GAS GAS GAS

So my platoon towards the end of our deployment in 2008 found ourselves in a pomegranate field in the middle of diyala province, Iraq. What a shit hole, amazingly though this place is the breadbasket for all of iraq meaning thats where the majority of their money comes from because there is so much farming or whatever. Anyways In this field that we went to go and check out a "weapons cache" that was supposedly still there so we could blow it up. I hated walking through all those fucking fields because there were landmines all over the place. So you could imagine my discomfort walking through fields like its fuckin vietnam. Anyways back on track, a source had brought us to where the site was and instead of weapons we found one of our downed UAV's. You know unmanned aerial vehicle, it was a predator and someone stole all the accessories from it AKA the hell fire missiles that they carry where gone and the computers were stripped from the inside. So we hung out in this field for like the whole fuckin day right. HOURS out there. Finally EOD explosive ordinance disposal guys show up. Lets be clear they were ARMY EOD, not the bad ass NAVY EOD guys which was a shame because I loved working with those navy EOD dudes. We had to call them so that they could blow up the propane tanks surrounding the UAV. We thought that it was probably booby trapped. Anyways we all get back to the vehicles and are awaiting for the detonation of this shit and when they finally blow it we just hear a small pop versus a big BOOM. So we take a peek outside only to be greeted by man mades finest yellow death of chlorine gas. We originally just thought that it was yellow smoke from a smoke grenade and figured it out really quick once it hit us that it was gas gas gas mothafuckah. Well long story short my whole platoon had to get air medivaced to the hospital in ballad. I received chemical burns to my throat and my lungs just like everyone else in my platoon but noone recieved any purple hearts. Fuckin lame. anyways thats my story if you want to know more just comment me. alright thanks for reading.

FUCK THE WRATH OF THE TITANS

Ok I am going to make another blog and this time its going to be about a movie. Thats right the wrath of the titans, soooooo shitty well atleast I thought so. Persius gets his ass kicked the entire movie and just gets lucky when he kills the bad guys. I mean you think that they would make the son of zeus a little more bad ass then that wouldnt you. OMG, I hated it. I thought that it would have atleast been better then the first movie. Give him some kind of power aries or whatever god of war was way more bad ass, I didnt think that demi gods where that special because they were too human. Anyways I can't wait for the avengers to come out those are real super heroes. Iron man or Thor would of beat the shit out of all those stupid monsters. Idk im just ranting because I hated the movie so bad.

VA taking forever again

So This is different I just need to catch up with my blogs so I am just going to write a short one on what Ive been doing recently. I have been writing a statement for the VA regarding my disability compensation, hopefully everything goes well cause it is such a pain in the butt to do. It can sometimes take months to complete. I had to collect some other statements to as well for supporting my case file. When the VA needs things from you they are so quick to ask for it and get it or take it away from you but when you need things from them they take forever. Thats the really shitty part about it. Anyways wish me luck I hope that I get the rating that I deserve. Thanks fro reading. take care and aloha!!

Al doura part 2

TIME TO FIGHT

 0300 hrs Oct. 5th 2007. It was dark, but the early morning darkness was lit like the 4th of July. IED’s ignited and exploded on the sidewalks and streets. I never thought I’d see it rain asphalt before. Rocket propelled grenades screamed down the road, and over head. Ak47 tracers zinging through the air slamming into our buildings. It made concrete walls look like paper mache’ . Mortar strikes dropped on top of us and in the streets.  We were fighting for our lives and for one another.
     1300 hrs, most have run out of water, exhausted, tired, and scared. It was about 120 degrees in the afternoon. We’ve cleared over 20 city blocks by now. Everyone was fine, some close calls but noone got hurt. We just finished clearing a big apartment building. 1st platoon was almost at their limit of advance to finish the day and set up security. A lot of the fire we were taking earlier had calm down now.

     We walked from that apartment building to the next. 3rd squad the squad I was in, headed to our last building on the street corner. My squad leader had told us be careful and watch your step. The building was 3 floors but there was no 1st floor. The ground floor was a garage facing the main road and the side of the building was the entrance that had stairs going up straight to the second floor. My squad was the 1st squad in, we approached and entered the building walking up the stairs slowly.
     Everyone was nervous. It was quiet. It felt wrong. We got to the second floor and cleared all the rooms. You could tell that most of the rooms had been occupied before. The insurgents had been fighting us from this location. The floors were laced with 7.62 casings and water bottles along with broken down cots that they used to sleep on. They were long gone by the time we got there. My squad leader called up to 1st squad and told them we got the building. I was by the stairs by the first room walking around. My buddy Sgt. Baum walked up the stairs to the third floor, before he could get to the top and before I could go up there to follow him our squad leader called us back. and said stay down here. We came down and pulled security through the windows.
     I was pulling security down the hall from the staircase and our Platoon leader and 1st squad came in the building. They started to relay information to our Commader and let them know we hit the limit of advance for the day and we were awaiting further guidance to either rest or push more into the town. 1st squad leader Sgt. brown told his guys to head up to the roof and set up security. To over look the roads. I was at my window pulling security and listening to the squad leaders and PL talk about the mission. I was thinking about home and how much I missed it, my friends, my family, and even times I had at saint louis school. I missed everything about Hawaii and the people in it. We are a unique community of people that you can’t find anywhere else. I told myself I’d never take for granted the place I was born and raised, and that I would appreciate all my friends and family.

I’ll SEE YOU IN MY NIGHTMARES

1400 HRS same day and place. All I see is black. I hear nothing, and see nothing. I woke with my face on the ground covered in dirt. I was thrown from the window to the opposite side of the room. Smoke and dust infested the room like a forest fire. It was so thick I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. My ear drums felt like they have been blown out, and a 300 pound man just punched me in the chest as hard as they could. I was shaking. I was nautious, dizzy, and confused. I waited in the longest scariest silence I’ve ever known. Half a minute must of felt like hours. I waited in dead silence for an eternity and wondered what just happened. I heard the PL finally, “ I think we just got hit by a mortar round”   I heard screaming coming from the stairwell. “ They’re fuckin dead !!!   All of 1st squad!! Their fuckin dead!! “ Then I knew, we just been hit with an IED. The ones you see on the news blow up tanks on the sides of roads. Only this time they decided to leave it in a building to get more of us. Immediately the leaders went through the hall to the stairs. I knew who was up there and I didn’t hear any of their voices, I became terrified when there was no response from any of my other friends. I loved all those guys.
     My heart rushed, I became more frantic and scared, then I have ever been. I was the only person in the building with an aid bag. I was the only one who was EMT certified in trauma care. The medic wasn’t with us so he couldn’t help us. One of the squad leaders called out to me. MARK!!!!! GET THE FUCK OVER HERE!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP!! I gathered myself and sprinted down the hall. Right when I got to the stairs a body was being carried down. It was my friend Hutchinson... they brought him down next to me, he lay there like a rag doll, lifeless.
     I checked his airway and noticed all the holes in his face he had gotten from the shrapnel. I was getting overwhelmed by sadness and tears. I told myself this isn’t the time or place to let your friends down. I checked his pulse, I grabbed his hand and some of his fingers had fallen off or hung by just skin alone. It felt like it was happening so fast. I said to myself man the fuck up and do your job. I took his gear off, body armor and ammo, put his rifle on the side. Lifted his shirt and there was holes punched in his stomach. I was frantically telling God in my head. Please help me, please help me fix this. While all this is going on the squad leaders and platoon leader had been calling for a medivac and for the other squads and platoons to come to our position to help. The medic finally got to our location along with second squad. They came into the building to set up security, and the medic came to me to help. He said work on his legs I will get his upperbody. I went to his legs and his right leg had been crushed completely and was hanging on by skin. There was no bone left. He was just peppered all over with shrapnel and was losing so much blood. I yelled at one of the squad leaders talk to him Sgt. so he knows where here. “ He got down and told hutch over and over, “Hold on Hutch, hold on, stay with us, come on man stay with us” I applied a tourniquet on his leg to stop the bleeding. Then doc said stay with him and talk to him.
     Then another body came down, my friend Milledge. When they brought his body down this image stays with me everyday since then, cause it was so horrific. I kept saying God please help us he can’t be dead he has to be alive. I looked over my shoulder. The staircase had been covered with blood and was pooring down the steps. The concussion of the blast was so great that it blown off all of Milledges body armor and clothes. The only way you could recognize him was from the special boots that he wore.
     Half of his face had been ripped off and his body was cut to shreds from shrapnel and burnt from the blast. I remember looking at his leg and all I could see was bone. I thought to myself “fuck man he has to make it, he has to still be alive.”  The medic then calls out and says there’s nothing we can do for him now. He’s gone. One of the last things Milledge said to me that day was hey Mark, How you doing man? you ok? keep your head high, where almost done. Let me fix your neck protector real quick you got to look good for the bad guys”. Then another body came down, it was my friend Marchand,   Jason was instantly killed from the blast because he was first to go up the stairs. There wasn’t much left of what they brought down. At this point I had never felt the way I felt when I saw a group of my friends this way. These where all tough hard guys and they were super soldiers.
    The medivac finally came to pick them up. Hutch survived but they had to amputate his leg to save him. I remember looking up at the Lt. and seeing him cry while trying to send up the report to the commader. It’s hard putting your friends bodies in body bags and carrying their bodies broken, shredded, and literally in pieces.
     I was so upset at this point that they put me in one of the vehicles with some of the other guys cause they were worried that we’d do something stupid. I went down and saw some of my other friends and I sat in the stryker and just exploded, “ They fuckin got us, they fuckin killed um I was punching and kicking the armor on the vehicle out of control and my friend manning the gun in the back hatch was just pale and speechless.

Some of the local nationals outside were laughing when they saw us bring the body bags down. I remember how bad I wanted to rip their faces off and kill them. It destroyed everybody to see our friends like this.  They all had wives and kids, they were young just like me. I was only 20. In October of 2007 five of my friends were killed in a week span. All cool, great guys. We trained together, lived together, we were like a family. When we didn’t have families with us during holidays on our small base in Germany we took care of one another and spent our holidays with each other. REST IN PEACE BROTHERS....

   

Christians and Sunnis...

Oct 2007 Al doura Iraq, Well lets see here the best way to start this post is to give a little background of the area. Al doura was an area of Baghdad that rarely had coalition forces in it. The unit we were replacing (2nd ID) was beaten up pretty bad from the area. Al doura at this time was the hot spot for House borne IED's (booby trapped houses) and also Deep buried IED's, RPG's and small arms fire from Al Queda insurgents. Also Al doura had a big populace of christians, and catholics well the biggest I ever seen anyways while I was there. But the sunni insurgents were capturing and killing all the christians and catholics in the area, they even drove a VBIED (car bomb) into a church during mass killing a countless amount of people. Give you a little bit of insight about this place. SHIT HOLE... filled with SHITHEADS....

We got up after a long night of preparation and op orders. I honestly was excited and nervous at the same time. More nervous as to not knowing what to expect and excited to start and finish the operation and come back with everyone. We loaded up on the strykers and rode out to the infamous town of Al Doura. In the early morning darkness all you could see was beautiful stars and I wondered to myself how messed up this place is with beautiful sites like these. For those of you who have seen the clear desert night stars you would know what I mean.

Little did I know what would lie ahead....

We are finally in the town and the hot sun has already risen. As we drive our convoy is halted by an old man blocking our way in the road. My squad leader yells to the man to "Get the fuck out of the way!" the man blankly stares down my squad leader and doesn't budge. My squad leader is fed up and can't waist anymore time and fires a warning shot in the dirt a few feet away from the man. The man still stands and doesn't budge as if nothing happened. My squad leader yells and fires another warning shot as we slowly drive forward and the man finally gets out of the way. Everyone is trying to get in their zone for the clearing operation to start. Some people are getting nuts and yelling and cheering. You know getting psyched for the shit.

The vehicles finally come to halt and we're in the middle of the city surrounded by tall buildings and alley ways. (Man what a place to fuckin be I thought) Before we drop the ramp boss man (squad leader) drops down and explains to us a frago (change in plans) of where he wants everyone to go and how their going to get their and whats going to happen after they get there. Since we always rotated on the vehicle who would stay and man the air guard hatch and pull security while the rest of the teams clear, it finally rotated to me this day. Even though the airguard is an important part of security for not just the guys on the ground but for the vehicle, I honestly wanted to be on the ground with my boys incase something happened. I wanted to be there for them.

Bam, as soon as I drop the ramp everyone rushes out does there 5-25 meter check and runs to a building close by within a few seconds. While the other squads do the same, all are concealed by a screen of smoke placed up wind from us. With all the chatter going on over the radio and with me popped up out of the airguard hatch and listening in... I hear all kinds of crazy shit. Like taking fire, RPG!!, and IED!! All these explosions and gunfire going down on different streets. I'm like dam WTF. Not even a few minutes after hearing all of this I can hear the klacks of AK-47's coming from all over the god dam place and dirt kicking up next to the vehicle. Now reality really kicks in when that shit starts hitting the vehicles around me and then vehicle I'm in.

OHHH FUCK!!!!!!! was the first thing I yelled as it got closer, I honestly was not the only one who yelled that shit hahaha the VC (Vehicle Commander) also got his panties wet when it started to get more real. As it got closer to the afternoon things were getting more intense and shit was just happening. We were now in a part of town where our vehicles were being used to block off roads and allow no personnel or traffic down any routes. The streets we were driving in were overflowed like rivers because of all the deep buried IEDS that have been going off. If your wondering well what does that have to do with the water? Well genius's, they hide and place "deep buried IEDS" under pipes so you can't track them with any kind of thermal device and almost makes it impossible to foresee.

So the fight continues... none of our guys from my unit gets hurt, but I hear of all the detainees and insurgents that we have been taking down. I'm thinking of how good the unit is doing. It's about 4 ish in the late afternoon and there have been a shit ton of attempts for people to drive down our road but all warning shots have proven effective. No unintentional civilian KIA's because we used proper ROE. Which I thought was a good thing with the unit. We start to drive further down the road when I see a women riding a donkey start coming down our street with a few other males following her. They are all dressed in black, and have sheep following them. So weird....

I'm thinking like WHHATTT THE FUUUUCCCKKKKK ARRREEE YOUUUU THINNNKKING!!!!! Immediately I call it out radio it up. I yell as loud as I can in English and arabic to FUCKING stop but they of course don't. I mean really what the fuck are you thinking logically in your head. I mean American, Civilian, Insurgent, or fuckin whatever you are why would you want to keep coming down the street with all these Strykers with enough firepower to just level a town.... Anyways.... I fire a warning shot and they still don't stop, So I gave one last chance. I aim about a meter a way from this guys head where there is a wall to not make a bad error, but make it clear if you keep coming I'm not giving any more chances. I time my shot so it hits far away enough in front and close enough to the male rider on his donkey to let him know what I'm thinking.

It hits and he right away stops his donkey and he was going kind of fast on that donkey slides a litte a turns around and rides away. (Later we found out that group was pace count/ observer for an insurgent mortar team... aka droppin bombs on us)

As the day carries on again, there just so much bullshit stuff thats going on to. The vehicle with my platoon sgt gets fuckin stuck so I have to get out and pull security for the guys trying to hook up chains to pull it out. All I can hear all around me is gunfire and snap crackles and pops on the dirt and walls and shit. I shouldn't have but I was yelling at the sgt who was in charge who is also my friend telling him to hurry the fuck up before we get fucked up out here. lol But cherry old me (cherry/1st deployment ever/ newbie) never got blown up before or experience a real explosion up close and personal, the commander vehicle for some reason decided to shoot I forget what they call it exactly but a smoke grenade out of their RWS and they fired it into the water around our vehicle and they arent the small smoke greandes that go pop either. They never said anything about shooting that fuckin thing and the fuckin thing explodes and it's like fuckin lake michigan goes up in the air and the first thing I thought was IEEEEEDDDDDD mothafuckah!!!! freaking out..... Anyways the whole mess was cleared up and we got the vehicle out. There was also a historic platoon vehicle fire that happened and was put out but the actual events were more comedic then hostile then anything after the events.

So the day is coming to an end and its my turn back on the ground. I switch out with one of my buddies and get right into my guard shift posted up in this old ladies house. Most nervous night of my life ever. No sleep, and scared as fuck lol in a good healthy way....

Well readers if you do ever read this I have to get some real sleep, but you won't want to miss the next segment to this story, plays a role in my everyday life and it lives with me ever since it happened. So beloved readers until the next time.....

TO BE CONTINUED.......

What did I say ? 

deep buried...

just waiting to roll for a night mission..

Saddam's Stadium

Yup........

0630 Today I woke up, it was the hottest fuckin day ever. My cot was covered in sweat, even though the god dam AC had been running all night and day it never really did much. Must of been fuckin broken. Everyone else was just getting up. We all went outside to get in formation and talk about the days duties. I was thinking man we've already been here for two fuckin weeks lets just go already...

1430 Finally they told us that we'd be going down range. I mean shit everythings already packed the fuck up in the connex's already. Sgt. Dice comes into the tent and tells us " hey guys looks like we get to ride some chinooks in, should be fun" ....Man.... Chinooks? I don't feel like getting shot down. But should be fun anyways. Everyone looks pretty pumped to finally get this shit started, been waiting long enough.

1600 " hey guys, change of plans. We're flying C-130's in and then we're getting picked up by our choppers." Sweet! Someone says. "Hellllllll!!!!! Yeahhhh!!! MOTHAFUCKA!!!! RICCCKK JAMMESS!!!" Did someone just say Rick James?? I say. Man everyone was just so excited.

1700 We start loading up on the C130 We each have 3 duffel bags and all our body armor, probably weighing about 10,000 pounds. (Not really maybe like 200 pounds combined) Just tons of crap to carry all smashed and smushed in the bird. We finally take off and people start yelling and screaming getting nuts. someone even goes as far as saying "Hey guys don't worry the last time one of these planes crashed was last week" WOW..... really bro, why would you say something like that right now?

1830 WE FINALLY FUCKING LAND...... Thank God, I hate flying in tight small places where everyone is just fuckin smashed together for over full capacity. But wars aren't fought comfortably are they? We get out of the plane that just flew from Kuwait and all I can hear right when we land in BIAP (Baghdad International Airport) Was a huge fucking explosion and distinctly AK 47 firing. kak kak kak kak kak.... WHAT THE FUCK I say, everyone starts rushing out of the plane and BOOOOOMMMMM another explosion. I honestly didn't know what to think at the time because I didn't see anything happening only hearing what was going on outside the walls.

1900 The gunfire and explosions settles everyone starts to unload everything and we get the brief that the chinooks are coming for us tonight to pick us up. Plus birds can only fly at night at high capacity because they're always getting shot down. As soon as it turns dark the fuckin airport turns into pandemonia so much air traffic coming through tonight. It was crazy. I honestly felt like I was in a movie like Black Hawk Down or something. Idk It was pretty nuts at the time.

2000 "Alright guys keep your fucking heads down!! Make sure you stay one behind the other when we get on the bird!!! We got to head in at an angle so your head doesn't get chopped off! Everyone got it!!!??"  All says "We got it SGT!!!!" (When I say all I mean all of 3rd squad) DUK DUK DUK DUK DUK DUK DUK DUK.... "Here she comes guys!!!" man I'd have to say it felt pretty cool to be running up to our chinook in the pitch black darkness but at the same time I had the feeling that shit could go down at anytime to. "GET ON THE FUCKING BIRD!!!!" "GO GO GO!!" We all piled on that bitch like a can of sardines let me tell yah lol.  Once we got on they raised the back ramp and took off.

2015 The gunner is hanging out off the ramp in the back of the chopper with the 240 machine gun. I was pretty close to the tail of the chopper and man we got up in the air and you could just see all of baghdad. All the lights and streets. Burning cars, fire fights going on, and explosions from far away. Everyone in the bird was silent. Everyone felt pretty serious now. I looked out one of the windows and immediately I could see one of the other birds with a bunch of our boys in it. Someone gave the finger to and was laughing but nobody laughed in our bird cause it was just so serious.

2030 I feel the bird descending and hovering down slower and slower. We go down a little bit more when I see the cross sabers of saddams stadium, I've only seen saddams stadium in pictures before and never thought that I would one day be there myself. Crazy and Ironic I thought. We finally touch down in the stadium and man it may have been 830 at night but it was still fuckin hot as shit. I couldn't believe how hot it was. I wasn't use to this kind of weather. I mean shit I'm from hawaii lol. Anyways they told everyone make sure security is up and don't fuck around. We may be in the green zone but shit can still go down. Everyone gets their guard up again instead of just jammbling on about the whole landing in saddams stadium. Now we just got to wait for transport. In the mean time someone yells, "Hey guys haha isn't it cool you guys it's saddams stadium!!!" "I yell, MAN FUCK SADDAM, and his fuckin Stadium! He and Bin Laden is the reason I'm here those fucking assholes!"

( To be Continued )