Welcome to the 21st century! I think this blog thing is a great idea, it’s a great way for us to keep in touch and keep abreast of what is going on, now that we are all getting older and spreading further and further across the globe. I only wish I could have been there at Grandma’s funeral when you guys came up with this idea.
Anyway, as most of you know, I am in Iraq right now, about 20 miles southwest of Baghdad. Our area does not get a lot of press, but all the people who seem to know what they are talking about say that it is an essential area to control in order to stem the flow of weapons, fighters, etc, into Baghdad, where they can get the most bang for their buck. If you watch the news, you have probably heard a lot about the “Super FOB’s” over here – giant bases occupied by literally dozens of army units. Well, we are about as far from “super” as you can get! There are, at any one time, maybe 300 soldiers on my base, and somewhere around 100 iraqi army dudes. Four of my battalion’s subordinate companies live in even smaller bases, pushed out deep into our area of operations. It is an incredibly painful task to resource this kind of fight (and I should know, because up until about December that was my job – I was the “logistics” guy for my battalion) but living this way does an incredible amount of good for our unit tactically. We develop great relations with the locals, and have a constant presence in the towns that we just could not do if we were all cooped up on a huge base closer to Baghdad.
These days I work in the Operations shop for my battalion. I help plan the missions (somewhat), but spend most of my time coordinating daily operations, writing orders, working with engineers to build up our positions, and other thrilling stuff like that. Not exactly the most thrilling of jobs, but it keeps me fairly busy. Right now it looks like I will be headed home in late summer (hopefully, anyway), and then moving back to Georgia for some more good old army training.
The picture is a shot of me reenlisting one of the Soldiers who served with me in the Scout Platoon last year. I have to ask you all to pardon the moustache – a bunch of the guys I work with decided to grow them basically for the hell of it. I know it looks ridiculous, and it will CERTAINLY be gone before I get anywhere near the states.
Tom
Anyway, as most of you know, I am in Iraq right now, about 20 miles southwest of Baghdad. Our area does not get a lot of press, but all the people who seem to know what they are talking about say that it is an essential area to control in order to stem the flow of weapons, fighters, etc, into Baghdad, where they can get the most bang for their buck. If you watch the news, you have probably heard a lot about the “Super FOB’s” over here – giant bases occupied by literally dozens of army units. Well, we are about as far from “super” as you can get! There are, at any one time, maybe 300 soldiers on my base, and somewhere around 100 iraqi army dudes. Four of my battalion’s subordinate companies live in even smaller bases, pushed out deep into our area of operations. It is an incredibly painful task to resource this kind of fight (and I should know, because up until about December that was my job – I was the “logistics” guy for my battalion) but living this way does an incredible amount of good for our unit tactically. We develop great relations with the locals, and have a constant presence in the towns that we just could not do if we were all cooped up on a huge base closer to Baghdad.
These days I work in the Operations shop for my battalion. I help plan the missions (somewhat), but spend most of my time coordinating daily operations, writing orders, working with engineers to build up our positions, and other thrilling stuff like that. Not exactly the most thrilling of jobs, but it keeps me fairly busy. Right now it looks like I will be headed home in late summer (hopefully, anyway), and then moving back to Georgia for some more good old army training.
The picture is a shot of me reenlisting one of the Soldiers who served with me in the Scout Platoon last year. I have to ask you all to pardon the moustache – a bunch of the guys I work with decided to grow them basically for the hell of it. I know it looks ridiculous, and it will CERTAINLY be gone before I get anywhere near the states.
Tom
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