Thursday, June 09, 2005
News From EOD In Iraq
Heard from Jared again:
Hello from Fort Tal Afar! We are just now getting settled in to our new home. We are not on one of the American Forward Operating Bases but rather at an Iraqi base that was an old Iraqi prison (this makes us feel real good!). It houses about 700 Iraqi Army soldiers and about 140 US soldiers. 1st Platoon is assigned to support H Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Calvary Regiment. We are about 3 miles to the east of the town of Tal Afar, which is the first major town this side of the Syrian border (which is less than 30 miles away). We are approximately 10 miles from the nearest base and the town of Tal Afar is in between us. I feel like I?m back in Arcadia as we are near a lot of farm communities. We are still working on getting some American food here (something besides rice and lamb) but the Iraqi soldiers are a good group of guys. They play soccer almost every night in the ?prison? courtyard.
The guys are doing very well and our workload has really increased. We are also doing some really good engineer missions. We have several projects on the schedule to include blowing up a building that the terrorists use as cover from one of our lookout positions to place IED?s. This building is a two-story concrete building so it should make a pretty large explosion.
The other day we conducted a cordon and search in the town which is where we have tanks take up a blocking position which keeps the enemy from getting in or out and we move in actually go through the buildings. We found one man who was on the ?Most Wanted List? for northern Iraq as he is was the chief videographer for the insurgents in this area. We have really gotten into the fight quite a bit more as we do more and more of these missions of going into suspected terrorists homes in the middle of the night. It is good to find these known terrorists and take them away in handcuffs.
Please continue to pray for us as we continue to try to bring peace to the people of Iraq. I also pray that God continues to bless you and your family!
Romans 1:11-12 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong-that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other?s faith.
For God and Country, Jared
Hello from Fort Tal Afar! We are just now getting settled in to our new home. We are not on one of the American Forward Operating Bases but rather at an Iraqi base that was an old Iraqi prison (this makes us feel real good!). It houses about 700 Iraqi Army soldiers and about 140 US soldiers. 1st Platoon is assigned to support H Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Calvary Regiment. We are about 3 miles to the east of the town of Tal Afar, which is the first major town this side of the Syrian border (which is less than 30 miles away). We are approximately 10 miles from the nearest base and the town of Tal Afar is in between us. I feel like I?m back in Arcadia as we are near a lot of farm communities. We are still working on getting some American food here (something besides rice and lamb) but the Iraqi soldiers are a good group of guys. They play soccer almost every night in the ?prison? courtyard.
The guys are doing very well and our workload has really increased. We are also doing some really good engineer missions. We have several projects on the schedule to include blowing up a building that the terrorists use as cover from one of our lookout positions to place IED?s. This building is a two-story concrete building so it should make a pretty large explosion.
The other day we conducted a cordon and search in the town which is where we have tanks take up a blocking position which keeps the enemy from getting in or out and we move in actually go through the buildings. We found one man who was on the ?Most Wanted List? for northern Iraq as he is was the chief videographer for the insurgents in this area. We have really gotten into the fight quite a bit more as we do more and more of these missions of going into suspected terrorists homes in the middle of the night. It is good to find these known terrorists and take them away in handcuffs.
Please continue to pray for us as we continue to try to bring peace to the people of Iraq. I also pray that God continues to bless you and your family!
Romans 1:11-12 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong-that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other?s faith.
For God and Country, Jared
