Saturday, February 10, 2007
The Blue Bongo Battle
Camp Fallujah, Anbar Province, Iraq - During February 9th and 10th elements of the 2nd Battalion of the 136th Infantry Battalion of the 34th Brigade Combat Team of the Minnesota Army National Guard conducted a mission in the area around Camp Fallujah in Anbar Province to prevent insurgents from launching indirect fire attacks into Camp Fallujah while a large number of VIP's visited the base.
On the morning of February 10th the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force under Major General Zilmer officially transfered control of Anbar province to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force under Major General Gaskin. The ceremony was attended by numerous general officers of US and Iraqi Armies from all over Iraq, as well as the next Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. Also in attendance were numerous civilian VIP's including the Iraqi governor of Anbar province, and the US Ambassador to Iraq.
The ceremony was held in a large auditorium that has not had it's roof retrofitted to withstand rocket and mortar attacks. There was significant concern that if word of the event leaked out in advance that insurgents would be motivated to launch a coordinated indirect fire attack against the base.
Bravo Company 2/136 was tasked with the mission of preventing this potential attack. After assessing the mission Bravo Company commander Captain Chip Rankin, a highschool teacher and wrestling coach from Lichfield Minnesota, requested additional troops from battalion to be able to effectively conduct the mission.
While this mission was going on, Twin Cities television stations were covering a special ceremony being held in Captain Rankin's honor at the sectional wrestling tournament at Lichfield High School.
Lieutenant Colonel Parks, the 2/136 battalion commander is also a high school teacher from Walker Minnesota. Lieutenant Colonel Parks and elements of Alpha Company 2/136 drove 2 hours from their home base on the other side of Fallujah to reinforce Bravo Company on the mission. "Don't tell my wife I drove.", quipped Lieutenant Colonel Parks. Elements of an Army Engineer Company stationed on Camp Fallujah with specialized IED clearing capabilities also joined the mission.
Several UAV's were tasked to support the mission. UAV's are small quiet unmanned aircraft equipped with cameras that can be used to spy on enemy activity. The UAV's provided an "eye in the sky" that allowed the team to covertly observe locations that insurgents were known to have previously used to fire rockets and mortars into Camp Fallujah.
This observation paid off, and a UAV spotted 6 men in a blue Bongo truck digging holes for IED's next to a road. The Bravo Company mortar section ran a fire mission on the target which is believed to have killed or wounded two of the insurgents. A Bongo is the ubiquitous flat bed truck of Iraq. It is prefered by insurgents, because the bed lifts like a dump truck, and it can be used as an improvised rocket launcher.
The other insurgents loaded their casualties onto the blue Bongo, and fled the area, unaware that a silent predator was stalking their every move from the air. For the next 5 hours the UAVs followed the Blue Bongo around Anbar Province while the team's soldiers followed at a distance in Bradley fighting vehicles, and tried to coordinate an attack. The team's progress was slowed by numerous IED's along the road, and on several occasions they were engaged by small arms fire from other insurgents.
The team identified about 10 IED's during the day, two IED's detonated, and the rest were disarmed before they could explode. In one case the wire from the IED led 300 meters through a village to a cemetery. Apparently the insurgents believe that the Americans are less likely to attach them in a cemetery.
One soldier who did not want to identified, because he did not want his family to know what had almost happened, told me how he had looked over the side of his Bradley, and realized that they had parked on top of an IED. The Bradley quickly pulled forward out of the kill zone, and stopped. They started to dismount the vehicle, and discovered they had parked next to another IED!
Later in the day and significantly outside the normal Bravo Company battle space, the blue Bongo parked at a known insurgent house, next to multiple other vehicles. The location was outside the range of the Marine Corps 155 mm howitzer battery at Camp Fallujah, and so the team attempted to call an airstrike on the house, but there were no air assets immediately available.
As the team planned an attack on the house, 4 insurgents re-loaded the truck, and inexplicably headed back the way they had come, toward Camp Fallujah and the advancing US soldiers. The result of this was a hasty and one sided meeting engagement as the blue Bongo encountered the lead Bradley in a village. The Bradley engaged the Bongo with it's main gun. The result was two injured insurgents, and a damaged Bongo, but the other two insurgents were able to escape temporarily.
But now the insurgents had driven back within range of the 155 mm howitzers on Camp Fallujah. Using the UAV to observe, the team called an artillery fire mission that killed the remaining two insurgents. The return to Camp Fallujah involved several more hours of clearing IED's, and the team finally arrived back on base after 10:00 pm, with no American casualties. This was just another day at the office for the men of Bravo Company.
While many of them were pursuing the blue Bongo, Colonel Bristol the Marine commander that Bravo Company reports to, was delivering the following remarks about Bravo at the transfer of authority ceremony where he turned over his responsibilities to the new incoming Marine commander:
"...to my sons from the heartland of America. The brilliant men of Bravo Company 2nd of the 136th. I have commanded three times in combat, and they are the finest group of Americans that I have ever had the privilege to command."
High praise by any standard, but particularly coming from a senior Marine Corps officer.
On the morning of February 10th the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force under Major General Zilmer officially transfered control of Anbar province to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force under Major General Gaskin. The ceremony was attended by numerous general officers of US and Iraqi Armies from all over Iraq, as well as the next Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. Also in attendance were numerous civilian VIP's including the Iraqi governor of Anbar province, and the US Ambassador to Iraq.
The ceremony was held in a large auditorium that has not had it's roof retrofitted to withstand rocket and mortar attacks. There was significant concern that if word of the event leaked out in advance that insurgents would be motivated to launch a coordinated indirect fire attack against the base.
Bravo Company 2/136 was tasked with the mission of preventing this potential attack. After assessing the mission Bravo Company commander Captain Chip Rankin, a highschool teacher and wrestling coach from Lichfield Minnesota, requested additional troops from battalion to be able to effectively conduct the mission.
While this mission was going on, Twin Cities television stations were covering a special ceremony being held in Captain Rankin's honor at the sectional wrestling tournament at Lichfield High School.
Lieutenant Colonel Parks, the 2/136 battalion commander is also a high school teacher from Walker Minnesota. Lieutenant Colonel Parks and elements of Alpha Company 2/136 drove 2 hours from their home base on the other side of Fallujah to reinforce Bravo Company on the mission. "Don't tell my wife I drove.", quipped Lieutenant Colonel Parks. Elements of an Army Engineer Company stationed on Camp Fallujah with specialized IED clearing capabilities also joined the mission.
Several UAV's were tasked to support the mission. UAV's are small quiet unmanned aircraft equipped with cameras that can be used to spy on enemy activity. The UAV's provided an "eye in the sky" that allowed the team to covertly observe locations that insurgents were known to have previously used to fire rockets and mortars into Camp Fallujah.
This observation paid off, and a UAV spotted 6 men in a blue Bongo truck digging holes for IED's next to a road. The Bravo Company mortar section ran a fire mission on the target which is believed to have killed or wounded two of the insurgents. A Bongo is the ubiquitous flat bed truck of Iraq. It is prefered by insurgents, because the bed lifts like a dump truck, and it can be used as an improvised rocket launcher.
The other insurgents loaded their casualties onto the blue Bongo, and fled the area, unaware that a silent predator was stalking their every move from the air. For the next 5 hours the UAVs followed the Blue Bongo around Anbar Province while the team's soldiers followed at a distance in Bradley fighting vehicles, and tried to coordinate an attack. The team's progress was slowed by numerous IED's along the road, and on several occasions they were engaged by small arms fire from other insurgents.
The team identified about 10 IED's during the day, two IED's detonated, and the rest were disarmed before they could explode. In one case the wire from the IED led 300 meters through a village to a cemetery. Apparently the insurgents believe that the Americans are less likely to attach them in a cemetery.
One soldier who did not want to identified, because he did not want his family to know what had almost happened, told me how he had looked over the side of his Bradley, and realized that they had parked on top of an IED. The Bradley quickly pulled forward out of the kill zone, and stopped. They started to dismount the vehicle, and discovered they had parked next to another IED!
Later in the day and significantly outside the normal Bravo Company battle space, the blue Bongo parked at a known insurgent house, next to multiple other vehicles. The location was outside the range of the Marine Corps 155 mm howitzer battery at Camp Fallujah, and so the team attempted to call an airstrike on the house, but there were no air assets immediately available.
As the team planned an attack on the house, 4 insurgents re-loaded the truck, and inexplicably headed back the way they had come, toward Camp Fallujah and the advancing US soldiers. The result of this was a hasty and one sided meeting engagement as the blue Bongo encountered the lead Bradley in a village. The Bradley engaged the Bongo with it's main gun. The result was two injured insurgents, and a damaged Bongo, but the other two insurgents were able to escape temporarily.
But now the insurgents had driven back within range of the 155 mm howitzers on Camp Fallujah. Using the UAV to observe, the team called an artillery fire mission that killed the remaining two insurgents. The return to Camp Fallujah involved several more hours of clearing IED's, and the team finally arrived back on base after 10:00 pm, with no American casualties. This was just another day at the office for the men of Bravo Company.
While many of them were pursuing the blue Bongo, Colonel Bristol the Marine commander that Bravo Company reports to, was delivering the following remarks about Bravo at the transfer of authority ceremony where he turned over his responsibilities to the new incoming Marine commander:
"...to my sons from the heartland of America. The brilliant men of Bravo Company 2nd of the 136th. I have commanded three times in combat, and they are the finest group of Americans that I have ever had the privilege to command."
High praise by any standard, but particularly coming from a senior Marine Corps officer.
Friday, February 9, 2007
No photos of damaged vehicles
Camp Fallujah, Iraq, with Bravo 2/136 - In the Bravo Company motor pool there are two seriously damaged vehicles that I would love to be able to show you, but I can't. There is a very strict policy against publishing photos of battle damaged vehicles or equipment. The point of the rule is to prevent the enemy for using the photos to assess and improve the effectiveness of their weapons. This seems like a reasonable rule, but it does mean you are missing out on some interesting sights.
Currently there are two "destroyed" Bradley's in the Bravo motor pool. One was damaged by an accident (taking pictures of this vehicle is totally fine... uploaded one earlier today). The other Bradley was severely damaged by an IDE, and I can't take any pictures of it, or describe the damage to you. There is also an up-armored HMMV that was hit by an IDE.
Currently there are two "destroyed" Bradley's in the Bravo motor pool. One was damaged by an accident (taking pictures of this vehicle is totally fine... uploaded one earlier today). The other Bradley was severely damaged by an IDE, and I can't take any pictures of it, or describe the damage to you. There is also an up-armored HMMV that was hit by an IDE.
The Ugandan connection and international forces in Iraq
Camp Fallujah, Iraq - Those of you that don't know me personally, are probably unaware that I have a brother who lives in Uganda. How is this relevant you ask?
1) Uganda, as my brother pointed out in an email today is in the same timezone as Iraq (GMT +3). Random but somewhat interesting.
2) The facilities guards around Camp Fallujah are all from Uganda. Very bizarre to an outsider...
If I try to get into the Marine Corps Head Quarters I need to show my ID card to a Ugandan soldier who will then inform me that I need an escort to enter the area. I also need to get past the Ugandans to get into the chow hall for breakfast, but in that case I do not need an escort.
Here is a list of all the different nationalities of soldiers and/or police trainers that I have seen here in Iraq in the past few days:
Estonia
El Salvador
Peru
Britain
Australia
Uganda
Spain
Denmark (embassy guards I believe)
1) Uganda, as my brother pointed out in an email today is in the same timezone as Iraq (GMT +3). Random but somewhat interesting.
2) The facilities guards around Camp Fallujah are all from Uganda. Very bizarre to an outsider...
If I try to get into the Marine Corps Head Quarters I need to show my ID card to a Ugandan soldier who will then inform me that I need an escort to enter the area. I also need to get past the Ugandans to get into the chow hall for breakfast, but in that case I do not need an escort.
Here is a list of all the different nationalities of soldiers and/or police trainers that I have seen here in Iraq in the past few days:
Estonia
El Salvador
Peru
Britain
Australia
Uganda
Spain
Denmark (embassy guards I believe)
Fallujah Day 1: Generals and more generals
Camp Fallujah, Iraq with Bravo Company 2/136 - Camp Fallujah is the headquarters of Multinational Force West, and the Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) responsible for Anbar province. Most Army forces in Anbar report to the Marines, and Bravo Company is no exception.
Today marked the official "transition of authority" from the Marine Corps 1 MEF to 2 MEF. At the top of the chain of command that meant that Major General Zilmer was replaced by Major General Gaskin. This change also meant transitions for most subordinate Marine Corps units. This means that the Marine group Bravo Company reports to is now headed by a new colonel, and a new sergeant major.
This also means that a group of Marines that arrived in Fallujah after Bravo Company arrived, is going home before Bravo Company. As you can probably imagine this is a bit of a sore spot with some Bravo soldiers.
As is common with military events like this there was a major ceremony to celebrate this transition, held in the base chapel. Ooriginally built in the Sadam era, the chapel was originally designed as a large auditorium.
The ceremony brought dozens of Army and Marine Corps generals and sergeants major from all over Iraq to Fallujah. There were enough generals in the audience that some of the one star generals were sitting in the third row of seats. There were also quite a few civilian VIP's in the audience, including the US ambassador to Iraq and the Iraqi governor of Anbar province, as well as the most senior sheik in Anbar province.
Most of Bravo Company has been out in the field since before we landed her last night, and so we didn't have much else to do this morning, and so we went to cover the transition ceremony. The ceremony itself was very predictable, if you've ever been to a military change of command, but afterwards I was able to participate in two in-depth interviews with the outgoing Major General Zilmer, and the most influential sheik in the province.
Most of the questions were asked by Tom Bowman from NPR, and a reporter from the Associated Press, but I managed to ask a couple of questions too, and shot the only video of both interviews. Very in depth stuff, with some decent potential for national news interest, in my opinion.
I was also able to ask General Zilmer the outgoing commander if he would be willing to make an on camera comment about the Minnesota National Guard's contributions to his command, and he had some VERY complimentary things to say. I'm sure you'll see that clip on KSTP in the next week.
Later in the day there was a separate transition of authority ceremony for the Marine Corps Group that Bravo Company reports to directly, and the outgoing Colonel Bristol gave a very stirring and colorful talk to the troops, which included glowing compliments for Bravo Company. You'll be seeing these on TV also I'm sure.
Meanwhile the majority of Bravo Company was out in the field hunting terrorists, and missed all the ceremonies and the glowing compliments from their outgoing chain of command. That probably has a lot do with why they deserved the compliments.
The Bravo company mortar section, which is permanently emplaced here on Camp Fallujah fired multiple HE (high explosive) fire missions through the day in support of the Bravo troops in the field. And the Marine Corps 155mm howitzer battery also ran a fire mission in support late in the afternoon.
As I was finishing typing this, CPT Rankin, and LTC Parks, the battalion commander just walked in. It is 10:15 pm here, and they are just getting in from well over 24 hours on a mission. The short situation report was no Bravo casualties, and lots of IED's and small arms fire. CPT Rankin is going to give me a full briefing on the mission in the morning, and I'll hopefully have time to post it later in the day. LTC Parks is staying across the hall from me tonight, and I'm going to interview him tomorrow also.
Today marked the official "transition of authority" from the Marine Corps 1 MEF to 2 MEF. At the top of the chain of command that meant that Major General Zilmer was replaced by Major General Gaskin. This change also meant transitions for most subordinate Marine Corps units. This means that the Marine group Bravo Company reports to is now headed by a new colonel, and a new sergeant major.
This also means that a group of Marines that arrived in Fallujah after Bravo Company arrived, is going home before Bravo Company. As you can probably imagine this is a bit of a sore spot with some Bravo soldiers.
As is common with military events like this there was a major ceremony to celebrate this transition, held in the base chapel. Ooriginally built in the Sadam era, the chapel was originally designed as a large auditorium.
The ceremony brought dozens of Army and Marine Corps generals and sergeants major from all over Iraq to Fallujah. There were enough generals in the audience that some of the one star generals were sitting in the third row of seats. There were also quite a few civilian VIP's in the audience, including the US ambassador to Iraq and the Iraqi governor of Anbar province, as well as the most senior sheik in Anbar province.
Most of Bravo Company has been out in the field since before we landed her last night, and so we didn't have much else to do this morning, and so we went to cover the transition ceremony. The ceremony itself was very predictable, if you've ever been to a military change of command, but afterwards I was able to participate in two in-depth interviews with the outgoing Major General Zilmer, and the most influential sheik in the province.
Most of the questions were asked by Tom Bowman from NPR, and a reporter from the Associated Press, but I managed to ask a couple of questions too, and shot the only video of both interviews. Very in depth stuff, with some decent potential for national news interest, in my opinion.
I was also able to ask General Zilmer the outgoing commander if he would be willing to make an on camera comment about the Minnesota National Guard's contributions to his command, and he had some VERY complimentary things to say. I'm sure you'll see that clip on KSTP in the next week.
Later in the day there was a separate transition of authority ceremony for the Marine Corps Group that Bravo Company reports to directly, and the outgoing Colonel Bristol gave a very stirring and colorful talk to the troops, which included glowing compliments for Bravo Company. You'll be seeing these on TV also I'm sure.
Meanwhile the majority of Bravo Company was out in the field hunting terrorists, and missed all the ceremonies and the glowing compliments from their outgoing chain of command. That probably has a lot do with why they deserved the compliments.
The Bravo company mortar section, which is permanently emplaced here on Camp Fallujah fired multiple HE (high explosive) fire missions through the day in support of the Bravo troops in the field. And the Marine Corps 155mm howitzer battery also ran a fire mission in support late in the afternoon.
As I was finishing typing this, CPT Rankin, and LTC Parks, the battalion commander just walked in. It is 10:15 pm here, and they are just getting in from well over 24 hours on a mission. The short situation report was no Bravo casualties, and lots of IED's and small arms fire. CPT Rankin is going to give me a full briefing on the mission in the morning, and I'll hopefully have time to post it later in the day. LTC Parks is staying across the hall from me tonight, and I'm going to interview him tomorrow also.
New pictures posted from the day in Fallujah (February 9th)
Here is a link to a few of today's pictures taken in Fallujah today: http://photos.scrappydog.com/gallery/2450921
We're having some serious internet issues here today, and so I'm using my Bgan satellite internet modem to upload these. Bandwidth on the Bgan costs $12/megabyte, and so I'm having to severely limit the amount of stuff I upload, and the amount of time I spend on email (your donations welcome to support this).
I'll have an article about the days activities in a few hours...
We're having some serious internet issues here today, and so I'm using my Bgan satellite internet modem to upload these. Bandwidth on the Bgan costs $12/megabyte, and so I'm having to severely limit the amount of stuff I upload, and the amount of time I spend on email (your donations welcome to support this).
I'll have an article about the days activities in a few hours...
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Helicopter ride to Fallujah
Fallujah, Iraq - At about 6:00 pm a guy in civilian clothes walked into the heliport where we had been waiting for a ride to Fallujah all day, and figuring me for a press guy, came over and introduced himself as Tom Bowman, the National Public Radio Pentagon Corespondent.
Well it has been quite a day for me and NPR. It turns out that Tom was also on his way to Fallujah, because of a fairly major news event that will be occurring HERE in the next couple of days. I'll post the details as soon as we confirm them in the morning.
Tom is going to be staying here in Fallujah the next week also, and so I'm looking forward to spending some more time with him, and learning about military reporting from one of the true experts in the field.
At 7:15 pm we were lounging around in the heliport office watching "Finding Nemo", and chatting with Tom Bowman when the specialist running the desk announced a little excitedly that his computer was showing that our helicopter was already on the ground (15 minutes early) and we should grab our gear and hustle out to the helipad.
We threw on our body armor and picked up all our gear, and trotted out to look for our helicopter. I turns out that there were 2 Marine Corps Sea Stallions (? need to confirm designation ?) sitting out there on the pad with their rotors spinning.
We hustled over to where the loadmasters were forming up some other passengers who had been waiting somewhere else, and I proceeded to listen in on the coversation/negotiation going on between the loadmasters, one of the specialist from the heliport office, and a Iraqi man. The Iraqi man had 4 men that he was trying get on the flight to Fallugah, the specialist from the heliport office was trying to get us on, and it wasn't quite clear how many spaces there really were available.
Some passengers, like Tom Bowman, had what amounted to confirmed reservations, but CPT Lappegaard and I and two well armed serious looking guys who weren't wearing any military insignia on their nomex flight suits were all on standby. Apparently the 4 Iraqi's were also on standby, and their manager was getting pretty heated with the crew about getting his guys on. I think he was irritating the loadmasters pretty severely because one of them finally just grabbed the 4 of us ambiguously military looking guys, and took us out to his helicopter leaving at least 2 of the Iraqi's on the pad.
We got to talking to our other 2 mysterious standby passengers after we landed in Fallujah, and it turned out that they were NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigation Service) Agents on short term assignment to Fallujah. One of them said he normally works on cold case murder investigations. Sometimes life really is like TV.
Back to the flight to Fallujah: We loaded up on the helicopter and I got to sit right behind one of the waist door gunners. There was another machine gun setup on the ramp, and we flew the whole way with ramp down and the tail gunner perched out there on the edge.
The gunners all charged their weapons as soon as we took off, and we flew totally blacked out over the city. The view with the side windows open and the ramp down was pretty spectacular as we flew out over the city. I was surprised by how many lights there were. It really looked a lot like flying over any smaller American city. Tons of street lights and some cars driving, but no obvious city center.
Flying at night with all the doors and windows open is COLD! Next time I'm definitely putting on my long underwear first.
We made one stop along the way to drop off some people at another airfield, and then on to Fallujah. Fallujah was very dark, and jogging off the helicopter carrying a ton of gear toward somebody waving a chem-light definitely felt a little tactical.
And so 65 hours after walking out the door of my house in Minneapolis I'm standing on the side of a dark LZ (landing zone) in one of the more notoriously dangerous cities in Iraq.
Happily the LZ is in the middle of a large and well secured base, and so we gratefully take off our body armor, and start looking for a place to sleep for the night.
We can't get Bravo Company to answer the phone, and the Marines we are with don't know where they are, and so we head to the Marine Corps transient billets (another big tent on a concrete pad) to get some sleep. We'll figure out where Bravo Company is in the morning.
Well it has been quite a day for me and NPR. It turns out that Tom was also on his way to Fallujah, because of a fairly major news event that will be occurring HERE in the next couple of days. I'll post the details as soon as we confirm them in the morning.
Tom is going to be staying here in Fallujah the next week also, and so I'm looking forward to spending some more time with him, and learning about military reporting from one of the true experts in the field.
At 7:15 pm we were lounging around in the heliport office watching "Finding Nemo", and chatting with Tom Bowman when the specialist running the desk announced a little excitedly that his computer was showing that our helicopter was already on the ground (15 minutes early) and we should grab our gear and hustle out to the helipad.
We threw on our body armor and picked up all our gear, and trotted out to look for our helicopter. I turns out that there were 2 Marine Corps Sea Stallions (? need to confirm designation ?) sitting out there on the pad with their rotors spinning.
We hustled over to where the loadmasters were forming up some other passengers who had been waiting somewhere else, and I proceeded to listen in on the coversation/negotiation going on between the loadmasters, one of the specialist from the heliport office, and a Iraqi man. The Iraqi man had 4 men that he was trying get on the flight to Fallugah, the specialist from the heliport office was trying to get us on, and it wasn't quite clear how many spaces there really were available.
Some passengers, like Tom Bowman, had what amounted to confirmed reservations, but CPT Lappegaard and I and two well armed serious looking guys who weren't wearing any military insignia on their nomex flight suits were all on standby. Apparently the 4 Iraqi's were also on standby, and their manager was getting pretty heated with the crew about getting his guys on. I think he was irritating the loadmasters pretty severely because one of them finally just grabbed the 4 of us ambiguously military looking guys, and took us out to his helicopter leaving at least 2 of the Iraqi's on the pad.
We got to talking to our other 2 mysterious standby passengers after we landed in Fallujah, and it turned out that they were NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigation Service) Agents on short term assignment to Fallujah. One of them said he normally works on cold case murder investigations. Sometimes life really is like TV.
Back to the flight to Fallujah: We loaded up on the helicopter and I got to sit right behind one of the waist door gunners. There was another machine gun setup on the ramp, and we flew the whole way with ramp down and the tail gunner perched out there on the edge.
The gunners all charged their weapons as soon as we took off, and we flew totally blacked out over the city. The view with the side windows open and the ramp down was pretty spectacular as we flew out over the city. I was surprised by how many lights there were. It really looked a lot like flying over any smaller American city. Tons of street lights and some cars driving, but no obvious city center.
Flying at night with all the doors and windows open is COLD! Next time I'm definitely putting on my long underwear first.
We made one stop along the way to drop off some people at another airfield, and then on to Fallujah. Fallujah was very dark, and jogging off the helicopter carrying a ton of gear toward somebody waving a chem-light definitely felt a little tactical.
And so 65 hours after walking out the door of my house in Minneapolis I'm standing on the side of a dark LZ (landing zone) in one of the more notoriously dangerous cities in Iraq.
Happily the LZ is in the middle of a large and well secured base, and so we gratefully take off our body armor, and start looking for a place to sleep for the night.
We can't get Bravo Company to answer the phone, and the Marines we are with don't know where they are, and so we head to the Marine Corps transient billets (another big tent on a concrete pad) to get some sleep. We'll figure out where Bravo Company is in the morning.
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