NO SF GO RANGER REGIMENT!

Lately I've been pretty busy doing EIB lanes. Completely a bunch of different tasks you have to complete in a certian amount of time in a certain order. I noticed about 3 people today that I haven't seen since basic training. That was pretty interesting. Probably from bad habits you get from being used to doing things you're own way, I had some trouble with getting the MK-19 Automatic grenade launcher to load and fire the way they wanted it. In EIB, they make you do dumb stuff in a certain order, in combat speed, you don't necessarily need to do all those steps. I can assemble and dissemble that thing with my eyes closed, and yet I made a stupid mistake and had to do it over again. Bad habits can be a big problem in EIB sometimes when you're used to do something you're own way instead of the EIB way. While in the line waiting for terrain association, we had one of the division Sergeant Majors, who was checking up on stuff and saying "hooah" all the damn time (sergeant majors are NOTORIOUS about "setting standards" and saying hooah all the time). He walked by and asked everyone if there were doing good, and we were all like "hooah Sergeant major" and he yelled "hooah" back. Then, as he walked back in our direction he noticed I had a 5th Special Forces Combat Patch on my shoulder. I saw he had a 3rd Ranger Regiment combat patch on his shoulder, as soon as he walked by me. He punched me in the chest, like a way like your buddy would hit you. He immediately said as he walked away, "Don't go SF! Go 75th Ranger Regiment!". Me and my buddies just smiled and I yelled "Hooah Sergeant Major!", and he gave me a hooah back. He seems like cool as hell Sergeant major.

Sistani is back in Najaf, and Sadr looks like it's about to be curtains for his sorry ass. This guy is trying to play a power game, where he is trying to have a piece of the pie. This bastard has to be stopped. There should be no negotiations.

New Weapons

Luckily we got a really cool CO and we came back from the field a day early. For the first day out in the field doing CQ, my job was working with a few guys at the Ammo point. Loading magazines with rounds and giving ammo out to people. It was extremely boring. While, the rest of the company was out training in government built buildings killing pretend Hajji. After doing that for a day, I finally got to do it for the next 2 days. We first went through practice with using blanks and live people pretending to be enemy and civilians inside the building. Then, we would replace those people with dummy targets and go in with live ammo. It was a blast, and it really helped time pass by. We did all kinds of cool stuff, like drive up in hmmwv's and jump off and assault the building.

During the Field exercise, at about mid-way though. A handful of us from each platoon got picked to go to a range where they were demonstrating new weaponry for the Army. The new XM-8 was there which will replace the m4/m16, the new .50 caliber machine gun that is going to replace the old was there, and a bunch of other really cool stuff. I wish we could have all this really cool shit now.

Field Problem

Today, this morning we are going to the field till Thursday. We will doing CQB (Close Quarter Battle) site live fire. A few buildings we enter using live ammo and enemy targets that pop up that we have to shoot. As much as I love training for this stuff, right now, I'm totally the most unmotivated person right now to go out for 4 days of doing this. Hopefully it doesn't rain on us too much.

Najaf Peace Talks Fail

Peace talks again, unsurprisingly fails. This time, Muqtada al-Sadr's top negotiator said the deal had almost been reached until interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi personally struck it down. He said it was a conspiracy to commit a big massacre.

The US Military inside Najaf lined up to get ready to assault the Militia again, but then Allawi called it off.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see Fox News is a right wing news organization. At the same time, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see Al-Jazeera is a pro-American resistance news organization. Even after the occupation has ended months agos, the US forces in Iraq is still referred to by Al-Jazeera as the occupiers. They have been showing all sorts of negative images coming out of Iraq and hostages tapes like it's going out of style. I'm glad they got booted out of Iraq, even though they manage to still get coverage there. I wish we'd "accidently" bomb their headquarters sometimes. However, that would just prove their propaganda they spread is correct. They even have the nerve to say they have been target of American "aggression" in Fallujah. What sort of bullshit is that? These people don't understand these young men are fighting for their lives, they don't have the luxury of being shot at and being able to keep a calm head and make sure they aren't going to hit someone innocent. You're in a fucking war zone for fuck sakes. So, of course you're probably gonna have some bullets fly by your head. If you don't like it, get the hell out of dodge. Don't sit there like retards and blame the Americans defending themselves by shooting back if you're dumb enough to be in harms way.

Contact!

Here is one of my entries into my journal while I was in Iraq. I've really been not saying much about what I did over there because much of it was classified, so alot of what I wrote in the past was about my opinions of the war and some of the minor events that took place on a daily basis. This is just a glimpse of the other stuff we had to do.

Journal:

24 June 03

Another hot ass day in Baghdad. Not a DAMN cloud in the sky. I don't even remember the last time I've seen a fucking cloud. This weather is so frustrating sometimes. Having to go outside and pull force protection on this big house. I walked over the Iraqi guard outside, Aesa and we talked alittle while about how his family was doing and about targets he told us about for us to hit. He is kinda like our little spy who goes out and gets intel for us. We've taken down like 15 Fedayeen cells operating already. These punks are all about waving their guns in the air and shouting to kill Americans and how brave they are around a tv camera. Then, when we bust the door down, we've had a few literally shit their pants and we come in with such fierosity, they don't even know what to do because they're scared shitless. How impressive.

It's been awhile since I've seen any action after April. So, I'm pretty pumped up for this raid we are about to do in a few hours. Gotta do fuckin PCIs on my equipment, making sure it all works. This shit gets really old after doing 15 raids. Plus having to do it at night, you're all fucking tired and not motivated. The first time, you are nervous, not knowing what to expect. Maybe some asshole will pop out of the window and throw a frag outside. Or maybe the door is booby trapped. Then you get addicted to it after your first sucessful raid. Then after a bunch it becomes really irritating. I hate doing night time raids, especially when we have follow on missions. You come back and just rack the fuck out in your bed.

We just had some crazy shit happen during the raid. We rolled out pretty late. Can't say what time, mission sensitive. My position was the .50 cal on one of the hmmwv's, we were the first vehicle in the little convoy. My job was to cover down the road, and just in case we really need to reach out and touch a hajji, I have the .50 cal. It felt like 90 degrees even at night, still hot as hell. Our objective was this block with a decent sized house with a hajji who is apparently in the Fedayeen higher ranks and the fucker has been paying off people to attack Americans. They passed the photo of a facial shot taken from a camera of the guy we are after, so we all should be able to get this guy if it came down to me having to do it. We rolled over to the house, and just before we were going to breach the fence surrounding his house, we spot the asshole peaking out of his window and quickly disappear. Immediately, one the guys pointed his weapon at the window but the guy was gone in a flash. Everyone ran their asses off to get back to the hmmwv's. It was time to lock the neighborhood down and make sure the cock sucker doesn't escape. We flew down the road, I had to hold onto the .50 to make sure my ass didn't fly out of the turret. Each one went to a different corner on the city block. There we waited for like 13 minutes, until over the radio you could hear the other team say they spotted the guy running with a handgun in his right hand. One of the guys said to fire over the dudes head to get him to stop. So, one of the guys fired close to 10 warning shots as this guy was running through the field, he didn't even turn back to look he just kept running. Finally, the team leader said "fuck it, take him out" and the next shot went into the back of the Hajji's head. 200 meter shot, it was an unbelievable shot, especially with the guy only using a 4x Acog scope on his m4. The medics ran over to the guy and started giving him IV's, and see if maybe they could save him. There was nothing they could do. So, we just put the body on a hmmwv and stopped by one of the morgue. His brother, who turned him in, we told him we were sorry. He looked really disappointed in his eyes and just said "I just wish he didn't run." We got back to our building we are staying in, and I at some snacks and finally went to bed.

EIB Starts Again

The EIB (Expert Infantry Badge) course has been re-opened. Last time it was cancelled because the Brigade got orders to go to Iraq a few months after we arrived back in the States from being in Iraq. So, while the Brigade is gone, another Brigade that just returned from action overseas is now starting up it's own EIB and they have allowed our company to participate in it. So, now we have to do all the pre-reqs again. So, we have to do the 12 mile road march in under 3 hours with about 50-60 pounds of gear, which I'm more than confident I can do. I am defiantly not looking forward to it though. We all must qualify expert with our weapons, which we have already done. Today we are doing Land navigation. After that, then all we need to do is score high on the Physical fitness test and do the road march and we'll be done with all the pre-reqs. I can't wait to be done with all this bullshit.

Muqtada al-Sadr is again being defiant. Saying he wont quit until the very last drop of his blood had been spilt. In a week or two he will probably come out and say he wants a truce. It anoyys me how easily we could kill the guy. We could easily have a spy in his mosque and could just drop a few cruise missiles on him, and that would be that, but we don't. I wish our government would really let us get on with the job. We could easily crush them if we were told to.

Renewed Fighting in Iraq

Surprise, Surprise. Muqtada al-Sadr has started to be militant again, and pretend he wanted to renew the cease fire. I have asked this before, but is anyone really surprised by this? US Helicopters pounded a cemetery with Iraqi insurgents. At least we kinda don't feel alone in this fight, because the Iraqi interim government has to deal with this band of hoodlums as well. They just need to arrest this guy or something. It is just pathetic how much power a religious cleric can have over thousands of people. Like this one Shiite cleric that was good friends of ours, he did complain about the occupation but other than that he was good friends with the soldiers. Yet, he had enough influence to probably have a military of 5,000 fighters if he wanted. Religion, in my opinion is a scheme to make money off of beliefs, but other than that it's a way to lead your life, it's not a way of life. I don't think I would be willing to fight and die for some preacher. I just don't understand these people, and people at home wonder why I think in that area of the world, the only way to solve problems sometimes is to show up with more and bigger guns. The lunatic even blamed the violence on the USA. Maybe he needs to be reminded that it is HIS forces that are conducting the attacks on Coalition and Iraqi Forces.

I went White Water rafting with a bunch of buddies in my company. We had a blast, one of the most fun things I've done in a long time, however, it can be alittle dangerous.

Isn't it strange how Kerry was all about sending as many troops as needed during all the attacks, but now his views have changed and now he says he would try to pull the troops out sooner. Isn't that just alittle strange? Also, Bush seems to be doing alittle better now in the polls. He seems to be doing a good job on convincing more and more people on why he should be re-elected.

Training Like Crazy

Our training level seems to only be increasing. We just got back from a 2 day excursion in the field. The whole point of it was, to train for CQB (Close Quater Battle). From 11am in the morning till 10pm at night, we were training in empty building complexes and other urban environments. Of course, we got a little break in between to chow down on an MRE and relax for alittle bit, but then, we were right back in it. To be honest, I had alot of fun. Even though we were sweating profusely from all the running around and all that stuff you do in training. I think the CO has got the entire company doing so much CQB now, that everyone is starting to move like clock work. Really fast, and really aggressive and very fluid like a well greased engine. All this training will be vital to having a successful deployment in Iraq that will be coming up in some months to come and in an effort to bring everyone back home alive. However, since I have been in Iraq already, I think we also need to train the cherries (new guys) on the heavy weapon systems. Like, the Mark-19 automatic grenade launcher, and M2 .50 caliber machine gun. We used these alot on mounted patrols, and these heavy weapons have saved alot of American lives in a tough spot in Iraq. Someone could get hit, and they may have to pick up and take over the gun, and they will need to know how to operate it and correct malfunctions and be really effective with it.

After the really fun, but really exhausting training. We got to prepare for a 16 mile road march. We all think it is going to be slow, because people are carrying their M249 SAW, M240 Bravo, or heavy AG gear (assistant gunner gear for the m240 bravo which is really heavy) because of the fact that they would have a hard time keeping up in a fast fast road march, especially at that distance. Instead, our CO has us take off almost at EIB (Expert Infantryman's Badge) pace, which would be complete a 12 mile road march in 3 hours with just a 45 pound rucksack and an m4. That gear is pretty light, an M4 feels like nothing, but a machine gun can break you down after awhile. Surprisingly, only one guy fell out of the road march, and he was really sucking, he has a deep blister on the entire bottom of his two feet. We reached about 14 miles and our CO stopped us and just had us get picked up by LMTVs (big trucks for hauling troops and equipment). Even though we all for the most part made it, the CO pretty much broke everyone off on this road march, everyone was sucking on the road march. However, after all that training we did earlier, I'm surprised we didn't have more fall outs. I'd of thought the CQB training we did all day would have exhausted us all to where alot of people would fall out at that pace. One thing this teaches me, just like you talk to guys who went to Ranger school, your body is capable of a whole lot more than you think it is.