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