a short break

well we went to kuwait right after i wrote that last post and we stayed there at camp arifjan for a couple days. arifjan is a pretty large and established base, i know it's been there at least since just before the first gulf war and it's pretty much just like a medium sized base back in the states. it's pretty relaxed; once you cross the kuwaiti border, the weapon comes down from the turret and the body armor can come off. likewise in the base, we can finally walk around in regular clothes without lugging around a weapon and ammo. the only problem is the constant struggle against blowing all your money while you're there because there's like a million ways that they have thought of to part a soldier and his/her extra pay. it's all just a bunch of crap you think you need.. nothing special really, its the same things that every other post px has, just a whole lot more of it. plus gobs of local and international merchants there trying to sell cheap gadgets or unremarkable souveniers. you either go to arifjan expecting to spend a lot of money, or go expecting to spend nothing at all because it's going to be either one or the other.

anyway, i had a good time there, woke up late both days, hit up the coffee shop, played a little tennis and ping pong, made it to the pool, and watched a couple of movies. at one of my filipino friend's advice, we all went to get a massage at the salon or whatever that they have there. wow is all i have to say, that 40 year old filipino amazon had some magic hands cause i felt completely relaxed for the rest of the day, plus the turret was cramping up a spot underneath my shoulder blade and that felt a lot better afterward too. we were all a little disappointed that noone got the happy ending.. but regardless, that spot is now on the list of things to do in arifjan.

it was fun, but that wasnt the short break i was talking about. i got back to tallil a couple days ago, and we have another mission coming down the pipe, but it's not for another little bit, so i have some time to put my room back together - it was looking like a storage bin that i would just come by to throw things in periodically. i woke up really late this morning because last night 6 of us stayed up strung out on coffee and played poker until almost dawn.. the game and things in general got a little strange and spastic after about 3, but it was still alot of fun. i tried to sleep really late today too, but lately they've been cutting the power randomly throughout the day. and today it was ridiculous, they cut it at 10am and didnt turn it back on till 2pm, way to go idiots, turn off the power during the hottest part of the day. the heat got me out of bed by 11 and i was just pissed trying to read a book outside for the next 3 hrs.

the state of this war has me a little bit concerned. im not sure how all of this is reflecting on the "news" everyone watches on tv in the states because i stopped watching it. partly because it's crap and partly because the tv signal has been horrible for the past month and i havent been here to watch tv anyway. i try to be an optimist, but some stuff is really starting to go down. we've had attacks (more than 1) on this camp in the very recent past while i was on the road. people here are really on the alert now, it's a different climate almost. i don't catch a lot of the headlines, but i know that a lot of the people up and down the country are just getting scared. iraqis are killing iraqis more than they are killing us. i'm just not sure what's here that can hold this country together other than continuous military enforcement. this operation needs a serious strategy re-evaluation. the man says that if we leave iraq without finishing the job, it will become a hotbed for terrorist activity just like afghanistan was... well i'm sorry to break it to you but it already is a terrorist hotbed, where is the best place in the world to go to easily find and fight plenty of american soldiers? don't think too hard. anyway, i expect to see some chaos in the near future especially with these two sets of elections coming up before anything really gets better, but i really, really hope it does. i hope you didn't underestimate their resolve george because if you did, things are not going to be pretty here for a very long time.

oh, i think i have a leave date now, it's tentatively scheduled for the first chunk of nov, so hopefully that doesnt change again. i gotta go get some dinner, but i'll be in touch,
-billy

back... not for long

thats another trip up north in the bag, this one was notably boring, which i guess is a good thing, but feels almost like a let-down. i thought it was something unusual to have a trip or two with no enemy contact but i talked to some of my friends in other convoy groups that have been going all over for quite some time and out of 25 or so trips, they still have yet to run into anything. we just got lucky :) i dont think you can imagine the excitement of getting attacked on the road, but let me tell you...whew, its pretty dang exciting. i guess i'll say that that night last week we were the lead gun truck and just missed getting smacked by a roadside bomb and then had some guys shooting at us from somewhere off to the left and there was an rpg in the mix there somewhere too, and we were hauling ass, shooting, dust, smoke everywhere, dodging concrete barriers, made our exit...and that was that. and then we were hootin and hollerin, yelling things like, aww man that was f-ing crazy! mighty two-handed high fives, plus some kudos for me for not driving past the exit during the mayhem. couldnt resist throwing that in.

this trip though was nothing like that, we had to stop several times for the convoy drivers to get out and pee, thats about it. gotta leave very soon though, but this one is definitely in the more favorable direction for a boring trip. i guess thats all there is to say, but i'll say that i was never really concerned about our safety, i have 2 great guys in the truck with me that know what they're doing, and our truck cab is literally a solid 2 inch thick shell of class 2 armor. it could be blown off the truck frame and land 50 feet away intact. all in all, i find myself enjoying this job a lot more than i thought i would, you just really need to see baghdad at night, from a turret. see ya soon, -billy

freedom costs a buck o' five

well we made it back in one piece after running up and down the larger part of this awesome country. (we almost went clear to mosul) all in all it was a pretty good time, we had a couple of 24+ hour days just trying to make it to where we were supposed to be, but at least we had decent places to crash when it was done. we were discussing the possibility of stenciling some sort of logo or slogan (slogo?) on the sides of our trucks to sort of separate ourselves from the herd, because of course, we are the best that can be hoped for when it comes to convoy security. we were thinking maybe "Freedom - has a Hefty Fuckin Fee" or "Doing our part to save the motherfuckin' day.. Yeah". we ran those by chief and although he really liked them both, he suggested we use the title of this post.. i think it lacks a certain conviction. but whatever i'll let you know what ends up on our trucks cause something's gonna be put there.


just before coming back here, we were stopped at anaconda for about 2 days so the trucks we escorted could load up on what they needed to bring back here. anaconda is another major camp a little bit north of baghdad. that place is pretty nice, they have themselves a pool there, which is where i was for most of the afternoon both days we were there. i got a nice little sunburn and made kind of an ass of myself doing crazy shit off the diving platforms, but thats pretty much what i was going for, so i'm satisfied.


normally we get a day or two off here between missions but damn if we didnt just get back when they tell us to get ready for another tomorrow, so i'm off again, but this one should be much more simple because of the direction, if you know what i mean. im not sposed to be specific. speaking of non-specific, me and my buddies all qualify for the new combat action badge.. back at ya later, -billy

be back soon

i'll be outta here for a week maybe, shouldnt be longer than that but it just got sprung on us so i figured id say something about it. cant say much other than its gonna be an interesting one. if i can i'll drop a few sentences when i get there, but if i dont, then i'll be back in a week, hopefully less. peace,
-billy

back at it

hi there folks, i know i haven't posted anything in a little bit. Sorry about neglecting it, but i can't help but feel like i've been losing interest in it lately. I know why though, it's because i'm getting closer to getting back home for that little vacation. whats the point of typing a bunch of crap when i could just talk about it in a few weeks. october, by the way, is when im supposed to get my 2 weeks. I thought it would be september, but all the slots got filled before i could grab one up this month.

So about a week ago, another company that did jobs very similar to our own, was reassigned to some other part of the country. When they left, we were originally going to take over the escort spots at the VCC which would double the number of people from our company that would have to do that duty - a real pain in the ass. Luckily, two days later, they decided to pull everyone off of vcc duty so that our whole company could take over the other job that both our units are responsible for - guntruck convoy escorts. So instead of double the escort duties we have double the convoys to escort around. I was split 50-50 doing escort and convoy duties, but now i have several missions this week, i got back from the first one yesterday. I'll admit that the missions have their risks, but they're infinitely more fun and interesting than even the most engaging conversations i've had with a contractor here. plus, as i've said before, here in the south things are quiet and a lot of our missions are headed even further south, so no worries.

Well as i said, i'm still a little apathetic about writing alot on this post, but i think it'll be easier now that we got the internet up for our rooms. (I failed to mention that) but i have pics now so heres one i took on the road, and one i just took of myself in my room. seeya soon, Billy