nanajoanie

If you don't want to read about the war, please don't read this. I debated whether to post this one or not and decided it's info that some might want to know. If this is offensive to you, please read no further.




It's been a while, gang.

Thirteen days. Our second-longest mission of this deployment. We
drove Iraq from head to toe and made it back. Let me tell you how it
went.....


We left on the first day of November on our longest mission, going
from Camp Navistar to a base 40 KM south of Mosul. The first two days
were routine as usual, spending the time to drive through the open
deserts of southern Iraq. We made it to our CSC (Convoy Support
Center) a few hours south of Baghdad and prepared to make the journey
through the Sunni Triangle.

This part of the mission would not be routine.

My job was that of HMMWV driver, our three-man crew was one of five
crews protecting this convoy. Insurgents had blown a bridge on our
Main Supply Route on a 6-lane highway transversing Baghdad on the
west side, so we had to take an Alternate Eastern Route that bypassed
Baghdad altogether.

The problem is, this was not a well-traveled route and most everyone
was unfamiliar with it. Most everyone, except me.

The convoy commander tasked me as the navigator for the convoy. I was
no longer responsible just for keeping the vehicle on the road, I was
now responsible for plotting the route and directing the other
security elements.

I'll be honest, I was very nervous. One wrong turn, and as Jessica
Lynch taught us, people can die. I felt deeply responsible for the 30-
some soldiers following my lead. So I did my homework, went to the
briefings and plotted the course using our GPS PLGR and our movement
tracking system.

To everyone's delight, we hit every mark on our 6-hour drive and made
it to our destination in Balad unscaved. I was blessed that I was
able to navigate a dangerous, narrow and twisting route without also
having to engage the enemy. After arriving at our base, we stayed the
night and prepared to move several hundred miles to the north.

The next leg of the trip took us by Samarra, Tirkit, Baji, and
finally just south of Mosul to our base. For the first time in 9
months, I saw mountains and felt rain. In fact, it rained heavy about
every night. The hot scorching days of summer have been replaced by
constant cloudcover, rain and moderate to cool temperatures. In
Mosul, we went up signifigantly in elevation, as well as being 700
miles north of Navistar, so the weather was very cool and damp. We
were set to head south, but things were about to change.

15,000 Marines, Soldiers, and Iraqi forces invaded Fallujah.

Higher command called to split up the convoys into smaller elements,
so we had to travel south in smaller serials. Our guntruck assets
were also forces to leap frog parts of our convoy from one base to
another, then return to the original base to pick up the rest of our
people. So basically, we had to backtrack to pull our people from one
end of Baghdad to another.

The convoy south through Baghdad to our base an hour south went
untouched, but the return trip to Balad was cut 30KM short due to
several IED's (Roadside Bombs) that were found by Route Patrol. We
had to turn around and stay at a base just north of Baghdad in Taji.

Insurgents, in an attempt to open up multiple fronts against us away
from Fallujah, stepped up attacks in our area. When we pulled into
Camp Taji, we changed our radio to the emergency channel and
listened. We heard convoy after convoy begin to report engagements
with small arms, RPG's, and indirect fire (mortars). It seems we got
into camp at just the right time. Sounds of explosions to this area
are nothing new, but the frequency and strength of what we heard and
felt was like nothing before. Several explosions were heard every
minute, smoke was rising from the horizon and Apache Helicopers
screamed past in every direction. Army Field Artillery began to
return fire from close to our position. Stretches of calm would be
shattered by several minutes of explosions.

We were not allowed to leave the camp to continue our convoy for 2
days. On the second night, mortars came in close to our position,
hitting a junktard of Old Iraqi Army Equipment nearby, setting a TI-
72 tank on fire.

We left the next morning at 0200 for our short convoy north to where
our people were. American forces had now subdued many elements of the
enemy around us and were everywhere along our path. We got to the
rest of our convoy and finally began the push back to Navistar at
0530. As day was breaking, one of our elements came over the radio
reporting small arms fire. We never saw any targets to engage, but
the serial of our convoy that was 10 minutes infront of us did
engage. They were fired apon by several rebels with small arms and
our soldiers returned fire. They did no damage to our people or
eqiupment, but dozens of rounds MK-19 ammo (grenade launcher)
and .50CAL machine gun rounds were sent in their direction. Whether
they stopped firing because they realized they had no chance and ran,
or whether they stopped firing because they were dead is unkown. What
is known is that our soldiers again had complete control of the road
and the situation.

We passed through the hot zones around Baghdad and made it south,
through all the excitement and activity, the 5 guntrucks on our
serial never had to fire a shot. That is what we consider a good
mission.

This mission took nearly half of November. In 28 days, (December
12th) I get on a plane to spend 15+ days at home. After that, I come
back and should be at mission complete by Febuary 13th.

The sun is getting close to the horizon.

-Chris

__________________
Toodles, Nanajoanie

wubbywa

God Bless all of those men and keep them safe.