one more patrol.......

One patrol left before I can get outta here. Needless to say I am very excited at going home for a few days and then off to Cuba with my beautiful girlfriend. Things around here have definitely changed for the better. The locals are interacting with us more and more and our efforts seem to be paying off. A fine example of this is a couple of days ago our patrol stepped off for a routine trip down a familiar route. We knew something was suspicious about this particular route, as we had been informed a couple of times of the threat that awaited us. We had looked and searched this route previously and had found nothing. However this day would prove different. We approached from the north and made our way down a long and winding foot path, flanked by two walls, with a wadi running down the middle. On the westren side of the trail, there lies a goat path that skirts the foot path. We made our way down cautiously, stopping to investigate combat indicators and moving on when nothing was found. Myself and Rediger had the pleasure of this little patrol. We were a small team of 6 as our primary objective was to locate and exploit this potential IED threat. The platoon commander, Capt O'neil, Laforce, Johnson, *******, and the 2 chimos made our way to a turn in the path. Laforce, being point stopped and advised us he observed a small flag sticking out of the ground. Red and I pushed up. We began our search of the area to find nothing on =this side of the wadi. I jumped across and got into the prone position with metal detector in fornt, leopard crawling while sweeping up to the flag. At this point the small crew of us adopted an all aorund defence in the outlying fields. This is when the locals began to pipe up, letting us know to stay clear of the area we were exploiting. Sure enouogh, when the head of my detector hit the ground beneath the flag a large chime went off. I let Red know "I got it" and began uncovering a large cylinder. Inch by inch of dirt I began to realize how big this thing was. I had the thing totally exposed, well, I guess the top part of it, and it measured 3 ' long and almost a foot in diameter. I wanted to confirm it a little more, all the while thinking I am not gonna die before going on vacation. I exposed the end of it, and then exposed the other end. There was det cord coming off the back side of it, and the tube was oriented in a way that would have forced the blast and shrapnel right into the point man of any patrol passing by. I had enough and informed the platoon commander we had an "Directional focused IED" on our hands. EOD was called and moved in dismounted a short while after. They made their way down and had sufficient security so we got to go back to our PH.
Meanwhile in T********, the interpreters were carving up a sheep they had purchased for our dinner that evening. Hamilton seemed to have a great interest in the things head, and could be seen posing for pictures as he walked it around by the hair. No, I don't think he's going crazy. We sat around and waited for the EOD team to get back to our location. Turned out it was what I had first assessed. A DFC IED hooked up and ready to go. It was activated by pull and what seperated me from going up was a clothes pin with a small piece of plastic acting as an insulator. Good thing I didn't look any further for wires coming off it. They ended up detonating the device and found evidence of fragmentation enhancers in the post blast ie., spark plug pieces, bolts, nails, etc. One thing we learned is that the locals do in fact want to help and this was made apparent by their warnings. Like I said, one more patrol and then vacation............ I need it.
Ole Hawk should be getting back in a few days, while Maddin is probably singing Japanese Karaoke as I write. Dorner is in Mexico eating Enchiladas and drowning in Corona.
As a side note, we've been playing poker every night and I now have won 4 games in a row. I let the guys know I would buy a box of cigars with the earnings, so they haven't taken it that bad. At one time I was down to 10 bux, now I have 250$$ Chaching biatch......
I gave away a golf club today to my favorite Afghan kid. He calls himself John Goose mainly because he had learned it from the guys out patrolling. He was pretty stoked when I gave him a 5 iron. A future Malik I reckon. I also smoked a van that was driving along the route that runs across our frontage. It bounced first so no damage. I reckon it would have been a hole in one on a 150yd par three. Played my slice decisively........ Anyway, off to bed, gotta go walkin sometime soon....... out