Monday, May 30, 2005
From The Front Lines
Memorial Day is for those who have died in defense of our nation, but I cannot htink of a better way to do that than to support those who are actively doing so right now. I heard from Jared in Iraq a few days ago. Here is what he had to say:
We made it here to FOB Sykes in one piece. The trip was scheduled to take about 2 hours but it ended up taking about 7. We left on time at 7:00 pm and made it to the eastern side of Tal Afar where we came across a team of HMMWV's with some calvary guys from H Troop. They live in an old Iraqi base about 30 minutes away from FOB Sykes. They informed us that another part of their unit had found an IED in the road and they were neutralizing it. We waited about 1/2 an hour when we saw some large flashes of light about 700 meters away in a small village. A few seconds later, a group of mortars hit with one hitting not 10 feet off of the road next to where one of H Troop's HMMWV was sitting. We immediately moved into a dispersed line formation and lit up the night with tracer rounds from five .50 cal machine guns and a Mark 19 automatic grenade launcher. The H troop guys knew the area so they moved to where they launched from but the insurgents had moved out. When the HMMWV's returned we pulled into the old Iraqi base which is called Ft Tal Afar. it is nothing more than a huge building that is surrounded by barriers and wire. We stayed there about 5 hours and then finally got clearance to go through Tal Afar. As we moved through, now at about 3:00 am we had a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launched at us but, like usual, they are bad shots and it sailed over my platoon sergeant's vehicle. We arrived at FOB Sykes at about 3:40 am and bedded down for the night.
We finally got what our mission will be. We will be leaving Thursday to back to Ft Tal Afar where we will be living...not quite sure what the ammenities will be as this is not a FOB but rather an Iraqi base where we will be working with H Troop as well as teaching the Iraqi army some of our techniques. We will be pioneers out in the frontier of Tal Afar.
Well, I'm borrowing a friends e-mail so I need to run, but I will let you know when we get set up at Ft Tal Afar (yes we have our satellite dish). Please pray for us as we move back through Tal Afar to the other side.
For God and Country, Jared
We made it here to FOB Sykes in one piece. The trip was scheduled to take about 2 hours but it ended up taking about 7. We left on time at 7:00 pm and made it to the eastern side of Tal Afar where we came across a team of HMMWV's with some calvary guys from H Troop. They live in an old Iraqi base about 30 minutes away from FOB Sykes. They informed us that another part of their unit had found an IED in the road and they were neutralizing it. We waited about 1/2 an hour when we saw some large flashes of light about 700 meters away in a small village. A few seconds later, a group of mortars hit with one hitting not 10 feet off of the road next to where one of H Troop's HMMWV was sitting. We immediately moved into a dispersed line formation and lit up the night with tracer rounds from five .50 cal machine guns and a Mark 19 automatic grenade launcher. The H troop guys knew the area so they moved to where they launched from but the insurgents had moved out. When the HMMWV's returned we pulled into the old Iraqi base which is called Ft Tal Afar. it is nothing more than a huge building that is surrounded by barriers and wire. We stayed there about 5 hours and then finally got clearance to go through Tal Afar. As we moved through, now at about 3:00 am we had a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launched at us but, like usual, they are bad shots and it sailed over my platoon sergeant's vehicle. We arrived at FOB Sykes at about 3:40 am and bedded down for the night.
We finally got what our mission will be. We will be leaving Thursday to back to Ft Tal Afar where we will be living...not quite sure what the ammenities will be as this is not a FOB but rather an Iraqi base where we will be working with H Troop as well as teaching the Iraqi army some of our techniques. We will be pioneers out in the frontier of Tal Afar.
Well, I'm borrowing a friends e-mail so I need to run, but I will let you know when we get set up at Ft Tal Afar (yes we have our satellite dish). Please pray for us as we move back through Tal Afar to the other side.
For God and Country, Jared
