Hillah, Iraq. Big, high visibility mission today. We went to an Iraqi police graduation ceremony. The last one in February was attacked by some booger eater with a car bomb, and we weren’t going to let that happen. As I promised myself, I worked up the CAS request as well as a medevac request right […]

Hillah, Iraq. Today I paid for the slow day yesterday. Mission started early at 0630. We went to an Iraqi Army training camp to visit. While there, some Iraqi officer asked me for my digital camera. As in, “Give me your digital camera.” I played dumb by ‘thinking’ that he wanted his picture taken: Apparently, […]

Hillah, Iraq. I had the duty today. Which means that I didn’t do much but answer the phone, and watch movies. Nice to have a slow day. The corpsmen in WPB messed up the treatment instructions for our smallpox. I just learned that I am not supposed to have this huge suppurating pustule on my […]

Hillah, Iraq. At one point, the captain remarked “This is the most cowboy mission we have ever been on.” The day started slow, with even time for breakfast. We briefed an upcoming mission, and the captain received a message towards the end of the briefing that effectively ended it. He stood up, and told us […]

Hillah, Iraq. Most people think of Meso and South Americans as inable to plan something out. I am here to tell you that this is not the case with the El Salvadoran military. Those guys are ALL about planning. With the upcoming VIP visit, they are really spooling up over pretty much everything. We have […]

Hillah, Iraq. Things have been slow operationally as we get ready for a visit from a government dignitary. Today we went to arrest a local cop who happens to be selling weapons to anyone.The best part was watching the newly trained Iraqi Special Forces: They were raring to go, and even wanted a dip just […]

Hillah, Iraq. Since I am right next door to the wireless router, I really don’t need thewireless bridge ethernet booster to get good connectivity, but I like it because I can use linux to connect. One of our Marines far away from therouter has crappy reception, so I decided to give the bridge to him […]

Hillah, Iraq. The visiting Green Berets returned to Baghdad today, escorted by half of the Special Forces and Anglicos. Things seemed really quiet after a week with four extra guys, a busy operational tempo (optempo), and nonstop briefings.The quiet put everybody in a mood to not work. The morning passed by with people going through […]

Hillah, Iraq. We are taking it easy today, which I think we have earned considering all the work with the Minister of Defense. I cleaned my room thoroughly, including the filter in the air conditioner. I changed my sheets, and loaded up my bag to take to the laundry. I swept the floor, and liberally […]

Hillah, Iraq. We have been really busy the last few days. To clear up any confusion, the Marines and I support an Army Special Forces unit, who, in turn, support and advise an El Salvadoran battalion who directly support the Iraqi Army. In addition, the Army guys work with the local Iraqi SWAT team. Got […]