Saturday, December 15, 2007

Iraqi oil? or Recycling the Middle East way!

Mulling around the highways and biways of Iraq isn't the best way to enjoy scenes of nature. Unless by nature you mean the city dump. This country is sooo dirty and trashy it is hard to really care about it. I found the following scene funny and ironic so I snapped a few shots. I guess the reason we are pumping out so much oil from this region could be because people have been pouring so much oil into the soil! It looks like the local auto garages don't recycle used oils. Unless by recycling you mean returning oil to the earth for another day of pumping?

Saturday, December 01, 2007

An Explosive Experience

It was a cold night in November; a first of many. I didn’t bring my thick black sleeping bag and only had the thinner green summer bag. Who knew Iraq got this cold in the Fall? I thought it was supposed to be a scorched desert! I was waiting for it to warm up a bit in the morning before getting out of my bag so I was sort of half sleeping/half awake. I was tired from an all night patrol and had only been sleeping since about 0430 but by 0830 it was so bright I couldn’t really sleep much longer. That was when the “L-T” (our 1st Lietenant platoon commander) told me to get up and get my guys up, “Sergeant Williams’ vehicle hit an IED.” That instantly woke me up. I quickly got up, pulled my trousers on and slid into my boots. I didn’t bother to buckle up or lace up yet. I went and rustled up my crew from their various hiding/sleeping spots in, on, and around our humvees. Once I told them all we would be mounting up in a few minutes I went over to see what the story was. Normally we were the night crew and that meant we got to rest in the security of the small outpost compound during the day after going on night patrols. Our only job during the day was to monitor the radio and “blue force tracker” satellite communication system and be a “QRF” (quick reaction force) for the other guys during the day as necessary. This was the one job we all dreaded and hoped would never come. If it was at least a firefight it might be exciting because we could finally get back at some insurgents, but an IED meant anonymous destruction with little opportunity to fight back, and worse, IED’s tended to do very bad things to our vehicles and more importantly its crew. We flew over the small dusty ruts through the desert to the location of the attacked patrol. As we drove I prayed nothing serious had happened. As we neared the site I hadn't received any news of injured persons and took that as good news. Luckily it was. The vehicle had been immobilized by about 30 pounds of HME (Home Made Explosives) stored in plastic jugs buried just under the surface of the dirt road they had been patrolling. It most likely was detonated by a connecting wire strung from across an adjacent canal where insurgents were known to be operating. How clever of them to hide completely out of reach considering the closest bridge was 10k away. Well they weren't out of range of our weapons! Before we arrived another vehicle shot at some individuals across the canal fleeing on a motorcycle. Unfortunately they were not hit. Luckily for everyone the vehicle hit happened to be the only MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle on the patrol, one more vehicle ahead or behind and somebody would have been dead or seriously injured. 30 lbs of HME is enough to completely destroy a Hummer. The MRAP sustained a broken drive shaft, shorn off fuel tank, and various suspension damage and other cosmetic and auxiliary system damage. We were able to tow it back to our compound and the crew was all checked out by our doc for head/neck injuries. Luckily our first IED experience was survivable, it sure wakes you out of any complacency you may have and makes things real for you. On the other hand, because no one was harmed it still may give you a false sense of security.