JULY


BACKGROUND



July deepened the recognition that the battle for Iraq was going to go on for awhile. On 4 July an audio recording of Saddam Hussein urging insurgents to resist coalition efforts made its way onto Arabic airwaves. A mosque in Fallujah suffered a devastating internal explosion that clearly indicated bomb making had spread to religious buildings. Attacks on U.S. troops continued, driving the overall total of combat dead past 147, the benchmark established by Operation Desert Sstorm in 1991. On 22 July 101st Airborne Division soldiers surrounded and killed Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay in a spectacular shootout in Mosul. By 29 July Hussein was back on the airwaves, praising his sons as martyrs for Iraq and urging others to emulate them. Perhaps even more ominous, about 10,000 disaffected young men joined the militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, the emerging voice of Shia opposition, in the holy city of Najaf. The extension of armed hostilities from the Sunni minority to the Shia majority would be troubling indeed. Angst over all this was incompletely offset when Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, the presidential envoy to Iraq, introduced a broadly representative 25-member Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) to guide the nation toward free elections and a constitutional government.

Continuing unrest was accompanied by a shift in tactics. In June the insurgents had attempted a few direct-fire ambushes on combat troops. These went badly for them. Even an isolated Bradley platoon packed far more firepower and lethality than the insurgents could hope to muster. By July they were placing increasing reliance on improvised explosive devices (IEDs), RPG potshots at soft targets (unprotected or unarmored targets), and mortar rounds lobbed in from hasty positions that were as hastily abandoned. Logistical support areas and the routes into and out of them became favored targets. Although the odds of inflicting significant damage were low, the odds of disruption and publicity were high and the possibility of evasion without contact was high as well. Captain Brown's first missions as a company commander were cat-and-mouse exercises to snuff out fleeting mortarmen before they could fire again.

Tactics, techniques, and procedures continued to evolve, with both sides warily pacing themselves against each other. The durable M1A1 tanks and M2/M3 Bradleys were everywhere: guarding fixed points, escorting convoys, overwatching patrols, and taking the fight to the identified enemy. This in turn ramped up enormous demand for spare parts and maintenance, which the theater, still


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bruised from the maintenance shortcomings from the march on Baghdad, was unprepared to handle. This situation would affect Brown, and it would become worse. Commanders worked with what they had.

Tactics, techniques, and procedures also involved making an appraisal of and gaining the confidence of the local Iraqis. This would have been a complex undertaking even had the Americans spoken the language. Balad, the town most prominent in Captain Brown's narrative this month, had a Shia core surrounded by a Sunni hinterland. The disparate reception of the Americans was not as simple as Shia versus Sunni, however. The web of relationships, loyalties, and jealousies had to be picked through tribe by tribe, clan by clan, and family by family. The situation was complicated by the fact that all knew the Americans would balk at wanton bloodshed and murder whereas the insurgents would not. Fear for the safety of their families governed the behavior of many, if not most Iraqis. Despite these risks, by the end of July we did see Iraqi police in new uniforms out on the streets of Balad-and the overworked U.S. infantrymen grateful for their presence.

The American attitude toward Iraqi opponents was hardening and hesitation to open fire receding. On at least two occasions Brown intervened personally to keep his soldiers within the boundaries of the laws of war. Heat, fatigue, surreptitious attacks, combat stress, and Iraqis caught in calumny or untruths fired a spirit of resentment in the men routinely in pursuit of the enemy. Ironically, the Iraqis were not alone in perceiving the truth as they would prefer it. Brown observed with bemusement as a messy series of events-where his company took out three mortars, captured a dozen suspects, returned fire in a built-up area, paralyzed the battalion command net for an hour, killed an innocent mother, and weathered a major row with the locals-morphed into a single report emphasizing the triumphs and ignoring the tragedies. All that was said was true, but not all that was true was said.


1 July: We got to the new 1-8 IN TOC location. Huge improvement. Probably the nicest location I have spent any amount of time at yet. They actually have AC operational ... some of the time. We have a decent building with a porch for chow time. Lots of rooms and it remains relatively clean. We take one step at a time. Not a bad place to hang my hat for a few days. I went through all my gear; I have a ton of stuff. I don't know where it all comes from. It's such a pain jumping vehicles since you just accumulate stuff as you go. We ate dinner at 1500-way too hot for T-rat lasagna. Well, I won't have this computer for too much longer. Brigade is screaming for it.


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I guess two computers per TOC captain ain't quite enough. It's funny how fast those guys can frustrate you.

Today proved one of those crazy days. It started out easy enough ... waking up on the roof of the battalion TOC outside Balad, Iraq. Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman wanted me to ride with him today ... very interesting. We walked over to the police station and harassed them for not painting over the anti-Saddam graffiti. The MPs continue their leader-teaching program with those guys-just not all that aggressively. We messed around there for awhile without an interpreter; I don't know how effective our conversation proved. We then rode out to Charlie Company to get the scoop on the bad guys they caught last night. One of the kids was the nephew of the Balad mayor. That should prove interesting since we have a meeting with the mayor at noon. They had six detainees for the S-2 to run up to Samarra Airfield East. What a painful process they make us go through with these guys. We left there and went back to the police station to link up with the 3-7 CAV commander for a joint meeting in Balad. The people in Balad itself love Americans; it's the punks in the urban sprawl that hate us-Ba'ath Party suburbanite flunkies.

We had to walk along the street to get to the meeting. I was walking out front while Sassaman and the 3-7 CAV commander walked behind me. After about 100 meters I looked back and saw that I was alone. Not good. I went back to the only building they really could have gone into and walked around the outside. I started getting a little nervous seeing how those two guys who were kidnapped ended up dead. I didn't want to walk into the building since I could get surrounded with nowhere to run, so I walked all around the building looking in each of the windows. Crazy feeling being the only visible American. Eventually, I heard Sassaman laughing and figured out what room they were in. I gladly rejoined the two battalion commanders.

The meeting proved pretty productive; it always does when you bring the press and $10,000 in cash that you just hand over. It wasn't our operation ... not very well run in my opinion. They gave us a bunch of information, but the Civil Affairs guys seemed uninterested in it. It's funny-they are trying to win the hearts and minds passively while we continue to win them over with our "bullish" tactics. Well, they get ambushed every night and never catch any bad guys, whereas we bring in ten a night. Drinking tea and eating random meat only gets you so far-you have to continue the raids. The meeting broke up, and we went to eat some more random meat. I think I am starting to regret that decision now; however, I was starving. We


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did the project list and went through the TTP. Basically, Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman took everything over even though it isn't his AO yet. No one has done anything in this area for three weeks; we will make it all happen in two.

We left lunch and had to deal with the freak show associated with the arrest of the nephew. Sassaman got the mission of personally escorting the kid back to the mayor. Not good. We brought him back and explained all the dangers associated with celebratory fire. The scouts almost smoked those guys with .50-cal. We left the mayor's house and headed back to the TOC. As we passed an alley, I spotted two guys with AK-47s. I yelled for the Humvee to stop, and we all piled out for the chase. These guys freaked out; the unit assigned here never chases guys. They ran down to a corner; Sassaman, the master gunner, and I started maneuvering on them. I had a fleeting shot but didn't take it due to the abundance of little kids on the street. We started running the alleyways using the gun jeeps in support. I took cover behind a corner and pulled security on an internally opening gate. Well, it opened, I switched my rifle to semi, and drew a bead ... on a four-year-old little girl. Fortunately, I didn't fire, and she ran back in after my hand signal. We rummaged through the AO for awhile but realized we didn't have the combat power to seal off the area.

I don't think I will forget that whole scene. I brought the command Humvees up, and we drove the area; but the locals informed us the AK bandits had escaped on motorcycles. It's funny how much goes through your mind in those situations. You have all the adrenaline, the breathing, and the heart rate for the chase. I couldn't take that shot because of the kids even though the ROE clearly authorized me to shoot. I am a little pissed at myself for not taking the shot, but it was a bad shot. The good guys know: AK-47 = you get shot. In our little AAR [after action review] (we AAR every contact), I stated the only thing I would have done differently is to fire warning shots. I always forget how hard it is to "break the seal" on live fire, especially two-way.

Well, this week has proven adventurous. I guess it's a new month and all. I reported up to battalion on our little contact, and then we went to link up with Major Gwinner (new XO, real strong). We went on some recons of potential future TOC locations since Colonel Rudesheim dictated to Sassaman that we had to move out of the nice house ... aren't we the conquerors here? Those two are always fighting. Sassaman was none too happy about it all.


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We did find a good TOC location. It's a school. They are out for the year and desperately want us to move in and fix it up. I told them we would leave by 20 September when classes resume. Everyone wins.

We finally got an interpreter-Ed from Chicago. He's quite funny and really good. We finally returned to the old TOC location. Battalion life proves fast and furious. We had a little welcome ceremony for Ed. Sassaman is so good with building the team. We had an update in which the battalion staff openly mocked the company I am taking over for half an hour. It's good to know all the problems ... bad to have your unit dragged across the coals.

I should have fired warning shots. Still frustrated with not getting those guys. The next time I am just going to run as fast as I can-no soft-clearing anything. I am just going to chase them down and scalp them. I get so pissed at these guys taking potshots at our supply convoys, and then when I see them I don't shoot since they were in a crowd. Now they will probably shoot at someone else tonight. It's so frustrating when our contact remains so fleeting. I guess it's best not to endanger the civilians, but they have to flush these guys out. I watched another beautiful Iraqi sunset and then we had story time about our day's activities. Hilarious. Sassaman just had his 9-mil, so I had to bust him out about being a Keystone Cops look alike. All in all, it was a good day ... but I didn't kill the guy with the AK.

2 July: Today was not quite as interesting as yesterday. I had the chance to clean a uniform this morning, and then we rolled up to LSA AanacConda. I saw how the better half lives. I got to pick up my deployable hand receipt from the property book officer and had a good discussion with those guys. Looks like I have fourteen pages of inventoriable items for the company COC inventory. This could prove painful. Oh well, I have until 10 July.

After that, we linked up with Bravo Company for a trip up to "Military City." Basically, it's the housing area for all the Balad Air Force pilots. They really don't have a vested interest in screwing with us. They merely want to maintain their current standard of living while preventing "Ali Babba" from getting all their goods. They all work on the airfield for us. I went over to talk to five of their guys while Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman spoke with brigade on the radio. While I was perfecting my Arabic dialect, I heard a blast of machine-gun fire less than fifty meters from my location. I ran back behind the Bradley for cover and to assess the situation ... one of the Bravo Company squad automatic weapon [SAW] gunners had an accidental


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discharge. Turns out he was using a piece of shrubbery to hold the trigger mechanism in place. Are you kidding me? The branch broke, and bullets flew. Great first impression, guys. That got the blood boiling for the rest of the day. We had a long discussion with the town leadership following our self-imposed "contact." It proved smoking hot, and I got hungry. We headed back to the CP to link up with the colonel. They went out to release some detainees back into the community; I just chilled out at the TOC and printed counseling and command philosophy stuff.

3 July: I went to bed about 2230. I was totally racked out when Boom! Our entire building shook. I had earplugs in and was totally confused. I then heard a bunch of small-arms fire. I rolled off my cot and started putting on all my gear ... okay, so it was all Tim Knoth's gear. I ran out front and tried to gain situational awareness. Best we could tell, someone launched an RPG or threw a hand grenade at us. The guards and scouts started chasing some guys down. We remained busy on the net for a little while and then things died down. I went back to sleep with all my gear on. About 0330 Major Gwinner woke me up and told me we had some intelligence on bad guys in the village. We started putting together some teams to clear the joint at first light. We had the mortar platoon come over to help out the TOC guys. We took the informant and drove around throwing chem lights in the bad guys' front yards. After that we came back, divided the town into sectors, and then started our Keystone Cops raids. I had a bunch of twenty-year-old aggressive, inexperienced kids on my team ... good, I'll follow them. It's funny, the more experience you have, the less desire you have to kick the door and go in first.

Our little team cleared three buildings. Total squalor. Not much in our buildings except for some old timers and the one-per-house AK-47. Half these guys work for the police force. We detained all the males for questioning. We then sent the meat wagon around to pick all these guys up. Major Wright, Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman, the S-2, and I sat at a picnic table with the masked-up informant for some questioning as the sun came up. I saw pretty early on that we had a busted raid, so I left to go get some sleep. This country is so poor ... and hot. Of course I couldn't sleep past 0800, so I got up for my morning monkey bath. After that we went over to the police station to link up with 3-7 CAV for our mayor meeting in Balad. We rolled into downtown Balad and had our little chat with the mayor and the imam [prayer leader]. I guess we picked up someone last night who was causing some intertribal conflict. This caused a long-drawn-out debate. Turns out we picked up this


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guy because they were beating him up because of his regime association. He's in the hospital, so there really isn't much we can do for Sheik Haji-Turkeman. What a name.

After our meeting we went out to lunch ... way out in the country. We ate on the floor of some chicken farm-no shoes, no chairs, no plates. We had some giant fish and rice. Very tasty. You just eat it with pieces of bread and hope you don't get some horrible dysentery or kidnapped for that matter since you are way out in the boondocks. Crazy country. We basically ate a giant fish on the floor of a barn with the ranking officials of a 200,000-person city. What a country. Pictures and words cannot describe the things we do here. After our dinner we went over to Matt Cunningham's company. They are doing really well; they are attached to 3-7 CAV. We journeyed back to the TOC for naptime. Very nice but so hot. When you sleep during the day, you just sweat bad. The ideal thing to do would be to set up with air conditioning in a super-dark hangar, operate solely at night, and just rack out during the day. Hopefully, I'll reach that state quickly with Bravo Company. We continue to plan our Fourth of July party. It should be fun. I think I will launch a bunch of rounds into the air. Time is going faster now.

4 July: Last night proved pretty uneventful. We walked a little foot patrol around the perimeter and then just racked out. Not too much going on. I just hung around this morning and straightened out my gear. I start COC inventories tomorrow. We are supposed to barbeque sometime today. It's a pretty lazy day thus far. I did eat some crackers and Italian tomato-paste dip while drinking Perrier. That sounds pretty weird coming from the squalor of Iraq.

6 July: I lost the computer. I guess the brigade arcade was not complete without it. I am back to the pad and paper. We had a good Fourth of July dinner. They brought steaks and hamburgers up from Kuwait. Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman went around to all the companies and gave awards and inspiring speeches. T.K. and I feel like he is the "Gladiator." We played a little music and threw horseshoes until the mosque started blaring its call to prayer. Tim McGraw versus Mosque music. The dichotomy of this place never ceases to amaze. I spent one more night in the lap of luxury prior to heading down to the company with Sassaman. We hung out for awhile, and I inventoried some stuff. We then did some PT. I think we scared some people by running in the heat.


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Eagle Six (Sassaman's Bradley) at the Balad Mosque
Eagle Six (Sassaman's Bradley) at the Balad Mosque



LSA Anaconda took more mortars last night. You can see them from our bunker complex. It's reminiscent of the scene in Band of Brothers where they are in the back of the truck watching the artillery in the distance. Anacondaremains a very easy target ... 18,000 people who don't patrol. I guess we had eighteen casualties there the other night-that is unacceptable. We spent the rest of the night looking for the mortar crew. We took down a few houses-some were the same houses from the week before-and confiscated more weapons, but mortars are tough to find if you don't get a Q36 radar hit and you have to action on crater analysis. It's maddening. You can lob a few mortars and be gone before we get helicopters and the QRF [Quick Reaction Force] notified, let alone get to that grid. You have to be there waiting for them ... that's what I will do once in command. The area they fire from is in my AO ... guess where B 1-8 IN will be the evening of 10 July. The company is struggling with maintenance right now, particularly generators for the Brads. We need to figure out some systems to keep things going. Ted Bryant (the old CO) might get evacuated because of some sort of Jurassic Park-looking foot infection. That would make things very interesting, to say the least. Well, I need to get going on those inventories.

9 July: It's been a crazy few days. The COC inventories just eat at your time. I haven't done anything tactical with the company-it's just been way


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too crazy. The TOC and UMCP get mortared every other night and I have to go up there to inventory my equipment ... I go during daylight. There is a Mad Mortarman north of LSA Anaconda that someone needs to get serious about catching before he hits something big. I ran into Hancher today; he had a similar hide-under-the-cot experience that I did with the RPG drive-by ... too funny. I went up to Tikrit with Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman yesterday looking for a Bradley to no avail. I did get to really see how the other half lives-unreal. They live better there than at Fort Hood. Central AC in a palace with all the associated MWR [morale, welfare, and recreation] stuff makes it easy. Saddam lived large and so do these guys. I would rather be stationed in Tikrit, Iraq, than I would Fort Hood, Texas. Of course I didn't find the Bradley, so back to square one. It's attached to the division assault CP down in Baqubah. Oh well, the COC will happen; they'll have to sign my giant missing-items memo. I spent all day getting that typed and then swung by the brigade TOC to find out what's going on. Everyone is moping a bit since the latest redeployment date is 1 April. Great! Well, chow is here; it comes at 1400 scorching hot.... Never worry about getting a cold plate. I heard an initial report that a guy in A/1-12 IN (Jack's company) got shot with an RPG and lost his leg. That sucks! Makes you feel a lot less sorry for these Iraqis and their cowardly ambushes. What happened to the Arab pride stand-up-and-fight ideal we read about?

11 July: It's been a crazy couple of days, that's for sure. I took command at 1000, 10 July 2003. It was a nice ceremony. I used the Normandy flag speech. The guys just need something to be proud of. Major Barnett was very sad/excited with the whole ordeal. He was like a proud father, and the colonel actually gave me a coin. Immediately following the COC, the BC [battalion commander] and brigade commander gave me an expanded AO

Bravo Company, 1-8 Infantry, at Lion FOB
Bravo Company, 1-8 Infantry, at Lion FOB


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and the license to hunt the Mad Mortarman of Balad. I gave a quick Frago and met with the platoon sergeants to go over my command philosophy. This company is so ready to take off. They just need a modicum of guidance.

We built a mini-range on the perimeter, and we will shoot there daily. They love it. We also started working some quality of life issues. We have a great battalion staff who's willing to work it for us ... if we ask. It's amazing how that works. Had my guys go in early to do the Vietnam patrols and set in counterambushes while I went to the 1800 battalion Frago for the mission on the twelfth. Everyone then rolled out to my sector. I had a squad in contact when I showed up and had to deal with a bunch of communications issues in my Humvee. I got on my Brad, and things started to click for me. I got the AH-64s down on my net and started working the sector. We were working the AHs with our lasers, and they were giving us good spot reports with theirs. It worked really well, and Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman got on the net and told everyone to take notes because school's in session. We always talk so much trash on the net. It felt good to be back making things happen. All in all, it was a good long day-0230.

I got up this morning and worked the Op Order piece. I had the platoon leaders in here working it with me-a little parallel planning. I think this will work out quite nicely since there is no time. I had all the officers working except for one who I thought was at the UMCP. It turns out he was 200 meters away in his bunker pulling "weapons guard" while his platoon was up at the UMCP for their maintenance day. I spoke with him, but I don't know if the lights are on for this guy. We have aerial QRF tonight, so it should be a good mission, but we still need time to prepare for the next. I have zero time now as a commander; but everyone works very hard for us, so it's great. I guess a soldier in 64th (one of Dena's) was killed yesterday. It's under investigation but not due to enemy contact.

12 July: We have a company operation going on tonight, and the guys are pumped. Right now they are out confirming zeroes and test-firing weapons ... that haven't been fired since Kuwait ... BS. I went out on the mission last night. We had an inordinate amount of lessons learned. We got two UH-60s for the operation. I had the platoon do the whole thing ... with a little prompting. I thought we were a total soup sandwich, but then the higher-ups all started singing their praises for the platoon and the indirect mission we fired. I guess we worked it out enough on the company net to make it sound smooth on battalion. I had them clear a cemetery area where Q36 picked up


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radar hits and then exfiltrate back on the birds. I think I overwhelmed them with tactics, techniques, and procedures with the helicopters. The irony was that all the mech guys were doing an air assault raid while I, Roy [Maj. Darron Wright] from 82d Airborne Division, and Sassaman watched from our Bradleys. Yeah, they got lots of advice and lessons learned. I was a little pissed until I linked back up with them and saw how excited they all were ... it was the first helicopter ride for some of them. That made me smile. Guys were coming up thanking me for getting the birds. What a different perspective.

It's a crazy feeling riding the roads of Iraq at night. We rolled up to the battalion CAR this morning at 1000. Right when I showed up Sassaman grabbed me and dragged me into the FAS [Forward Aid Station]-he was pissed. Charlie Company took two casualties from ten grenades thrown over the wall of one of their platoon compounds at 0600 that morning. They had zero security. He made me examine every single wound like I was a surgeon. Thankfully, no one was killed. We got lucky. I briefed all my guys on these dangers. You just can't live next to Route 1 like they are doing up there. I prefer the wide-open space inside our armor battalion's perimeter. We had a good rock drill with the company and fired our weapons-they are going to be great.

14 July: Large chunks of time just fly by when you're in command. The mission went pretty well. We went into Tu-Pac Shakur (our jihad town) with a north hook and south upper cut. The city lies on a "C" with MSR [Main Supply Route] Linda. It's a crazy Mogadishu-type city ... except we have Bradleys. We did a simultaneous takedown of five houses. One house was separated and I sent the XO, Jimmy Bevens, and Red Platoon to that one. I went to the block of houses that we had labeled X2-X5. I had White Platoon establish outer security and Blue do the search. We dismounted 800 meters from the objective, and the infantry moved forward to establish the infantry cordon. Once that was emplaced, we breached the doors and established the Bradley outer cordon. I had two Apaches working the area for me, providing external security on my company net. It worked out nice. I had some initial troubles getting the infantry moving; but, once launched, it went down well. Blue went over the wall for initial entry. It was pretty funny watching them climb over with all their gear on.

We flex-cuffed everyone. A couple of the men wanted to fight back ... yeah, that didn't work out well for them. After some initial scuffling, they


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started cooperating. Once we had them tagged, gagged, and bagged, the first sergeant rolled through with the paddy wagon to both objective areas. We uploaded them and moved them to the S-2/THT team at L7. We had twenty-two total. We then did a detailed search of the houses. We found all kinds of IED materials-blasting caps, RPG sights, plastic explosives, etc. These guys were bad dudes. We dropped them at the interrogation point with the battalion S-3 (Roy), and they proceeded to question them ... two of them are going much higher and the others sang like canaries. All in all it was a really productive raid-some real bad dudes taken off the street. They had twenty-five IEDs ... this town is bad.

I got back to the CP at 0430 and got about an hour's worth of rack before the Apaches came up and sent us on a morning of wild goose chases. What a party. We went to Military City and checked out a truck with aluminum in it. Then we went to scour some haystacks before finally going down to the Tigris River for some Vietnam patrols. Smoking hot down there-no fun. I had a guy fall out for heat, and we took him to the BSA. I came back to MmacChine CP for a nap and then headed out for the night mortar hunt. We hung out there for awhile and then did a gun run through Tu-Pac Shakur to keep the Abu Hishma tribe under wraps. They so don't follow the curfew. I got good sleep last night and am now getting ready for the night's order. It's Bastille Day.

16 July: I got a run in last night. We also worked on improving our positions. Of course, 1-68 AR tankers want us to move so they can have more room ... I will resist. Wars change people. I used to feel compassion for the people. Now I am only willing to work with women and children. This generation of Iraqi men is lost. I think this was inspired by my up-close experiences of the past few nights. I thought we would conduct our standard mortar search last night. I got off my track to do some coordination with the platoon leader. They were maneuvering real well with a purpose. They had guys covering one another's movement, doing bounding overwatch, as they left the track. We had a discussion about that the other day. I was thinking, "Wow, they look motivated." As I was walking over there, I found out why. Crack! Crack! goes the AK-47 into the field to my front ... game on. I hopped back in the Bradley as my Blue Platoon laid waste to the house the fire came from. I maneuvered the other platoons around to block off the area and then I shot up into the center of the city to block it off. We then proceeded to clear the block of houses. We detained all the males in the courtyard out to our front and called for THT support.


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"Eagle Ed," our interpreter, came and spoke with the guys from the shooting house. They, of course, said they weren't firing at us ... there was a wedding and some of their friends were firing. Pathological liars, all of them! We asked him to take us to the house where the wedding and shooting occurred, knowing he was lying since it came from his house. We had him stand up in front of the family and tell them what he told us. The other family was pissed-you could tell by the fusillade of Arabic and gnashing of teeth. This tribe declared jihad on the coalition, and now they have to pay the price for their boasting. We questioned them for awhile with the interpreter but decided they had zero intel, so we moved on, keeping our lying friend. We told him he would spend the rest of his life in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, if he didn't tell us the truth. He was terrified but continued to lie. He has a full beard and tells us this story about taking tests the next morning for school. We ask him what grade is he in ... ninth? Does he think we are that stupid?

We moved back to the EPW area and released the guys not of value and then did another gun run through the perimeter before returning to the CP. Funny, we no longer get scared when shot at ... just really pissed off. Of course they decided to launch a mortar early the next morning, so no sleep and off to work in the midday 125-degree heat. The Q36 radar kept on pointing to a cemetery area. The irony of the day proved that my plans to attend my first Catholic priest-led mass were replaced with driving through a Muslim cemetery with one of my Bradley platoons. We minimized the damage, but those bastards asked for it by using the place. I found a bunch of 60-mm. fuses and some other demolitions. They are definitely using this area as a cover for bad guy operations-smoker of a day.

We ate dinner at LSA Anaconda (the most dangerous place in Iraq for any number of reasons, most notably 18,000 guys with their weapons wrapped in trash bags in a small area) and then headed right back out to enforce the new 2100 curfew and hunt for the mortars. I guess word spread through the town about the "Machine," because they all went inside. They either smile and give us the thumbs up, or they run. I can't change my bullish tactics because they only understand force. We are at heightened security from 14-17 July ... that means I run more missions. I am still trying to finish initial counseling and roll out for the witching hour, all at the same time. It's game on after they launched an RPG at Roy, the battalion S-3. Yeah, he caught them. I am pretty confident they regretted shooting at him. When they caught the guy with the smoking RPG launcher, he tried to deny that


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he had fired it. Well, got to go hunt the white whale ... hopefully without the white elephant.

18 July: Victory! We got the white whale, and it felt awesome ... then things went downhill quickly. I was doing some initial counseling when a mortar went off right outside the front gate of the LSA-right where the XO was waiting for me to link up. The Q36 gave us about six grids to search. On the way to look, the scouts and Roy saw three dudes run into a hut. They went to the hut and found two mortar rounds. They grabbed those guys and started searching the field and found 82-mm. mortar no. 1. About the same time, my 1st Platoon stumbled on some scorch marks in the earth. The XO noticed some upturned dirt. They started digging ... 82-mm. mortar no. 2, just fired, complete with base plate. I got my 2d Platoon into an adjacent field, and they started chasing a guy who had a bag filled with AK rounds. He got away, but they found mortar no. 3. We got lucky! As anyone who has ever been to JRTC [Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, Louisiana] knows, it's like looking for a needle in a stack of needles.

After we collected up all the mortars, we began to clear all the houses touching the orchard. They of course knew nothing; they are far more scared of the guys launching the mortars than they are of us. Too bad, because if they would lift one finger to help us I would turn on the Civil Affairs projects. Until then, we can continue with our jihad versus crusade in Abu Hishma land. We had the interpreters work that place for awhile and then went back to house X4 to see who was there. No one in the house, but five guys hiding in the chicken coop. Bad choice, guys-they get a ride to Samarra East in the paddy wagon. It was the house with all the IEDs in it, so they were definitely up to no good.

We continued clearing in and around the orchard for bad guys until about 0200. We then had the interpreters question the detainees for awhile. I had one platoon pull security while the others went up to Cemetery Hill to form a company patrol base so we could scour the area at first light. After we finished with the detainees, I started to move back to the base in my Humvee and my Brad ran over a huge role of concertina wire. We spent the next five hours of the night cutting it out of the tracks-painful! The guys we searched the night before started coming out of their houses for morning prayers, and guess who was still there? When we went to take the side skirts off the track, the pressure from the wire jammed the final nut in place-no way to get it off. Finally, Sergeant First Class Berg came down with all his tools and went to work on it. He made it happen, but it took forever.


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We went mortar hunting once the sun came up and then rolled back through the LSA at 0900 for breakfast after zero sleep but with three mortars ... LSA heroes. Came back to Machine CP and the AC was fixed so I racked hard from 1000-1600 and then got up for the night mission. It felt weird missing an entire day. One of the sheiks informed us of more mortarmen in one of the towns, so we did the chem-light clearing technique. I put the company in a line, drove through the town with the informant, and threw chem lights at bad guy houses. The trail element then moved on the houses and detained all males. We had a monumental amount of confusion since the streets were so small. One of my platoons rolled and detained the informant by accident as he stood pointing at a house. Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman and I could not stop laughing about that one. Now we just have to find out if the sheik was lying. It is incredibly difficult for anyone in this country to tell the truth ... and it just makes us a goon squad for whatever informant wants to deceive us.

We collected thirteen EPWs and moved them along the dike. The families saw them and started wailing, crying, and screaming as only these women can. The women would grab dirt and throw it into their own faces. Two months ago I would have felt awful, but now I saw their distress as an opportune time to do some questioning. Of course they knew nothing about a "howen" [Arabic for mortar] even though we've heard it fire from the very fields they work in. We told them their husbands were going to Cuba (our new favorite psychological tactic) to rot with the other al Qaeda terrorists, and the only way to get them back was to turn over the howen. We probably already have it, but we think there might be another one. Once we saw that they didn't have any information, we told them the truth about their relatives. We've become so callous. They had this man who looked about 150 years old-no teeth, all stooped over, and boils on his face. We told them we thought he was firing the mortar. They looked at us incredulously, and then we all started laughing. They wanted us to take him off their hands. They actually do have a sense of humor here. Then they asked us to tea. After we broke in their door and carted off all their men, they asked us to tea! Unbelievable! Maybe the reason they have so much trouble with the truth stems from their unwillingness to remember what happened ten minutes prior.

We had no more mortar attacks. I am keeping my fingers crossed-so painful hunting these guys. I heard the LSA commander is giving money to the sheiks to not fire on us. If true, he must be a real moron. My policy is to take it to them. Mortar fire comes from your village, we come to your house.


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Never change from bullish tactics over here. So instead of sitting at the gate pulling heightened security like some units did, we went on the offensive all over from 14-17 July. Happy Ba'ath Party Birthday and overthrow of King Faisal II, Iraq. Never give up the offense.

19 July:This country is so assbackwards. Everyone sleeps on their front lawn. I guess I have seen that done in America before, but it usually involved a pretty crazy party with a plethora of alcohol. Here, it's the norm. I felt pretty good about the progress we were making the last time I wrote-both as a company and within the region. Now I'm not so sure about either. I guess every dog has its day. It started out easy enough. I gave a little focus session on patrolling to the platoon leaders and sent them on their way. I wanted to get a haircut (I looked really bad) and shower before linking up with them for the witching hour (2000-2100). I got my haircut and went for a twenty-minute run around the perimeter.

I got my shower stuff and was getting ready to shower and get all the haircut hair off my body when we got the call that Famasili was shot and White Platoon had contact. They had found some mortar scorch marks in the field behind a house. They went to investigate the house and came upon a cache of weapons. One of the men from the house bolted on them and they opened up, hitting him and an Iraqi woman in the crossfire ... these streets are so narrow and packed with people. Of course their power amps were down, so they couldn't talk to us. Instead of moving to where they could talk, they got on the battalion command net (which is retransed throughout the area). Jimmy Bevens was two miles away and attempted to get the situation under control, but it quickly devolved into a commander's worst nightmare ... a platoon RTO [radio telephone operator] broadcasting on the battalion command net all sorts of crazy reports. As I hop in my Bradley, the situation I understand is one friendly slightly wounded in the arm, one Iraqi man shot but stable, and a civilian woman with a grazing wound to the neck, with all casualties sent back to 21st CASH.

We cordoned off the area and began systematically clearing the houses. I could tell battalion was pissed about the whole reporting thing; I reminded them that's the type of information I had to deal with daily but that I would fix it. We searched the area for awhile and found nothing. The interpreters got on scene, and they found out that the woman shot had not been taken to the CASH but picked up by her family and taken to their front yard. That made sense since she was reported as slightly wounded. I am still about to


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crush the platoon leader at this time for the total amount of confusion his reporting has wreaked on the situation.

We asked to go see the lady and take her to the hospital. They tell us that she is dead. Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman instructs me to go take her pulse while he talks to these guys. We get to the house area, and I go in with a team. All the women are lying around screaming and crying-totally freaky. I go into the center of it all and they have a sheet covering the woman. I ask to look. She has an American GI bandage on her neck. I pull it off and find the entrance wound ... not grazing. The exit wound blew out the back of her neck. I do the polite thing and check the pulse and breathing, but rigor mortis has already set in. She's way dead. I call the platoon leader over: "So this is a grazing wound to the neck! Yeah, I'd call it right through the neck." About this time, they bring over a little baby to Sassaman and me-two months old, and it's hers. Winning the hearts and minds one day at a time.

By this time we are all pretty upset about the whole thing. We try to explain to the family how we came under contact when we discovered a large cache of weapons (numerous AK-47s, RPGs, IEDs, a mortar site, and various machine guns with ammo) and that their relative was caught in the crossfire. They didn't want to hear it. We explained to them that we had an American soldier shot as well. They denied this, saying he was injured while wrestling. What? They are such pathological liars and can no longer distinguish what truth is. How do you get a bullet hole in your arm wrestling? I don't think they have even a concept of truth.

The Iraqi "police" show up, and one of the guys says we took money from him when we confiscated his uniform. We gave him his uniform back, but he insists he had 200,000 dinar in it. Okay, yeah, right! That's a rice bag full of money and well over ten years' salary for these guys, and he expects me to believe that it was in his left coat pocket. He informs us that he'll settle for $200 American. Yeah, go home, Bud.

About this time, the Iraqi male that caused the entire incident arrives at the CASH ... dead on arrival. Hey, are there any other brilliant reports to send up? Meanwhile, I'm getting pummeled by battalion on these grazed, slightly wounded, stable personnel dying. I have my other platoon down here for security, and I start talking to Andy Sinden, their platoon leader, about the whole thing. The confusing nature of the whole event was that Andy was reporting it and Andy's guys treated the male casualty. I couldn't figure it all


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out. Turns out that my other platoon decided to let the guy bleed out in the field, and then Staff Sergeant Reagan and Blue Platoon found him and treated him. Now I've got the ass. I just ask them to show a minutia of understanding of the big picture and to demonstrate a few of the Judeo-Christian values our culture espouses. If nothing else, it is outstanding medical training. This war hasn't been that bad to make you that callous.

We wrap things up on the objective area and head back to see Famasili-he's the only one they diagnosed correctly. He was really funny when I came in. Big Samoan kid strung out on morphine. He stands up and salutes inside the hospital. I get the lowdown on the dead insurgent and then move out. Next morning I collect up statements from the guys on the night's activities and move out to the TOC. It's like we take one step forward and two steps back here in Company B and in Iraq. We are doing a big award ceremony for all the good things we have done. The previous administration gave out the following awards: none. I have already signed twenty-seven AAMs [Army Achievement Medals] and five ARCOMs [Army Commendation Medals], and I am on Day 10 of command. Yossarian in Catch 22 developed two ways to deal with big screw-ups ... fire the guy or make him a hero. The final report that went up to division: 1 insurgent killed, 1 civilian killed, 1 friendly casualty returned to duty, large cache confiscated. I guess when you combine it all together into one paragraph it makes sense and sounds good.

The platoon from last night spent the night up at Anaconda on QRF. I swung by to talk to them about the whole deal. I informed them that they were not under investigation, but that while they were in my company they would do combat lifesaving on the injured in the following order: friendly, civilian, enemy. If they had a problem with that, I would move them to a company where they do not have to treat civilian wounded. If they totally lack any sort of value set, they can look on it as nothing else but live medical training. It's so frustrating, but I guess that is why we have leaders on the ground to make the calls and enforce their standards. I had a good talk with Sassaman about the night's activities. He told me not to worry about the reporting thing-and that we all get haircuts now and again. He also told me that he and Roy were playing soccer with the locals in Balad proper (a much more permissive environment). It made me feel a little better. You can't be everywhere at once, but I must always be everywhere with some people. I ran into some of the guys that work at the brigade TOC. They were all excited because the reports they received were that we came under fire and attacked and seized three mortars while killing the enemy. Yeah, and that's probably how


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it went up to division. Combine all the days' activities into one story and we sound heroic.

Sassaman came by our AO and told me that he went to sign the death certificates at the hospital and they brought the baby to him ... dead. They let it dry up in the hot sun. This town is just a bunch of f-ing savages. Back to square one. Tomorrow has got to be better.

21 July: Well, we have had two relatively calm nights in a row. We fire illumination rounds at 2100 and 2300 to signify the two curfews and then we perform our curfew run. The only excitement occurred when the insurgents' mortars fell short of their target and hit up the street from us. I was sleeping in the bunker and never heard it. Apparently, it was quite loud since the tankers went to investigate. Either the Abu Hishma tribe will start cooperating now or it will devolve into a bad anarchy scene. I told Sassaman that we would pour on the Civil Affairs if we have another five days of cooperation. I hope we do, but it's so hard to run operations and work Civil Affairs at the same time. Very confusing for all parties involved. I got a digital camera; now I have to figure out how it works. That will be my activity for the day ... to beat the heat.

The Armor guys want to start increasing all our security, especially between 0430-0530 ... a time when no attack has ever occurred in Iraq. Our fixation with the French and Indian War is comical. We normally don't get back in until 0330-total reverse cycle for us. My solution to the problem is we shoot our ranges during that time. Their TOC proved a bit incredulous when I told them my security plan ... man our bunkers and shoot at the range. It is better than doing the Ranger School sit out on the perimeter thing ... we are shooting guns. I don't think anyone would probe a mechanized company doing live-fire training. I sold them on my idea of security.

22 July: Another uneventful night last night with the Abu Hishma tribe. That's good for the battalion as Charlie and Alpha Companies more than made up for our quiet night. I guess we had an informant tell us Saddam Hussein was in this house, and they ended up just blasting it. Recon-by-fire-type attack. They had 25-mm. and Apaches pouring 30-mm. gun runs on this housing complex. When they went into the house they found four terrified civilians. Of course they proceeded to trash the house but didn't really look for anything as the battalion commander walks in and finds multiple untouched safes. He was pissed. They found only money but totaled the house. I guess


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their actions got us out of the doghouse. We have a big meeting at 1400. I think it's designed to rein everyone in.

Alpha Company killed a guy last night because he ran away from them after curfew. They also shot up a motorcycle that turned around and ended up hitting a bunch of kids in the process. It's covered in the ROE, since we continue to operate off wartime ROE. That's fine, but you just have to overlay a semblance of Christian values. Everyone has become so frustrated. The longer we stay here the more harm we do. No one really gives a rip if we kill Iraqis, we just have to come up with a smidgen of evidence that they were bad. I won't allow that attitude to prevail; we will be surgical and precise in our application of force. We still have to rebuild this country. I think that I've deliberately tried to avoid contact in my city the past few days so that I can justify sending the Civil Affairs guys in. Once we get a couple of projects going, they will talk and we can become the local sheik's goon squad. Still no mortars fired from my AO. Two more days and we can start winning the hearts and minds financially. Apparently, all the sheiks save one want to start toeing the line. We will pay a visit to the instigator in the next few days. I am sure we can convince him to play ball.

Glad I wasn't part of the Elvis sighting [Saddam hunt]. Last night sounded painful. I guess they have to go back to the house and do all the claims. We also heard pretty definitively that we would be here a year. That is going to break guys-especially the ones that still don't have cots. One year is a long time to sleep in the Iraqi dirt. Apparently, the higher-ups are pissed off at 3d ID's attitude. Yeah, they have really jerked their chain, and I don't fault their attitude. If you want to piss guys off, tell them they are going home each month and then don't send them home. They are breaking the morale of the Army with their carrot-and-stick leadership tactics. Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman asked about mid-tour leave, and no one really wanted to let guys go. I guess they are scared that they won't come back. Oh well, we all think the care for soldiers in Vietnam was better, but WWII was far worse.

24 July: Well, it has proven a couple of pretty calm nights for the Abu Hishma tribe. We have a standard rollout time of 1700. We fire some illumination rounds at 2100 and 2300 and do curfew patrol. Yesterday we had a marksmanship OPD and standardized all our equipment on our dismounted weapons systems. I think everyone got a lot out of the discussion. I want them to use science in order to employ force surgically. I think they all bought into it. It's a combination of maturity, leadership, and training to mitigate the


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blasting of hundreds of rounds to shoot one guy and then injuring a bunch of civilians in the process. Our efficiency rate will go up. Guys are coming back from the range and asking me all kinds of questions, which means they are experimenting and learning. It takes some time, but they have the concept. This company is so ready to go to the next level.

We had another mortar "informant" yesterday. We went on the goose chase. It's funny because we have gone on thousands of these things and dealt with thousands of informants. This one came through the brigade-hilarious how they deal with these guys versus how we do. They try all these tactics and use methods to develop the informant when all the guy wants is to get his neighbor in trouble and get money for doing it. I told him to take me to the mortar ... dry hole, of course. Then we go to the target house ... right across the street from his house. I am certain it's some sort of feud, but we will keep eyes on it. It's like the "Jerry Springer Show." I told brigade I didn't want to action on the single-source intelligence anymore unless they showed me weapons. We have played the random goon squad way too much in this area ... and the mortars haven't fired since we got those three last week and policed up the bad guys. Brigade concurred. I think the folks on the LSA just don't want our actions to interfere with Salsa Night at the club. We fight two very different wars.

I got a run in this morning before it got too smoking hot. We have more nighttime now, so we have more survivable temperatures. I honestly think I can feel it cooling down. Yesterday the high was only 120 degrees. It didn't feel bad at all. The low temperature gets down to about 78 degrees, which feels quite cold. I figured out the digital camera yesterday, so I should get some good pictures. I have used it to develop plans for potential raid targets. Works pretty nice, since we don't get any external intelligence support. Intelligence and targeting is all bottom-up driven, and companies and battalions do it all. I have found that I can make my sector as calm or hot as I choose, based on what I go looking for. Lately everyone wants this sector to remain calm, so I just gather intelligence on the bad guys and wait for the word to bring them in. They are terrified of my company but not of the truck drivers from the LSA. They don't stay in uniform or keep their weapons at the ready, and the locals know the difference.

I talked with some shepherds yesterday about the howen. They knew nothing, so I reverted to psychological operations with them. I told them the mortar had killed a shepherd and a bunch of his sheep. He then started telling me


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everything he knew ... all the town gossip. I think I am learning how to deal with my village-apply force and straight-up lie. The interpreter and one of my platoon leaders were impressed with my ability to get them to talk. I told them I learned it from being a little brother. I also exploit the deaths of Uday and Qusay to my advantage.

We put the informant in the back with one of the soldiers. As I closed the hatch, he rotated the handle around, smashing my thumb in it. It hurt so bad I wanted to cry ... but Sergeant First Class Berg, one of the platoon sergeants (total funny guy) was there, so I played it off like it didn't happen. I quickly walked over behind my track and almost threw up. By this time it started throbbing, so I got us moving really quickly and held my thumb high up in the air. Now I mark my time in Iraq by the advancement of the dead portion of my thumbnail ... it would have been nicer to use a calendar.

I also got eleven packages yesterday. Wow. I ration them now. It's very nice receiving mail. Amy's [Captain Brown's sister, a securities lawyer in Denver] law firm sent me fourteen bottles of shampoo and conditioner. I don't think they have seen my haircut. We have our gravity showers set up, so I now supply the company with shampoo ... it doesn't take much. I have got to go work on our big awards ceremony for the twenty-sixth. It will be the first time these guys have gotten awards in a very long time-the previous administration proved a bit stingy with the ribbons. My guidance to the platoon leaders was that everyone leaves here with an ARCOM and an AAM-or an Article 15 [nonjudicial punishment]. I went to a platoon "party" for two of the guys that are on end term of service. It was a good thing for the platoon to do. We had a very nice little farewell picnic. I didn't even know these guys yet. Gustafason and Frayne-I told them to capitalize on the GI Bill. One is going back to college; the other is going to become a rancher in North Dakota. They told me that they would have stayed in the Army if they knew they were going to get to do all this training. The platoon is very excited. They are so pumped with all the new shooting and training that we continue to dream up. I am convinced the Army can be fun if we allow it. Too many people get caught up in the bureaucracy. Fortunately, wartime company commanders can totally ignore it.

25 July: Last night was quite the party. We threw track out in this orchard area. That really made for a long, sweaty night. All the kids from the town came running over to us.... "Mister! Mister!" They have about the same vocabulary as I do. I took some pictures of them, and they loved it. They


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think my digital camera is magic. Of course they want to touch all your stuff until you yell, "Ali Babba." Then they all jump back and say "No Ali Babba." Hilarious! They wanted water, and I asked them if they need a doctor. They say no and point at their stomachs for food, so I ask them if they are pregnant. My phrase book is very limited. They all laugh and fight for attention and the honor of asking the next question. Of course, they want you to go home with them and drink tea. We were shooting illumination that night, so I acted like I called in the fire missions from my camera and then pointed at the sky. Our technology blows their minds away. I enjoy the kids. We chased them all home for curfew yelling "Ali Babba" and shining our flashlights on them. They enjoyed it thoroughly.

In the beginning these kids had thrown rocks at us as we drove by. I was terrified we were going to run over one of them as they darted all around us
In the beginning these kids had thrown rocks at us as we drove by. I was terrified we
were going to run over one of them as they darted all around us.



As we interacted more and more, they began to see it as a fun parade. Many helped us search for mortars and weapons caches out in the farm fields.
As we interacted more and more, they began to see it as a fun parade. Many helped us
search for mortars and weapons caches out in the farm fields.


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The teenage crowd. They really wanted to trade things, ask about Hollywood actors and look through my sunglasses.
The teenage crowd. They really wanted to trade things, ask about Hollywood actors
and look through my sunglasses.



We finally got the track fixed and moved back to the CP. I put my name on the list for the cell phone and actually got to call Kris. It was great to hear her voice, but it was tough to wake up at 0330 when my name came up. I felt guilty since we still had guys waiting to use the phone, but they get to use it when they pull maintenance at the UMCP. I, on the other hand, haven't used it in a month. I woke up this morning and went to shoot a Bradley zero range up at Samarra Airfield East. It's quite a drive in a Bradley when it's smoking hot. One of my mirrors is out, so I had to figure out the "Kentucky windage" (adjusting fire based off where your first round hits) until the mechanics/missile techs can look at it. We got back to the CP in time for chow and our first live-fire OPD. I had all the leaders out there and ran through our CQM [close-quarters marksmanship] table one. I think they really are catching on, and everyone seems to want to move in the direction I want them to. I spent forever trying to zero my M68. I had a great shot group but couldn't get it to move where I wanted it. I was getting really frustrated, so I took it to the armorer. Yeah, my barrel is loose. We have to turn it in. That made me feel a lot better about my marksmanship. It's so frustrating when your rounds are so tight, but every time you get up to check your target the barrel changes position. We'll get it fixed. Tomorrow we have company PT and the awards ceremony. It should be a good day. I am inundated with boxes.

26 July: We had a great day today. Started out with a company run around the inner perimeter followed by racing the same route. It turned out quite a smoker. At the end I passed out all the little pocket flags that Amy's law firm sent us. We then showered and had an awards ceremony. They told me that there hadn't been that many awards given out in Bravo Company in the past two years. I will never figure out why we don't give awards. Lieutenant


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Colonel Sassaman had a really good time with the guys yesterday. It's always good to bring your boss down to see things going well ... makes it much easier on the company. He gave out coins to the victors of the race, minus me. They told him the "terminator" doesn't count. We passed out twenty-seven AAMs and three ARCOMs. Then we went and got some outstanding company pictures with the digital camera.

Of course the good fun had to end, and we had to go out looking for another mortarman ... wild goose chase, and it's so smoking hot out in those fields. I guess someone got pissed because we were ordered to fire HE [high explosive]. The FSO [fire support officer] and I went up to this giant 300-foot-high water tower and watched the sun go down and dropped rounds along the banks of the Tigris River. It proved a total smoker climbing the tower in all our gear, but the view was awesome. The first two rounds proved duds due to the soft soil, so they fired variable time. I had no clue what we hit, or really where we hit since it was so dark. I just knew the azimuth and distance it should hit. I worked it off flash to bang ... and some pretty rudimentary math. Sound travels at 330 miles/second. It took ten seconds for the sound to reach me; therefore, we must be on target since my azimuth lined up ... fire for effect. We shot a battery two [i.e., a battery of guns firing two rounds each]. Glad I didn't sign my name on that one. We probably blasted some farmer's storage shack. Each day we alienate the population more and more in the Abu Hishma tribe. It's one of the towns that would best serve Iraq with a MOAB (mother of all bombs) placed in its epicenter. Well, I guess I have to go meet the CJCS [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff], General [Richard B. Myers, U.S. Air Force], today. He is coming to the battalion TOC. The meeting should prove interesting.

27 July: Well, the CJCS came and went. He did a great job talking to soldiers but proved incredulous when we told him how we were hunting down and killing the bad guys. I don't think they understand back in Washington that we continue in this ongoing war ... and wars involve shooting and killing. Fortunately, we have had very few American casualties; but that doesn't mean there are very few Iraqi casualties. Their weapons suck, but they continue to use them ... and die trying.

I think that is the farthest forward I have seen anyone from America come ... to a battalion TOC. This war doesn't seem half bad if you visit corps support commands. All the decision makers need the opportunity to search for mortar caches in an Iraqi orchard at high noon and roll through RPG alley


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at midnight ... with an infantry platoon. Then they would truly understand that this place blows. Until then, don't tell me that a year is not a long time in the big scheme of things.

The thing that kills guys about staying here a year is the total lack of a meritocracy. The Army does its rotation policy like its promotions ... just wait it out. If they told us you could leave when your region has an active police force pulling 24-hour operations; a hospital/evacuation system capable of level-two care; a viable school/youth activities system; a democratically elected, American-approved governing body; and a balanced, sustainable agrarian/industrial economic system, we would work so much harder. Instead, they tell you plan on leaving 1 April. Okay, now I really want to go bust my hump setting all this stuff up during the day while hunting bad guys at night. We'll just sit inside our wire, play volleyball, take weekends off, and wait for 1 April like the rest of the "lob-cockers" on the LSA. Hell, they don't shoot at me. I guess the only thing that keeps us going out there night after night is pride and the desire to do a good job.

One of the JAG lawyers told Lieutenant Colonel Sassaman that we were alienating the Iraqis each time we conducted a raid. He lost it. He basically is going to force her to leave LSA Anaconda, for the first time, and come out on patrol to show us how to win the hearts and minds of the people shooting at us. Bottom line: if you haven't left the wire, don't talk to me about strategy ... you have no idea. I begged to get them on one of my patrols, but I think they might be overloaded with a plethora of work that just won't allow them to leave the front gate. Two very different wars, two very different worlds. Enough ranting.

29 July: The mortars have started again ... so much for a sense of normalcy. The Easter egg hunt started up once again. This time we got the engineers' metal detectors. We found a cache of rounds: forty-three 120-mm., ten 82-mm., and cases of antiaircraft rounds. Of course we didn't have enough demolitions to blow it all, so we had to guard it through the night and wait for the engineers to come down in the morning. We set up a patrol base and instituted a rest plan-or lack thereof. Trying to sleep in body armor with your helmet on just isn't that restful. We went to scour the area at first light to no avail. It's so hard finding these guys. I chased some apple pickers through the orchard. Then I had my infamous conversation with the tomato picker, informing him that we would blow the cache and he needed to go home. He, of course, didn't want to cooperate. They just don't want our help. The


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Battleground IRAQ

engineers brought us the demo, and we blew the cache ... huge explosion. Luckily, we had the Iraqi police force go around and tell everyone to go home. It proved fortunate because rounds went everywhere. The police now have uniforms, and they are proud of themselves and their new car. I finally got out of there after the cache blew ... we were so tired. We headed back to the CP and racked out from 1100-1500 ... until the mortars started again. We had an 1800 command and staff meeting. It lasted three hours and then I headed out into the town. Pretty boring night.

30 July: Shot a bunch of ammunition last night since I got my barrel back. We had another boring day up in Abu Hishma land. It made for an early evening, and I got to get some PT in. Things are slowing down throughout the region, it seems. We are kind of getting into a routine around here, but it always has its hiccups. I am attempting to run and shoot six days a week. Of course, it never quite works out for me. We found a .50-cal. machine gun last night down in the Military City. They obey all the rules but provide you with the "Mister, Mister, Mister" ambush. I made the mistake of taking the kids' pictures. Then they just demanded that I take more pictures of them. It turned into "Mister picture, Mister picture" barrage. They would bring out rocks and sticks for me to photograph. The first time it's pretty funny, but after the fifteenth stick they bring me to photograph it gets kind of old. We ran into the Iraqi police on curfew patrol for our town ... very nice. They are making it happen with their new car and shiny uniforms. Of course they use the siren every time they drive. Hilarious scene. It makes our life much easier. I really don't know what we are going to do if we stay here a year; it is starting to get boring.