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| Hi!
Well let's see what I can do for you here. As you already know I am in Iraq right now. What you may not know is that I was here is 2003 as well. There has been a major change in the country since then. The people are working and providing for themselves now, they have many business man building small businesses that they would never have been able to do before. Their economy is growing. The people have a much better way of life. Things that we take for granted each and every day the Iraqi people did not have before 2003. They still have a long way to go before they catch up to us, but they are doing much better than before. Unfortunately it is still a very dangerous place to be. The insurgents still try to keep the new Iraqi government from making progress. There are very few days that go by that you don't hear or see an explosion going off. Over the past few months the insurgents have fired less at us on the Forward Operating Base (FOB) that I'm at and have been planting more Improvised Explosive Devises (IEDs) near government buildings and police station. They still shoot rockets and mortars at us, but not as much as before. As the new Iraqi government gets stronger they concentrate more efforts on the Iraqi government than shooting at us. We continue to find a lot of caches. A cache is a place that they store weapons and ammunition to use against us later. Just a few hours ago we had a patrol come back in from four days pulling security on one side of a village while other patrols pulled security in other parts of the village. Together they had the village completely surrounded so no one could get in or out without us knowing about it. While they pulled security a joint team of both US military and Iraqi military & police searched every home in the village looking for more caches. It is unknown at this point how much was found. Over the period of the four days intelligence reports indicated that there were six known Vehicle Borne IEDs (VBIEDs) trying to find a way into the village to hit American Forces. A VBIED is a vehicle that is loaded with explosives that they can drive up to a gate and detonate, those would be some of the suicide bombers that you hear about on the news, or park them near their target and detonate it by remote control. Our patrols did such a great job of securing the village that none got through. What I do here is run a radar. It is designed to detect and track rocket, mortars, and artillery that are shot at us. When the radar detects a round that is fired at us it plots the location that it came from and predicts where it will land. We send that information to the Targeting Cell (the people who plan how to shoot back) and they decide how to handle it. Since the insurgents use the city as a place to hide while they fire at us, we can't shoot artillery at them. Collateral Damage would be too great, that's when innocent people get hurt or property is damaged that didn't need to be. Most of the incoming fire that we receive is what is called harassment fire. That means they are trying to keep us off balance. Usually those rounds will land in a place that no one gets hurt. Unfortunately we are not always that lucky and someone does get hurt. Keep in mind that just because some gets hurt doesn't always mean that they die, but it does happen. About two weeks ago a mortar round came in and hit a Combat Housing Unit (CHU), which is what we live in. The round came in and went through the first wall, through a wall locker, through the second wall and back out of the CHU and stuck into a HESCO Basket, that is a basket made of wire and mesh that holds dirt to protect us from a blast. The mortar round did not explode. It just stuck into the HESCO. Explosives and Ordinance Disposal (EOD) had to come out and remove the mortar round and detonate it in a safe place. There were two people in the CHU when the mortar hit, but no one got hurt. Now that it is heating back up again they use some different tactics to make it difficult for us to shoot back at them. When you fire a mortar round you have to drop it into a tube and when it hits the bottom of the tube it shoots out and will explode when it hits its target. To keep from having to drop the round themselves they will put a block of ice in the tube and set the round on top of the ice. When the ice melts the mortar will fall to the bottom and go off by itself. This way they can be far away from it when it does fire and then we can shoot back at them. It is a tough job out here but someone has to do it. Remember that we have done a lot of good for the people of Iraq since we have been here. Children used to run around in rags or no clothes at all. Now they have a chance at a bright future like you do. Keep in mind that things are not always like what you seen in the movies or on the news channels. The news shows all the bad things that happen here. There are a lot of good things that happen here too. We have helped the Iraqi people build churches, hospitals, and schools. We have fed millions of people in this country that were starving before. In 2003 just before the war started Saddam Hussein was sitting on gold plated toilet seats while Iraqi children had no food or clothes. I went into a couple of the palaces in 2003 and saw it for myself. I saw starving children with no clothes and often times gave them my own food. Well, I hope this helps you some. If you have anymore questions feel free to let me know. I might be able to send you some pictures of things here on the FOB that I am on. Paul Johnson SSG |
| I asked Paul Johnson stationed in Iraq to send me a story and he did.. Thank you Paul for the story and I WANT TO THANK ALL THE TROOPS SERVING TODAY. You are in our thoughts and Prayers. |
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