Hillah, Iraq.

Vehicle fixed, we opted to execute our ‘IED hunting’ mission again. We did so in the middle of the day this time, which made it slightly more tolerable. It is easier to see ‘suspicious’ details in the day. Plus, as everybody knows, there are no zombies or mummies to worry about.

Lately, the Green Berets have been working to improve our internal radio communications. As we rolled out the gate, the Captain broadcast over the internal frequency,

“OK, let’s have a good mission. Remember to enunciate on the radio.”
“Say again, sir?” asked an anonymous voice.
“I said, remember to enunciate.”
“Say again, sir?” asked a different anonymous voice.
“All right,” cut in the Team Sergeant, “Quit screwing around on the radio.”
Which really set the tone for the day.

We rolled back up into IED Alley, then ducked off the road to cover some of the remoter country. We wanted to make sure that we were seen on routes that might be used by bad guys to get to the road where they set up IEDs. Our intent was to show the bad guys that they didn’t have the run of the neighborhood.Our route was somewhat circuitous, which suited me fine as it was a nice day for driving, and once we were off the IED intensive road, the drive was somewhat relaxing.

After patrolling the surrounding country side, we went back to the main highway to take some photos, and recon the area in general.

Overall, it was a nice day to be out. The weather was pleasant, and nobody seemed interested in doing us harm. It felt good to be doing something outside the wire, too.