Please forgive me for failing to get on here and provide an update or two sooner. My day job has really put some demands on my time but I promise to do better and getting on here even if just to wave from the sandbox.
As you can see, the underwater cable guy has finished his repairs. I still am quite curious as to how such a thing could happen but I guess that’s the mysteries of the deep.
What you may not be able to see is the tremendous progress your Soldiers and their Iraqi counterparts are making over here. I manage to catch a glimpse at CNN/FOX News/MSNBC at the chow hall and I see very little reporting on goings on in Iraq which I suppose is a sign that we are experiencing great successes. Rest assured, you can take great pride in the honorable job your Soliders are doing, day in and day out.
I’d also like to send out a huge THANK YOU to the many of supporters who have taken care of the Soldiers in my unit. They are kicking butt and your appreciation means more than words can express. We’re sneaking up on our half-way point in this deployment which causes both joy and concern. Joy in that time is flying by, concern in that we have a long way to go.
Again, my humble apologies for not getting on here more. I will do better if you allow me. Thanks again to all for everything! Sgt Hook out.
MilitaryTimes staff writer Matthew Cox and senior photographer Rob Curtis have teamed up to cover Army forces in Iraq and are blogging their Tales from the Sandbox. Good stuff, I think you’ll like. Sgt Hook out.
Rock of the Marne Soldiers from Company A, 1-30th Infantry fought tooth and nail alongside local Iraqi citizens to push more al-Qaeda rat bastards out of their neighborhoods.
FOB KALSU, Iraq (Army News Service, Jan. 28, 2008) - For three days, Coalition Forces weathered harsh cold and deadly pressure-plate improvised explosive devices to secure a foothold in southern Arab Jabour, beginning with an air assault Jan. 20.
Infiltrating areas dominated by al-Qaeda in Iraq, infantrymen of Company A, 1-30th Infantry, 3rd Infantry Division began their push through the farm fields.
Capt. Neil Hollenbeck, Company A commander and his Soldiers would initially be cut off from ground supply lines. They had to pack enough food and water to sustain themselves for three days while arrangements were made to have supplies flown into the territory, which had never seen a sustained Coalition presence.
Photo Courtesy U.S. Army
Dog faces and angry citizens on the same side make a recipe for success. Sgt Hook out.
A handful of Marines and Military Police from the Texas Army National Guard remain in the once war torn city.
After I adjusted my embed to focus specifically on Police Transition Teams, I was nearly surrounded by young men from Texas. Many seemed to instinctively understand Fallujah’s infamous provincial “nationalism.”
“Fallujah pride is like Texas pride,” I heard from several MPs who, unlike Iraqis from Baghdad, didn’t think that was a bad thing.
BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Jan. 25, 2008) — Most of Sha’ab was still sleeping as a Humvee weaved its way through the neighborhood’s maze-like streets early one frigid, January morning.
Leading the patrol was 1st Lt. Austin Dziengelewski’s platoon of paratroopers from 2nd Battalion “The White Falcons,” 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment. The patrol was on its way to a squatter village in the area, where displaced families were living in makeshift tents. With the temperatures dropping below freezing at night, the paratroopers were worried people in the camps might freeze to death. The platoon’s mission was to find them and see what help they needed.
As the Humvee rounded a corner, the squatter village appeared. The vehicles pulled up and the platoon dismounted. With breath steaming out of their mouths in the chilly air, the paratroopers picked their way through the ramshackle camp. It was a nest of tents, tarps, and scrap metal that looked as if it had been picked up and dropped there by a tornado.
The head of a family emerged from one of the tents and spoke with Dziengelewski. He told the lieutenant that sectarian violence had forced him and his family to flee their home in another part of Baghdad and settle in Sha’ab.
“Why here?” Dziengelewski asked him.
“It is safe here,” the man replied.
After Dziengelewski promised to return later with blankets, tarps and food, the platoon headed back to base. On the ride back, the man’s seemingly insignificant words hung in the air.
It is safe here.
A year’s worth of work, translated into four words. When the White Falcons first arrived in Sha’ab with the mission of improving security, the neighborhood was gripped by constant violence. Twelve months later, it is safe enough that families flee to it as a sanctuary.
For paratroopers like Spc. David Higuera, a medic with Company B, the area’s revival against all odds is a point of pride.
“After a year, when you look back on how it was, compared to now - things are definitely a lot better,” Higuera said. “I know for a fact that when I look back on all this, I’ll be proud of what we did.”
I highly encourage, nay order you to read SSG Mike Pryor’s entire article. His piece clearly puts those four words into perspective. It is safe here. Sgt Hook out.
Your Army continues to push out the sonsofbitches al-Qaeda in Iraq and turning neighborhoods over to Iraqis. Oh, and by the way, they’re sticking around to keep the rat bastards from coming back.
CAMP VICTORY, Iraq - Just days after a major precision air strike in southern Arab Jabour to root out al-Qaeda in Iraq, combat engineers traversed the battlefield, arriving in the area to construct Multi-National Division - Center’s newest combat outpost.
Soldiers with 535th Equipment Support Company, 479th Engineer Battalion convoyed from Camp Stryker, Baghdad, 15 miles southwest to Zambraniyah in southern Arab Jabour to begin construction on Combat Outpost Meade Jan 15. Coalition Forces hit more than 40 AQI targets in an air strike Jan. 10 to secure the area in support of Operation Marne Thunderbolt.
The commanding general, MG Rick Lynch, stopped by the COP to speak with the engineers digging in reminding them they are making a difference…
“I just want to tell you I’m proud to be here with you,” said Lynch to the combat engineers gathered around him at COP Meade.” You all have had more impact than you’ll ever know … The whole world is turning right here right now at Combat Outpost Meade. We’ll fight the Global War on Terrorism here so we won’t have to fight it back home.”
And your Soldiers get it…
On site for less than two days, the engineers had already graded the ground and a significant proportion of the outer wall was completed. Soldiers constructed the wall with Hesco barriers - wire-framed, fabric-lined containers filled with dirt.
Pfc. Charles Brosnahan, from Granton, Wis., explained his unit’s mission. “We’re just trying to build up a spot so the infantry can come in, clean house and keep their sweep going to push the terrorists further away,” he said. “(Soldiers) can’t do that without a place to live, so we come out here first and build it up.”
As much as some might hate to admit it or choose to ignore it because the story doesn’t support their agenda, good things are happening over here every damned day. We will come home, but we will come home with honor having accomplished our mission. Sgt Hook out.
“Last Sunday, my dad asked if I was still in Iraq,” Lynch said. “He’s not seeing it on TV because bad things aren’t happening over here. It’s less publicized. That breaks my heart, because I’ve got 20,000 ‘Dog Face Soldiers’ working their (butts) off every day over here making great progress for the United States of America, and we just have to get that story told.” -Major General Rick Lynch, MND-C Commander
A lot of good things happening over here, most notably is we’ve got the rat bastards of al-Qaeda in Iraq on the run and when they try to hide, Iraqi citizens are ratting them out.
“A year ago, we were often reacting to al Qaeda and what they were going to do,” Hertling said. “Now, I think the tables have turned a little bit, and they are attempting to react to where we’re going to go next. And that’s a critical difference.” -MG Mark Hertling
Tim Sumner has an excellent post about the New York Times Slimes recent article dissing the Army’s new combat vehicle MRAP (mine resistant armored protected). I don’t have a lot of statistical data to throw at you, but I have talked with Sodliers driving in these colossal trucks and while they were skeptical at first, the vast majority have come to love the MRAP. Granted, they are big and sometimes cumbersome, but the trade off for saving our Soldiers’ lives. I shared an eye witness account on the effectiveness of the MRAP here. I also took a look at one just yesterday that had been hit with an IED and all of the occupants survived.
“Son of a bitch,” was the comment du jour as we surveyed the damaged vehicle.
I would ask Times reporter Stephen Farrell to choose which vehicle he would like to take the next time he leaves the Green Zone to tour the streets of Iraq. If I had a choice I know what mine would be…
This site is a collection of my writings, thoughts, and ramblings and in no way reflects the official positions of the United States Army or the Department of Defense. OPSEC trumps everything.
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In view of a recent tendency to identify characters in fiction with real people, it seems proper to state that there are no real people in this volume: both the characters and their names are ficticious. The names or designations of any military units are ficticious. There are no living people nor existing military units presented in this book.
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Halfway down the road to hell,
In a shady meadow green,
Are the souls of all dead troopers camped
Near a good old-time canteen.
And this eternal resting place
Is known as Fiddler's Green.
-Author Unknown
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