War stories from Baghdad

[Word]

It all started in mid-April. My company was in Kuwait waiting for our hummvees to arrive so we could roll out into Iraq. We didn't have any supplies or heavy weapons because our connex's hadn't arrived yet, but we were ready to go never the less. We're mp's with emphasis on combat support, though we are trained in all other 95b tasks as well. We were itching to go because we were combat troops and we felt like we were missing all of the combat.

 

Right about this time we received orders that we were supposed to move into Iraq to help control Baghdad. We only had one problem; there was no transport to get us there. Most other troops didn't have any vehicles either, so we were up a creek without a paddle. But orders are orders, so we did the next best thing, we went looking for anything we could find.

 

Some crazy supply personnel finally managed to find us a vehicle. But what a vehicle it was! It was a dump truck!!! And not just any dump truck, it was a big, orange, kuwaiti dump truck, with gaudy little strings and barbles on the side with multi-colored wheels and brushguard with mismatched doors! We were a little apprehensive, because we were worried about it breaking down on the way up and leaving us stranded in the middle of a hostile desert, but it was all we had.

 

Twelve members of our company were going to go ahead with this one vehicle as advance party. The plan was to link up with some units from our brigade and head up together. I was lucky enough to be chosen for this task and the next day we piled into the back of the dumptruck and moved out.

 

April was hot, and we had no cover from the sun when we were in the back of the monstrosity. It was well over 120 degrees, and we still hadn't climatized from sub-winter weather in Wisconsin when we had left. The truck had loose springs, and the roads were so poor that we were constantly being jarred and bounced back in forth as we sat on the hot metal ground. We were lucky enough to have brought plenty of water with us and we were drinking more or less constantly the whole way. We couldn't stop the vehicles due to threat of attack, so when we had to tinkle we just tinkled off the back of the truck and hoped the guys in the vehicle 20ft behind us were blind because of the dust clouds our convoy was kicking up.

 

Due to several delays because of traffic clogging and road congestion, we took almost three full days to reach Baghdad. Evidence of heavy fighting was everywhere, with blasted tanks and artillery lining the roads as far as the eye could see. Iraqi civilians lined the roads cheering us on and asking for water and mres.(mealreadyeats) We don't know what they thought of our truck but they seemed to think it rather amusing.

 

We only came under fire once fortunately, and I had to admit I finally aprreciated being in the back of a dump truck with it's 3 inch steel protecting us from small arms and shrapnel. I and my fellow soldiers searched for the source with our saws(squad automatic weapons) and m16's but the attackers were well out of range. None of our vehicles were seriously damaged. (Some questioned whether they'd hit anything) We just kept driving and continued on our way.

 

Finally we reached Baghdad and quickly drove through to the airport, where we had the area mostly secured. We found the area we were charged with defending and set up a temporary camp. Some more mp's from our Brigade showed up with some infantry troops and we set about looking for booby traps and any remaining RG troops and Fedayeen that were still suspected to be in the area. Mostly all we found were blown up bunkers and foxholes with several bodies and burned up heavy weapons positions. We found one working Russian AA gun that looked like it could double as artillery. We were dying to put a few shells in and try it out but we feared our own aircraft which were flying constant patrols overhead might get the wrong idea, so we blew it up.

 

We found several bunkers that hadn't been cleared of enemy troops, and we quickly called in some Bradleys to help flush them out. As soon as they showed up the Iraqis surrendered without a fight. Based on their appearance and shattered morale it looked like our "shock and awe campaign" had been quite effective. We finished clearing out the other bunkers that hadn't been located as of then and scouted out our future ao. We sent the few we captured to the cha(corps holding area) and awaited the arrival of the rest of our company with the hummvees and mark19's that would make our job so much easier.

 

Unfortunately we missed several Repulican Guard soldiers in the area that had been hiding in a bunker under a dump, but that's a different story...

[ConGregation]

Great write-up! It is really neat to read about the experience of someone we know over there.

[flux]

yea it is really neat!!

[[Mmmm]Homer]

Nice write-up Word! Interesting to hear about your big orange APC.

[TheBugs]

good story

 

[chuckleslove]

thanks for sharing and be safe over there!

[Crowbar]

lol, always amusing Dave. lets hear some more.

[Xterminator]

awesome. I'm happy you're alright. Take care of yourself and your friends over there.

[Jiffy]

wow man, take care and keep up the good work.

[Word]

Hey guys thanks for the feedback. I'm trying to get Stealth to write about some of his experiences so that you can hear both our perspectives. We usuallly agree on most things but every now and then he'll catch something I missed. These stories will probably be chronological unless I get some questions from you guys that I can answer specifically.

 

If you do have any questions feel free to ask them here. I don't know what kind of things you might be interested in but I'll be happy to try and answer any questions as honestly and accurately as I can as long as the information doesn't cover any information that is opsec.

[Watchtower]

About these few republican guard.. So how are things over there day to day now? With the suicide bombings it would seem you guys have to be cautious at all times.. Or is that just in certain areas? Not being able to distinguish the enemy has to be tough. How are most of the locals? Would you say they are mostly happy to see us there? You know we hear conflicting stories in the media here but I still think overall they want us there.. I'd love to see everyone just pile in there and get it done you know? Get it built up and established with good people. You guys are doing a great job. Thank you..

[Word]

It's very difficult to distinguish friend from foe. No, it's actually closer to impossible to distinguish friend from foe. I remember one time some members of my company were transporting prisoners from one prison to another. On the way three prisoners jumped out of the vehicle they were being transported in and hit the ground running. The rear security saw them jump out and attempted to fire upon the fleeing Iraqis, but by then they were in the midst of farmers who were working in their fields and they couldn't fire for fear of hitting the civilians. They called us up immediately for help in tracking down the missing prisoners, and myself and several others piled into our hummvees and headed for their position. We arrived shortly after this and began our search for them. One had already been caught. He had broken his arm when jumping out of the vehicle and hadn't made it that far. We spread out and attempted to locate the prisoners, but we never found them. Local Iraqis were everywhere, but apparently no one had seen anything, and we didn't expect them to, since we were in the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad. We knew that at least some of the locals had seen where they had gone, but they didn't come forward. It was kind of typical, even though these prisoners were not military prisoners but Iraqis who had committed crimes against other Iraqis such as murder and robbery.

 

Not all Iraqis feel hatred for us though. In fact the opposite is true in the vast majority of Iraqis and you get the sense that most are genuinely glad we are here. Unfortunately it only takes a few who don't agree with us to cause a large number of problems. Every day I drive through Baghdad children still wave and say hi to us. But we are always on our guard because attacks and attempted attacks still occur on an average of 44 times a day in Iraq according to recent information and that number is steadily rising. At night you hear almost constant gunfire in Baghdad and flares and even rockets are seen on a daily basis. Especially recently it seems I'm spending several hours in a bunker some days because of morar attacks. We never go anywhere unarmed, even to the latrine. We've been attacked multiple times in the past so you could say we are more paranoid than most soldiers, but we feel that any added protection is worth most inconveniances and for the most part we don't mind.

 

Things have improved greatly from what I have seen first-hand, and not just since we bombed the place. I've spoken with many Iraqis and they have told me that though things aren't perfect, this place wasn't so great to start out with, and many journalists don't seem to realize that. Problems like poor sanitation, power outages and shortages, phone service and transportation were all problems BEFORE the bombing. In a report I saw before the war, Baghdad was ranked DEAD LAST in terms of how nice it was to live in among over 250 major cities. I mean no offense, civilization may have started here, but it stopped very, very shortly thereafter. In the short time we've been here most Iraqis have done and seen things they never thought possible. It was even illegal to have satellite telivision or personal computers before we liberated the populace. Granted there are still major problems with Iraq, but almost all of these problems are a direct result of terrorists and terrorist actions. There attempts to destabilize the government include more terror and attacks on infrastructure like education and power stations than at coalition forces, though there are plenty enough of those.

 

In the end most Iraqis realize that what we are doing here is good for them and appreciate that fact. The only Iraqis who are causing problems are those who want to see themselves in power, and would be unable to gain that power through democracy or peaceful methods. In the end the true people that suffer because of these terror attacks is the Iraqis themselves, and if they ever see that this country could easily become a major power in the middle east and a major ally of the US. My personal prayer is that this happens, but only time will tell.

[KagE]

Nice stories, and remember own as hard as if it was cs in a mcc match. Good Luck!

[BIGSHaW]

Good stuff word, god bless and check ur six!