stand up by itself. Well give me a couple days and I'll let you know all the juicy details of the drama that has unfolded in the last couple of days. Stay tuned and I'll talk to ya later.
DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!!!!

Laid to Rest

Duncan was laid to rest on Febuary 2nd in Denver. The Denver Post covered the service. The Patriot Guard was out in full effect. I have never been to a service in the states, my wife has gone and she said that the support from the Patriot Guard is amazing. These Patriots provide escorts for Soldiers, and Marines coming home to be laid to rest and there show of force from what I understand is awe inspiring. I received a comment in Rest In Peace Crookston from Nightsapper and he said-

"Snowed 2 inches overnight - fresh white blanket on the ground. Cleared off for sunny blue sky for the funeral and cemetary. Clouded up afterwards. Just shows that God looks after His own.Patriot Guard Riders, VFW and Legion all there. No protesters.Your bro and his family & friends were well looked after by us Veterans there and along the way. We got your back, here in Colorado.CTM and get home safe as you can.Hooah"

I have read about the vast amount of supporters that came out to show their respect for fallen hero's such as Murray, Lane and Shelton. Theresa who is a friend of Duncan's aunt posted a comment and it painted a picture for me of the many people who came out to show respect and support for the fallen hero, forever 19 of Denver Colorado.




I attended Duncan's funeral today in Denver. I did not know Duncan but his aunt is a dear friend of mine and we are members of the same church. I thought you might want to know about the funeral.You could tell it was a military funeral from a block away. An honor guard of grizzled Vietnam-era veterans lined the walks leading into the main entrance, standing at attention and holding large American flags. They wore biker outfits and jackets or vests with their military patches on them. These war-torn soldiers had come to honor one of their fallen sons. I had to stand at the edge of the walkway for a few minutes to collect myself, it was so moving.As I entered the foyer, there was another honor guard of young soldiers standing in a line in the hallway. They were there to escort the casket into the chapel.The chapel was at capacity so the overflow area into the gymnasium was opened up. They clearly did not expect so many to attend because 15 minutes before the funeral was to begin, men were unfolding extra chairs. Ultimately, they filled even the stage at the back of the room and guests were standing in the halls and at the edges of the room. I would guess there were more than 800 people in attendance.Duncan's mother is an animal control officer for the city of Lakewood. Scattered throughout the audience were not only her fellow uniformed animal control officers, but Lakewood police and fire department officers. There were also officers from Denver and from the Sheriff's department, and many, many military personnel.Most of the speakers at the service were fellow church members who knew Duncan. In fact, I sat next to someone from my own ward who had been Duncan's Young Men's advisor a few years ago. I was touched that each of the special speakers was, himself, a former soldier who had seen combat. One had even been injured in Iraq within the last three years.They read the letters that you have posted on this blog, from you, his Staff Sergeant, and from his mother. They also read a letter from the Chaplain at the hospital in Fort Sam Houston and from Duncan, himself, written to his wife two days before he was injured.His wife spoke. As I listened to her, I was struck by how she was just an ordinary person who, in the last five months, blossomed into an extraordinary young woman. Her husband was so horrifically injured that the nurses had to warn each of his visitors, and even battle-worn visitors were shocked at his condition. And yet Meaghan stayed by his side every day for five months and spoke of how she fell in love with him all over again every time she walked into the room.Her cousin spoke briefly, telling about how they used to set up a baby monitor to listen to Meaghan talk to Duncan on the phone, and how they lost track of how many times she said, "Babe, I love you".I was touched by the constant evidence of Duncan's courage. Clearly, through the trials of the last five months, when his fight for life left his body shaking as he struggled for each breath, even when he was asleep, this young man grew into someone not just heroic but divine. His aunt told me, privately, that his family felt like he had promised to come home to his wife, and he did. They knew that his chances were very slim and felt like the last five months were given to them to embrace one another and to say goodbye.Duncan's influence will be felt throughout this generation. I am only one of many who is a better person for having prayed for him and shared, however distantly, in his passing.Bless you,Teresa in Colorado

Deuce Deuce OUT!!



Memorial Guest Books to pay your Respects to Duncan

Denver Post

Legacy

F-U-C-K-E-D A-G-A-I-N

Hello, readers! Do you want to sing the 2nd Platoon Punishers song today? Whats that? You do, well thats nifty! I'm going to teach you how and then I want you to sing it outloud in front of your computer so everyone in your house or office, or where ever your at can hear. Does everyone know the old Mickey Mouseketeer song? You know the one M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. You know it? Good now hum it out a little bit get it into your head ok now to the same tune the 2nd platoon song goes a little something like this.



COME ALONG LETS SING THE SONG OF WHAT THE DID TO YOU AND ME



F-U-C-K-E-D A-G-A-I-N

FUCKED AGAIN

FUCKED AGAIN

FOREVER THEY WILL POUND OUR BUTTHOLES DRY- DRY-DRY!



and then you just repeat. It only has one verse but its pretty sufficient I would say. Now readers whenever you feel like your getting fucked over you can sing the Punisher song too.



Here I sit in my room where my heater decided to give up and quit strangely enough after hajj came in and cleaned it. Its cold enough to see my breath and the folks at the mayor cell said that the maintenance was routine so it would probably be a while. If my shit don't work tonight guess who else's shit ain't working tonight? I'll be doing some black ops so don't tell anybody.

Back to the opening with the Punisher song thats because today this very Saturday that I write to you we were supposed to be in the Green Zone, we were supposed to have left yesterday. Right now we should be in civilian clothes freezing our asses off in the pool and eating decent food. We are supposed to be at freedom rest where all the other platoons got to go. Then from there we were supposed to be able to go to Liberty and get motorized turrets put on our humvee's and that would have been Oprah Winfrey tits because Liberty has a giant PX and Taco Bell and Burger King, Popeyes Chicken, and a fucking Pizza Hut. We would've been out of old Rusty for about 6-7 days....... But NOOOOOOOOOO! Apparently a couple of the terrorist groups and or organizations, don't want to realize that the surge is working and have decided to come out and play and bomb the fuck out of some shit. With this comes the reasoning that its to dangerous for our platoon to go on freedom rest. They must not realize that I will face a thousand IED's to eat a BURRITO SUPREME, if anything is worth danger or fighting for I say let it be a WHOPPER, A BURRITO SUPREME, POPEYES CHICKEN AND A FUCKING MEAT LOVERS FROM PIZZA HUT. Now the terrorists have done fucked up Deuce Deuce can't get his fast food fix that he was looking forward to, stay in your homes militia men for my hunger and lust of some Nacho's and Burger King fries have been directed towards you and I will have my Flame Broiled Jihad against you and all who stand in the way of me and high cholesterol. I've also just watched RAMBO 4 multiple times so now your really fucked! Bitch!

Ladies and gentlemen of the blogosphere not to be out done by getting the big green weenie on some freedom rest, our last 2 months here will be spent at our Luxurious COP that we had relinquished to the terds from 3rd ID. HURRAY!!!! In all the infinite wisdom of the big Army since shit went south they think that since when we were in charge of that area and it was all good then terd took it over and it went shitty. [ Not that I'm bitching because some units have been in the COP for the whole 15 months just about.] Maybe they see that on their map somewhere but its been my experience, and mind you I do not have a college education and I can barely remember high school and this is my own poorly educated opinion, but- its been my experience that the violence is somewhat seasonal, in Samarra back in 05 I remember at least 3 offensives big ones being done to retake the city, the same in Baquba, the same in Fallujah, and Mosul. The units go there claim that the big bad man has been defeated and then a couple months later Violence in a bad way sparks up. Its on the web man you can read about this shit. Hey but when the unit goes home the big speech is "We were responsible for bringing stability to the region." The unit that took the place over for you when they get home they say the same shit. I don't have the answers and maybe I'm way off on this one but hey thats my 2 cents.

So anywho its back to the Death Star and from what I understand its now "Fully Operational."

I'll leave you with this a bored video by Garrison, the same soldier that brought some of you the beaver dance.

ENJOY!

DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!

P.s. Dont forget your Punisher song.
PSS I apologize for the spelling and grammatical errors as my spill chack duznt werk 4 sum reesin.

Good Lookin' Out

The day after the memorial we suited up and rolled out the gate for one of our infamous 'meetings'. Right before we rolled out we caught word that on the route we take to get there some local nationals chased away some undesirables that were apparently digging a hole in the road for a nice fat bizomb. Well EOD rolled out and cleared the area. After that our alert was even higher than it usually is. I was scanning looking at everything hoping that I would be able to identify an IED before it identified us, which usually isn't the case. Needless to say pucker factor was high. We made it to the 'meeting' sans explosions. Minutes later after arriving we recieved a call that Delta Company had been hit at one of the places we had just driven past, only minutes before. We had driven past that same fucking spot, the exact same fucking spot, only minutes before. As we sat at the meeting my gunner Hannibal heard several more explosions in the vicinity. As we prepared to leave we heard a huge explosion that vibrated through the vehicles and it had exploded about 600m from our position. This explosion had also happened at a place where we drove past. We rolled out with seats sucked up our ass's in pucker factor 10. We made it back to the FOB without incident but it was a pretty tense drive. Thank god no one was killed from Delta Company, the information that I've heard has been conflicting on his injuries and as far as I know only involved his foot and the soldier is stable.

I woke up this morning not looking forward to the task at hand. Especially more so when I found out 3 more IED's had hit random units during the early morning hours. Oh boy!!! Well we rolled on out in search of some people doing something bad- supposedly. We found some random weapons, and encountered the same old story- "No, misster, no Militia we are all good great gravy, nothing is wrong......etc....etc....etc". I definitely was feeling like I was making a huge difference. I got to talk to an LN and I asked him some questions that I had about the Jaish Al Mahdi in my never ending quest to know my enemy. He told me that the JAM is over 600,000 strong. This isn't the first time I've been told this by ISF. But like everyone else when you start asking about the JAM they get mum real quick.

All together it wasn't a bad mission, and from my point of view we didn't accomplish shit but I'm sure on somebody's report it will be a huge hit. I went to a class on how to speak to the locals and they told us to not threaten them. The reason for this is that they don't give a fuck. Especially the Shiia after being oppressed by the Baathist party for so many years, they know that there isn't a damn thing that we can do to them that would even equal some of the atrocities that Sadaam commited towards them. Hey maybe threats from us work on some but for the majority we are just wasting our breath. Confused? You probably are but I can't tell you any more without saying too much as we've discussed before. I apologize its not that I want to but I know you understand.

The culmination of the night is when some LN's approached us and said they had found a grenade on their roof and they believed that someone had thrown it on there to get rid of it. We had some National Police (ISF) rolling with us so they went to go and investigate. They found the grenade and a bayonet and when they went to search some surrounding houses the arrested a guy where they found him to have a bunch of different style military uniforms and some body armor. The grendade turned out to be a US issued flash bang. The NP's took the guy in and we rolled out. Here I sit writing to you so everything worked out hunky dory.

I have this strong feeling that the guys from 2-1 were looking out for us yesterday we dodged 2 fucking IED's thats just to crazy to be coincidence. We looked hard to find anything in the road. It's just that they are hard to find, and unfortunately somebody else found them the hard way. No deaths as far as I know though.

Well I hope that my posts from here on out are as boring and bland as this one is. To make up for it here is a little vid that someone threw my way from a MySpace bulletin. Its Montel Williams representing the Soldiers on FOX news.



DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!!!!!

Goodbye

2nd Platoon will never forget.
2nd squad says goodbye we miss you.

Davis and Rod will never forget.


In a somber mood this morning we slogged our way through the mud on our way to the chapel. We made our best attempts to kick the mud off at the door and took our seats to bid farewell to a friend that had fought so hard for so long. In the wake of Duncan's passing memories of September 4th were brought to the forefront of our thoughts. Mixed feelings about what if this and what if that.


We settled in our seats and waited for the rest of the battalion and special guests to arrive at the chapel. For the most part I kept my face burried in my memorial pamphlet staring at Duncans picture, and reading his bio over and over. All of us did. The memorial began by sad songs playing to a slide show of pictures of Duncan that members of the platoon had put together. You could feel and hear the emotion build in the hearts of second platoon, grown men fought back tears, and many unsuccessful. Shortly after we regained our composure as the Chaplain brought us to our feet and the National Anthem was performed. The chaplain delivered the invocation, and the scripture reading. We seated in silence as our battalion commander took the podium and spoke about Duncan, and how he had went to see him at BAMC during his leave, my throat lumped up as he spoke about giving Duncan his Commendation medal and Combat Infantry Badge.


Our company commander got up and spoke on Duncans behalf. Through this everyone was alright. LT Hart spoke about his RTO and reminded us of differences and similarities of their nature. His voice broke as he read a part of the letter that Duncan's mother had sent out, and as his voice broke ours did as well. Next SPC Davis spoke about his friend. Duncan and Davis had become close during the deployment, and we learned of Duncan's desire to be in the military at an early age, we were reminded of Duncan's intelligence and stubbornness, his caring, and his will to fight and carry on. We were given a small glimpse into Duncan's life and how he eventually married his childhood sweet heart, a woman that was unbending in her devotion to Duncan and stayed by his side until the end.


Any attempt to remain stoic had left my control and I cried, I was not alone. Next SPC Hughes Duncan's fellow RTO and talked about his friend and battle buddy. He reminded us of Duncan's wit and warm friendship, as he talked about watching LOST episodes and Duncan giving Hughes a techno beat and Hughes said "What am I supposed to do with that?" Duncan simply replied, "Well you rap don't ya?".


Final roll call was conducted, and after 3 times of Duncan's name being called followed by an eery silence, the firing squad conducted their salute, it was crisp and clean, all rifles firing as one, and you could barely make out the commands from outside. Then TAP's began to play. Anytime I ever here that played I will remember always the men killed on September 4th and the man that fought so hard to stay alive. I will never be able to hear TAP's played without welling up. I'll remember Randy and his huge smile, David and his goofyness, Joel and his dry humor, and Duncan and his technical prowess. Those traits are only the tip of the iceberg.


2nd Platoon says goodbye to Duncan, inspired by his will to fight, devastated by his body's inability to carry him through it. We all thought that we would get to see him again. I know I did. One day we will. For now 2-1 has an RTO to overwatch from the OP in the sky.


You will never be forgotten.


Deuce Deuce OUT!

Memorial Photos

2-1 Remembers.
2-6 Crookstons crew.
PL and the PSG
Goodbye brother.

Rest In Peace Crookston

Yesterday evening, Duncan Crookston passed away. He had been severely wounded in the EFP attack that had killed, Joel Murray, David Lane, and Randy Shelton, and had also wounded Joseph Mixson. When Duncan was evaced that night they had told us that he wouldn't make it through the night. He fought hard for 5 months, he had the Doctors at BAMC perplexed.

Duncan had come to my squad late in the year in 2006 right before we deployed to Iraq. The first time I met him everyone was like you gotta check this guy out he is the smartest dude ever. I walked down to one of the barracks room where he was hanging out and watched this kid complete a Rubix Cube in under 56 seconds. His knowledge of computers, and iPODs and PSPs and electronics were unchecked in the platoon, if you had a computer problem you called Duncan, you wanted games on your PSP, take it to Duncan, right before we left I had to have him come and fix my home PC because my wife couldn't get online to do her home work for college. Because of his technical prowess he was moved to the Radio Telephone Operator position in the Platoon. That pissed me off because I knew that Duncan was a good Soldier and I hated losing him. Over all it was the best decision because he was the most qualified Soldier for the job.

Duncan was many things to a lot of people. He was a son, friend and husband to a woman that stayed by his side the whole time he was at BAMC. My heart and prayers go out to her and Duncans family. He is definitely a hero, and a warrior. You fought so hard Duncan now you can be at peace. You made an impression and impact on all those whose paths your life crossed, we will remember your humor, your caring, your genius, and the bread you used to make with your bread maker. Anytime anyone picks up their PSP, or iPOD or opens a program that you got for them on their computer, they will always think of you and remember that no matter what you were always willing to help them. I will remember the Fedalayah water. Just a drop.

I know that when he went that Murray, Lane and Shelton were waiting for him, and because God called for him there isn't any better group of guys that he could be with.

Duncan will be missed but Never Forgotten.

Here is a letter that his mother sent out to us to better tell you about the battle that Duncan fought.

Dear Friends and Family,It is with great sadness I write to you today - Duncan passed away at 3:346 p.m. today after the decision was made to stop heroic measures. Duncan developed another infection over the past two days, the effects of which were causing him a great deal of pain and causing him to run a fever of 108* F overnight. The doctor who treated Duncan said he had never heard of anyone surviving such a high fever, and that normally the body did not allow itself to sustain such a high temperature for even 15 minutes, let alone the 2 hours Duncan suffered with it. The doctor said it was an indication the hypothalamus of the brain, which regulates body temperature, was damaged. He also advised us even though Duncan survived, he would have permanent and widespread brain damage that would eventually cause his organ systems to fail, and that his kidneys were already dialysis dependent, and he was quickly becoming ventilator dependent. Meaghun and I were asked to make a decision, and we chose to allow Duncan to die a dignified and peaceful death, so he was given a morphine drip and taken off the ventilator. He died about 45 minutes later surrounded by his beautiful wife, his mother, his battle buddy Joe Mixson and the hospital chaplain he had come to know during his stay. It is the closest thing to a "good death" one could ask for a young man who fought so hard and long, only to have the limits of his body betray him. Once we knew there was no chance of any sort of quality of life, we felt we could not ask this brave young man who lived life to its fullest to spend his remaining days hooked to machines with no chance of recovery.Words cannot express the gratitude we feel towards all those who offered support and prayer to Duncan and our families during the past 5 months. We can take away from this experience the knowledge that good people exist in this world, that evil is worth fighting or that reason, and Duncan was a proud example of a good person who did not stand by and allow it to flourish by doing nothing. Duncan would have been 20 years old tomorrow - he will be forever 19 now, and forever missed.Love, Lee Crookston

Engaging the Populace

I found this posted up around the area and I had to post it because its true of going out and talking to the Iraqi people. Some of it I think is that maybe our conversations get lost in translation between the Iraqi and the Interpreter, but it happens so often like after an RPG was fired at our COP no one in the area had heard the rocket launched. This is a no bullshit conversation between a Platoon Leader (PL) from one of our sister platoons, and a Local National (LN)

PL: Good afternoon.
LN: Hello hello.
PL: Do you mind if I ask you some questions about the mosque?
LN: Yes, yes there are a lot of people who go there to pray.
PL: Thanks, does this mosque broadcast a message to the area on Fridays?
LN: Yes it does, it is Shiia mosque so every Friday around 1215.
PL: It's 1230, did it broadcast a message today?
LN: Umm no, but it should soon.
PL: Ok, thanks, so last week it gave a message?
LN: No, I don't think this mosque gives messages.
PL: But I thought you just told me it should broadcast a message soon?
LN: What? NO. What mosque I don't know of any mosque around here.
PL: (Pointing to the mosque 100ft away) That mosque right there.
LN: I don't see a mosque.
PL: Is this guy serious?
RTO: I don't know?
PL: Sir, do you see that building, it has a dome and two huge blue and purple towers right in front of you... That MOSQUE?
LN: Oh wow, I've never seen that before, it must be new.
PL: So....
LN: I mean I'm new to the area I don't know anybody.
PL: You just told me a lot of people go to that mosque.
LN: What mosque?
PL: Ok, thanks for the help, I'll see you later.

We don't make this shit up. Seriously. Thank you to the PL from the sister platoon for relaying the info.
DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!

Ashura

The last couple of days have found us pretty busy. Today we were able to take a break and tend to maintenance with the vehicles and other annoying shitty admin things that have to be taken care of. The Iraqi's are celebrating Ashura right now. I don't know if celebrating is the right term, maybe morning the Ashura. Essentially the Ashura is "a major festival, the tazia (ta'ziyah). It commemorates the death of Husayn (also spelled Hussein), son of Imam 'Ali and grandson of Muhammad, on the 10th of Muharram, AH 61 (October 10, 680), in Karbala, Iraq. The event led to the split between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, and it is of central importance in Shia Islam. " Like any Iraqi holiday the streets and Mosques are decorated with the colors of Islam, Green is Islam, Red is Sacrifice, White is Purity, and Black being Martyrdom.

The beginning of our balls to the wallage, started by going out and taking pictures of billboards, to make sure that their were not any anti-ISF, or coalition sayings on them. This kinda prompted me to start taking more pictures of billboards here but that is for another post. The down side to this was driving up and down the main roads, which in recent days became a hotbed for EFP's. It snowed and hajj got all nutty and broke out the EFP's he had in the shed or something? After we drove around taking pictures of signs, we went and investigated some houses next to where an IED was found. The houses were just squatter shacks, built of mud bricks. I met some kids there who were actually not that annoying and very lovable, I seldom feel this way but I really wanted to take them home, maybe it was because they were about my daughters ages.

Damn the ground hog dayness of this place because I know we did some other shit but since I didn't write it down, I can't even remember what the hell we did. We did go out and try to give money out to local businesses and engage the population and hand out tip cards. We went out and secured an area and waited forever for someone to come out and do a meet and greet but low and behold said someone was running late so we waited an hour for nuthin. It was pretty cool because I got to meet the dude with the coolest mustache in all Iraq. I saw him walking as we drove by about a month ago, and I was totally stoked by his mustache, it was a muchacho mustache, a mustache that screams I'm a fucking bad ass. After talking to him in minced English and Arabic, this guy ended up being a pretty bad ass dude, in a good way.

Ah I remember what we did now..... We went and looked for supposed militia members renting out supposed houses, and my guys came across some old school jet fighter helmets, and flight suits in one house, and it turned out the guy that lived there was once a fighter pilot in Saddam's army back in the day.

Lately the militia has been threatening the locals, and people who are actually trying to help Iraq and make it better. We went to investigate this on the day before Ashura. People had the decorations up and the neighborhood was friendly enough. Our mission was to get out and talk to the people. You can always tell when your in a militia rich environment because the people will tell you "No meester no militia here this is a good area." They will also tell you "Everything is fine I cannot talk to you." After they tell us repeatedly at every house on the block that there is no militia you see these

Yup no militia here!

Other big indicators is if we try to get a young male alone to talk to him and his family starts freaking out. The people are either affiliated with the militia in some form or another, or scared to death of them. You won't ever really find a guy willing to rat out the militia because they know that if they are caught they are going to end up in some remote location with their head missing.

Muqtada called for a ceasefire among the Jaysh Al Mahdi to clean house as some have put it. Other news sources report that he is trying to get on board and make positive changes in Iraq. Hey I'm all for it. Its been quiet for the most part. Its frustrating because the militia is the major problem we have in our area, some will tell us fuck the Mahdi or spit at the name of Muqtada but you can't always tell if they mean it or if they are hiding it. Maybe they are part of a militia splinter cell and just don't like Muqtada for trying to make Iraq a better place. One thing is for sure is that the Iraqi people fear the militia, and if they would just take a stand against it and help us maybe we could make bigger gains in defeating them. Shit the Sicilians are starting to unite against the Costra Nostra. From what I understand the Jaysh Al Mahdi was formed in order to protect the Shiia from Sunni violence, then what it boils down to is that they actually bully and terrify their own people. I hope that one day we can just work together for the common good of Iraq because I think that it has every possibility of being a great nation.

Thats about it other than recieiving a lil info about a possible IED and going to investigate it as if we were some form of EOD. I hate that shit, "Um ya we have a possible IED at such and such grid and we are going to investigate it." Does it say EOD on my fucking shoulder patch? No. Why don't you have the experts look for that shit. The only time I seem to find the damn things is after they blow up on my fucking truck. No its not that I'm not looking for the shit, cuz I do. I look so hard that when I redeploy it will be months before I'm driving down the interstate not looking for them. It's that they hide the fucking things real good, not to mention that in my mind everything is a possible IED because it doesn't look right and if it were up to me I'd make EOD clear every 5 feet of road in front of me and we would never make it anywhere on fucking time. Ya ok! We'll go investigate it, like we are the fucking CIS for fucking bombs and shit.

Well till next time peoples.

DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!!!!

Blood Brothers

Blood Brothers is a story that the Army Times published in a 4 part series about the men from Charlie Company 1/26 1st ID. They were the hardest hit unit in Iraq. I remember these guys from 2005 when they were getting ready to go home as units from the Division I was were coming to relieve them. They were smack dab in the middle of one of the worst places in North Central Iraq, a little place called Samarra, in a little piece of shit Patrol Base in the heart of the city. Their second trip would not be any easier in a place called Adhamiya.
It is a very good story, an unfortunate one. Once I started I could not stop reading. It reafirmed the reason why I serve, because heroe's like this actually exist in real life. If you got time check it out, a lot of it is unbelievable and heart wrenching. I'd ask that you pass it on to others so they can now also about the men from 1/26.

www.armytimes.com/bloodbrothers

Deuce Deuce OUT!!!

note: sorry couldn't get that link to turn blue so you could click on it but if you click on the title it should take you to the site, if not cut and past, if not then google it. I apologize for the inconvenience.

When Hell Freezes Over

Today was fucking wierd, we woke up this morning to snowfall. Thats right snow, fucking snow in Baghdad, and I guess according to Reuters, its the first time its snowed here in like 100 years. The Iraqi's were all excited and were quoted as saying, "Snow means peace." Boy oh boy the problems in Iraq were solved in one day by snow. I'm certainly excited, I hope that this means the war is over and we can finally go home.

The snow didn't stick though and it turned the dirt into a nice slushy mudtastic mess. You take 10 steps in this shit and your boots end up weighing about 10lbs. Probably the coolest thing though of it snowing here is that I videoed it and I think was the first person to have it up on You Tube. I can't confirm that but I can think what I want.

We did see kids out playing in the 'snow'. They built a snowman and it looked a little like this...

They were really getting into the spirit of snow, running around chasing eachother throwing mudballs and everything, making little martyr's in the mud. I'm kidding they really didn't play in the shit. It was definitely balls cold. I came out to the truck to find my seat completely fucking soaked nothing that a few garbage bags won't fix. Then after the mission I looked and some how managed to get mud stuck in the compensator of my weapon that was nice. Walking anywhere on the FOB has become a jim dandy, the mud just sticks to your boots like crazy and you track that shit everywhere.

Pretty fucking crazy though, it snowed in Iraq and I was here. Wow that really sucks. Here is the video my narration sucks but I wasn't going for any Academy Awards.

Deuce Deuce OUT!!!!

Shitting Out

You can see what a mess the wires are, and there is no standard as to the type of wire that they use.

All of these wires run to a generator. I'd hate to be that guy.

Warning! The following post will reference to shitting, pooping, dumping, defecating, dropping a deuce, dropping the kids off at school, sending another officer thru scuba, so on and so forth etc. etc. So if you are easily offended by poo then stop reading. If you continue to read you are voiding any or all rights to comment negatively. So with out any further ado.....





Well we kicked off the New Year with a stellar mission. Things were off to a great start as we were 15 minutes early to SP, coms were working great. Well we might have been 15min early and ready to go but the other platoon and the command element decided to make us wait for another hour, I got it shit happens. We waited no big deal understandable. Once everyone was up then we were off. We had to stop in one section of neighborhood and get out and talk to the folks and hand out tip cards in hopes that they will call us and rat out nasty no good types. We handed out candy to the kids and it was goin pretty well. Our whole day was planned out pretty much for the most part we knew exactly what and where and when we were going to be doing things. In the military and especially in the combat zone, as we and you yourselves have learned that sometimes that isn't always the case. FRAGO. Okay we had to go check out a Mosque with our friends the Iraqi National Police. Now for the most part I like to work with the NP's we have had some good times together, and for the most part they seem pretty motivated. Well we were on our way there and it seemed like one turn after another we would get snagged; on power lines. You have to understand that since we took over the place we are now, we have worked exceptionally hard to build a good re pore with the people in this area. Kind, and courteous respectful and so forth. [Now I'm about to leave a whole shit load of info out I'm sorry but its for the greater good, I'm sure you could go to any other news media outlet and read about the things I'm leaving out but I still have some time left with my career and don't want to jeopardize anything like that so I apologize.]


Like I was saying about building a trust with the locals, within 30 minutes of driving we really probably fucked that up. Not on purpose by any means, we know better you don't piss these people off you just don't. Bad shit happens when you piss them off, some of you may think "Well were the baddest, bestest military on the block who gives a fuck?" You can think that shit from the safety of your armchair back in the states but in the real world bad attitudes towards the locals can shift their support in the bat of an eye, and any angry local can become a trigger man or whatever else. Needless to say its like raking your nails across the chalk board watching this unfold. We actually damn near take out a transformer, I think we actually did as I watched the blue sparks chase each other on the power lines and heard the loud popping noise that it makes as they do so. We get out and apologize to the people and issue them claims cards to be reimbursed at their closest FOB.


We get to the objective and sweep it then set up security and wait for the other platoon to join us. We wait, and wait and wait, then they join up with us and now we have to wait for permission to enter the mosque. Other times we have done this the old unit was pretty quick to give us the yay or nay, the new unit... well we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally they said it was ok if the Iraqi Security Forces with us went in. Well they didn't find shit. Finally it was time to go home, and nobody was looking forward to this drive considering the amount of people that were probably sitting home pissed off, and cold because the Amrekee's had knocked out their power. Can't blame them I'd be pissed off to. I have to paint you a little image of the Iraqi power dilemma, only so many people are connected to the local power plant, the majority (at least where we are) rely on other Iraqi's that own big huge diesel generators. They have lines strung up like cob webs across the streets and sometimes on make shift line poles. They are relatively low and not very sturdy, so if you have a really tall vehicle then the chances of you ripping them down are pretty damn good.


We made it home without incident but everyone was really nervous.


Ok so now on to shitting. I come back to the truck after hours of pulling security and the first thing Kum tells me is that Hannibal shit in the truck, well thats not new to me because I remember another time that Hannibal and shit in the truck out on mission. The reason I'm writing about this is I thought it might be interesting for you to know how creative Infantrymen can be when it comes to taking a shit with no available facilities. The mission I just discussed was about 10 plus hours of being out. Sometimes you just get that twist in your gut where you know your gonna have to shit out, but are no where near any place where you can. For me back in the world its always Wal Mart, we go there after eating Chinese and suddenly I'm smitten wit da shittin. I go to the front of the building to the bathroom but usually discover that some how some one has figured out how to shit on the ceiling making the bathroom unfit to use, my trick is to go to the back of the store and use the shitters back there. I digress.


Well I wasn't as impressed with Hannibal this time as I was the first time. The first time many moons ago he had to go and some how managed to shit into a Gatorade bottle. Perplexed? Amazed? Yes I was, I didn't actually see the bottle so I was a nay sayer, it couldn't be done. Could it? Just to prove the theory, Setz shit in a Gatorade bottle, and we all held it and looked at it as if it was some mysterious artifact, like a ship in a bottle except it was shit in a bottle. He said that bottle emplacement is key.


Well this time that Hannibal shit in the truck he used a Styrofoam 'to go' plate. This idea was made popular by Setz, who during a gate guard shift found himself with 'the pain' and with no where to go, improvised a shitter out of a Styrofoam 'to go' plate. I was on the other gate and just braced myself against a wall the old fashioned way. Your probably wondering, well if you guys shit on the go what do you wipe with? Well faithful reader as men who are experienced in shitting on the move you never go anywhere without your handywipes! You either have a big thing of them in the truck or you carry your individual packets on your person. If you have faltered and forgot your wipes, you can cut away the bottom part of your undershirt, or just use your finger. When we are in the field we rely on trees or use our entrenching tools which fold over and you can sit on the shovel part with one cheek, placement of the tool is critical because you don't want to shit on the handle. To be courteous to your fellow soldier you dig a small hole then cover it up when your done, or you can be a dick and leave it exposed in the hopes that your fellow soldier may step upon it during a night patrol.


There is one more problem when shitting in the vehicle- the smell. Now Kum found that by smoking upto about 3 clove cigarettes you can eliminate the odor. I was quite impressed because had they not told me I would have never known that Hannibal and shit out in the truck. The most important part of shitting while out on patrol is security, security, security. Make sure your battle buddy is pulling security for you while you shit, it would be a shame to catch a round in the ass with a terd half hanging out of it.


There you have it, amazing isn't it? If you have any questions about shitting on the go feel free to comment and I will consult our experts to make your on the go shitting experience a pleasant one. Thank you.


Deuce Deuce OUT!!!!!

2007 A YEAR DEPLOYED

2-1 Your always with us!
2nd Platoon before we left Kansas
1st Squad 2nd Platoon
The original 2-2 before we left for Iraq.

How my son's known me most of his life.

Here it is 2008 a new year, though it doesn't feel new. I look forward to 3 months of 2008 and god willing going home to my family safely. In January of 07 we departed Kansas and arrived in Kuwait where we waited and trained at Camp Buerhing, then from there made our way North to Baghdad Iraq. I remember talking to my friend SGT Joel Murray and talking about the first time we had been in Iraq and that nothing had really changed in reference to where we were waiting to catch our bird to take us to Rusty. Later on in October I found myself waiting at that same place waiting for a bird to take me home on RNR. I didn't think I would find myself there reminiscing about my friend who was killed on September 04, 2007. I thought that at the end of the deployment we would be back there at that marshalling area talking about all the fucked up shit that went on during our deployment.


We arrived at FOB Rusty with only a handful of us combat vets and the rest bright eyed cherries with no idea about being blown up and shot at. Who were romancing the idea of being at war. We took up residence in a burned out Spaghetti factory in the heart of an Iraqi neighborhood. No frills no gimmicks, and not much time for rest. Coming in for refit days you could see the exhaustion in their eyes, sunken and black around the edges. It wasn't all bad because many good times were had out there and we bonded as a Platoon. We were attacked with rockets, mortars, improvised claymores, and EFP's. All close calls with no or mild injuries. The device would explode just in front of us or on the vehicle with a near miss, just taking out engines or tires. SGT Murray looking over at me and saying "That was a bitch ass IED." The radio call would come over that everyone in the truck was ok, then we would either dismount and start searching houses or just Charlie Mike (continue mission). I sat out on an OP (observation post) where dogs gave away my position and we started taking small arms fire impacting around our position, I look back at my guys and smile and assure them that this shit is hooah. When I went away to BIAP I get an e-mail telling me my truck was destroyed by an indirect 120mm rocket. One rocket took out all of our trucks as the platoon was headed out to mount up and conduct mission. We were on stand by for missions to go put barriers up around a gas station to keep snipers from shooting our guys in the gas station, only to be told to stand down because of a crane being down, or people not showing up with the equipment. Then one day we went to 'assess' where the barriers would be emplaced and before we even got to the fucking gas station a 10" EFP took away from us 5 guys. 3 of them forever watching over us, and 2 of them who's lives were drastically altered for ever.


We pulled together and looked for strength from one another. We weren't defeated just determined. We grew to hate barrier missions, though we've accomplished several after the fact, even though the locals move them anyway. There is a road and a turn that we take only a few hundred meters away from where we lost our dear friends, and every time we take it we look ahead and are reminded of the deadliness of our adversaries. We never let the memories dim and talk about the good times we had with those we lost. We continue the mission pulling bad guys from the night, trying to make friends during the day. We live day to day until those days become weeks and the weeks become months and we find ourselves able to see light penetrating the blackness. Under 100 days and time slows as attacks have picked up around us.


We fall under a new unit that took over and with change of command comes change. Higher ups that don't like one thing or another and seem to make changes just to make them. "Hey I don't like boonie caps you can't wear them!" Is that really relevant? I guess it could be argued that is relevant in the good order and professionalism of the United States Army. Roger! I will enforce the standard HOOAH!


2nd Platoon is still stomping. We have learned a lot about the ever changing situation here on the ground, we bitch a lot but we remain flexible. Remember? Semper Gumby!!


Happy New Years, and Holidays, from the men of 2nd Platoon and Charlie Company. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. 12 months down, 3 to go.


DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!

More Holiday Pic's

If you notice Doc is staring at my boobs.
The LT in his elf hat.
Hannibal didn't have a Santa hat so he wore his stalking. Yes I know its stocking but you would have to know hannibal to understand the joke...
Youngness, jingle this....
AHHHH Sherranno you make sucha cute lil Reindeer.

MERRY CHRISTmas

2nd Platoon on Christmas day in front of the C-RAP's
PULL MY C-RAP YOU DAMN REINDEER!!!!
Me and my roomie!
Ahhhh shit Garrison 4 more!
You make daddy very proud young padawan!



Well Merry CHRISTmas!!! Ya the post is a little late going up but we were experiencing Internet difficulties for a little bit.
Christmas Eve, we found ourselves on gate guard. It wasn't to bad we took our new C-RAPs (MRAP) down and spent guard duty in comfort and style. It didn't start out as interesting as our last time guarding the gas station. When we were at the gas station one early morning, we happened to notice two dogs going at it (humping). Everyone started to cheer and root the dogs on. Then something happened where the dogs fell over each other and it looked like the male dog had mounted the female dog in the missionary position. That was great, I wonder if dogs would call it 'people style'. Well they finished and tried to part ways except they were stuck together. They were both butt to butt and trying to go different ways but they were stuck. Usually you would have to pay for entertainment like this but not on this dreary morning. One of the Iraqi's that worked at the gas station sees this going on and goes over and points and laughs and tries to shoo the dogs away. Well it really wasn't like they were going anywhere, so he walks away and comes back with a mop handle and starts beating them. That seemed to do the trick though it looked to be quite painful. Are you laughing hysterically yet? NO?!? Well maybe you had to be there........ What were we talking about again...... Hey maybe dogs humping doesn't interest you but you try sitting one place for hours on end, then you would get a kick out of something as trivial as a dog shitting. One of the guys will see a dog shitting then he'll point it out to everyone, "Hey look that dogs taking a shit!!" then we get all excited and we are like "Oh hell ya!!" So you could possibly imagine how thrilled we were to see these dogs in such calamity.... Oh yeah any way.....
.....So ya there we were at the gate the lonely gate. Our relief came out and told us Merry CHRISTmas. I looked at my watch and realized that we had just spent CHRISTmas eve together in the C-RAP. It sure didn't feel like CHRISTmas. In a way I was glad to spend it with my extended family. The next morning we woke up and got the whole platoon together. One of my guys was re-enlisting on Christmas day. We got the Platoon outside and dawned our Christmas hats, snapped a few pics, and other soldiers walking by decided to stop and snap pics of our little spectacle.
Myself and Baum held the flag for Garrison as he once again swore his oath to defend his country from all enemies foreign and domestic. It was another very proud moment for me. Both Setz and Gar, I've watched them from when they were just shithead cherries, and they have come up and really molded into outstanding Soldiers, all the men from 2nd Squad have. Then being there to watch them voluntarily continue their careers in the Army is really a humbling experience. Where ever they go I know that they will do great and be successful, and I wish them all of the best.
After the ceremony I went and called my wife, I figured that the kids would've woke her up way early and all of the presents would have been opened seeing that it was about 8am stateside. I called and she let me know that she had just gotten up and the kids did see what Santa brought them but they hadn't opened any presents yet. I could hear the kids in the back round freaking out so I told her I'd let them get down to business and I would call later.
I screwed around for a bit and Setz and I went and had Christmas dinner at the chow hall. The chow hall was all decked out for the holiday. I was hungry as hell since earlier in the day I went to have breakfast but the chow hall was closed for the preparation of the Christmas meal. The grab n go line was open so I thought I could get a egg mcmuffin, but all they had was cereal and sandwiches. No problem. I told the little Indian, or Pak guy that I wanted a tuna fish sandwich with mayonnaise. I guess what he thought I said was I wanted 2 sandwich's. No no just one sammich guy, with tuna fish and mayo. Ya so he slaps a shit ton of mayo on the bread and closes it and hands it to me..... No, for fuck sake t-u-n-a-f-i-s-h. Who the fuck orders a mayo sammich? Needless to say I was starving all day.
After some turkey and stuffing we went down to the phone center where the line wasn't really that bad about a 30 minute wait. I got a chance to talk to all the kids and find out what they had gotten for Christmas, they were a little more interested in the toys than to talk and I can understand that so my wife and I chatted, exchanged I love yous, and holiday greetings, I went back to my trailer and went to bed.
We awoke the next day to a busy schedule. None of us were to happy about the plan of events for the day since they were all to much like the events that happened on SEPT 04. Everyone was a little on edge but we were able to make it through our list of tasks without incident. We went out to give business grants to local businesses and we went to a school to see if there was anything that we could help them out with. We then went to a Christian church which looked like they building an addition to. I know it sounds odd to you but you would probably be surprised as to how many Christian Church's there are, not a lot but more than you would expect. We returned to the FOB and showered up and got ready for bed.
Later that night I get a knock on my door and told that we need to be ready in 45 minutes to go get a bad guy. I tell my team leaders and they have the men and equipment ready in 20. We have done this so much now that its almost a second nature to us. We rolled out, and our platoon was the supporting effort. It was probably one of the fastest snatch and grabs we've done in a while. That was it, got the guy came back and went to bed. Those are good days!
About 3 or 4 months left to go which equals out to just about an eternity. Time feels like its slowing down considerably. Thank you for your continued support. Merry belated CHRISTmas to all!
DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!!!!!

Filling in the Blanks

Kum, Me, Setz, and Sartor
My driver, me and my gunner they don't call our truck Optimus Prime for nothin!
It gone what?


Ok so here it is 3am and I'm sick from a summer sausage binge, and inspired by another blog I just read. I'm gonna try to cover time from right before I went on leave to the time I got back and now............. Cue dream sequence...

Going back to right before I went on leave we were looking for a real dick... A real dirty dickhead. Not only was this guy a dick but he was a smart dick. Our schedule was in tattered ruins from trying to get this guy. We would be up at all hours of the night waiting to go, but no then we turn around and do something else in the morning. Nobody gets a sleep schedule locked down and we were tired fucking dawgs. I was biting my nails and didn't want to fall into the 6 day curse. More than one Soldier that we knew had met his end 6 days prior to RnR. I'm very superstitious out here. I can't help it. I was so tired and finally on the day I was supposed to catch my bird outta here I was at all of wits end. I flew from here to BIAP where I tried my best to stay awake in hopes that the rest of the trip I would spend in deep slumber. I actually ran into 3 guys that I knew from the General's PSD from my last trip to this summer vacation package.
Well the whole time I was gone they tried to get this dick, and like I said he was a slippery fuck. They actually picked up someone close to the guy and Mr. Dick was pissed and made all sorts of threats to us. Well I returned from leave not rested but sick as a dog. I was thinking something like bronchitis or pneumonia or something I still haven't stopped hacking. I wasn't able to do shit for like 2 or 3 weeks. Nothing was really going on, then one morning I was awaken by the sound of alarm to rush my ass to the bunker while some bastards outside the fence launched 9 fucking rockets in. You could here them screaming through the air. SSKRRREEEEEEETCH KABOOM! The alarm would go silent we would funnel out a little then the siren wales again, and just stayed on continuous. We were all so pissed off it sucks to feel helpless like that. Then in the distance we heard the bark of a M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle letting loose hell from its 30mm cannon. Then the Apaches came in launching rockets. We are all a bit excited but at the same time disappointed cuz this took like 20 fucking minutes of wondering which rocket might land a little to close for comfort. Ahhhh it felt so good to be back to Rocketmiyah.
I can't remember all the missions that we went on because everyday is like groundhogs day here. We did go out on a couple to get ol' dick. To no avail. But to get a dick you have to think like one. One night we went out and, SURPRISE! It wasn't us that grabbed him but it was our plan, and he had no where to run. He eventually tried hiding under a carpet. Seriously his fat ass crawled under a rug and tried to lay flat. No really! It was a good time though. Nothing more than I like watching my men use a 12gauge like a master key and flow into a room with the grace of ballerina's dance recital. Its a beautiful think I tell ya.
Not all of our missions thus far have been barrels of fun. It almost felt like for a while they were picking on poor old 2nd Platoon. We did rise to the occasion though performing duties for certain training teams........ Then getting stabbed in the back by certain training teams..... I won't go any further with that. Your welcome anyway. Then the best ones we get picked for are these barrier missions. Where we go out and play Combat Engimaqueer. Imagine if you will grunts such as us, out there in the midst of darkness, with a group of Iraqi contractors. Now imagine if you will the large Texas (or T) barriers and jersey barriers that are loaded on the Iraqis trucks. Well what we do is get out and place these behemoths, while they are suspended below a crane, driven by an Iraqi, with two Iraqi's on the ground, we are telling them where to put them through the interpreter or through hand signs, then they tell the crane operator, up, or down, or left, or right. These things are absolutely fucking huge and if one fell on you, well that's it. You could easily crush your foot also, or in my case a very large piece of concrete chipped off the top and thank Jesus I was wearing a helmet, that thing rattled my bones. Ahhh but fuck it, its like playing with big ol' blocks in a neighborhood where people want to kill you. Shit how would you feel if you woke up to T barriers in front of your house as you try to maneuver around them just getting out of your drive way, and the normal way you take to work has been blocked off???? It all serves a purpose though......... 2nd Platoon is up to the task. Why were probably the best Infantry barrier putter uppers there are in these parts...... Don't quote me on that. Seriously some of the neighborhoods that are doing this, I guess its what some would call a gated community and some folks like it. I don't know how many or if that's even true but if I knew even half of something I probably wouldn't be here.
But for now we are just kinda sittin idle, waitin for our boys to get back. We did just get some of the new MRAP's. I know that isn't a secret cuz a lot of the Iraqi's out in sector know this due to them not having any power because they don't want to raise their power lines to accommodate the size of the vehicles. Those stupid bastards! They'll learn by golly. You would think they don't realize that we done been here for more den a couple o years, and they need to adjust to what were doin. Hell, it ain't our problem no how them dere Irrrocky's go with no power in da middle of winter. Ya so that truck you've all heard so much about in the press and everything, and in the words of Caroline from Poltergeist "They're heeeeeerrrrree". Thats all I'm going to say about that to avoid crucifixion.
Were hangin in there with CHRISTmas right around the corner. The trees, and the lights are up, the stockings are hung by hundred mile an hour tape with care, in hopes that St. Nick soon will be here. Once again thank you for all of your support.
DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Christmas Wish

My wife found this video on YOU TUBE. She posted it on her MySpace, and she wrote that this is how her and the kids feel. I do always try to take in to consideration, the things going on back at home. Then when I stop and I think I do realize how much I have actually missed out in the last 3 years. How much sacrificing they have to do back home. My wife took my girls to a dance competition in Pennsylvania, the other dance moms were civilian moms. They all got a room togther and in the morning were at odds as to why my wife and my 2 girls weren't ready to go. My wife does everything by herself she has no help. She essentially leads the life of a single mother, the one added stress to that is hoping that uniformed men don't show up to her home to deliver a message that would shatter the family.
My daughter broke her arm earlier in the year and I spoke to her about it, and she brought up the fact that everytime she gets hurt real bad that I'm never there. My son is three years old now and I've only been to one of his birthday parties, my daughters have gone to Regional Dance Finals competitions, and I've not been able to see them perform. Everytime I call home my son's vocabulary has jumped leaps and bounds.
My wife makes, the cupcakes, plans the parties, builds the school projects, cooks the meals, goes to to Dance, she does everything by herself, and she has a husband. I'm not complaining this is the life we chose.
As it gets closer to the end of the deployment I don't see really anything different from when we started. I felt that way the last time we were here, nothing changed. Then a new unit gets here and does the same thing, at the end tries to sum up all of its accomplishments into one big adda boy, but the fact remains it's the same as it was when you got here, and the unit before you did the same things we did, and the unit before them and so on and so forth. We should feel as though we captalize off of the success of the unit before us, but we don't, we make small accomplishments and call them our own.
I definitely don't have the answers, and I don't know what they are. I'm neither politician or a college educated commander. I'm just a high school educated Infantry Squad leader boots on the ground, trying my best to keep those around me alive. We are a tool of policy and democracy. I'm a father to 3 children and a husband to a busy wife. We are a career military family. I watch my kids grow up through slide shows on MySpace. My kids score winning goals at the Soccer game to look back and see their mother cheering for them. They perform their hearts out on stage and look out into the ground to see their mother cheering for them. My sons concept of a father is that he is always 'at work'. My wife will hang stockings and put up the Christmas tree, and on Christmas eve go to bed alone, and be woken up at the crack of dawn to eager children trying to get down stairs and see what Santa brought them, and they will wait for me to call so that they can tell me what they got for Christmas. I will wait in a long line behind other dads, and moms eager to hear what Santa left for their children. Afterwards, we will probably go to chow then go back to our rooms and await the next mission in an effort to "Get violence down to a maintable level for Iraqi Security Forces."
At this point I'll end my sesnseless rambling and leave you as confused as I am.
I hope that all of you have happy holidays. Maybe Santa will drop by and pick me up.......