1000 Words from Iraq

Another exciting adventure

Last night we found out that the helicopters still weren’t flying and that we wouldn’t make it back until at least Sunday. It was 9:00 last night and I knew that I couldn’t get away with doing nothing today because my NCO would be expecting something out of me for staying two extra days. So we went into the ops center and asked what missions they had going on today. The only thing worth going on was a cordon and search with the infantry and cavalry guys in a couple neighborhoods in town. So we walked up to where the unit was and asked if we could go with them.
The mission: one group secures the streets, another group goes house by house, searching for weapons/bad guys. We caught the end of the briefing last night where they told us they had been repeatedly shot at in the areas we were going to and they had intel that we may find some significant stuff.
The leaders were okay with us going, until they found out that we’d be doing more than just riding in the vehicles. The 1st Sgt. was like, yeah, as long as you guys watch your backs and keep inside the vehicles we shouldn’t have a problem. The mission isn’t worth going on if I’m stuck in the vehicle. I can’t get any photos from there. So, after I explained that to him, and told him we’d been in country for awhile and had been on a few missions like this, he relented and assigned us to two different platoons.
So, there we were, stuck with the infantry. I remember thinking, if I get killed because I got stuck on this FOB for another day, I’m going to be pissed.
We got up early this morning and when the guys picked us up, one of the guys in my platoon said, "Oh shit, the last time a girl rode with us, we got blown up." Needless to say, they thought I was some kind of "bad luck" and weren’t especially thrilled to have me on board. I wanted to let them know that in the ten months I’ve been here, I haven’t been shot at or "blown up" but I wasn’t about to jinx myself.
We rolled into town and got out on the streets and went about the business of breaking into people’s houses. Every unit is different about how they go about searching people’s homes. Sometimes all it takes is a knock on the door for someone to come out so you can explain to them what you’re going to do. Today, everyone we came in contact with was cooperative. Most of them spoke a little English, but we had an interpreter too.
The first house we came to, the family didn’t speak English, so our interpreter explained that we needed them to wait outside while we quickly went through their homes to see if they were hiding any weapons. The guys I was with were pretty thorough, but at the same time were pretty respectful of the people’s homes and property. I think it helped that everyone was cooperative and helped us.
We actually met a family that was visiting from Canada. I think everyone was surprised when a man came to the door and in perfect English said, "yeah man, sure, do whatever you want."
Unfortunately, about that time, we were outside and I heard the distinct whistle of an RPG. We all took cover (thank God for kneepads) outside as small arms fire came from somewhere close by. We never heard an explosion from the RPG and the gun fire wasn’t close enough to shoot back at, so we ran to the next house and continued our search.
Everyone made it back safely and we even got some things that may be of good intelligence value. And we didn’t get "blown up". A successful day, I’d say. Let’s hope we can get back to our camp tomorrow, because I’m running out of clean clothes.

posted by Blair Heusdens @ 9:22 AM