A world apart

Note: This was intended to be my first post from Iraq, but due to internet I wasn't able to post it at the correct time. Thus I'm putting it up now, just to give readers an introduction to what is going on now.


I realize it's been some time since I've made a new post. There wasn't a whole lot to write about while in Kuwait, so I just figured I'd wait till I'd gotten into Iraq before I wrote the next piece. Well, I'm here now...It's finally happened. Back in August of 2007 when I was signing those papers I knew the day would come where I was to step foot in the sandy country known as Iraq. We arrived by a C17 Air Force transport plane, into the Kirkuk Air base (Obviously operated by the US Air Force) and then took a short 15 minute bus ride to our home for the next year and a half or so, FOB (Forward Operations Base) Warrior, Kirkuk Iraq. FOB Warrior is one of the larger FOB's in Iraq, and is primarily an Air Force base. But there is still plenty of Army precense. But, being an Air base, we are living pretty "large" for say. There is running water, "Real" toilets, and even sometimes, warm water. They have a food court, which has a Burger King, Taco bell, and a Green Bean coffee house. There is also a nice Dining Facility, a good sized PX, and a recreation facility that has some telephones, pool tables and ping pong. And of course, a gym. So hopefully in some of my down time (When not on mission) I'll be able to occupy myself. Our rooms aren't much. A small "shipping container" has been converted into a 2-man living space. The whole room maybe 8ft. by 15ft. Privacy consists of splitting the room in half with wall lockers...so not much. But it's not that bad, atleast I have a mattress to sleep on, and a roof over my head. I'm not gonna complain. I haven't seen much of Kirkuk yet. It's Iraq's third largest city, following Mosul. Close to about 2 hours after we settled into our rooms there were a few mortar attacks probably about 200 yards from where we are staying. Mortar attacks are common across most bases in Iraq, but nothing really to worry about. The attacks are usually very innacurate. This was my first experience with an explosion that I wasn't expecting beforehand. You hear a light whistle about a second or so before the explosion, so there isn't much time to react. Though there are bunkers all over the FOB, since this isn't a rare occurance. So you just take cover until the mortaring stops, and then listen over the loudspeaker for the "OK" to return to normal activities. Though maybe scary the first couple of times, mortars aren't much to worry about. Since the beginning of the War, the deaths caused by mortar attacks is very low. Other than that, there have been a few large explosions across the city that you hear, most likely caused by IED's (Improvised Explosive Devices) or EFP's (Explosivly formed projectiles). Some people think it's "Sweet" when you hear the explosion in the distance, I just hope no one was hurt, because I know sooner than later I'll be out experiencing my own fare share. I haven't been "outside the wire" yet, but our first mission is supposed to be Thursday. Once they start, they'll never really stop. Generally speaking, our Company as a whole will be on mission 24/7. Missions are usually platoon specific, so if one platoon is out on mission, the other is resting, and vice versa. A route clearane mission is typically 6 hours or so, but missions can last anywhere from 6 hours, to 48. Sometimes you'll even be out for a whole week. But that's all to come. Everyone is basically just getting settled in right now, waiting for vehicles to arrive from Kuwait, and supplies. We won't be using Bradleys in Kirkuk, which seems odd since that's what we trained on for the past year in the states...but that's how things work sometimes. We'll be using other vehicles called RG-31's and MRAPS, which are both wheeled vehicles, with plenty of armor. We'll also use some other route clearance vehicles, along with the Humvee. Yesterday we all picked (from a hat) our R&R dates. I managed to get the 4th week of March, which goes into the first week of April. It's not exactly what I wanted, and it's a little early in the tour, but it's that or nothing, so I have to take it. So sometime around the 25th of March I should be coming home for 2 weeks of R&R. On a threat level, Kirkuk is definitely pretty dangerous, but not quite that of Mosul (where we were supposed to go) In Mosul, they were finding an average of 20-30 IED's per day, ranging roughly to 140-210 per week. Here in Kirkuk, it's about 60-70 per week. I'll usually hear small arms fire throughout the day off in the distance, but that's not nearly as much of a threat. The insurgents here have pretty much realized that it's useless to attack US Troops, and they're finding that their IED attacks are doing less and less against our vehicles, so they are basically attacking each other. Suicide bombers/car bombers have been threats here. They realize that the US Troops are trying to "Preserve the peace" so they combat that by killing each other. It's pathetic. So I guess I should conlcude this message. Soon enough I'll have plenty more to write about. They've mentioned that we might only be in Kirkuk for 6 months or so, and then move to Mosul. But that's just talk...and everyone knows how talk goes in the Army. So just for everyone elses sake, I'm here now, I'm safe, and I'm looking forward to kicking some ass.

-Out here-

DA03