Ten years ago in Iraq. This post may have the best quote of the whole journal from one of my fellow soldiers.
There’s helicopters, and a great discussion of if the squad took fire or not. You be the judge.
Oh, and a Ferris Wheel!
Thursday November 1st, 2007
FOB Freedom, IZ, Baghdad, Iraq
1313
Our trucks were ready to roll today at 0800, but no mission came out of the TOC. SSG Gibson and his high speed self had some route recon planned, route recon being Army jargon for driving around the streets of Baghdad going from place to place that Hashimi might want to go some day. This kind of looking for trouble got nixed from above, because two days ago another squad found trouble. They were across the river, on the edge of Sadr City on route Plutos, and took fire of some sort. Sight seeing, Iraq style. That same day, Tuesday, we were out and might have received our first pot shot. We were at the northwestern edge of the zoo/amusement park, close to the crappiest Ferris wheel on earth. We were headed north, but turned around because Al Faris Al Arabi square was clocked with traffic. Right after we turned around, Dellicker heard a, just one, loud bang that sounded like a rifle shot. SGT Gaieski and me heard nothing in the truck, insulated by a ton of armor and our Bose headphones. A minute later SGT Juress came over the squad freg and asked if anybody heard anything, because SPC Bruinsma heard the same thing. Nothing came of the radio conversation. When we got back to the FOB, Grilli also chimed in that he heard the pop as well. These three gunners were definite we had been shot at, but the fourth, Ziskind, didn’t think so. It could have been a car backfiring. Also, nobody on the ground, Joe and Jane Iraqi on the busy sidewalk next to us, reacted as if bullets were flying. We might have had our contact cherries popped, or not, who knows.
Life here at Freedom is slow, now that we’ve been put on a tight leash. Even driving around the IZ takes a special pass from the First Sergeant or Commander. SSG Dwyer’s squad, which is full of high speed soldiers like Miller and Sholomith and Lawton, is assigned to former prime minister Allawi who is still holed up in London and will probably never return, so they’ve been placed in the Quick Reaction Force rotation. They have nothing to do, and get to sit around waiting to be bitch detailed out at somebody’s whim. You can tell this is taking its toll on the squad. Miller shows it the worse. As soon as we got here, his characteristic smile and pep vanished into some afternoon boredom. We slept practically cuddling in the mass tent of Camp Buerhing, so today I asked him if everything is alright, having noticed over the past week that he had been drained by something. Typical Army procedure to take a motivated soldier and make him loathe his daily existence. “This isn’t what I thought Iraq would be.”
The helicopters are a constant, usually in pairs but sometimes just a single bird. Most of the time they’re US Blackhawks, the ubiquitous flying symbol of American power, made famous by Blackhawk Down. Besides them we’ve seen Iraqi Hueys that looked like they came straight from filming Apocalypse Now except for the chocolate chip cammo pattern painted on them along with the Iraqi flag. Our favorites to spot are the Blackwater choppers, painted blue. Some are medium sized, more like news helicopters than mercenary haulers. But some are the small “little birds” that zip through the air at tight angles, khaki clad legs dangling out the side doors and low enough to the ground that we can see their rifles at the ready. I call them the “death wagons,” given Blackwater’s recent escapades. We’ve taken to the habit of waving at all the helicopters we see, mainly out of boredom, and get giddy when we see a hand wave back through a window or from behind a machine gun. The landing zone for the IZ is not far from our location, and so all the birds come pretty low over our little FOB, banking to the left, the north east, as they fly in.
I have to jet now to go to a rehearsal for the command change ceremony on Saturday. They want at least 100 bodies from our company there to see all sorts of pomp and ceremony to mark our officially becoming responsible for baby sitting the politicians of Iraq. Even in the heart of Baghdad you can’t escape the Army’s love of formations and bullshit ceremonies.
Next post: 11/2
Righteous Shred 