Opening my eyes

I realize I haven't made a post in quite a while, but things have been hectic. In most of my downtime I try and get a little sleep, or touch base with home. But I thought I should give an update, to let you all know how things are changing a little bit over here. I'll let you know now that some of my stories might be a little graphic, so read at your own discretion .

So where do I start? Quite a bit has happened since my last post...People have been asking me how I've been. Well a response to this could go a lot of different ways I guess. Overall, things are going well. On the bright side, the time is going pretty quick, I haven't gotten hurt, we have internet...and I'm going on leave on the 1st of April. Since the first IED explosion I was involved in, I've (my vehicle) has been hit twice more, making 3 times in 2 months. The second two weren't too bad...a lot smaller, and really didn't do anything except scratch the vehicle. We went out a few nights ago and our other platoon was hit twice within an hour. A 1-manned mine-detecting vehicle we use called the "Husky" was literally blown in half. Luckily the driver was ok. He took a little bit of shrapnel in the leg, but that was it.

On another night, we were on an escort mission going to a smaller FOB about 100km away. We were a couple minutes outside the FOB when we were informed over the radio that the FOB was receiving indirect mortar fire. Since we were outside already, they gave us the coordinates to where the mortar team was firing from, and we headed that direction in attempt to intercept. We got to that location within a couple minutes, and saw a single truck sitting out in the field, with 3 occupants and a mortar mounted in the bed of the truck. Once we spotted this truck and the mortar on the back, we opened fire with our .50 caliber machine guns. There were 3 guys in the truck: Two in the cab, and then one in the bed operating the mortar. We had our positive identification, and we had hostile intent. We fired on the truck as it started to take off, but it made it about 50-60 feet before rolling to a stop. After that, we rolled up and got out to check it out. The guy in the back was mangled, he looked like he had taken about 4 direct hits...his left leg was nearly severed, his chest had a hole in it about the size of a football, and there was a chunk missing from his right shoulder. The bed of the truck had mortar pieces along with pieces of his body...there was a pool of blood underneath him. The two guys inside looked like they had taken hits to the upper-body and head...but it was hard to tell. Glass was shattered all over the place, there was some type of flesh sprayed on the windshield...it looked like parts of their heads. you almost had to wipe away to blood from the glass to really even see what was inside. And the truck itself was torn to shit. holes all over it, 3 of the 4 tires blown out....and smoke and fluids coming out of the engine bay.

Before deploying, I thought to myself on quite a few occasions how I would handle myself if I saw some of the things I thought I might see. I guess I really didn't know at that time. I've never really been a feint of heart, but you never know. We walked away, and I turned around and spat on the truck. I've come to terms with myself and realized that I have absolutely no pity, and no sympathy for these people (The insurgents). They don't give a rats ass about us, and they'll do anything just to score an American kill. They won't think twice about taking our lives, so why should we for them? They know now what happens when they try and kill our guys. We fucked their asses up.

So how are things going? I don't know...I'm stressed a lot. We're going out on missions every day, sometimes twice a day. Go out for 15 hours, come back and get 5-6 hours before we have to go back out again. I'm feeling fine about being hit by the IED's and killing some of these people....I've just come to terms with it I guess....it's gonna happen. I can handle it here, I just hope I don't have trouble handling it at home. 3 guys from another company in our BN. were killed when their convoy was hit by a complex ambush (IED followed by RPG's/small arms fire). I knew the 3 of them....obviously from garrison. It was weird seeing these people you knew get killed.

On the bright side, we've done a few missions where we've dealt directly with the community, and some of the kids. We went into a local town right outside of our FOB and the kids were flocking to us. They love US Soldiers, well..most of them at least. Some of the older ones with cell phones are trying to take pictures of/with you every chance they can. We had some extra chemlights (civilian glo-sticks) and we were handing them out. One kid opened it up and had no idea what it was, so I showed him how to light it up by making the "snapping" motion with my hands. He cracked it, and it lit up. It scared him quite a bit, and he threw it away quick in a hurry. After he realized it wasn't going to hurt him he walked over and picked it up, then proceeded to try and break it open to drink the liquid. We motioned for him not to. It was a comical moment, seeing how these kids had no idea what glo-sticks were. I took a video recording of some of the kids, and they act like their in a movie or something....trying to perform for the camera. These kids have nothing, but at the same time they have everything. They enjoy whatever they can, because they don't know what they don't have. It makes you think sometimes about how some people can become so spoiled and take for granted what they have. These kids go out and enjoy the simple things in life. Running around chasing each other, playing soccer on a dirt field with two pipes in the ground for goal posts. They don't have Xbox's or Playstations. They don't have Cartoons to go in and watch. They're just happy with nothing. It sure makes me appreciate everything I have back home, and how great my life as an American really is.

I figure I've probably gone a little overboard here. I'll write again soon to keep things up to date. Hope everyone is doing well on the homefront. -Out here-

DA03