Dawn Patrol

Iraq

It Is Well With My Soul [Dadmanly - in Iraq]
I had a hard day yesterday. I received a pillow case signed by several of the unit families during a recent pool party, and great book on VE Day (Victory in Europe, WWII) and the cards from Mrs. Dadmanly and Little Manly, and I was very sad. I was crying today thinking about how much I hate it here without them, how I missed Spud and Jilly Bean and their graduations (High School and College), and how much I wanted to be home and not have to deal with any of this ...

Note to self: Terps [From My Position... On the way! - in Iraq]
Note to self: a good interpreter is priceless, unless you like blank stares.
One of my checkpoints was attacked tonight. It was manned by one of my IA partnership platoons. It was more of a drive-by and mortaring than an all-out assault, but the initial report (which is almost always wrong) said they were under attack.

Bayonet Update 9 [Bayonet formerly Kincy.com - In Iraq]
The Iraqi government is slowly getting their act together. They're starting to meet in committees and actually get some stuff done. I'm sure many of you have read the news and know that it's been a fairly rough month in Baghdad. Team Bayonet has been spared most of the action with the exception of Blue Section and First Platoon. They both are attached to Dealer Company (D CO/4-64) and have been running all over the Karrada peninsula solving mysteries and nabbing bad guys. Of special note is SSG B and SSG F, they've done some great things and have received recognition from very senior people.

The Village [365 and a Wake Up - in Iraq]
Our mission was simple. Get in. Get out. Go home. Of course nothing is ever easy in this country. Our destination was a nameless postage stamp of a village squatting in a thicket of palm and date trees.
The road leading into the village was a stinking morass of oil and dirt that resembled an airline crash site more then a driveable path.

5th CAG continues mending Saqlawiyah?s wounds [5th CAG - Cpl. Mike Escobar]
Blackened, sun-baked filth laid rotting outside the medical clinic and piles of used syringes were scattered about the courtyard. Nearby, flies buzzed around people standing in line, as they warily eyed the Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines passing by on patrol.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU SEE ON THE ROAD? [Dixie Sappers - in Iraq]
Last night we had lobster tails, fried shrimp and crab legs. Don't think many were in an eating mood since the cooks had to call on the radio saying that they had a lot of food left over and to please come eat it before it had to be thrown away. That is the first time I can remember them ever doing that especially with the menu last night. Some went back, but most people just let it slide. Some were out on missions and still didn't go eat. It was weird to go back out on missions the same night that the IED happened, but as bad as you hate it, the missions must continue to keep other people safe. It's tough, but everyone knows that the war isn't over and that all missions must continue.

Mission: Flying Angels Home [Blackfive]
Here's a letter via Seamus from May 24th written by the Commander of a Marine helicopter unit about taking care of five Fallen Soldiers.

K-9 & Doghandler [DVIDS video]
Sergeant Nick Oberly and his K9 Sammy help 1-64th Armor Battalion search a home for weapons and explosives in Southern Baghdad during Operation Determined Fury. B-roll followed by an Interview with SGT Oberly

Why the silence? [Howdy's BLOG - in Iraq]
It's been a while since I posted with any real regularity. I have not been at my laptop tapping away like a good BLOGGER. My family would like to know how I am doing. I get some e-mails asking if everything is OK. I am just fine.
Why the silence? Sometimes it is just too hard or seems far too inappropriate to write what I see, don't see or feel.

In Memory

Hate shows up at a Soldiers funeral [Gryphmon]
National Guard Corporal Carrie French didn't know the Reverend Fred Phelps. Nor, as far as anyone knows, was she a lesbian , or in Phelps-speech, a Sodomite. Yet he is coming to her funeral this Wednesday to picket and tell everyone to thank God for IED's.

ANOTHER SAD DAY AT DOGWOOD [Dixie Sappers - in Iraq]
June 12, 2005 was a terrible day because we had 2 great American soldiers killed and another soldier injured from B Co. SGT Larry Arnold and SPC Terrence Lee were killed by an IED that struck their vehicle. SGT Landrum was injured and sent to Baghdad by medevac. There was also an interpreter named Ron who was killed. I will not go into any details of what happened. I was blessed to have known both of these great warriors and they will be missed terribly. I'll miss the always smiling SPC Lee.

Day 161 - Please Pray[Big Al's Army Life - in Iraq]
This weekend was a sad weekend. For the faithful blog readers out there, you know that I belong to a Yahoo Board of other National Guard wives. There are a lot 155 wives/significant others on that board and I woke up Sunday morning to an email that one of our wives lost her hubby. Her son is also serving with the 155 BCT - and he actually was home on R&R - she had just picked him up on Friday, and her husband was killed on Saturday.

From A Marine's Parents [Firepower Forward - in Afghanistan]
I received this a little while ago from the parents of a 3/3 Marine in response to the loss of the 2 Marines in May.

Memorial Service at Camp Taqaddum [Dvids video]
The 2d Force Support Service Group held a memorial service at Camp Taqaddum, Iraq. Guest speaker is Lieutenant Colonel John R. Gambrino

Military Issues

"Enemy combatant lite" -- same tough punishment; less process [Intel Dump]
The Washington Post publishes the second of a 2-part series today on the changed legal landscape since 9/11 ? this time focusing on the use of immigration law as an anti-terrorism tool. In many respects, this reflects an old prosectorial tendency to use any law at one's disposal ? no matter how trivial ? to target Public Enemy No. 1. Just as Robert Kennedy promised to arrest a mobster for spitting on the sidewalk, so too is today's Justice Department pledging to go over suspected terrorists in the U.S. with whatever legal procedure they can. According to the Post:

Retreat from the MilBlog high-water mark [CDR Salamander]
John at Argghhh!!! has a link to the MNC-I (Iraq) Policy 39 ? Unit and Soldier Owned and Maintained Websites MEMORANDUM outlining the how-what-where of posting for military personnel in Iraq. John judges it as about as fair as can be expected and I won?t argue that point with him.
What I think needs to be considered is that we should judge the day before this MEMO, 05 APR 05, as the high-water mark of deployed MilBlogs.

Deployed Milblogs - the Rulez [Castle Argghhh!!]
Want to know the official policy of the Multi-National Corps (I.e., CJTF-7 in Iraq) on blogging-while-military? Or civilian or contractor in support of the Corps?
Click here and read the pdf

Wave of the Future [The Fourth Rail - Grim]
Wired has a piece called
"Attack of the Drones," which pretty much lays out the future of warfighting: unmanned, remotely-controlled drones and robots. It starts off with a Predator drone flying over Iraq... which is being piloted from Nevada by remote control rig.

"Immigration Law as Anti-Terrorism Tool" [Grim]
Perhaps you saw today's front-page article in the Washington Post:
Whereas terrorism charges can be difficult to prosecute, Homeland Security officials say immigration laws can provide a quick, easy way to detain people who could be planning attacks. Authorities have also used routine charges such as overstaying a visa to deport suspected supporters of terrorist groups.
Once everybody gets finished muttering, "Well, so the Bush administration is finally doing something right," I should point out that this paragraph isn't the lead, though it is the lede. It's actually paragraph number six.

Humiliation: A call for papers [Counter Column]
This journal of the early days of the captivity and interrogation of the 20th highjacker makes for interesting reading, not least because of the combination of techniques applied to encourage this scumbag to start yapping.
I remember back in the summer of 2003, I was making regular runs from Ramadi to Al Asad air base (FOB Webster) to drop off truckloads of detainees with the 3rd Armored Cavalry detention facility.

Politics

The 527th Cut (UPDATED) [Baldilocks]
Does the Left not remember the caterwauling that went up from sea to shining sea in response the Bush phrase ?Axis of Evil? in the 2002 State of the Union address? If it is remembered, what is the big deal about the Downing Street Memo?

So Much For Freedom Fries [Balloon Juice]
It appears that freedom fries are going the way of the Iraqi WMD:
A pro-Iraq war US congressman who campaigned for French fries to be renamed "freedom fries" is now calling for US troops to return home from Iraq. Republican Representative Walter Jones is to introduce legislation demanding a timetable for the withdrawal.

The MSM Reports

A Loss of Momentum (Washington Post)
AFEW MONTHS ago the Bush administration had reason to hope that a spring of freedom might be beginning in the Middle East. What's occurring, however, looks more like a stagnant summer. Iraq's successful election has given way to prolonged political jockeying that endangers the tight timetable for a new constitution and permanent government. The promising announcement by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak of multi-candidate presidential elections has begun to look like a sham.

Look who's shaking things up now (Washington Times)
...Do you notice something odd going on here? Political definitions have been turned upside down. A conservative president emphasizes change; the liberals in Washington, who for decades were the agitators for doing everything different, now suffer hardening of the arteries of the imagination. Curiously, neither The Washington Post nor the New York Times, the house organs of the liberal establishment, mentioned the president's call for creative thinking in their accounts of the speech. The Washington Times, whose editorial page defines the conservative resurgence, put it on Page One.

A Peephole To The War Room: British Documents Shed Light On Bush Team's State Of Mind (New York Times)
...What no one knew then for certain (though some lonely voices did predict it) is that American forces would find none of the lethal chemical or biological weapons that Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair said made Iraq so dangerous, or that the anti-American insurgency would be so durable and deadly. That is why the British memos' foresight - read with the benefit of hindsight - rings so bittersweet for those who tried in vain to avert the war, and remain aghast at its human and material costs.

The Madrassa Myth (New York Times)
IT is one of the widespread assumptions of the war on terrorism that the Muslim religious schools known as madrassas, catering to families that are often poor, are graduating students who become terrorists. Last year, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell denounced madrassas in Pakistan and several other countries as breeding grounds for "fundamentalists and terrorists." A year earlier, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld had queried in a leaked memorandum, "Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?"

Humor

The 101 Things E-4 Skippy Can?t Do While in the Army [Soldiers' Angel - Holly Aho]
Haven't yet heard about Skippy? Skippy was an E-4 in the army, served for six years, and is now out and attending college. While in the army he says "I got bored. I mean *really* bored. People who have been on a military deployment can understand what I am talking about here." So Skippy decided a few practical jokes were in order. And that's when he learned the army can make up new rules on the spot. His list is 213 items long, listing things Skippy cannot do while in the army.

Mission Games [The National Guard Experience - in Afghanistan]
Okay, so you're in the Infantry on a field mission for more than five days in the blistering desert heat of Afghanistan. You're stationary and only equipped with a limited number of items. Totally bored out of your mind, here are some games you can play in the field. I know, because I played them. Well, some of them. These games can also be played in Iraq. And remember, the field conditions are critical: Do not play these games unless you've been baking in the hot sun for a minimum of four days, otherwise you'll probably have to receive a pshyc eval. Note: Some related pictures might be posted later this week.