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.......
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| What did I say ? |
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| deep buried... |
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| just waiting to roll for a night mission.. |
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