Back to back

Now that I've finally gotten another computer, I'm able to continue my postings. As some of you might have known, my old laptop (which was only a little over a year old, by the way) took a dump out of no where. The hard drive became unreadable, and therefor the computer could not start. I was able to purchase a new laptop via Best Buy.

The past couple weeks have been quite stressful. Half of our Platoon (around 15 guys) have been at another FOB south of here for the past week, getting some training on the Gyrocam and CROWS system that we use, thus leaving the other 50% to do all the missions. I'm running on my 17th strait mission (every day) and am getting quite worn out. They're supposed to return this Sunday...and maybe they'll have some sympathy and give us some time off. I'm going on R&R here on Tuesday, which I can't explain how much I'm looking forward to. A 2 week break from this crap over here will be nice. And I'm sure looking forward to being able to drive down the road without having to worry about something blowing up on me, or having anyone shoot at me either. Hopefully it doesn't go too fast.

So what's been happening around here lately? Well the weather is starting to warm up (getting around 90-100) and it's definitely showing. Like I may have mentioned before, the Iraqi's hate the cold, and the rain. It's been pretty cool, and it's definitely been raining a lot...thus there hasn't been a ton of activity. But with the weather changing, it's like they're coming out of hibernation. A city that we regularly patrol through, Al-Hawija, is almost like the ghetto of this AO (Area of Operations). You could maybe compare Hawija to Iraq, as you would Over-the-rhine to Cincinnati. It has the most IED attacks, most RPG attacks, and much more. A coward tactic they have here in Hawija is tossing grenades at our convoys as we pass by. The main being RKG's, which are old Russian anti-tank grenades. They don't typically do a lot of damage, as the insurgents don't throw very well...but there's always that one that hits right. We've been engaged by RKG's on more than one occasion, but there isn't a whole lot you can do about it. Most of the time the insurgents are waiting in an ally and just toss them out as we drive by. By the time we look back, they're already gone or blended in with the crowd. They rarely stand up and engage us head on...they're just a bunch of cowards. An RPG (Rocket Propelled grenade) was shot at one of our vehicles last week and disabled the front end, no one was hurt though. Sometimes I just wish these guys would come out and face us where we could see them.

On another note, there was an interesting occurrance a few days ago. As we had just entered into the city of Hawija, a suicide bomber attempted an attack against our convoy. Fortunately, he failed completely. Whether he clicked too early, it went off prematurely, or if he was just an idiot, he didn't damage any of our vehicles. He did manage to kill 2 civilians, and injure a couple more. After the detonation, we had to get out and investigate the site. I'm not going into detail on this one, as it was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life. Parts of his body were spread out in a 30 ft. radius. It made me think though...how these people are just doing it to themselves. I know there's all those crazy nutheads back home that claim the US Soldiers are the "real terrorists" and how we're responsible for so many civilian casualties. It just makes me laugh....if only they really knew.

Well this one is a little shorter than normal, but I need to get out and head to the gym. You should probably hear from me once more or so before I heed out on leave. -Out here-

DA03