Reflections: Global War on Terror, Volume 3
Late Night for the Gunslingers – SSG Daniel Navarro C CO 1-27 INF
On November 10, 2004 our company was expecting an attack on the Iraqi National Guard compound in AI- Hawijah. With intelligence given to us about insurgents in the area, Our Company was given a mission to conduct a defensive posture in the city. With A co 1st platoon guarding the three building that where supposedly going to be attacked, 2nd platoon on Quick Reaction Force, and 3rd Platoon conducting Traffic Control Points in and around the city. Our company was ready and anxious for anything to happen.
At around 2200hrs three single shots were fired within around the immediate area of the compound. Due to the night, the rounds echo throughout the city. The point of origins couldn't be determined. As the night grew the firing stopped and the night got colder. With two men at each comer on a tower in the Iraqi National Guard compound. At first all I could think of was the enemy was bluffing and that nobody would attack. As soon as those thoughts came in mind at about 0030hrs Three mortar rounds came crashing into the immediate area of the compound, one hit the rear of one building about 5 meters away from it, another hit around the same area but to the side of the building and the 3rd hit right below the balcony where one of our platoon gun team were positioned on top. At first everyone thought that the enemy was firing rocket propelled grenades. As reports were given it was confirmed by our platoon leader that they were mortars. It was a near miss that everyone was glad about. Once you've encountered a few blows from the enemy every near miss is a good miss. The firing stopped and the night again stood quiet, everyone again stood anxious for another harassment attack that never came. The company then waited till 0200 to head back to base.
The way the guys lived life though out this whole deployment was one day at a time. We all realized that sticking together and having bonds greater than any other people in the world would keep us alive. Also trusting our leaders and the decision making of the leaders on the ground was a huge impact on the success and completion of the missions we were given. There were many other incidents that happen after this night in which developed in the morning, but I wanted to bring this event up because it was the only defensive mission we had as a company that I enjoyed being part of. I felt at the time that if we did get into a firefight this would be a greater part of Wolfhound history in the making. The night that the Wolfhounds stood their ground. But as we all know things don't always go the way we want them to go, especially in combat.
As a soldier in the United States Army, I've been with the Wolfhounds for seven years and hope to serve with this unit for a long time. I've been deployed to OEF in the past, but as of now there is no other event that has been life changing then the one I served with the 1st Battalion 2ih Infantry Wolfhounds.
Reflections – SPC Robert J. Stronski
Operation Iraq Freedom was an experience I will never forget. The year spent in Iraq with B Company 1-27 has left me with many memories. Of all the memories I have from Operation Iraqi Freedom, none left as powerful a memory as our homecoming ceremony.
Our return home started at Kirkuk Air Base in northern Iraq. We flew the two hour flight from Kirkuk to Kuwait packed into an Air Force C-130 cargo plane. Upon arriving in Kuwait we were greeted with the first of many delays. Our flight out of Kuwait had been pushed back by almost 24 hours. Late at night after countless baggage inspections and accountability formations we finally boarded the DC-1 0 and took off for our first stop on the long flight home - Shannon, Ireland.
We arrived in Ireland early the next morning. We only had about an hour to spend in the terminal before re-boarding the aircraft. I spent the time in the airport gift shop buying some Irish chocolate for my morn. Soon it was time to head out to Bangor, Maine.
Upon walking into the terminal at Bangor, we were greeted by more than a dozen veterans and their families. They had a small shop set up with cookies and snacks and cellular telephones for us to call our families. It felt great setting foot onto American soil. The realization that I was finally headed home began to sink in as I shook hands and traded war stories with the veterans.
Stop number three on the flight to Hawaii was in Seattle, Washington. We were only in Seattle for about 45 minutes so we did not get off the aircraft. Excitement and anticipation began to set in as we lifted off the runway. Knowing that the next stop was Hickam AFB, Hawaii was making everyone restless.
When we landed at Hickam it didn't seem real. I was expecting to wake up back in Iraq. I knew that I wasn't, but I had been away for so long I couldn't believe I was home. We exited the aircraft and boarded busses. The busses drove us from Hickam AFB to Wheeler. Once we arrived at wheeler we turned in all of our weapons and equipment. We received a safety briefing from our commander. After what felt like an eternity we formed up and marched towards the hangar where our families and friends were waiting.
As we approached the hangar doors I could hear the band beginning to play. As the hangar doors started to slowly open, the crowd of waiting families and friends erupted into cheers louder than I have ever heard at even the largest sporting events. As we marched into the hangar I was filled with feelings I cannot even begin to describe. What was probably the most difficult year of my life had finally come to an end. I had proudly served my country and returned safely. As the ceremony carne to a close, the words of the commander echoed throughout the hangar like a voice from heave. "Dismissed!"
The Long Cold Ride – SGT Jeffrey Davis
On the afternoon of3 February 2004 my company (B Co) of 1-27 left Kuwait to begin a four day convoy from there to our battalion area of operations in Iraq. Bravo Co. was assigned this mission and the platoons were divided among the five convoys taking all the battalions vehicles to Iraq.
I am a Team Leader in 1st SQD 3rd PLT and we were assigned a vehicle in the 3rd serial of the convoy. The trip was divided into four parts. The very first leg was from Camp Virginia to the Kuwaiti-Iraqi border. This was the shortest of the four legs of the trip and ended on the Kuwaiti side of the border at Navistar, a rest and refueling point. We slept next to the vehicles on the ground while the mechanics changed tires for our spares all through the night.
The following morning we left before 0400 and crossed the border into Iraq. It was one of the longest, coldest drives I can remember. We drove until near dark when we stopped about an hour outside of Baghdad at another rest and refueling point. It was a great relief to be out of the wind. We started the day with sandbags piled up around the vehicle for protection against lED's but the weight was destroying our tires and we had to remove all the sandbags from the sides of the vehicle and the bed. This was not something we were happy about as now we had no protection and over two days of traveling to do.
The next morning we left again before first light and moved on towards Baghdad. As we were coming in our vehicle broke down and while we stopped to fix it we were separated from the rest of our serial. We got back under way but could not catch up because the MP’s in Baghdad stopped us because of an lED to our front. We were moving again by midmorning and got reports that one of the serials in front of us had been hit by small arms fire. We later found out upon arrival at Camp Speicher that it had just been random gunfire and no one had been hurt. We spent the night at Speicher and again left in the early morning hours on the last leg of our journey.
The last day of our trip was as cold as the others and seemed the longest leg of all. We froze and froze for hours in the back of our truck all the time wondering if we would be the first to be hit by an lED. This last day it also rained on us a little bit making miserable conditions worse. Late in the afternoon after twelve hours on the road we reached Gaines Mills where we move into waterlogged muddy tents for the next several days before reaching FOB McHenry where we would stay for our thirteen months in Iraq. If you were to ask anyone in Bravo Company today, I think most would tell you that that was the longest most miserable four days of our deployment. Hopefully someone else draws escort duty our next time out.
Wolfhound Reflections – SSG Odom
On 08 February 2004 I was on my first patrol in Iraq. It was a right seat ride with 173rd Brigade. We were conducting our first route clearance mission and learning as much as we could on how to clear the route and what to look for. We were broken into two Bradley Fighting Vehicles. In the first vehicle it was 2LT Salinas, SSG Odom, SPC Gillespie, and all of our counter parts. In the second vehicle it was SSG Hendry and SGT Frantz with their counter parts.
As we began to clear roads we cleared all of route Trans Am and began to clear route Cherry. We were moving our vehicles in the bounding over watch. We got about 500 meters past the Police check point when I heard a loud noise and asked my counterpart what had happened. An lED had detonated on the road right behind us as the other Bradley was bounding forward.
The driver immediately began to move our vehicle into a better position to suppress where he thought that the detonation had come from. The gunner began to suppress the target. And the vehicle commander let the ramp down.
As the ramp lowered all I could see was the other vehicle in a hole and surrounded by dust. As I got out of the vehicle I felt the adrenaline rush through my body as I saw the first person (the driver) being removed from the vehicle with a face full of blood. A gash in his face and missing flesh froze in my mind for what seemed like a long time. Next I saw SSG Hendry being pulled out of the vehicle with his hands over his face. I went to him to see if I could help, but was quickly told to move over and set up a perimeter. We then saw a man fleeing the scene across a field and moving back towards the city. We began to engage but he quickly disappeared into the city.
Again I moved over to SSG Hendry and began to tie a bandage around his head and covering his bleeding eye. Before I knew it the QRF had arrived and the medics were loading all of the injured up to take for medical attention. After collecting all of SSG Hendry's sensitive items I moved back to my place in the perimeter.
We then quickly mounted up back on the Bradley's and moved back to the police check point to see why they had not known about the lED and why they had done nothing to stop it. We ended up arresting almost 20 of their police officers and took them back for questioning. I later learned that a few of them were involved and were sent down to Kirkuk to be processed.
It was a very interesting first day for me and for the other soldiers with me. For me personally it was a wakeup call and a realization that I was actually in combat. Luckily for me that was the last time that a vehicle from my platoon was hit by an lED. We had many more go off around us but none that caused any damage. Luck was on our side.
Iraqi Foods and Customs – SFC Christopher Garmann C CO 1-27 IN
America is a big mixing bowl, If you feel like pizza you can order it. If you want Mexican you can order it also. My point is that in America you can eat all most any kind of food you want. I had the unique opportunity to try a type of food that most Americans have not had the honor. Iraqi food is unlike American food what you grow is what you eat. Now I want to tell you about one of my experiences in Iraq with their food. We were making our normal stops but this time the people had made food for us. They told us to come in and eat. Now when you go into a house and eat it's a custom to take you boots of, so we did. They offered us chicken and rice along with many vegetables. To my surprise they had many different types of vegetables that grow in the dessert. Now the one thing you have to remember is that Iraqi doesn’t have is the equipment to cook with, So keep that in mind. So we went in to the house to eat we took our boots off and sat down and we ate. After we ate we went back to our petrol and carried one with our mission. But since they don't have the proper equipment to cook the food I got sick, not just sick I managed to puke,shit, and piss all within 2 minutes it was the worst day of my life I felt like I was dying. But I didn't die I just keep on shit and throwing up. I never ate the food again and if you ask most people they won’t eat the food ether. The one thing that I kind of liked was a tea called chi. Chi is the most common type of drink they have over there. They serve it in small glasses kind of like shot glasses. Then they add a lot of sugar to it. The tea is served hot. It’s the one thing that no matter where you go it will be offered to you.
The other side of my story is about some of the customs I had to learn over in Iraq is about the woman and men over there. Just little things like men aren't even aloud to look the woman over there. Just think what would happen if you touched them. I learned how you can piss of the men of the town if you touch there women even if your just brush buy them to go into the next room. Other customs are if they offer you food you are being disrespectful if you don't eat their food. And they always bring so much food for you to eat you can even possible think about eating all the food they bring you. I've seen how little the people have over there and how they give so much to other people just because it’s there customs. It makes you wonder how people in America have so much but are not willing to help each other out. That the one thing that stand out for me, see how generous the people are. The last one of the customs I learned is in America if you want to tell someone to fuck of then you give them the finger. In Iraq to have to be careful not to show the bottom of your feet to the Iraqi people. It means the same thing. Oh and the one word that every solder learned was how to say think you in Arabic. If you have been to Iraq then you know how to say thank you. If you don't know well then you are a pogg. And you never left the FOB. I hope you enjoyed my story and learned from it.
Life at the F.O.B. – SGT Brown C CO 1-27 IN 2nd PLT 2nd SQD
Life on the fob was pretty simple. We lived in C-huts which were basically trailers made for 2 people. Inside you had a bed and some had shelves. Some also had TV's, video games, and/or refrigerators. Near the C-huts were the showers and washers. There was usually not always hot water so the showers were pretty cold. Around all of the C-huts, showers and washers were walls of sandbags to help protect anyone inside. On the fob there was also a how hall which was made of a tent with tables and refrigerators. There was also a kitchen for the cooks to prepare food.
The chow hall was surrounded by tall concrete walls to keep it protected. Right outside the chow hall was 2 little shacks where 2 Iraqis set up little stores so that we could by movies, soda, cigarettes, and other items we might need. One of the shop owners also would do your laundry for you if you asked him. There was also a building with internet and phone so that we could keep in contact with family and friends. Although they went down quite often it was a good way to keep in touch because it was much faster than writing letters and waiting to receive a letter back. All together there was about 20 computers hooked up to the internet which were very slow and there were about 8 telephones. To use the phones you had to sign in and wait till something was available. Each person had 30 minutes on either the internet of telephone then they had to go back to the end of the list.
There was also a few shooting ranges one the fop so that you could stay sharp with your shooting, a mechanics bay so you could keep all of the trucks up and running and there was also a carpenter incase u needed something built, like a shelf for your room. The only bathrooms we had was port-a-johns placed throughout the fob. Up near the internet and phones there was another building where there was a small gym to lift weights in. it was a very small gym but it still as able to keep you in shape if you went to it. One of the worst parts about the fob was waking up in the middle of the night having to go to the bathroom, then putting on your uniform, boots, and Kevlar, then grabbing your weapon and walking to the port-a-johns. Other bad parts about living on the fob were that if it rained it got very muddy and the mud would get tracked everywhere, especially into your room. Also everything in the fob was spread out so you had to walk a good distance to get from place to place.
Since there wasn't much entertainment on the fob when u had down time you had to either read a book, write letters, play video games, sleep or just watch movies. Some ways I like to pass the time by was to listen to music on my computer, play computer games, go to the gym, and use the internet. Another good way was to just sit around and hang out with friends. Although it was nothing like living back here at home for being in Iraq the living conditions were not all that bad.
The Night I Almost Shot Poston – SPC Patrick J. Wayne
After spending a total of 18 months over two different tours to Iraq your brothers in arms start to become a little closer that you really believe. While on a basic patrol in June of 2004 it finally hit me that the men on our left and right are the only ones you truly have while deployed. So here's my story ...
It was to be a late night in the middle of June, the sun was setting and the heat was starting to die off for the day. Our squad was the QRF squad for the next 24 hours and we were preparing our gear and vehicles for a soon to be counter mortar patrol. 1800 hours hit and we family rolled out of our FOB "Gaines Mills". Attached to our squad, the "hobos", was alpha team from first squad. See the enemy threat had started to pick up in the area so the commanders decided to extend the length of our patrols and send larger groups out on the roads. Our mission for the night was to keep watch over northern side of our company's 'area of operation: After driving around for a little while making our presence known to the Iraqi policemen and locals our convoy broke up to set up observation posts around the area so we could cover a larger area. Now usually when we are in an OP we would usually kick back and keep a watch out for activity in the area and almost 99 percent of the time we would chat about things that happened to us when we were younger or things that maybe happened to us while we were home on leave. I can't really remember what we were exactly talking about this particular night but I know that it would be a night that we would never forget.
Off in the distance to the west of our position we noticed a car that seemed to be possibly driving through a field maybe off the side of the road. We weren't really sure at the time but it appeared to be swerving all over the place. Our NCOIC decided that it would be a good idea to check out the vehicle, to conduct a basic snap TCP. We all thought it was a good idea because there wasn't a whole lot going on in the area and we were starting to get a little bored. Now at this point the vehicle was approximately 500 meters or so away from our position and we just so happened to be located about 25 to 30 meters of the side of the road behind some brush. At the time I was on the machine gun and by listening and watching the vehicle I could tell that it was moving fairly quickly. We sent a team of riflemen to block off the road and flag down the driver to stop with the surefire lights which were attached to their weapons. Some shining the lights on the road and some shining their lights on the vehicle it was still pretty obvious that the driver of this suspicious vehicle wasn't stopping. As soon as the driver got within 125 meters he then suddenly slammed on the brakes, so we all figured we had seen the troops in the road and he was willing to cooperate. The four soldiers stood tall in defense across the road so that there was no way for him to pass unless he drove right through them. 100 meters and bbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrm the driver then guns it towards the troops, I start thinking does he see these guys what is he doing, and the driver is going to hit my buddies. Out of the corner of my eye I notice that the four soldiers were holding their weapons and the high ready in case they suddenly had to engage the target. I thought for a brief second if they shot then he will lose control of his vehicle and crash into them so without thinking twice I switched my safety from safe to fire and unleashed a 7 to 9 round burst into three of the Iraqi's tires. A minute later I learned that when I had shot the rounds they traveled through and around the legs of my buddy, causing him to do what he likes to can the Mexican hat dance out in the middle of the street. I started worrying that the possibility of me shooting my buddy was pretty hard on me. So I smoked a cigarette and we continued on with our mission.
My story – SGT Steven F. Mattus
It was summertime Iraq, in the middle of July if I can remember correctly. It was 130 degrees outside in the middle of the day! "HOT" was the recommended description of the month. All the green trees and grassy fields had now become discolored and disfigured by an endless scorching sun, which had baked anything under the color brown "well just about anything". The local farmers and people would no longer herd their flocks amongst and round about their fields like they had that previous winter and spring.
Instead they started working in the middle of the night, collecting the remaining wheat and other crops which were left behind by the yearly harvest, as well as feeding their livestock the necessary food, in order for them to survive. Some days, if you looked far out upon a black top road, you would be able to see transparent vapors from the hot sun's heat, ascending to the sky right in front of a horizon line which parted the- thirsty grounds of the hot brown dessert, from the "what looked to be" refreshing, vast, blue sky.
Ask any soldier I know who has been there what they hated the most about our environmental and living conditions and I can pretty much guarantee that he or she will tell you that "the heat and the flies here are the worst thing about our living conditions!"
Anyways moving on, it was an early afternoon roughly 1200 hrs. when a fellow comrade of mine named SPC. Maxwell was asked to drive to the chow hall in order to get enough food to feed our squad of nine soldiers. We agreed to getting chow and SPC. Maxwell started up one of the vehicles. Once Maxwell and I were in the vehicle and both my door and Maxwell's was shut closed we began to leave our housing facility as he pushed his foot on the gas pedal. I will always remember looking over at my fellow comrade Maxwell and observing how exhausted drained and tired he looked physically!
When all of the sudden he started coughing, which would turn into choking about five seconds later! Soon after choking he began gasping for air! I realized that this was probably not a normal or minor occurrence, so I reached over with my body, arms and hands too maybe grab the wheel or him in order to assist our ride to the chow hall and to prevent any type of collisions or accidents! I had asked Maxwell several times if he was O.R. but he gave me no response during the situation at hand. Suddenly before I could reach either Maxwell or the wheel, he stuck out his right palm and hawked out a huge amount of vomit, saliva, and right dead smack in the middle of it all an ugly, hairy, disgusting, black fly, who by the way, was still alive trying to free itself from all the liquids and probably coughing and choking like my buddy Maxwell had been for the last couple of minutes. We both looked closely at it and then at each other and replied with eeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!! Very soon after the disgusted remark was made from the both of us, we began to laugh uncontrollably at what had just happened! I assume we both knew, that this very same incident was bound to happen to some unfortunate individual, but we both were hoping at the same time it wouldn't be us or at least him again! L.O.L.! "laugh out loud"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday the 13th – SSG Joshua Meier
It was the night of February 13, 2004, a Friday at that. A lot of superstition surrounds Friday the 13th. People always say that it is bad luck. We were deployed to Iraq, just south of the city of Kirkuk. Our platoon was just finishing right-hand rides with the departing unit, an engineer platoon from 4th Infantry Division.
We had moved to a field that lay in between two of our main routes of travel so that we could observe any suspicious activity on either route from one spot. Nothing had happened all evening so we were just about to call it a night and head back to base. We noticed a car that was about to enter a small village, but it had stopped and was flashing its lights towards the village. Then a light flashed back at the car from the village. We had called up those actions to base and were informed to not worry about it. As we were getting instructions from base, we noticed another car on the same road turn its lights on, turn the car around, and then turn them back off. We decided that we would check out the car and if it turned out to be nothing, then we would head back and call it a night.
I was in command of the lead vehicle with the platoon leader in command of the second and platoon sergeant in command of the third.
As we got to the area or-tile-road we last saw the vehicle, the guys my vehicle let me know that there was a car in the road. I couldn't see anything until, bam, the lights of two vehicles came on and the cars took off. The chase was on.
After chasing the vehicles about 1,000 meters, I ordered the gunner to fire a warning shot. The vehicles only continue to accelerate. At that point we engaged the closest vehicle with direct fire. Since we had just arrived, we hadn't received all of our equipment and my gunner didn't have a mount, but he continued to engage and hit the vehicle.
The chase continued and the mad turned into dirt. The cars continued to distance themselves from us. We had finally lost site of the vehicles and slowed our pace, but we continued in the direction that we had last seen the cars.
As we continued down the dirt road, we came across a vehicle on the side of the road that looked like one of the cars that we were chasing. We exited the vehicle and sure enough, it was. We set up a perimeter and began to search the car and the area. After about ten minutes of searching; we noticed that our third vehicle was missing, including my platoon sergeant. I tried to reach him by radio and I received no response. My stomach hit the ground and I informed the platoon leader of the situation.
We loaded up in our vehicles and headed out, back to where we came from, while I continued to try and make contact with the last vehicle.
Finally I received a response, but it wasn't good. All I could hear was that they needed a medivac. We arrived to the last vehicle, and it was horrible. The vehicle had gone off the road into an aqueduct floodgate. The Humvee had smashed into the concrete part of the gate headfirst.
We set up a security perimeter and began to treat casualties while the platoon leader called in the medivac. The medivac arrived with qualified medical personnel and they took over treating the casualties, while we started getting accountability of all the equipment.
We gathered up everything, the casualties were evacuated to treatment facilities, and we headed back to base.
Later we found out that everybody that as hurt would be all right. SFC Mclean, SSG Pearson, SPC Terrell, PFC Perez, and a soldier from 4th Infantry Division, I'm glad that you are alive and well. I would also like to say a word about SSG Pearson. If it wasn't for his courage to get out of the vehicle, help other soldiers get out of the vehicle, and have the presence and awareness to contact us on the radio and flag us down while he was wounded himself: I don't know if everything would have ended as well as it did. Thank you SSG Pearson and all the soldiers that were involved in this incident for everything you have done to make this memory stay with me for the rest of my life.
Life on the F.O.B – Jason Romero
We arrived on F.O.B. Gainsmill on the 14th Of February. Everything was new to us due to the fact that we were in a different environment and didn't know what to expect. The first week was going okay due to the fact that the only thing that we were doing was getting to know the surroundings and doing physical training. Then later on key leaders would go out with the unit that we were replacing to get an idea of what to expect and to teach his soldiers and let them know of what to expect we the go out on patrols and missions. When we first started to settle in on the F.O.B. I noticed that we did not have the opportunity to eat the hot meals a day. Instead we ate Meals ready to eat. We ate about 3 of the meals each day. I remember about a week later the battalion would bring hot chow in mermites to us once a day so that really motivated the soldiers. I remember it being cold as well: The weather was also rainy and a bit nasty. One day it got so cold that it snowed. So I thought that brought my day down a little. Our F.O.B just had the bare necessities To include a small make shift Gym and a 3 mile dirt track so our soldiers would be able to stay in shape, an Aid Station for the soldiers who were injured or who had an illness would be taken care of. We had a jail house for prisoners to stay at. We also had a motor pool so our mechanics would have a place to fix our Hummv's. We also had had an internet to keep in touch with the rest of the world and email our loved ones.We had three rotations going on which were Base Defense, Quick Reaction Force, And a Patrols platoon. We would rotate about every week or so. We also had certain details in between that time to keep us preoccupied so as not to think of home that much. About One month later we had a small chow hall set up for us and there they served 2 hot meals a day ‘The Base Defense shacks were pitiful. I remember that the gate shacks were just about broken and rundown. So the leaders went around assessing how the camp could be remade to suit our needs. So our leaders told the chain of command that we needed a group of engineers to help us fix our F.O.B So about a week later the Engineers came in and built up our perimeter walls and put fighting positions and built better guard towers which improved our overall camp. One of our benefits was the fact that the enemy would try to hit our camp with mortar rounds and rockets so the new guard towers helped us out in that way. Life on the F.O.B was sometimes hard and at other times it was easy .Overall our life got better but, yet stayed challenging due to the fact that we were going on missions risking our lives for our families, our country, and our god.
Fire Fight in The Weig – Anonymous
It was November 11th I had not too long ago returned off of a well-deserved R & R with family and friends and immediately back in the grove of things going out on patrols, Doing convoy escorts, and personal security escorts. On this certain day one of the Line Company's got in contact with the enemy more of an ambush, and the ICDC Compound was under attack. We got the call to get ready being in the Scout Platoon a fairly small element consisting of 20 personal we could ready to roll in a matter of minutes; gear on weapons mounted in vehicles waiting to move out. We got the word and started to move out into Al Hawijah all six trucks (Humvees) we got into the Weig and link up with B Co split our sections up to maneuver with the line dogs.
You could hear automatic gun fire all over the place and you start feeling the rush and you just say to yourself here we go "fuck it” LETS DO IT we started to receive Small arm fire and immediately returned fire and start making our way towards that direction. The only advantage those fucker's had over us was that they could blend in anywhere all they had to do was toss their weapon and they'll look like the average "Joe Haji ". We would provide security down a street while the line dogs would go in and clear houses. The insurgents was spread throughout the cities trying to take puck shots at you not really wanting to get in a decisive fire fight, they lack the man power and capability to engage in a real gunfight. We continued to clear down streets and house's being sure e to stay on line with adjacent elements and being aware of the placement of other friendly element so not to have fratricide. My team ends up securing and setting up a blocking position on a bridge to seal off anything trying to enter or exit. After a while it started to quit down, you could still hear sporadic gun fire in the distance but not as much as you about six hours ago. It would be almost be dark before we started to pull back to the FOB. I didn’t get the count of how many bad we killed that day I was happy we all came back with no injury's, I'm pretty sure there's more to tell but I can only tell from my end. You could only wonder what goes through their mind to want to go up against a bigger and better trained force a bunch of pissed off Wolfhounds that loves nothing more than to confirm there zero.