bloggity blog blog

I'm sooo sick and tired of staying here at the Camp. PUT MO ON A DAMN MISSION ALREADY, I've been bumped twice in a row for missions, and it's really annoying. Being a lowly private around and one of the few people left in the company that's not on a mission, I get task which shit details, sweep out the TOC (actually I think that's more of a punishment cuz I argued with an NCO...yaya...I know...but for the love of god...that guy is a FRICKIN MORON) pmcs'ing vehicles, cleanin this and that, getting high off spray paint (had to stensil our unit logo on our new Humvees)...ok maybe that wasnt all so bad in the end...but still.

Right now, romance is on my mind. I've been really good friends with this girl in my old unit, we'll call her "B". Ever since I left my old unit for the GT, me and her have talked online, and in person for a lil bit whenever she was here, and truthfully, I'm starting to feel her. She's a wonderful girl, "Innocent" would sum it up. She's pretty smart, cute, funny, has a gorgeous smile, and beautiful eyes (AND NO IT'S NOT BECAUSE I'M IN COUNTRY THUS MY STANDARDS HAVE GONE DOWN) plus, I've got a thing for redheads. Who knows, maybe things'll fall in the right place? nudge nudge cupid? ***General Order 1A*** No Fraternization. Ya well here's the loop hole; fraternization only pertains to either me and an NCO and me and an Officer, but to be on the safe side, me and anyone in my immediate/Possible chain of command, thus, a private or spec 4 from another unit is fair game..HAHA...Point for Dave

Going on a mission to LSA Anaconda in a few days, but ya gotta get sleep, later y'all

CARPE DIEM

SEIZE THE DAY

admonition to seize the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future

Christmas....whoa

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you all got the gifts you wanted, and enjoyed the big ole Xmas dinner with friends and family.

Christmas over here actually wasnt all that bad. I ate some chow hall style Xmas dinner, they went all out, had ice sculptures, and big ole christmas cake designs, and the traditional food of ham, stuffing, and mash potatoes.

Got back from the mission earlier today. It was supposed to be a one day mission, but got stretched to a three day'er. Which actually turned out to be really cool because I got to watch David Letterman perform at a USO show with his whole crew (BTW: Thank you Mr. Letterman, you're show rocked, it's one thing to come over here for a USO show, but it's another to do it during Christmas time. Thanks) but also got to check out the Ziggurat of Ur, from what I'm reading right now on the internet it's "supposedly: the birthplace of Abraham and also quite possibly also there was a house that was said to be Abraham;'s as well, really cool. here's a cool pic of it.

http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/iraq/UrMarinesZiggurat.JPG

And for the record, the Chow hall at Talil has got to be BY FAR, the best chow hall ever. I mean, they have a frickin pasta bar. Did you hear me Man ?? A PASTA BAR !!! It only makes sense though because it's an Air Force ran chow hall...lol.

I brought some Beanie Babies with me on the trip in hopes of finding a window of hope where I can give them to some Iraqi kids. I managed to give a couple away, but the whole situation turned into a hassle. You give one kid one and THEY ALL swarm you, I had to keep em back, Thankfully our location was real close to a military base, so it wasn't a big deal that the kids were pretty much right next to me and by my Hummvee, but it was still frowned upon by my TC (truck commander). When he explained why it made sense, so I guess no more Beanie Babies for the kids, until I find a safer way to give em out, I ended up bringing a bunch today to a little company Xmas shindig, and let the guys and gals who had kids pick one out to send home to their kids. (To the teacher who hooked me up with the Beanie Babies; Sorry that I couldn't pass out the BB's like you wanted, hope you don't mind the alternative, I'll still bring some with me on every mission, just in case there is an opportunity to give some out.)

I've been losing so much of my shit lately..it pisses me off. I broke my first pair of Wiley X's, Bought another pair (W/prescription) then I got issued another set, lost the second set a month ago, and 2 missions ago my battle buddy accidentally threw my prescrition ones out...SONOFA...
AND on this mission I lost my goggles that I wear when I'm gunner...I'm tellin ya...

But at least I got my contact lenses in the mail today..no more damn BCG's (Birth Control Glasses) I don't care who you are...you put those on..you're chances with any girl...is ZERO
(The unit lost my contacts when they moved our shit into another tent while I was on a mission...bastards...lol)

I was supposed to go on a mission up north in a couple days, but somehow I got switched out with someone else, which is a good thing cuz that means more time for laundry, and just overall unwind..but somehow I don't think my luck is that good...I guarantee there's an alterior motive behind this choice...Hmm...guess we'll find out soon.

I got to sweep out the TOC tonight as "Corrective Punishment" for being late to PT formation the other day and also talking back to an NCO (disputable dammit..I demand a recount), not a biggie, just a misunderstanding, but I tend to have a confrontational personality and that doesnt help...bleh.

So they say that the incident at FOB Marez was quite possibly acted out by a suicide bomber who has been working at the base for 4 months? That is some disconcerting shit. Makes you wonder if there are other guys around the country that are at this moment planning some shit out....

I sooo want to buy that damn Digital Camera...but it's sooo damn expensive....but really though...I think I'm going to pursue photography when I get back home, as a hobby at first, but later on you never on.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos20d/

the kits go for around $1600 which is alot...thats equal to: 89 orders of Victoria's Filet at Outback Steakhouse (Mmm...I always order that when I'm there) or 400 boxes of Samoas/Caramel deLites Girl Scout cookies. (**SWM searching for sugar momma**)

Guess that's all folks. And here I leave you with 2 quotes:

"Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good"
---Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
---Henry David Thoreau

Merry christmas to all and to all a good night :)

a sad day, and yet a little cheer in the end

I don't even know where to begin. It's a horrific event, that no words of mine can make sense of. Pure sadness, grief and anger is coursing through my heart, my mind, and I'm not even there. I wish to god that he would take back yesterday's tragedy. free will right? scoff.

Here is a site I found of an Army chaplain that was at the FOB; http://chaplain.blogspot.com/

there are too many thoughts and emotions, I really can't write about it anymore. I've been thinking about it all day today, thinking about the dead, the injured, the parents back home, the media, the eerieness of it all. Maybe it's wrong, but sitting at the chow hall tonight, eating a normal meal, chatting about the normal nonsense with other soldiers, brought on a certain, creepiness (i don't know if that's the proper word for it). All those soldiers were going through the same motions, one moment chatting about going BS, the next....

I dunno. It makes me question religion in all it's supposed good. I mean, in the "divine plan", was that really neccesary? Ya ya, the good ole line of, "God works in mysterious ways" or "God has a plan" maybe I'm narrow minded but that's a fucked up plan in my opinion (but then again, what the hell do I know compared to the almighty right?) What's the point? The usual answer I get when I ask a religious person = FAITH. I dunno. I do believe in god, but....

Thank god for mail though, which was a real pick me up. Remember when I posted about the "anysoldier" website and all that? well..ya.. when I signed up for that I was expecting probably like a package a week, or a few letters a week, nothing big. Yesterday afternoon (mail call at 1:30 pm) I got 2 big ass boxes of beanie babies that an elemetary school sent me to give to the Iraqi kids. HUUUGE boxes, I mean at least 50 of em. It was insane. I had laugh in disbelief. I plan on giving them out to the Iraqi kids and take pictures and send it to the school. I also gave some to the dads here in my platoon to send back their kids. Today however, was just absolutely ridiculous, I got like at least 15 pieces of letter,care packages and whatnot. I passed em out to people in my platoon. But seriously though, there's like a few thousand people (I think) signed up for anysoldier, and I got this much myself? Makes me realize that there are seriously ALOT of people that are showing their support, and that's really awesome. I plan on writing some of these folks back when I have time. But really though, that helped me out alot.

Please pray for the families of the fallen, and also pray for the injured, as well as the other survivors that had to witness such a thing.

I guess that's really about it. I got a mission tomorrow, supposed to be a short one, it's a "show of force" type of mission in a city up north.

Guess that's about it

"A person who chooses to die or to risk death demonstrates that there are values, principles, maxims, that are more valuable to him than is life itself. In short, he places his immortal self above his mortal self. Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are. "
--Henry David Thoreau

"While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil."
--John Taylor

Back, safe and sound.

got back a few hours ago. "shit, shower, and shave" did all that, ate some subway..mmmm...and here I am now. Read on CNN.com about the suicide bombing at Najaf and Karbala, which is freaky because on the way up we kinda missed a turn and ended up smack dab in Najaf, and on the way back down we were by the outskirts of karbala. It's seriously weird how when I was back home and I hear these cities on the news I don't think much of it, but now I'm right in the middle of it.

Some pretty unusual (probably normal for the guys that have been here of course) stuff. Iraq has a population of 25.3 million people. a little over 40% of that are kids 14 and under. I swear to you, on my trip up north and back, I saw ALL 40% of them. I'm telling ya, I'm in the middle of bum0fuck desert no-where and out of the blue a gazillion kids pop up waving at me!!! some are giving the thumbs up to me, others are motioning to their mounth wanting food, but I swear, all 10 million plus of those kids were all along the road. DOGS...SOOOOOOO many dogs...sooo many dead dogs too..sad sight to see really..roadkill. I love dogs and I had to swerve an assload of em, or else they would've been part of the permenant scenery.

I found out that the Hajji stick I carried with me as a joke is actually a neccesity out there. The kids (not really kids..but around 14-16 yr olds) would try and come up to the convoy when we were stopped. My job is to keep them somewhat away. Why you ask? mainly because I don't want to have to blow a kid away because he dropped a grenade through a window of one of the trucks. "nah...that would never happen." is what you'd say. well guess what. it has happened. but anyways, back to the hajji stick story. See, the kids know that we won't shoot them, so pointing our M-16's don't really help, plus if they start throwing rocks, and we can't shoot them (not that I would anyways) it would hurt alot. So here eneters my hajji stick. it's pretty much the stick/handle part from an axe (without the axe head of course). Once the kids see me whip that bad boy out they scatter, it's kind of hilarious in a dark humor kinda way.

Christmas is in five days and yet it feels like a million days away. nothing here seems christmas'y.

CNN is coming to our camp tomorrow, or at least that's what I was told when I got back to my tent earlier tonight. Guess the whole "up-armor" fiasco as reach our unit, cuz I'm told that we have to line up four of our gun trucks for the news crew. I wonder how it'll turn out, I'm at times against the media but also for it, they need to be smarter about the shit they print, stop pretending to give a fuck about the story, just tell us you want what sells, don't lie and give bullshit excuses like "it's my duty to report the news..good or bad.." blow me...when's the last time you report good news out of iraq?

I started checking out this "online dating" hype..or whatever it is. I'm not looking for dating or anything....come on..how can I? but it's pretty interesting, get to meet different types of women, get to find out what they like and how they are and pick the one that floats your boat..cool stuff.
started exchanging emails with this marine gal that lives by San Diego, I can totally picture my self taking a girl like her out. but then again, it is the internet, what do I really know about her, and vice versa...that's why I kinda got a fishy perspective of these types of things...eh....

ooh ya..i just remembered a semi-rant I wanted to post. It's about the brutal execution of the 3 iraqi election officials in the middle of the town in the middle of the street. This is to you mr terrorist. I SWEAR TO GOD, IF I EVER HAVE THE PRIVELIGE TO KILL YOU I WILL MAKE IT SLOW AND PAINFUL, I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF THAT MAKES ME NO BETTER THAN YOU, YOU ARE NOTHING, SCUM, YOU WILL BURN IN HELL FOR WHAT YOU DO, MAYBE I WILL TO. MAN OH MAN, DO I WISH YOU FOR TO JUST "TRY" TO KIDNAP ME, MAKE THAT FUCKING MISTAKE AND DO IT, I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER, FUCK KILLING YOU; THAT WOULD BE TOO EASY, I WILL TEAR YOU APART PIECE BY PIECE, MIND, BODY AND SOUL. YOU AND YOUR WEAK MINDED WASTEFUL MAGGOTS.

ok enough of that....i vented...i'm done...sorry if i scared all youse off...but seriously though...how can someone do that. ya fanatical beliefs, blah blah. Skip the hoopla and just kill the fuckers...fuck trials, fuck arresting them..be brutal, that's how u squelch it, cuz obviously going to Gtmo hasn't really scared these fucks into stopping.

Hmm,that's cool,SMA Preston's coming huh?

I guess SMA Preston is coming to my Camp tomorrow, and my bosses want 9 soldiers from the company to meet him. Umm....not me. J/K. I'd actually like to meet him, but it's really just some PR shenanigan, meeting us peons, but it's still somewhat uplifting. My Plt. Sgt; who came back earlier today, said he wanted to put me on the list, but unfortunately I'll be off on a mission tomorrow. So ya, none of that. I guess also, later on that day those nine also get to go with him to another camp in Kuwait to attend a USO show. Now THAT would be cool to check out. They had one the other day at LSA Anaconda and Robin Williams and John Elway was there. Elway ain't a really big deal for me, I don't really get star struck, but it would've been kickass to check out Robin Williams. He's by far one of the best comedians I've ever seen. I'd like to hear what kinda jokes he had for us troops.

I've got a story that I've wanted to write down for a couple days now but always forgot to. When one of my battles from my unit came back because the road they were on was shut down because of an IED, he told me how when they were in Iraq, they were going real slow cuz of traffic, and kids (14-16) started coming up to the humvees and started takin shit off the back and side, so I guess they chased em down and took them to an Iraqi Police station (dunno the whole situation on that..just the "in a nutshell", so yes I know it sounds weird to take a kid to jail for that) but the point was, that when they were at the station, 2 iraqi kids (6-8) a boy and a girl came up to the soldier and the boy was holding a baby. Well, my battle looks at the baby and the boy goes "You like?" he says "Ya, cute baby" the kid then says "You want?" at that point the soldier just laughed in disbelief and gave the kid a bottle of water and told the two to scram.

I don't know, I just had to tell that, it cracked me the hell up.

OH oh oh..and I got to FINALLY zero my scope. Yes Yes Yes..whatever...I know I proabably won't even need it, I've heard it all from the haters. Call it a false sense of security.

Yup, that's all folk

Talk to you when I get back, If not before Christmas, then Merry Christmas everyone.

Special Defense Department Briefing on Armored Vehicles

This is a briefing that I came across on the net that pretty much has everything to do with what I'm doing, it's good to know that shit is finally rolling. Thank the frickin lord for Spc. Wilson, because NO SHIT if it wasn't for his question to Sec. Rumsfeld. I really don't think there would be this much hoopla about the scurrying for up-armored vehicles; case in point. We had new model up-armor humvees ordered a loooonnng time ago, along with extra armor. Before this whole incident happened, whenever anyone would ask when the Humvees were coming, the answer would always be "I don't know, but it's on order." Now, we'll be getting them pretty much before christmas. Coincidence? maybe, but that's one helluva coincidence.

here's some parts of the briefing that I felt was important to me:

Q I wanted to ask – it’s John Lumpkin with the Associated Press. I wanted to ask less about the quantity of armored vehicles and more about the quality of the armor itself. Two different ways … kind of lines there.

One is, generally is there a sense that a lot of soldiers are going through and putting sort of improvised armor or other protection on their vehicles, either through scrap yards or other means? If so, does that suggest the vehicles are not coming to them armored in a satisfactory way? Along the same line is this level-three armor. Does it provide enough protection on the trucks, is it stopping enough attacks, or is there a need for heavy -- medium-heavy trucks with essentially a greater level of armored protection?

GEN. WHITCOMB: That's a great question. The answer is, how much is enough? If I can add another plate or another inch or more to the vehicle I'm riding in that gives me protection, it's better. I mean, that is absolutely the case. It's why we have a 72-ton M1A2 Abrams tank, because we reacted to the threats, the capability to produce a better round. So I think that's a prudent thing to do if a soldier has the capability.

Do I think that it is widespread that our soldiers are going out and trying to add armor? I do not have that indication. I don't want to say it's not happening, because I'm sure it is, but I don't -- in my opinion, it's not being done in mass numbers or mass quantities.

Does a level-three protection give you level one? No, it doesn't. And we make no bones about it. The good news is it does -- level one and level two do give you protection.

And I've got a couple of great noncommissioned officers, our best spokesmen here, Sergeant First Class Steve Mikes (sp) out of the 1486th Transportation Company, and Sergeant First Class Joe Litchard (sp) out of the same company, that were convoy commanders. They run that dangerous route that runs from Kuwait up into north of Baghdad. And incidentally, that route is out as far as driving from Wilmington, North Carolina to Canton, Ohio, except when you drive from Wilmington to Canton, it's not through Indian territory.

But both these great soldiers, Sergeant Mikes (sp) and Sergeant Litchard (sp), both were attacked when they were performing their duties and had level-one armor protect them. And I asked him, "Well, what would have happened if you hadn't had level-three armor, if you hadn't had the steel plating?" He said, "Well, sir, I would have been shot." I mean, that's pretty basic. And we also had attack with using the add-on armor, the level-two kind of capability. It protected these men, these soldiers.

That is not to say that we have not lost soldiers that had no armor, level one, level two, level three. We have. And it's tragic, and we accept that and we accept our responsibility to get our troops the best protection that we can. And that's what we are about doing.

Q General, this is Pam Hess with United Press International. On the humvees, can you tell us how many you've lost in -- to IED incidents?

And would you also address the issues of these truck convoys? Obviously, having a Bradley fighting vehicle in a convoy does nothing to protect an unarmored truck against an IED. And I spent a month there this summer, and every convoy that I was in was almost made up entirely of unarmored trucks. And it looks like those numbers of armoring there, according to the House Armored Services Committee, are quite low. I think something like only 15 percent are getting armor. So would you discuss all the thought process that goes into the truck armoring issues?

GEN. WHITCOMB: Okay. Sure. I'm not going to get the specific numbers in terms of what -- how many wheel vehicles that we've lost. First, I don't have the precise number.

What I can tell you is that from up-armored humvees, the level one, we've had in the neighborhood of 120 combat losses. I don't know whether they're all due to IEDs or RPGs or accidents, but there are about 120 up-armored vehicles that are have lost. And we've replaced those, and those in fact have the priority, up north from General Metz and General Casey, to replace those things.

The -- your comment on convoys -- again, I'm not going to get the specific numbers, because it's a(n) operational tactic. But what we try and do with our convoys is to move them with a mix of -- gun trucks is what we call them. Sergeant Mikes (sp) and Sergeant Litchard (sp) are gun truck commanders, convoy commanders. And so we interspace those vehicles, some number of them, throughout the length of the convoy. And the convoys vary in size, to some degree, and in that kind of space. They rely primarily on speed as they're moving on their route, as it sounds like you well know, having traveled with them.

And I'm moving -- our goal towards up-armoring those vehicles continues. I can't recall when you said you were in Iraq, traveling, but you mentioned there was a low number of those wheel vehicles that had armor plating on them or some form of armor.

What I can address now is what we are sending up, where we -- and what we've been doing for the last couple of months is designed to -- we're never going to fix it totally, but to minimize that kind of problem; to ensure that if we've got a soldier in a military vehicle, they've got some type of protection on that vehicle.

Q. On the humvees, could you talk about the degradation on humvee performance with this extra armor on it?

GEN. WHITCOMB: .....that's a good question. Some of these vehicles were not designed to take steel plating or the heavy add-on armor that we've got. The up-armored humvee, the level one, is a built-from-scratch Corvette, if you will. I mean, that's a vehicle designed to carry that heavy weight. Its engine, transmission, suspension carries that pretty well.
But this add-on armoring runs anywhere from about a thousand pounds of steel plating up to about 4,000 pounds of additional weight. So a lot of our vehicles, as you point out, are not designed -- their engines aren't designed to carry perhaps an additional ton of weight, the suspension and the transmission.

So we do have a program in place to take vehicles off line, be able to bring them down, either in Iraq, if it can be done -- forward is the best way -- or to ship them down here, where we can refurbish the guts of the vehicle -- engines, transmissions, suspension, other things. And then where we can, what we do is we -- for example, if it's got level three, the armor strapped on, we'll upgrade it with the add-on armor kit. So we're able to do that.
You know, candidly, we're not doing it in large numbers yet. We're doing it where we can. We're building a capacity to be able to do that more frequently, to refurbish the fleet. But that is an issue.

The other thing that we're dealing with is the fact that we've got great equipment. I mean, our soldiers are great soldiers, but they've got great equipment. And these trucks have been -- and tanks and Bradleys and other things have been ridden hard. I mean, they're taken out of the stable every day. You get several year’s work on them, miles on them, in the course of perhaps a couple of months. And so that's a greater issue of how do we refurbish the fleet, how do we bring that back up to a capability that we can launch it off when the cord's pulled to pull us out.

(THIS PART I THOUGHT I'D ADD BECAUSE IT'S JUST AS IMPORTANT)

"I'd like to leave with just a couple of quick things.

I want to go back to my comment -- and this is not patronizing to our secretary of Defense, but I appreciate him coming. I'm a three-star general, and I get excited when my momma tells me, "Son, you done good." And I get excited when a four-star general says, "Whitcomb, you did okay." We got excited when the secretary of Defense went to Camp Buehring yesterday or a couple of days ago, and his sincerity doesn't come across necessarily on the screen.
What you didn't see was his very heartfelt comment on the success in Afghanistan, a story that we don't cover very well but is a great success story of a country that now has freedom and now has a future. And we're trying to build that capability for Iraq, as you well know.
What you also didn't see were the standing ovations when the secretary thanked the troops, thanked them from his heart. You can sense when a guy is -- or gal is thanking you and it's not from the heart. He did. And the third thing you didn't see was the 45 minutes he spent after the discussion trying to shake every hand and get every photograph snapped with every kid that had an Instamatic or a cell phone. And so that's important and that is meaningful to us.
The second point I'd make to you is this armoring is an important part of where the Army is heading and what the Army is trying to do to protect our forces; it's not the only thing. Back in August of 2003, the first thing we looked at were our tactics and techniques and procedures for conducting convoy operations and how could we do that and better protect our kids, and we found some good things that worked. Unfortunately, we had a smart enemy that also adapted their ways of doing business.

The other thing that we've got -- and I won't talk about it because it is very sensitive -- is we're leveraging technology, how to detect where IEDs are, who's using them, how they're being set off and those kinds of things so we could go out there early and kill those guys before they're able to execute.

So it's a multi-phased, multifaceted operation that our Army's involved in."


Here's the site if you wanna check out the whole thing, it's not too long and not that boring to read..really good info on the situation.

http://globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/12/mil-041209-dod02.htm

OPSEC, and a cool site

Ever since I started this blog, I've always had to think twice about what I wrote when it came to stuff about the military. The Army is has a bad case of paranoia schizophrenia, but then again its understandable and I agree with them. CBFTW got an earful due to OPSEC and many more might too, and I foresee an incident in the near future where a soldier unintentionally says a little to much without realizing it and gets fried under UCMJ for it. Ever since I got here to "Camp bootystar", there's been alotta stuff that I wanted to talk about, gripe about, but couldn't due to my concern for OPSEC. You never know what information the I take for granted and think is nothing, might be gold for the enemy...lol..I was about to write Haji. I remember when I first got to country, I said I would never demean them like that and call them that; Haji. the definition of Haji is "a pilgrim who takes a journey to Mecca"It's supposedly a prestigious title and not to be used lightly, but it's like everyday slang here, and it's hard to stop yourself from saying it. Some of the Nationals here don't even care that we call them that. Oh well, just a thought.

I also wanted to add a little something, kind of an "hindsight is 20/20" kind of comment to yesterday's post. I don't mean to offend everyone that is a civilian when I say that you have no idea what it's like out here. I meant to aim that comment solely to the "pricks" of society. We all know at least one of those kinds of people. "That Guy". and also those idiots you see on TV shows who seem like they know what they're talking about when in reality they're talking out of their asses. Don't buy their crap. I wasn't trying to put the average american down, by all means, please continue your support, keep sending care packages, keep telling the parents of soldiers that you're proud of them. I got care package from a lady I didn't even know and it warmed my heart to know that someone will take the time and money to show their thanks. I got cards from little kids saying thanks and asking to write back; I did, how couldn't I. They might not know what this war about at all, but those kids and the lady who actually "Show" their thanks are infinitely better than the half-ass "patriotic" american that are doing their everyday thing showing their supposed patriotism only when its convenient and because it's the thing that everyone is doing. I saw alotta that bullshit before I left home. Half hearted talks about I support the troop, just so no one will think less of them. I would respect you more if you just told me that you don't give a shit.

But ya, for all those people that would like to help a soldier out here in theater but don't know how. Check out this website: http://anysoldier.com/index.cfm . I even signed up for it, I won't tell you who I am, but feel free to pick a soldier and send him things. The soldier that signs up for this is just the messenger, he fills out a form and represents a number of soldiers from his unit, ranging from squad sized all the way up to even company sized. You can find out where they are stationed, their living conditions and little tid bits about them. It's a neat site. It's got Airmen, Marines, and Sailors too, but mostly Army Soldiers.

Other than that, it's back to the motor pool for another episode of "Junkyard Wars meets Mad Max meets U.S. Army. - The Regulators (that's who we are)

"We regulate any stealing of his propertyAnd we damn good tooBut you can't beat any geek off the street,Gotta be handy with the steel If you know what I mean, earn your keep. "
REGULATORS! Mount up!

-----Warren G : Regulators

PT....good for you...good for me....Sonofa......

One thing I dont think I'll ever get used to in the Army no matter how long I serve; waking up so frickin early. Even if I go to sleep and get 8-10 hours of sleep or 4 hours of sleep, I still wake-up feeling tired. Woke up at 4 for a Diagnostic PT test. Man oh man was it coooooollllddd. Had to be around mid 30's with the wind chill. I barely passed my damn run. Pushup and Situp I can pass all day every day with out trying, but that run...I'm telling ya..I got shafted with some shitty running genes.

Later on, like yesterday, off to the motor pool to work on HV's. They're coming along quite nicely. I learned alot in one day. Might I add that I was raised by a single ASIAN mother, so when it comes to typical "guy" stuff, I am soo lost, but damn you, when it comes to cooking I kick MONDO ass. I just despise the doing the dishes. I made Christmas Dinner last year and my mom told me that it was better then Nana's (ex-stepdad's mother...who BTW is italian) so YA....

There was a guy that's in the unit that I'm in now (Us FNG's will be replacing guys like him) this is his second go, and he's in the reserves. He got home from OIF 1 and 2 days before his "90 day grace period" he got a call to come back. He missed his son's 1st and 2nd birthday. I feel bad for the guy. Ya, its your "duty" and all that shit. but his name should never have been in the hat to go back. The Army is sooooooo stingy on cutting people loose from "Stop-loss"

I'm getting off the track a lil bit but I just wanted to rant a little bit.
Politically correct mode off -- "the media are the ones that dictate and decide what goes on in the war, not the gov't"

think about that one for a sec before you call me a blind right wing war monger

you think if there was this much "fair and balanced" media (Both American and Arab News) coverage on WW2, the Army would've still operated the same way it did? Take the town of Dresden, Germany. It was known as a safehaven for refugees fleeing the Russians. It was seen as a non-critical German City with no military stategic importance. And yet it was firebombed towards the end of the War in February of 1945. 3907 tons of bombs were dropped on the City. An estimated number of at least 25,000 to 135,000 people were incinerated through that campaign.

Winston Churchill "It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed ... The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing."

It was said by spotty intelligence that there was some Germany Army presence there but there was also a widely spread belief that the reason behind the bombing was to prove the might of the RAF to the russians.

You think shit like this would be allowed back then, with the way teh media is now? SHIT NO.
If so we would've just done the same thing with Fallujah. Crude and Inhumane? Yes. Worth it? we'll never know. But I can guarantee you the 53 deaths from the taking of fallujah would've said yes. you might beg to differ, but you'll never know what it's like to be out here. Some people will obviously be outraged if something like this happened..that fine. you have the luxury to never know what it's like out here and to chat with you're co-workers and friends and pretend that you know what the hell you're talking because you're just repeating what ever the fuck the fucking media decided to put out that night for ratings.

What the fuck do you think war is. A serious of nice humane deaths? It's fucking chaotic, disorganized, lawless pure hell. You expect a soldier to remember all the codes in the UCMJ and laws and rules of this and that? The FUCKING KID DOESNT WANT TO DIE!!!! What would YOU do to stay alive? The kid just saw his best friend get shot and die right next to him and so he shoots the enemy, wounding him. fuck wounding him. IT'S A WAR. If the enemy gets healed, he comes back to kill us, SHOOT TO KILL. He's injured, so fucking what. Kill him. Has the enemy shown us mercy? Hell no. Why the fuck should we show them? "Oh, because we're better than that. That's why we're AMERICANS" ?!?! If a person went up to your mother and killed her in the name of god. will you still be an AMERICAN then? be humane, bring him to justice the fair way. FUCK that. you hunt the MOTHERFUCKER down and I'd make him suffer 10 times worse..so much so that in his next life, he'll still remember what I did to him. The CARE worker Margaret Hassan was a 59 year old woman who did nothing but help people all her life. She was helping Iraq even when Saddam was still in power. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE POINT. Be nice? Show compassion? FUCK THAT. You don't know how these fanatics operate. for you to think that there's a peaceful resolution to this "religious war have sadly mistaken themselves. The only was to fight this is to be swift, fast and unmerciful. Sadly, and realistically, innocent people will die, either from firefights, or from the suicide bombings that going on now. This war will turn into an ongoing battle to the likes (but not the scale, nor hopefully the scales) of the Jews and the Palestinians. Maybe now I'm starting to talk out of my ass, so maybe it's time I stop. I got so much more ranting up in my head but I can't unjumble it and put it into words.


"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy."
----St. Francis of Assisi

I wish the world was truely like this, so easy. so simple

Wow...what I thought was going to be a few sentences ended up being alot of stuff...dang...anyways.

Enough bout moi, time to vamanos and be lazy elsewhere.

Mmm...Pizza

It's my lunch break right now and I got a little time left to mess around till I gotta go back to the motor pool to continue workin on our Humvees.

I had a pizza for lunch today; it was from "Pizza Inn" and I just hafta say it, it is by far the best pizza I've had ever since I could remember. It's sad that I have to travel into a combat zone to get good pizza. lol.

We're preppin for a mission comin up in a few days. We grabbed the Humvees that we'll be driving and found out that they are in a dire need for a full on "send it back to the factory" maintenance. It's not too bad, just gonna be alot of work; we'll get it done though.

I had a talk with my platoon Sgt. last night, nothin big just shootin the shit a little bit, and he asked me if I was scared. I had to think about that one a bit and I told him yes, but not about dying or getting shot, but more of a "fear of the unknown"

I'm thinking about purchasing a car through the ford dealership thing they have here. I guess if you buy from them, it's th factory price, no car salesman crap, and you finance directly though the company, and thus, get a lower interest. That sounds like a really good deal.

BTW, Can anyone reading this help me out with a question? I'm looking to buy my first car and thus have my own insurance for the first time. When I get back home, I'll be 21, and my rate "should" be lower as opposed to me being 20 and the rate being higher. Now from what I'm beingtold by some of my friends here. It wont matter if I'm 21 or not when I get back, the rate will still be high; reason being that it's my first time purchasing car insurance. Is that true? and if so, would it be a good idea for to have my family buy like a hunk a junk car NOW and get insurance in my own name on it (so the insurance will be low) and when I get back and am 21 get a new car and get insurance on that? that way it'll show that It's not my first time? I don't know. Any info would be helpful. :)

I wanted a 05 Mustang, beautiful piece of machinery I'd like to say. but of course, the insurance would be insane. So I think I'm leaning for a truck. Dunno which yet, got a long time to go.

We were told yesterday also that we can change our leave date. Now I'm thinking of maybe changing it to March/April, and maybe go to Brazil for "Carnivale" I dunno..too many options...

Yup, times up, gotta go put the ring mount on to my Humvee.

Out.

"What is Bruce Lee's favorite drink?"
~~WaaaDaaaa (Water)

*May not be funny to some..or all....

Finally....back home

Got back a lil bit past noon today, grimy all over, my whole body is caked in uughhh. Gonna take a shower later though. Turned in luandry, got a haircut, and here I am. Trianing out in the range was beyond words. We qualified on numberous weapons systems. I found out that 50 cal. had an Armor piercing, Incindierary, Tracer round...all that in one round..crazy...but thats cool. I'm glad that I made the choice to be part of this unit. Everything that we do here feels like second nature to me. None of that "garrison mode" crap that my old unit just couldnt get out of their system. I saw some of the guys from th eold unit; they're here prepping for a mission north. They're doin alright nothing spectacular; same ole same ole; the POS soldiers (as expected) found a way to stay back from missions (profiles, and whatnot). I really get peeved about shit like that, but when you stop and think about a person like that, I'm glad they're staying behind, that way their incompentence won't jeopardize other people's lives. half of my platoon is "Us" guys and the other half are guys from Iowa. It's a good thing we all went to the field together, all stayed in one tent together, got to know one another, because we built a comraderie that not many other units can compare to. Great buncha guys. Our new commander is everything that every soldier should strive to be, maybe because this is first impressions only, but regardless, he's a man I would trust 110% in the heat of the fight.

We're being "told" that we're gonna get a couple days off to unwind but then once we start running missions, off days will be far and few.

umm what else...oh ya I just read about the soldier who asked Sec. Rumsfeld about the lack of armor on our vehicles. (I've been deprived from news for the last 14 days..gimma a break). That took balls. It is true, the lack of armor. When my current unit first started (way before I got here) That was their main way of armoring up their escort humvees; Beg, Borrow or Steal.

I'm tired as heck, its almost 11pm I think Imma head off to sleep. I hope I'll have more time to write more stuff later...I think tomorrow's just weapons maintenance and I dunno what else...PT maybe? I hope not..lol....

Wild Wild West

Just got here to Camp "Booty star". We unloaded our stuff and put all our stuff in tents, We'll be sleepin on cots while we're hear, not a bad deal really. We got a "welcome to your new home" briefing as well as a background history about the company and what it's like to go on missions and what not.....(11/25/05)

now--12/03

Been out in the ranger since the 26th. just now got shuttled to nearest camp to take first shower...no time to talk....time is precious...goota get going....

but alotta cool sutff to talk about later

Out.