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