My first movie: Memories of my near death experiance, hilarity ensues....

This is my first attempt at putting together a movie with pictures and video from my deployment on OIF III. The video begins with an IED that was meant for the third truck (mine) in our three truck convoy.

Before we ever left the FOB that morning, my team leader (CPT B-Rock, bald head, mustache, butt hovering over his head) got a call from a Neighborhood Council member in a village just down the road from Jisr Diyala and the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Facility. I can't remember the name right now. The NAC member told us that some "Wahhabi's" (Iraqi slang for any badguy) had placed a bomb on the route that we had used once too often apparently. We took a back way to the meeting after we called EOD.

While we were at the meeting, the insurgents were at a traffic circle on the far side of the IED area. They began unloading a HUGE amount of AK-47 fire into the air in an attempt to draw us out.

Instead, we tightened up our perimeter and put a couple shooters on top of the Council building.

Once the morons figured out that we weren't going to take the bait, they left.

As our meeting ended, we got word over the net that the EOD team that was to take care of our IED got hit by an IED of their own while en route to us. Ironic.

So we got to the meeting at a little past 9am, the small arms "trap" began around 9:45am. EOD gets hit around 10:30am. The meeting ends about 12pm. We get word EOD is coming down the road on the far side of bomb site around 1:30pm. We mount up and zip out onto the road and close it (the road) down in both directions.

Within 3 minutes, there was at least a five mile back up on both sides. The kids come out and begin chatting with us.

Some of the boys get out of hand and I chase them off with a piece of radiator hose an adult gave to me. Once the boys figure out I'm not going to use it, I give it to my interpreter "Ahmed the Tiger" who has no problem using it.

They didn't bother us anymore.

Then we hear, "Controlled detonation in five minutes..... 3 minutes..... 1 minute, take cover".

FIRE IN THE HOLE!

Hilarity ensues.....

JB2D out.

A Soldier's Mind previews JB2D!

SGT Anthony Cavella over at A Soldier's Mind previewed my humble little section of this Interweb thingy.

Granted, it was back on the 18th of this month, but I just literally stumbled across it.

To say I feel privileged does not begin to describe it. Thank you for the kind review SGT Cavella. If you're ever in Green Bay, beer's on me.

So if you want to know what's going on in news, politics, or anything military, the ASM is the place to be. PERIOD.

JB2D out.

1-23 Infantry Battalion kicking some @$$!

CENTCOM Press Release from today.

BAGHDAD– Nearly 1,600 partnered Iraqi security forces and coalition Soldiers continued clearing operations today in the Iraqi capital’s Mansour Security District. This was the second day of clearing in the southern Ghazaliya and Ameriya neighborhoods.

During clearing operations coalition Soldiers from A Co, 1-23 Infantry Battalion, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division rescued a kidnap victim in an empty house handcuffed to a chair. The victim had three gunshot wounds in his leg and was evacuated to a coalition forces medical treatment facility. After a more extensive search of the house, Soldiers found a weapons cache consisting of one rocket propelled grenade launcher with 10 rounds; three AK-47 assault rifles; nine 60mm mortar rounds; seven hand grenades; plastic explosives; containers of ferric nitrate, sodium hydrogen and chromic oxide; and numerous explosive making materials.

In addition to the weapons cache above, five other weapons caches were discovered today totaling one 155mm artillery shell, three 120mm mortar rounds, two 60mm mortar rounds, three mortar rounds of unknown diameter, two improvised explosive devices, 15 pounds of homemade explosive, three RPG rounds, and two hand grenades.

Iraqi Army soldiers also detained two suspected terrorists with two assault rifles and 18 magazines of ammunition.

The operation coined as Arrowhead Strike 9 included approximately 500 Iraqi security forces from 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division; 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division; 4th Brigade, 10th Iraqi Army Division; and 5th Battalion, 2nd National Police Brigade. Nearly 1,100 U.S Army Soldiers from 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division and 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division were also involved in the operation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT MULTI-NATIONAL DIVISION – BAGHDAD PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER IN CHARGE, MAJOR STEVEN LAMB, AT STEVEN.LAMB@US.ARMY.MIL) OR BY PHONE AT COMMERCIAL: (914) 822-8174, OR IRAQNA: 011-964-790-192-4675.

Is "The Yon" getting booted from Iraq?

I just read a post over at BlackFive about Michael Yon being hated on by a CENTCOM general. I double checked this over at Yon's site.

Here is an exerpt from his latest post, titled "R.U.B.s":

"A general emailed in the past 24 hours threatening to kick me out.(!!!!)

The first time the Army threatened to kick me out was in late 2005, just after I published a dispatch called “Gates of Fire.” Some of the senior level public affairs people who’d been upset by “Proximity Delays” were looking ever since for a reason to kick me out and they wanted to use “Gates of Fire” as a catapult. In the events described in that dispatch, I broke some rules by, for instance, firing a weapon during combat when some of our soldiers were fighting fairly close quarters and one was wounded and still under enemy fire. That’s right. I’m not sure what message the senior level public affairs people thought that would convey had they succeeded, (which they didn’t) but it was clear to me what they valued most. They want the press on a short leash, even at the expense of the life of a soldier."

While Michael does not reveal WHY the general has threatened him, it's not doubt that Michael simply told the truth (as he is known to do) and the old man just didn't like the light he was painted in.

While it is NEVER easy being in a position of leadership, you should have the knowledge and confidence that you will make the right decision. And if you do that, then you will not (or should not) have to be upset about someone writing about the event.

Op-For adds:

"Remember that scene in "We Were Soldiers?" When Joe Galloway tells SGM Plumley "I'm a non-combatant" and gets a gruff "ain't no such thing today" in return?

I think there is place in battle, a certain nexus of intensity where the line between combatant and non-combatant blurs, that washes away rank, profession, class, and belief. Societal norms evaporate, leaving a small group of Americans, brothers, fighting for their fellow countrymen.

In Vietnam, the Army told Joe Galloway to pick up a rifle and stand with his fellow citizens. In Iraq, they are trying to kick Mike Yon out of theater for volunteering to do the same."

And Colonel Austin Bay sums it all up quite nicely:

"This is stupid. Michael Yon and Bill Roggio are the best out there. Telling Michael Yon to exit the theater is the WWII equivalent of telling Ernie Pyle to quit filing dispatches."

If Michael gets kicked out of theater, where will we turn for the truth and something more than just a nightly body count? How bout The Fourth Rail, courtesy of Bill Roggio. At least, until he is told to stop too.

On a side note.... I hope I haven't overstepped my bounds by quoting so much. Please, check out the referenced blogs as they are MUCH better than mine and they can fill you in on more details that I have here. I have NOT corresponded with the sources stated, so I do not have first hand knowledge of this event. Although, I'd love nothing more to write to Michael Yon, BlackFive and their like.

Thanks for reading my longest post yet, and I hope you found this informative. More to come!

JB2D out.

As I was....

Well.... color me WRONG.

As it turns out, Thinking-right.com is NOT SGT Keller's blog. It is, in fact, a Jim Cannon blog. Check it out, it's good stuff.

ALSO.... I erroneously gave credit someone else for my first legit comment posted. My first true, honest and for real comment came from sweet little Mary Ann over at Here There and Back Again. Another good place to check out.

So, now that I've been given the collective "As you were soldier!", I'd like to say thank you so much for checking out my little corner of the web.

JB2D out.

Memories courtesy of Michael Yon.

The latest post from the amazing blog-god, Michael Yon, has brought a LOT of memories bubbling back to the surface of my twisted little mind.

"....watching full moons rise and fall over the cities, hearing dogs bark in the night. Maybe the distinct POP will puncture the darkness...."

We were sitting on the roof of our hooch at the edge of the IZ, FOB Highlander (before 3rd ID gave it a gay name), just inside of check point 12. Beautiful base. So we were sitting around, smokin' and jokin', when there was a metric butt load of tracers come zipping over our little heads.

Looking forward to capping some insurgent ass, we run downstairs and grab our muskets.

Mind you, we were in bath robes, shower shoes, and shorts smoking our stale hadji marlboros.

We grab our gear and perch ourselves on the outer wall of our building, over looking "Indian Country".

We watched the IPs chase a car full of bad guys around outside our FOB. They were just coming into our kill zone, when the damn IPs chased them the other way.

But I will never forget the air. The cool breeze and the smell of stale smokes. The mosque tower belting out some call to prayer recording. I'd heard it every night for about the last 3 weeks. I began to sing along with it. My team crouched along the little wall. I'm wearing a t-shirt, shorts and my bath robe. Locked and loaded, peering down my ACOG waiting for the car to come close enough to unload on them. We were all smiling at each other with the thought of bagging some bad guys.

It was not to be.

Maybe it was for the best.

But it was one of the best times of my life. I'm looking forward to going back.

JB2D out.

I've got a legit comment!

I just recieved my first REAL comment!

Hopefully this means that I'll be accepted into the Mil-Blog world.

SGT Keller (read the comments section from the "Boots" post below) actually wants to interview me via e-mail.

I've been to Baghdad once and might be going back their soon. Or I could end up somewhere else in Iraq. I don't know where, I just know I'm going.

So anywho.... I'll be posting a link to not only his web site (http://thinking-right.com) but I hope to get a nice little banner so you can get to the CENTCOM website and read what's going on over there for yourself.

I'll post more tomorrow, as I'm working the overnight (11pm to 7am central) and coming back to work my normal shift (1pm to 11pm central). So it's going to be a brutal couple days and I'll need to kill some time.

JB2D out.