"BOB'S" LETTERS HOME - 14 & 15 April, 2004
14 April 2004
Man, things around here have been crazy lately! For me it� been 91 Iraqi� deep, one trip to Ramadi, and rockets flying overhead. I can� believe the stuff that� been happening!
Fallujah and Ramadi are in ruins.
Last night and this morning there were two big missions aimed at Kaldiyah and Ramadi. I have a mission going back to Ramadi for the combat patch ceremony for brigade. I� hoping that when we do the ceremony Col. C. will tell us when we�l leave. I�e been doing late night patrols and OP8 AND I� FEELING LIKE THIS PLACE WILL DRIVE ME INSANE.
Recently we�e been taking in detainees from all over. One guy snitched on 29 of his friends as bomb builders and setters.
Eight guys shot up Attack Company so we went from 18 prisoners three nights ago to 91 prisoners now �they�e stretching us extremely thin. We brought up six guards and had the majority of the detainees outside in five standing pens, three in front and two in back. About 36 pickets are all filled. As always there are the eight inside cells.
Our senior operations officer and the personnel officer have been trying to get rid of detainees as quickly as possible.
The two days after I got off detainee guard, I shared OP8 shift with W. I did the first four hours and he finished the last eight. He got to the OP half an hour late and I left to X-ray where I had T. cut my hair for the ceremony.
A call came over the radio saying that Centurion 3, Maj. I. (OP� officer), could send 25 detainees to Ramadi. Soon after that Cpt. S. walked in, heard the situation from First Lt. T. and said he wanted one headquarters and two support guys; guess who he picked?
I really didn� want to sit in the back end of a 5-ton with 25 stinky Iraqi� who won� shut the heck up. But I did as the CO wanted and went to the motor pool to link up with support at a S3 truck. The 5-ton was non-operational due to two flat tires so we found a maintenance 5-ton to drive. At the motor pool a guy suggested I pick up a used humvee chair from the scrap metal yard to throw in the back of the 5-ton.
Centurion 1, Cpt. C. (Personnel officer), didn� have the detainees ready but I took three to the front gate where the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC) picked them up. One guy had a swollen foot due to heat and constant standing. He got out the gate and the ICDC Joes carried him to the vehicle. We brought in a guy who� turned himself in and whose brother was already in our custody. By the time I got him off the truck the detainees were loaded in the 5-ton.
I got my instructions from the driver, Sgt. F. and the Cobra platoon Sgt. If anything happened I could either signal for help from the rear, shoot off as many rounds as I needed and/or bail out of the truck in an emergency. When we rolled to the gate all hell broke loose. We stopped there for about five minutes but felt like forever. Already the detainees were talking and that made me extremely angry.
We rolled slowly to the backside of TQ and stopped because a huge convoy of Marine vehicles was moving at a snail� pace. We had a two-hour drive on bad roads ahead and we� already been in the truck for 30 minutes. It must have been 105 degrees in the back with those stinky men, and hotter for me in a Kevlar and vest. Finally all seven vehicles rolled out to Ramadi.
We were on the same road we came from the south on when we arrived in Iraq. It was torture with all the bumps and, no matter what, 26 people flying through the air. I had a very unstable seat on the humvee chair atop a MRE box in the back left facing forward. I rocked all over with every turn or bump. I worried that detainees would take advantage while I adjusted my chair but they shifted around the truck bed with every toss too. Then we blew a seal and one bearing on the second axle and every time we slowed the axle made a grinding noise.
Finally, when I saw other military vehicles that weren� from our convoy I knew we were in Ramadi; the worst was over, no more bumps. By then all detainees had their sand-bag hoods pushed up and were talking way too much. I yelled and got most of them to put their stuff on and shut up.
At the detainment center it took five minutes to download the prisoners; thank god. I jumped to the ground, stretched, and removed my gear. I hadn� sweat that much for months.
We rolled to Bravo Company motor pool to check the truck and they told us to go to the barracks. Two HHC mechanics said we were SOL with the truck and that we might nurse it home with short 30-minute rides. We decided to leave the truck and cut our losses.
Their chow hall was ten times better than ours. I easily grabbed three plates while the Cobra guys caught hell and, despite my earlier woes, I walked out with a smile on my face.
Before I got to the chow hall I� seen a few guys from S3 Platoon. It was good to see guys I knew from the rear. They told us about a huge mission kicking off in Ramadi with tanks rolling through and where one could shoot at almost anything that looked suspicious. Of course most of the tanks were deadlined.
Back on the road I finally saw the road in front of me; in the 5-ton I could only look behind me and at the detainees. We took the 30-minute trip straight through Ramadi and onto the highway. We hit a few traffic jams in town but no one threatened us, despite the uprising. Ramadi is more like a regular business area than is Kaldiyah or Habaniyah. On the highway we turned up the speed to 65 mph. We had to get Cpt. C. to speed up twice but it was still good movement. Along the way we saw QRF tanks and Bradley� and felt pretty good. It felt so good to be back on Camp Manhattan.
This morning was one of those mornings I dread. I� volunteered for 5am patrol around post. I� thought that, since I� also volunteered for the first four hours of OP8 I� be off. But at 4:30am T. woke up C. and I and it was confusing. I went into X-ray for confirmation that I was supposed to be on the mission. I was. We rolled out and did our thing at an unmanned OP and the British Hotel. Came back and got ready for OP8 at 6:30am, grabbed a plate with the other guy from support and sat at OP8 for a couple hours in the truck until the temperature came up. Then we moved into the shade and stayed put again.
About 10:30 we heard a boom and a rocket whizzing over. It impacted on the road near Black Hawk without injuring anyone although one guy on top of the building was shaken but no worse for wear. The guy on the Black Hawk OP had seen where the rocket had fired from. That was just the cats meow for me. Heck, I didn� get relieved until 3:30pm.
Two mornings ago a couple of mortars came down near our artillery tracks on the airfield. It just had to happen at 3:30 in the morning while we were asleep! I got up, saw W. getting dressed, and said he probably wouldn� need to do that as almost the whole platoon plus a couple support guys were headed to X-ray. Reports came in from the OP2 that is set on the airfield bunker with a good view of Kaldiyah, TQ, and Camp Manhattan. All reported that everyone was okay and eventually Cpt. S. sent us back to bed.
0n the 24th I�l be going back to Ramadi for a ceremony to officially get our patches put on. I sent in one DCU top for the combat patch. It�l be great to show I was involved in this experience, deployment, the ceremony itself, and also that I�e had experiences that most people never have. I�e been at the front and center of ceremonies with the unit colors (our Guide-on). It� a good feeling to be seen and recognized. It� nerve racking too because top brass looks at every your move. I believe the guys in combat infantry/mortar-man MOS will get their badges and that� a great honor. One of the color guardsmen will have a star above his Combat Infantry Badge (CIB) to signify he� been in combat twice: once in Desert Strom and now in Iraq.
The good thing about going to Ramadi again is that I won� be in a 5-ton with detainees! Plus, I get to wear a pair of pressed DCU�. I� looking forward to that date.
15 April 2004
I didn� finish the last letter so I�l get to it.
Today was just another long boring day. I got up an hour early to reset the clock you sent. I was up at 4:30am and snoozed until 5 then woke up N. He noted my mistake so I went back to bed and tried to sleep for another 30 restless minutes. I showered and found only enough water for shaving.
That leads me to the next gripe with being in this hellhole of a place. We�e losing our services and supplies: fuel, water and food. All the supply lines are compromised because of increased attacks on coalition forces. Convoys are getting hit on the highways and back routes. Everyone� scared to bring fuel up so we�e cutting back on everything. But, if there� no fuel we can� cook so we�e eating MRE lunches; soon we�l do the same for dinner.
We�e hurting pretty badly, plus we�l be receiving 600 more soldiers from 1st Armored Div. The water guys who were picking up for showers aren� showing up so we don� have regular showers. Life is getting hard around here.
OP8 was just another long boring day without a single explosion or gunshot. It was great with no worries. I�e been tired going to OP every morning and I couldn� help but close my eyes a couple of times. I am supposed to be relieved at 10:30 but that never happens. I don� get out officially until 3pm or so. But I got time off to practice for the ceremony.
Love �ob�/p>
"Bob's" Letters Home from Habiniyah (near Ramadi and Fallujah)