I sure hope I get to finish this before the internet craps out. The last few days we've gone through a lot of c-4. It seems as though a lot of our searches have contributed to the local nationals dumping their munitions in and around our AO. We've been working quite closely with the ANA, and they've started to take the lead on patrols. I can sense that they are quite nervous about the IED threat, but we all are, so it's nothing new. The other day, myself and Dorner went out with the infantry and found quite a few mortars and blew em all to pieces. Higher is concerned with collateral damage so we've got to be careful when destroying these ordnance. I mean, its not like we can move these UXO's (unexploded ordnance) into a field and BIP em there, so most of the time we push out a cordon and blow it right where we found it. In some cases its in somebody's "garden" or backyard. We have a pretty good idea of where the fragmentation will fly, so we can get away with it. There was somewhat of an exception the other day, when we blew a mortar casing up, alongside a 82mm mortar in a wadi. Turns out the casing flew over 300m and ended up landing less than 50' from the infantry guys. They said they thought it was a chopper flying overhead. Whoops... We did not expect it to kick up and out of the wadi it was in. At any rate, all okay and we continued on.

The day after, I guess the 27th, Maddin and I went out for a presence patrol in a neighboring village. It's like night and day from where we regularly patrol. There were kids everywhere chirping Kalum, Kalum, Kalum.... This means pen in Pashto and they all want pens. I think we could actually end the war for future generations if we just airdropped a 747's worth of bic pens in every Afghan town and center. Well, they were crowding around which is okay, because the threat level decreases when civilians are around, but they get a little too close, and when you have blcoks of c-4 hanging off your pack, you tend to get a little nervous about little kids touching your kit. I finally lost my shit and told the interpreter to get these kids outta my space and to quit shadowing me. I'm not sure whether there is a huge rivalry between these towns, but they all say the same thing. The other towns are Taliban, and we are the good guys. Where we are, they neither confirm nor deny Taliban occupation. They just stare, and look depressed. Hopefully we can turn that around over the next little while.

So today I was out yet again. We got a tip from a local national that they found a weapons cache further down south. Dorner and I ( its just Dorner, Maddin and me right now) went patrolling to check it out. The ANA showed up on time for once and we kicked off at around 1000. We didn't get very far before they called the engineers up. A farmer told them he had found an RPG in his fields. Sure enough, there it was so we hauled out the c-4. I got one of the ANA to set the charge and had the interpreterguide the fella into blowing the rpg up. Looks like the net is messed up... gotta get ready for a busy few days. We're hoping for no rain, but we'll see.........til teh next......out

words......

Merry Christmas and all the best in the new year. I guess thats an appropriate start to this entry being Christmas eve and all. I don't know where to really begin the accounts of the last couple of days out here. I am sorry for the Nuttall family and their terrible loss.

I can't even recollect right now how the days events even began. We were tasked with clearing areas acres upon acres filled with graperows. As previously detailed, these things are at times over 8' in depth and too far to jump across. It was up and down all day long, searching for weapons caches and explosives. We made our way south, row after row, field after field, and we were exhausted. Lt. Nuttall and his men were due west of us doing the exact same thing. An all day affair which ended with our platoon occupying and searching a compound in the southern tip of Panjwaii. The ANA had found a 105mm round in the compound and we were deciding whether the collateral damage was going to be severe or not. As we were discussing the bIP an explosion rocked the area. The radio erupted in chatter and a 9 liner was being prepared. (9 liners are protocol when someone is injured) 2 extremely serious priorities and one not so serious. An interpreter broke his leg in the blast and an ANA suffered an upper body injury. Lt. Nuttall was not so fortunate. I cannot speculate on what exactly happened and I feel it would be dishonourable to go into detail, so I won't. They were air lifted out.

These events led to a section of men remaining at the blast site to preserve the scene. An ANA vehicle moving in to support the remaining soldiers and subsequently hit another IED. This resulted in a mobility kill and a need for recovery. Everyone in that vehicle was okay. Hawkeye and Bergeron left our PH to aid in the cordon set around the site. Maddin, Riley, Dorner and myself returned to camp after a long days work. We were exhausted and everyone was on edge. Early this morning EOD deployed and were headed to the blast sites. At about 0600 I woke up, at 0615 I had coffee in hand, and at 0630 another explosion rocked our PH. EOD had hit another IED disabling their vehicle and rendering it useless. All personell okay. One section plus Lt. Nuttalls men remained on the original IED site. An American EOD team was called in from KAF and airlifted to their position. The remainder of our section was sent out with 2 other vehicles to pick up the men that were down south as air assets were unavailable. We mounted up at 1300 to get them. Dorner driving, Riley as air sentry, and myself crew commanding. We came across a vulnerable point and dismounted to search it. Riley got his face into the culvert, and found himself staring into a DFFC IED (direct focused fragmentation charge). Well, EOD was already pretty close as their vehicle had blown up about a km away. They didn't have the robot on this one though. EOD was approaching with good ole Capt Hachey (he's everywhere) and in my panoramic view of EODs approach yet another explosion. The recovery vehicle picking up the ANAs vehicle hit yet another IED. Yes, this place is dangerous. All okay, just another vehicle immobilized. So EOD moves into position on our IED and it turns out they only have 20 minutes to deal with it. I got good footage of EOD placing the charge and running like hell toward our vehicle. So the thing goes up, and we move to the site of the vehicle blast. We pick the men up and move them back to their respective PHs.

During the mayhem of the last 24 hours, ole Hawk went down with a severely sprained if not fractured ankle. A victim of the treacherous wadis. We need ya back Hawk...........

He's bound for KAF and x-rays.

I apologize for the way this was written, but it truly is an indication of how fucked up its been here for the last 36 hours. As it stands now, I am going out with Maddin tomorrow to pluck yet another one of these things outta the ground. The next week or so will be busy.......

Whatever it is you're doing back on the homefront please keep it up. It's working and we need all the thoughts and prayers you can send. I still go through my routine prior to patrolling and I still look into my helmet at your picture and tell you I love you............From my heart to yours.........my condolences to the Nuttalls......RIP

Afghan shoe fetish

Busy couple of days ahead of us. Can't really elaborate, but it's gonna be nip and tuck to get the lights up. Speaking of which, our tree is set up and all the decorations are on it. Thanks babe! We have it set up right outside our door. The inside of the room has been transformed into somewhat of a kit explosion. Our walls are lined with weapons and gear, and you can probably find blocks of c-4 in random boxes, and detonators in random bags. I guess our vehicle is no different. The outside of it is loaded with crates of c-4 and the inside is no different. I guess, you could say, we're walking, driving, mobile bombs. We could use some gravel in this end of our AO. The dust hasn't been so bad lately, but whenever you sit on your cot a plume of dust rises out from your legs. A little gravel on the floor would make things a lot better. The whole mice situation has rapidly deteriorated. They don't really come out anymore and I haven't seen one since my threats of an electric chair.
You wouldn't believe me if I told you the kinds of things we're coming across on our searches of compounds and dwellings. Other than the IED components and explosives we have been destroying, the people here pack away some interesting items. In one case, we opened a box containing, I shit you not, a couple of eggshells, a leather sandal, some herbs in a bag, a motorcycle headlight, some syringes, an old plastic radio, a pair of ladies underwear, a pipe, and other miscellaneous items. This is far from uncommon in the places we've searched thus far. It seems these Afghanis have an extremely odd fetish with shoes. There are shoes everywhere in this country. A wide variety of runners, loafers, sandals, and heels. I'm not sure why they hang on to this old, mud encrusted variety of footwear, but i intend to find out. The stockpiles we've been finding have been shoved away in little holes in the wall, and any nook and cranny. I don't get it.
The OP shifts are long and monotonous. Especially the gate OP. I think I can say for everyone, that is by far the worst shift OP in this country. You're pretty much on your own in the middle of the darkness, with the nearest help over 150m away. Nerve racking, and after every shift I get the nastiest headache. The dogs lurk around andthe other night I shot a pen flare at them. There's a built up area just around the corner from where you stand and it seems at any moment someone with ill intent could easily jump around and fire off a shot. It truly sucks, and if theres a fear in anyone out here, it is brought out on that shift. The night vision constantly plays tricks with your eyes and if your not wearing a specifically designated piece of kit, you risk being shot at from our ANA counterparts. The other night someone on that shift got fired at from the ANA because he wasn't wearing his "designated kit." On one hand, they said they were firing at someone they saw in the field. But then, the guy who fired the shots apologized to the guy who was on shift. Hmmmm....sketchy...Gotta do another one tonight, and not looking forward to it. Its me and Dorner back here now. We'll be operating together for the next few days. The rest of the crew is out searching, and patrolling. It should be a pretty relaxed day, and we'll need our rest for this holiday week. Gonna be a busy one......off to talk to the boss......till next time.....out

chimo subterrain

My good friend Yan rolled in this morning to pick Veilleux and I up from our temporary home away from home, and transport us back to our sections. We arranged the pick up via radio last night and Yans accent on the radio is priceless. He sounds like something out of an early Termintor movie and the guys get a kick out of it whenever he's transmitting. Some of the stories he tells are hillarious. You see, Fortin and I have been good buddies since the last roto in this country. We've been on course after course together and have pretty much followed eachothers career for a good 3 years now. You get to know a guy really well over that amount of time, and he hasn't changed a bit. Only this time around he's a section 2IC and he's not putting up with any shit. He's constantly looking out for his guys and if theres an issue he verbally sorts it out no matter what rank you are. I think he's jacked up a Warrant, a Sargeant, and probably a few officers since hes been out here. Priceless. A short fuze, and a stand up guy.
Anyway, didn't really get a chance to catch up with him. He was going on patrol shortly after dropping me off with my guys and had no time. We'll kill some beers in Feb. when we're both in Edmonton. So I get back, and I tell ya its good to be back, and ole Hawk shows me around and exhibits the work they've been up to in my absence. They worked their holes off and the place is looking really good. A lots been done around here in regards to security, and there's a lot more to be done. We finally have power and the Charlie boys made some bunks in our digs so that we have more of an area for activities. Still no power in the room but thats to come. The lantern still does the trick. We had a little help from the heavy equipment guys today, digging a drainage trench for the showers hoisting the water tank onto the top of the shower unit. Still no showers but definitely in the near future. Don't know if they'll be hot but at least there'll be that option.
We're running a little short on man power out here (probably the uinderstatement of the tour) but I cannot really say how short. This lead to us stopping all projects on the go today and getting a little rest for the days to come.
So while we were finding IED's down the road from these guys, they were busy doing a little discovering of their own. Riley and ole Hawk came across one the same day we did, and took care of the business. Word is Riley almost fell right on top of the thing as he made his approach. The on the subsequent day, Fyffe and Dorner went out and found a tunnel, yes a tunnel, leading into a basement of sorts. Yes, the chimos have officially gone into the earth. In one tunnel Dorner found 8 jugs of HME (homemade explosives) all prepped for placement. They bipped that stuff and moved on. In another hole, ole Hawkeye went in first. The hole was so small that in order for them to get down, they hasd to strip off all of their protective gear and equipment. SO Hawk descends into the abyss an d hollers at Dorner that he'll have to join him in the depths. So Dorner begins his descent and the way I tell it I'm sure will not justify the way Dorner tells it, but anyway he gets to the bottom of a 30 ft deep hole and all he sees is Hawk with a 9mm pistol raised in one hand, and a flashlight in the other. Hawk goes "oh shit" and disappears into the darkness 9mm raised. Dorner, unarmed is wondering what the hell is going on in the void, and you'd have to talk to him and ask him what was running through his mind. In the end it was just another room down there, but ole Hawk had to clear it. Some clear and present danger shit there I tell ya. It was a few moments of uncertainty and a bit sketchy at that from what I got from it. Funny as hell when Dorner showed us a scene from a Life Aquatic when Bill Murray rolls into a room with 9mm raised, and says "this is all I saw when I got down there." We laughed our balls off and replayed the scene a few times after that.
The next little while we'll be really busy. Our tour has been all dismounted thus far, and there appears to be no change to that in the near future. Suits me fine, better to be with 2 feet on the ground.
Just getting off Op duty. Back to the tower and gate routine. Feel like shit after the H1N1 vaccine. Apparently 30 people have died from it out here. Not any Canadians, but that virus has flexed itself pretty far I reckon. We all lined up and took it in the arm. Was not really sure I wanted to get it, but I figure if Canucks back home are lining up for it, its probably not a bad idea. Hopefully this nausea will pass in the next few hours.
Like I said, pretty busy here up until Christmas and then who knows. Oh. as an after thought, I'm really pissed off that we're not getting our 2 beers out here. All of the FOBs are getting their 2 beers for Christmas and we're getting, well, water, and Crystal light. Not a good way to run things when we were told if someone doesn't get beer, then noone will get beer. Bullshit.... anyway.. thats my ranting opinion..... Stay safe back home through the holidays, and we'll do the same......Chimo!

the build...

The bridge is complete and the effort we put into it today has payed off. The shitter truck will once again bless us with their Afghani power washers and urinal cakes. Capt. Hachey showed up at 0800 this morning with his driver Rider. It didn't take us long to get goin, although I had to inform Hryniw that I was not his babysitter and to get his ass outta bed. Admittedly, pretty rude wake up call, and I'm sure he cursed my name under his breath. So we got kicked off around 0830, and the MPEV (multi purpose engineer veh) with Falkowski operating, started to excavate the old bridge out of the ground. It didn't take long for that to happen so then it was on to prying out the 12 in. spikes that the french had driven into the deck and treadway. That proved a little more difficult, and it took a little prying and hammering to get the ones we needed to out. See, some of the wood we were required to salvage in order to make the improvements. KAF had sent out what we needed for the deck and treadway, but nothing else. The 6"x 6"'s were a necessity in order to keep the sections of sheet pile ( large steel girders if you will) from shifting when vehicles enetered the bridge. We got em out eventually, and the MPEV went back to work. The existing bridge had only 4 sections of sheet pile, and it required 6. Prior to us fixing this problem, the middle of the span was open down to the water. This led to a vehicle, operating without a ground guide to run its rear wheels right into the hole upon turning into our parking area. We chained up the old bridge to the bucket of the MPEV and it began hauling back. It looked like a draw bridge raising into the air. Hauled the thing right outta there and the bridge was officially stripped down to the sheet pile.
I gotta tell you, that mpev was invaluable in this task. It then picked up the new 2 sections of sheet pile and hauled em over to the task site. We man handled the sections into place, and all that was left was the decking and treadway. Hammered that together pretty quickly. All 6 of us, Capt. Hachey, Falkowski, Rider, Veilleux, Roberts, Hryniw, and yours truly were pounding nails ( concrete nails albeit) into the decking. It was a chorus of hammers pounding nails, and there were times I wish I would have had ear plugs. The thing went together well before we thought it would. We took lunch, and finished off the treadway right after lunch. And again, 6 chimos pounding the crap out of nails. We probably could have been getting shot at and we would not have even known. We finished off at around 1500 and well ahead of the estimated time of completion. I gotta say I am truly impressed by the work we did today and the effort everyone put forth to get the job done.
The building was complete and it was time to clena the site up. Lt. Hughes approaches and says they need a couple of us to check out a possible IED. So me and Hryniw kit up and take a walk down to the site where we had found the 2 yesterday. They had us walking in circles saying it was east of us and we should approach from the west. And then it was south of us and we should approach from the east. Gong show.....Finally someone up top got their shit together and gave an exact grid to where this thing was. We get in the vicinty and Hryniw begins sweeping the area. We had an area of suspicion and he began his drills. Just then, low and behold, out of the distance, EOD rolls up and says "we'll take it from here." Hryniw was so pumped to get his hands on an IED and then EOD shows up and totally KBs his work. Needless to say he was pissed and so was I. Nothing like letting the engineers to their job. So it turns out the area of interest had a cardboard box in it, that may have looked like a couple of cylindrical objects from the air. The grid they had given was right where the box was and I wondered. Sure enough, the cardboard box was what they had thought was an IED. thanks EOD.... I think they took the box with them...hahaha...
We patrolled back to the PH and the frickin guys are constructing a frame now with the leftover wood. During the buiild the infantry Warrant was lurking around trying to snap up some of our excess salvage from the build. We, were in need of a heated little entrance way to our room. Its dog eat dog out here for wood, so the boys snapped up the extras and immediately began constructing the framework for our little hacienda. Roberts ran that project up as his background is construction. They did an excellent job with the little wood we had and I reckon they'll be putting a roof on that baby in the next few days. Finished off the day cutting the underwear right off my backside (story for another time) and throwing them into the fire pit. Got a shower and looks like it may be my last for awhile as I'm heading back to the crew in a few hours from now. I'm very happy to be spending Christmas with the section and look forward to hearing their endeavors over the past 2 weeks.
Thats it for now... Happy Holidays back to Canada.. I can't believe its only a week away... Love you guys... night

early morning light show

The day started off with fireworks. Yesterday, I decided to get rid of some dud paraflares along with a dud 60mm illum mortar. Included in the mix were other parts of ordinance and explosive munitions. I called in a request first thing this morning to get a ROZ (Restricted operating zone) for overhead aircraft. We got the go ahead at about 0945, at which time the TC Capt Hachey showed up along with his driver, Spr Rider. We got the charges good to go, placed them on the ordinance in a pile, and gave the five minutes notice to the CP. It took awhile to get sorted, as there were more than just our BIP (blow in place) going on. I think the CP was spinning pretty good, having to handle more than one situation at once. At any rate, we got a quasi cordon set up, about 50m in each direction around the site. The countdown began. I was a little reluctant to blow illum ordinance within that proximity of our platoon house, but we went for it anyway. Well, the 5 min countdown lapsed and I'll be damned if there weren't paraflares shotting everywhere around us. veilleux said there were Afghani kids in the area, and they were leaping into the wadi ducking for cover. When the fires when out we were all laughing our balls off. We had pointed the flares away from our house so nothing really shot to where we lived, however the things shot everywhere else. Anyway, all was clear and it was an awesome way to start the day.
Got on the horn with Mom and Dad, at about midnight toon town time. Its about the only time that I can get a hold of them. Got their care package first thing this morning with the TCs mail run, read their letter and called them right after. Had a good chat. Good to hear everyone is doin good on that end. Keeping busy during the holidays. Well, no sooner did I get off the phone with them, I was on the road patrolling to a possible IED site. Hryniw really wanted to get his beak wet on this one.....Veilleux is in competition with another sapper.....this led to an argument over who was gonna go. Well, Hryniw had an OP shift coming up in 20 mins... so I went with Veilleux.. Sorry Cody... next time..I promise. We approached the site and saw that a local had marked the spot with a water bottle. We approached safely, and sure enough we had a large metallic hit in the ground. I hadn't realized it was her first time digging an IED up, so we took turns scraping the dirt from the surface in layers. Well, it didn't take long to discover the device. A large crush plate, designed for vehicles. We called it in, and the waiting game began. We decided to have a look around the area, and 15 minutes later, we were digging another one outta the ground. This time, another crush plate designed for dismounts. Got our hands right on the thing, took a few glory shots, and called in an addition to the first one. We didn't have to wait long, as EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) had just finished dealing with another IED about 2km SW from where we were. So they come along, and we get to diddimow, after we point out where the devices are and direct the robot to the IED.
So back to the PH and pretty much straight to OP shift. It was a good shift, being that the IED's we had found were no more than 600m of our front gate. So I got to watch the things being BIPped, and I tell you the anti tank IED went up like a mother. The anti pers, not so bad, if you're in a vehicle, but I tell ya, the crack the anti tank made was loud and angry.
I'm pretty much exhausted now from the days events. At the time we were dealing with these things you don't really feel the pressure, but afterwards, the adreneline crash feels like a nasty hangover. The sketchy thing of it is, you don't know what you're sticking your bayonet into, until you hear the clink of metal on metal. A little nerve racking, but the juice is worth the squeeze so to speak.
All in all a really good day for the troops in this AO. Multiple IEDs found and destroyed... weapons caches found and exploited..... 2 detainees arrested placing explosives into the ground....and one hell of a fireworks show first thing this morning..... can't wait for a holiday.....
Tomorrow the bridge gets rebuilt. The supplies are here and it should be a good days work. If I had my way, I'd name the bridge Chandra's Crossing.... for you babe.... but I don't have my way, so maybe I'll secretly make a sign and hide it around the crossing....Then a couple days from now, I reunite with the Charlie crew, and smack some sense into those biatches....jk....Can't wait to see your ugly mugs again.......out from here... peace

the mist has cleared

The construction of the electric chair has been put on hold due to lack of supplies, ie. small elastic bands to strap them in, and super glue to hold the chair together. For now, we'll continue to feed them to the cats. We are beginning to have quite the furry family here at *******. "Gary" is the kingpin, whilst Mr. Pickles is a close runner up. There is a mother somewhere and she keeps herself hidden fairly well. She gave birth to a litter only a couple of weeks ago, and her spawn have an uncanny resemblance to Gary. The little ones cower away from us, as they have just started coming out of there little hole in the wall. I'm sure eventually they'll become part of the hunting party. Now I just need to find an animal that consumes spiders. I caught one of them climbing around my hair earlier today and who knows how many have climbed into my mouth while sleeping. At least the scorpions have begun to slow down. The cold weather affects their movement, yet we're still finding them lurking around this place. The little translucent ones are the type I don't particularily want stinging me. For that matter, I don't want any scorpions stinging me.
The last couple of days has been relatively slow. A lot of routine duties around here, and no wood to work on projects that have been on hold. As it turns out, the supply desperately needed for the bridge will be here in a few days. This made my day. It'll give us chimos something to do and the reward will be a fully functioning bridge in which noone will have to groound guide anyone across anymore. The shitter truck will be able to come back in, and we won't have to worry about vehicles falling through the gaping hole. I reckon I'll be back with the section in about a week. I'm loooking forward to spending Christmas with those guys, and of course the New Years festivities. I think Dorner has a plan to make a flaming ball on a pole to simulate the one in Times Square. I can't remember the plan, but if its Dorner I'm sure it'll be epic.
Just got off an OP shift with Hryniw. The night has finally cleared up and there is no mist in sight. The last few nights have been zero visibilty and a lot of strange noises coming out of the darkness. One in particular resembles an old lady in severe distress. The animal that creates this shrieking is a large cat, one that I've seen on my previous tour. They are the size of a grown man, and I woould not want one of em sneakin up on me. We tried to locate it tonight, being the sound came from only about 100m way. It seems to know not to look into the spotlight as we did not see it eyes when we scanned. There were some shots fired in a town a little ways away. Some of the boys were busy picking someone up. Then as I'm chit chatting with Hryniw, I see tracer fire come outta the OP down the road. At this point I'm wondering what the hell is going on. I call that OP and they seem to think that they saw muzzle blast coming fvrom our direction. Clearly right out of er. I never did end up finding out what, if anything that they wre shooting at. Probably some MP (military police) falling asleep with his finger on the trigger. Dreaming of making the big collar (in his case a shoplifter) and twitching the trigger.
There areso many pops and explosions arouond here that I've kinda gotten used to them. Every day something out there explodes, or a gunshot, or multiple gunshots is heard. I guess thats this country for ya. Anyway... off to make a call... and then some sleep... Boss is coming tomorrow....out...peace

The new enemy......

The death toll is mounting here and there is no end in sight. A new type of enemy has shown its face in these parts, and they seem to be sprouting up from everywhere. We've taken all measures within our power to stop the constant onslaught, but they fight in droves, and they fight with a courage that I have not seen on my previous tour, and till thus far.
Roberts has 17 confirmed kills, Veilleux has 7, and Hryniw has only one. I have yet to positively kill the enemy, however I have kicked him when hes down. Stink finished the job. I'm not sure how the sections making out, but its deadly busy in this AOR.
The cold hasn't seemed to inhibit their movement, and they seem to appear out of nowhere...Holes in the groud, sprouting from walls, and only during the hours of 0000-0500. During the day you will never see the enemys face. They disgust me, but I cannot find it in my heart to destroy a living being. When the time comes I will do what I have to do.
The threat is damning. They strike with precision, and they know, in one way or another when our forces are most vulnerable. The holiday season has seemed to spark a fire that water cannot put out. We have run out of options. Its do or die here, and the supply chain has abandoned us. We ask for new weapons to destroy the enemy, we ask for options. Task force has turned its face to its battle group and I fear soon we will be overrun. The limited supplys and weaponry we're using is rusty, loosely held together, and insome cases is held together by string, gun tape, or other such fasteners. We are using weaponry from as far as I can remeber.. Relics of sorts...
Our main concern is an obvious one. The food supply is what we aim to protect. Resupply is making it to our lines, however the enemy has gripped us with a fear of germs and disease. No warehouse, storage facility, bunker, is protected by the incessant, putrid disease these insurgents bring to the table. I am lost, and I have reached my breaking point.
I have commissioned the building of an electric chair with spare wood and batteries in our platoon house . The only lesson, if any lesson these vermin will learn is one that will be taught with an iron fist. The build begins tomorrow, and if we catch the enemy alive we are gonna strap him in, and fry brains. We have felines that we feed the enemy to if the body count is too high. They have been getting fat. I regret that it has come to this, but frankly I am tired of opening bags of peanuts with holes in the bottoms. I am tired of the constant gnawing of cardboard and pplastic during the nighttime hours. I have lost my patience with these mice and my breaking point is upon me. What else might you think I was blogging about here?

Wadi crossing

Thank you for those who have sent me mail and packages, and as well for those who are keeping us guys in your prayers and in your thoughts. I have nothing to give in return, however I hope this blog will shed a little light on whats been going on here.
I'm literally drained of everything right about now. We have just coompleted 2 operations in 3 days.... one that yielded semtex (high explosives), russian mines, detonators, and some tnt. The other Op which we got back from a couple of hours ago, not so much, just a few IED stri8kes with noone hurt except vehicles. I'll start with the first one we did 3 days ago. Forgive me, I cannot use locations or names of such Ops, but I'll do my best to paint the picture. We rolled into a position 3 days ago just north of a small town. It was a combined effort of both the ANA and us. Our objective was to search the entire town, looking for either insurgents or explosives. We moved through the village very quickly and the locals were cooperative. Numerous vehicle searches were conducted and persons of interest were detained. We finsihed our compounds early, and had pushed into one of the other platoons area. We got told to push back, and sure enough, the compound we were in yielded the explosives. We took care of the stuff explosively and ended up waiting for the platoon to finish their searches. It took about 3 hours. Duringthe 3 hour break, the ANA began pumping their music. The particular song in question was Afghani but had underlyings of Irish jig. Well, the boys got one of the section to go and dance in front of all these ANA.. He got out there and I tell ya, the frenzy that ensued I have never seen anything like. One ANA was in the back of the Ford Ranger on the machine gun, and he went berzerk.... Like a monkey in a cage.... Their commander was shaking his ration bag like a meraka(sp.) and then the wholebunch of them started dancing around. We were killin ourselves laughing at the scene. They were waving their arms and just groovin, meanwhile our troop was doin the party boy dance. Well, we got it on tape and it could very well be the video of this tour. Priceless. Yesterday was spent preparing for the Op that went down today. Pretty basic job that we had to do. A couple of block positions just East of a small area in order to prevent anyone form leaving before A coy could search them. We were supporting A Coy in this one. We were to search all vehicles and pers leaving or coming into town.
We departed at 0430 this morning to get to a position abbout 4 km away. Not bad if you're walking down a street, but hell when you're navigating through grapefields and Wadis. We were running behind our timing and we were caught between a Wadi and our objective. There was no way across that we could see, so Lt. Hughes, the platoon cmdr, decides we're gonna jump it. He throws unnamed soldiers bag across the gap and watches as it slides toward the water line. There are weeds everywhere and the water is high. Well, he goes over first and lands flat on his face on the far bank. I decided to go next and chucked my bag across. I go to jump, and I might as well have hit a wall. The weight of my plates and gear pulled me down. I got my chest on the far side, but my legs didn't make it.... I was soaked. The rest of the guys made it, bag after bag, rifle after rifle. We continued on to the objectice where I would freeze all day long. The wind was howling and the sky would not open up. There was blue sky to the East of us and blue sky to the West. But overhead it was a grey jet stream as far as the eye could see. My feet were frozen cock stiff, and the rest of me was slowly warming up. On A Companys advance to the town the badger (Engineer vehicle) struck an IED. I think it was Anderson but I'm not sure. There were some curses over the net explaining what had just occurred. The plow blade blew right off but everyone was okay. Then about 30 minutes later a second blast. This time the tank with the mine roller hit an anti-tank mine. Blew off one of the rollers and the whole operation was put on stand still. An hour after that the 3rd and final bomb of the day. The responders to the incidents hit an IED on their approach to the blast scenes. 3 strikes and everyone okay. Thats all we could hope for. As far as the vehicles, the badger is fucked, the tank with he rollers is good to go, and the status of the third tank i8s unknown. The sun peeked out about 1230, and things were looking up. My feet were finally thawing and we had a good position in between grape rows. We searched for the most part motor bikes all day long. Sometimes I would gun shot residue (GSR) their hands to see if they had been making bombs. On one occasion I sprayed the sheet 3 times with 3 different sprays. On the 3rd one (different sprays for different explosives) I shot the guy a look that insinuated guilt. He loooked scared shitless, and then I told bhim I was just kiddin and laughed at him, and then with him. Probably not a good joke to play on these people but he toook it pretty well.
A few searches later, a tractor came putterin by with a load full of crop that they had been reeping all day. We had searched them early in the morning and now they were coming back. I told the guys they'd have to unload all of their crop so I could see the bottom of the flatbed. This stuff was piled 20 feet high! The terp told them this, and the guys face went white. He says" I assure you theres nothing in there but my crop I ve been working on it all day." I told the terp to tell him I didnt care and I wanted it off the truck........ then I said to tell the man to follow up with a just kiddin. I think the terp had thought Iwas serious too. The locals had a good chuckle at that one too.. In hindsight I probably shouldn't be joking around like that... messing with their daily routine. They all take it pretty well though, and they're all really friendly and hard working... most of the time.
A coy had finished up in the village, and we were ready to go back to our platoon house. We left our position at 1730, just when it was getting dark. We had to cross the same damn Wadi. This time I was last to go over. So the rucksacks went, then the rifles, then the guy. 5 guys wen tinto that Wadi... waist deep soaken wet. They were thrwoing their rucks and it was getting tangled in their kit... they'd follow the ruck right into the water. At least we were going back being that we thougth we mmight have to spend the night in our position. I got over this time no problem. We were navigating over some crazy crossings... teh wood the locals would use to get over their streams would not hold the weight of any one of us. Bridges were breaking and we were back to throwing our kit over and jumping over yet again. It was a bag drive. I was soaked when I got back....sweated through all my layers.... One of our chimos went down with heat exhaustion, another ppcli sprained his ankle. We were wiped and got welcomed bakc with a hot bowl of chili..... I had a shower, made sure my guy was alright......everyone is good and racked out , which is exactly where I am going... I love you guys and I love you Chandra! goodnight....till then

electrifying showers

It's Friday night and the weekend ahead looks about the same as last weekend and the one before. I miss the Friday nights at home having some friends over and playing cards. Going to Costco on either Fri. night after work, or Thurs night to pick up the chicken wings. Chandra and I put them on the bbq on Fri. night and I gotta tell you they are delicious. We usually would play a couple of games. Our friend Terry would quite often lose his shit, more or less whenever his wife took his chips. James is out here right now, although I haven't seen him since our last poker game in our apartment. We really don't get much of any news from the other Companys out here, let alone our own Troops scattered across our AO. The TC has been really good coming around and filling us in on whats been goin on. Capt Hachey brings us the mail, and other things that we have requested. He is the Troop Commander, acting Tp Warrant, and he's been known to pitch in whenever he can. Excellent leader, and one who stands up for his guys. yeah yeah Stink, eat it up.... i can see you calling me a lick from here. Anyway, day 2 of my 14 day hiatus away from the guys at my home platoon house. Fortin stopped by today and it seems that he and the Warrant where he's working at are butting heads. We'll see how that pans out. I've worked for that platoon before and they're a complete shit show....Thankfully our section is with 42 and with lucki it'll remain that way throughout the tour.
Theres a few things that need to get done around here. The bridge that spans the Wadi in which we have to drive over in order to enter this platoon house is workable but damaged severly. Someone drove over the thing and completely missed the treadway, resulting in the support structure of said treadway cracking in two. We're workingon getting the materials to fix it, but it looks as though it may be a few days. As a result of this, I am back to shitting in plastic bags yet again because the shitter trucks wheel base is too narrow to straddle the treadway. No big deal. A few other small projects around here will be on hold, cause it looks like we'll be busy doing 'other things" in the upcoming days.
The shower situation in this place is a step up from where I've been thus far. There are only 2 problems that I have seen with the system. First, the water used to shower is held in reservoirs above the shower unit. The water used to fill these tanks is pumped in from a water buffalo on ground level. This water is heated by the buffalo itself. the water usually originates from a water truck. But on the days that the water levels are getting too low, then the water is obtained from a well outside our little mud hut. The 3 tanks we use are 500 gl each. And the jerry cans we use to fill them are 5gl each. Thats a lot of hand pumpin. We finished filling 2 and then the watr truck arrived..... ouch... The next problem I have discovered from word of mouth and then by experience, is the water in the unit above the shower holds a current. This is due to the fact that there is a small water heater in that tank constantly provided heat to the water in there. Well, the guys had told me about this, and I thought, well how bad could it be. I jumped into the shower looking forward to my first warm shower since KAF. I adjusted the shower head with my hand and felt the electricity in the head. It wasn' too bad, so I continued on. Well, once that water got on my skin I had to adjust the shower head to rinse. Well, if my hand could chew alluminum foil thats how it felt all the way up to my wrist. I used the shampoo botlle from then on. Oh yeah, and I still haven't had a warm shower. I'm done caring about the warmth of the water. I think my average shower length is 45 seconds of water flow. The rest of the time lathering. well, like I said, activities will be occuring in the next few days, and good ole Hawk is making his way over here for the show. He's bringing one of our guys, then 2 are heading back to our old digs. We'll be spread thin but I think it may work. As long as the ANA show up that is.
Doing Op shifts here as well now. They aren't as bad, only 2 hours.... getting really chilly at night here. The mud houses we live in keeps the air cool during the day, and somewhat warm in the night. We're still working on a solution to make it a little more cozy. So as of now I am with Roberts, Veilleux, and Hryniw(pronounced Herandyou). Gotta go and sort some scheduling issues that have just come off....... Chandra, I miss you like crazy, I want your poker chips.........night

cell phones on patrol

If the last 3 hours is any indication of how fast the next 3 months goes by then I am feeling pretty damn good about things. I just got off OP shift from 0300-0600, and have completed packing my things for the move out of here. I'm headed 4km east to another patrol base to fill in for my good friend Fortin, who is going on vacation fairly soon.
Like I said, the shift flew by and nothing of interest really happened. We move from OP to OP in order to quell the boredom that OP shift induces. Can't really give a schedule but I can tell you the stints in each one go by fast. We are currently manning 3 positions while the ANA man 1 position. Which, it turns out is right beside one of ours. They won't take the gate because that might just make sense. At any rate, found myself on the gate tonight a couple of times. Pretty quiet morning until about 0520 when the first of the loud speakers went off with the sounds of Muslim prayer....and then the roosters began their song, and the dogs, well, they pretty much sing all night. The next speaker goes off about 20 minutes later and their prayers echo off the walls so it sounds like 2 different people are reciting the same prayer all over the area. Sometimes over the sound of our generator you can hear the prayers from miles away. I woke up the other day to the beginning of Ede(sp.) The 3 day holiday that marks the end of Ramadon(sp.) The guy was talking for an hour about who knows what... probably scripture from the Koran...
Anyway, the moon was full last night and the sky was pocked with clouds coming from the Southeast, assuming the Indian ocean. It started raining for a second and I think I looked up and cursed. It moved overhead pretty quickly and I managed to stay dry.
Yesterday was spent relaxing adn reading. I finished the book "Terror" by Dan Simmons and am moving on to Hilliers book. Ole Hawk finished it in 3 days and said it was a good read. Dorner and Riley were both out on patrol and once again came back with some good stories. Good old Sgt. Fought was the patrol commander of this one. He's got well over 20 years in the army, chews tobacco and swallows, and gets the chimos to check out everything. A real good Sgt. and the guys all like him. Well, the ANA accompanied the guys on this patrol, thus WO Grady came along as well acting the mediator/mentor/keep the ANA in check guy. Well, at one point the guys said that Grady had the guys set up an all around defence. They all wondered why until he asked Sgt. Fought if he had any tiolet paper. So off he goes and 20 minutes later comes back. Well, the ANA from about 20 minutes in got "tired" and had to sit down. They just sat there, relaxed and waited for "Allahs will" to push them forward. Come on.........Then their cell phones started to ring. They'd just pick up the phone and continue marching on. After the 3rd call from the 3rd different phone Grady snapped and jacked up the ANAs patrol commander, asking him if he knew what a recce patrol was. There were no more calls after that. In the secong leg of the patrol Sgt. Fought decided to go into a compound and search it. Well, the ANA commander asked why he was going all over the place motioning with his finger to exemplify the question. Well, needless to say there was animosity with these guys and the ANA decided to walk a differnet way and desert the patrol. Not to sure about that.... I'll leave it at that. The next event that unfolded was one involving the dog handler Marlin. He speakes english but at times it sounds like hes mumbling. A stray dog came charging toward Sami (the dog) and Marlin began hollering at Dorner. He didn't know what the hell he was saying so he just stood there. Apparently he was telling Dorner to shoot the dog to which Dorner replied "you have a gun why don't you shoot it?" I guess the handler had a stoppage on his weapon and was yelling this to Dorner. Anyway, the dog buggered off and lived to see another day.

Rediger is back to Canada in a few days and he's jumping on our convoy to take me to the patrol base. He's definitely the construction guru around here and its right about when we're getting all the lumber to complete projects that haven't been able to be completed. I'm gone for 2 weeks, so that leaves the section with 6. Maddin comes back today from his little stint out east. The section will be kept busy with the 2 of us away..... looking forward to Reds return as this will mean its 3 weeks close to my vacation. Anyway, better sum it up, leaving in a short time..... all is well....... out

2 amigos do the salute

Got up yesterday running about 20 minutes behind. The guys on CP shift were to wake us a 0600 but failed to do so. Needless to say we were running around getting our kit prepped for the days task. It didn't stop us from sitting around the fire warming up. We burn pallets that come on our resupplies as the local wood here seems to store water from March, being that it was the last time it rained here. Well, we didn't fell like sledgehammering the pallets so we threw the whole thing on top of our make shift fire pit. The insides of the pallet burned away quickly and we were left with the supports of the pallet burning away on the outside of the pit. What do we do? Well, we stand the thing upright. Its burning that way for a few minutes and then it falls right into Leblancs lap. Well, he looked like someone who encounters another person in the mall lets say, and they both are averting eachother in the same direction simultaneously. The things on fire and in his face so he pushes back and flies out of his chair backwards. It all happened pretty quick and we laughed our asses off.
Then it was on to the task. We had to clear a route of any IED threats, 1.5km one way and then back. Well, we started on the outside of the route and it was 1.5km of grape rows after grape rows. A team on each side and walls in some places 8ft high acting as a boundary between each team. The whole road was walled which led to one team getting further ahead than the other. It was slow going, and tiresome. We found about 600m in a combat indicator (can't explain) and another one on our side. The two lined up perfectly on either side of the road. Well, we marked it and carried on. We got to the end of the route with no finds. We were being watched up until a click away. We finally got to the end which was 3 intersecting roads with a small service station on the corner. He was happy to tell us that the Taliban had been hiding IEDs around his store and he kept cutting the wires coming off htem. Well, we took about half hour there so we vcould speak with some of the locals. Then it was time to head back. This time on the road. It was gruelling and long. Myself and Blencowe had rear security and after a short bit a small traffic jam was forming in behind our clearance patrol. They wanted to pass, but no go there. We told them they had to wait til we were done. So we're singing old tracks substituting lyrics for Taliban and IED lyrics. Kickin our legs out bringing the old air guitar out from time to time. Doin the 3 amigos salute as well. Pretty solid security detail I reckon. The locals probably thought we were whacked. Anyway, we get to the site where we marked earlier, and sure enough theres 5 holes in the ground about 20m apart with little holes leading off them into the walls. It looks like Timmy Taliban had dug the bombs outta the road prior to us getting there. Good timing for us. So the patrol went well, we all got back safe, and after walking 3km in 7 hours we were pretty much done for the day.
Well, gonna go win some cash off the Delta boys. Its poker night and these guys are Dead Money.... hahaha....