Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
Two recent e-mails from a soldier we know, who is deployed in Baghdad and who will remain anonymous:
FIRST PERSON/OPINION
April 7, 2004
Well, I’m sure you have been seeing the news over the last few days so you know it is a mess over here. Baghdad has been fairly calm over the last day but it was nuts a couple of days ago. Our area wasn’t as bad as the section where 7 soldiers were killed but we have still lost 3 soldiers over the last 3 days.
I am scheduled to leave for the airport this afternoon. Right now there is a lot of speculation that our BDE may get extended by several weeks in light of what is going on over here. It is all rumour at the moment–they have not put in a request for us to stay–but of course it is an option and if they feel it is necessary, they can always do it. If Baghdad stays calm, then they probably won’t really consider it. Our replacement unit is already about half here. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything since the unit we replaced got stuck here for an extra 3 months. However, our situation is also different because this unit has been here for almost a year–the unit we replaced had been here for only about 5 months.
So a lot of it depends what happens over the next week or so. I am just praying that everything works out as planned. I won’t believe I’m home until I step off the plane in Germany. And even then–until (name of significant other deleted) gets back it won’t really be over. Anyway, I will let everyone know once I am home. I’ll be off e-mail for a few days during the transition.
Keep your fingers crossed for us!!
Love…
April 8, 2004
Well, it is official–we are extended–for up to 120 days. So as you can imagine, no one is very happy. I’m pretty much going to have to start my job hunt all over again as now I’m stuck in the Army probably until October since we won’t even be getting back until August. Not to mention the fact that everything (name of significant other deleted) and I had planned for this summer is out the window. We’ll still get our leave when we finally get back, but by the time we actually get to take it it will be October, not the best time to travel in Europe.
Anyway, I’m pretty pissed right now so I’m going to close. But I just wanted to let everyone know. Also, I’m not sure where we are going but we aren’t staying in Baghdad so I don’t know what kind of access to e-mail/etc. I’ll have. We should be here for at least another week. I’ll let you know as I get more details that I can share.
Love to all…
More, from a soldier we know in Afghanistan:
FIRST PERSON/OPINION
It has been too long since I have written anyone and I apologize. Things are extremely busy around here and we are severely undermanned. Many things have happened since my last message. Most significant was an explosive accident involving two of my soldiers.
Somehow, with angels watching over them, they both walked away from a significant explosion. They both have some hearing damage, but for the most part are otherwise okay. Unfortunately several others were not so lucky. Four Afghan soldiers were killed by large metal fragments from 107mm rocket motors that exploded. An Air Force Master Sergeant had both of his legs broken by flying metal and an Army Major had his ear drums ruptured from the blast. It looks like the Air Force guy will keep both of his legs thanks to two field expedient tourniquets applied by one of my soldiers. There was no helping the Afghani soldiers.
I conducted the post-blast investigation and I determined that the most probable cause was an Army-specific lithium battery exploded (they put over 450 batteries on top of the shot to dispose of them) causing about a half dozen rocket motors to explode. There were over 150 rockets on the pile with a whole bunch of other ordnance. In total, the net explosive weight was over 2,000 lbs. I figure about 50 lbs went. If it all went, there would be no one alive. That is about it for that situation.
In other news, we held an EOD conference with a seven nation army called ISAF that work out of Kabul. There were Canucks mostly from Quebec, Italians, French, Germans, Estonians, Polish, and a Brit. We demonstrated some of our tools, let them play with our robots and gear, and then had a cookout. I was able to score some t-bone steaks and rock lobster from a source at the chow hall. The control team commander could only get frozen fatty burgers and dogs with sliced wheat bread for buns. Anyhow, I mixed up what I could for a marinade (garlic salt, onion flakes, worstershire sauce, spicy mustard, and Dr. Pepper) and a dry rub (coarsely ground coffee, black pepper, garlic salt, and Cajun seasoning) to give the steaks a little bam!
The coffee is actually really good with the steak. It has a nice mellow flavor after you cook it. Try it some time with some New York strips. Grind 1 tbsp. good coffee beans with 1 tbsp. whole peppercorns and then thoroughly coat each side of a room-temp steak. Grill to your liking.
The Italians brought us a case of wine which was nice since we are not allowed any alcohol. We made somewhat of a Sangria which went well with the steak. The only thing I didn’t have besides side dishes was butter for the lobster. All in all, I think we put on a good showing for the foreigners.
I’ve started a cigar club in the company. Five of us have pooled our cash and ordered a variety of cigars off of the internet. We generally find time in the afternoons to kick back for a half-hour and enjoy a smoke. I’ve also laid my hands on a box of Cuban cigars which I am almost through with.
I’m going to have to start cutting back because I don’t think (name withheld) will be too happy with me having cigar breath all the time. The liquor filled chocolates that (name withheld) sent go mighty nice with the cigars.
I’ve been on a couple of missions in the past few months. I got to spend about a week at the firebase after I did the accident investigation. Things were pretty relaxed out there. I mostly wore cargo pants and a t-shirt with my Montecristo hat. Most of the Special Forces wear modified uniforms or civilian clothes. We generally slept in and did disposal shots (getting rid of ordnance by explosion) in the afternoon because de-miners in the area did not want detonations before noon. We would do one or two shots and then come back for dinner. The food was much better out there because the cook is only making food for maybe 50 people, instead of 10,000 at Bagram. We also had Afghani food a couple times a week. Kabobs, jasmine rice with raisins, nuts, and orange peel, meatballs, fries, and flat bread. We usually had a camp fire at night and one of the interps would make runs to Kabul for booze weekly so I had a bit of Johnnie Walker Red to go with my cigars. As you can well imagine, I wasn’t too excited about coming back to the Wally World of Bagram.
I also got to run a couple missions in the mountains near Bagram. The villages aren’t that far away as the crow flies, but when driving these goat trail roads it takes 3-4 hours to go 30-40 kilometers. On one mission we towed a 6×6 Polaris ATV in our trailer because the village was not accessible by Humvee. We had to ride about a kilometer and a half to get to the village. In the village was a cache of ordnance that was hidden in an underground room that they dug into the side of a hill. They had to dig down 4 feet to get to the doors. I went inside while they were removing the ordnance. The Hajis do not respect the ordnance and often mishandle/abuse it. I tried showing them how to be gentle with the stuff, but they laughed and started throwing the stuff to each other and on the ground. I immediately climbed out of the cave and told the other US forces to move back 200 meters behind some building until Haji moved everything out. Haji can die for his country, I don’t need to. Anyhow, we then had to move all of the stuff (about 600 pieces) two kilometers away to blow it up. We got about 1/3 of it moved with ATVs until the Marines were finally able to get a Humvee up the snowy trail (they got stuck numerous times) and we loaded the rest. The Humvee got stuck going out, too. The ground was just soup. We finally got back and blew the stuff a couple of days later.
Another mountain mission was even crazier. Our vehicle had bad fuel and some problems with the torque converter. We just didn’t have any power. Climbing through the mountains was too much for her and she broke down. We were almost 3/4 of the way to the village. We took our essential gear and hopped into the Toyota Land Cruisers that the guys we were with were driving. Side note: Toyota is the way to go…they need to come out here and do their commercials. These things go everywhere and don’t break down. You see Toyota trucks and even vans and Corollas going places where Humvees can’t. Anyhow, we got near the village but had to hike up to it from a riverbed. The village had several locations with ordnance that is pretty significant such as rockets that can be fired at our bases with a motorcycle battery. The village was a former Taliban stronghold so we were pretty cautious going in. It turned out that they were willing to turn stuff over (cause if they do so willingly, they get paid) and started bringing stuff out from everywhere. I had to go down into two caves/hiding spots to retrieve stuff. The kicker was that we couldn’t transport the stuff out of there. We needed to get rid of the stuff nearby. I found a natural cave/fissure down the riverbed from the village in a sort of canyon. I didn’t want to damage the mud huts in the village, cause then the civil affairs guys end up paying for them. The Hajis helped us hand-carry all of the stuff (about 750 lbs of explosives, but more like 2000-3000 lbs of actual weight) to the cave. We set up the shot and went down the canyon about 300 meters (really close for the size shot, but we were around the corner of the canyon and protected from flying frag) and I set my camera on a tripod and started video.
The video rocks but my brand new camera almost bit the dust. I cannot believe it still was standing after the shockwave. Flaming balls of burning propellant were landing within 10 feet of my camera. Luckily my camera was OK. I wish I could send it to everyone but the file is too big. Maybe I can put it on a website. I will check it out. I will also send some pictures in another email.
Well, that’s about it for now, about 2 more months for us. Time has gone quickly but I am ready to get home and be with my babe. Hope everyone is doing well and has a good Easter.
Take care…
