slippery trails.......

Its been raining for the last 2 days here, off and on throughout the day and night. It starts as abruptly as it stops, and it hasn't rained for more than 20 minutes solid. Yesterday was a "maintenance day" and a well needed one at that. A few days earlier an Operation S***! commenced which saw the complete clearance of the town just to our West. It was the first time we had cleared it, as the battle group prior hadn't searched an inch, and no other Coy had attempted the clearance.
We had kicked off bright and early on the 3rd and made our way down to the entrance of the town, deliberately clearing every compound along the way. We didn't find much in the outlying compounds, but when we entered the town proper I figured it would be a long couple of days. The guys had found a grenade in the first compound they searched, and this was followed by an RPG in the second. The day was only 1 hour in. We continued to push into the center of town, compound after compound which yielded no other finds. It was labour intensive for everyone, especially the chimos. We were broken into two 3 man dets and Red was in command of the other det. We would search everything, including the "yards" and all that came up was empty holes, freshly dug. It seemed as though someone may have let their brother know we were coming, and their brother had let their friend know, and his friend had let his brother know, and well, you get the picture. There was nothing to be found in any compounds after the first day. Everything had been moved and all that was left were traces of det cord, and other bomb making materials. At 1700 we ceased searching for the day and took up camp inside an old schoolhouse long since abandoned. The teacher of this particular schoolhouse had been executed by the Taliban a few months prior to our arrival and the insurgents had been using his house as a shelter. Well, on this day we took up shelter in it and the guys got a chance to catch up with their sister platoons and our guys got a chance to caqtch up with the engineers from Delta section. Everyone was asleep by 1830. We woke up at around 0700 and began our clearance OP for the second day. Again, we searched everything and more empty holes. Somebody had known that we were coming. We broke into two teams on day 2 to speed up the process. I think by this point the higher ups figured what we were all thinking. There would be nothing to find on this OP in this town. We pushed it until noon, when all the compounds had been cleared and deemed free from weapons/bomb caches. The job was done and we made our way back to the PH. The rest of the day was spent unwinding and cleaning our kit.
As previously stated, yesterday was spent milling around and getting our kit ready for another onslaught of patrols. Red nad I ensured we had all of our serialized kit and the rest of the crew took the gator out front and chainsawed a huge tree down. It had been blocking our view since we got here and the Platoon Commander gave us the nod on the chop. The locals scooped that wood up faster than they were cutting it down.
Today, we were back on patrol. Bergeron and I went out this afternoon with Capt. Oneil and the Alpha boys. Browny took us down a route where a suspected RCIED was emplaced and our job was to clear the route. IEDs are bad, but remote control IEDs are flat out shitty. Especially when you have no idea where the receiver is, or the bomb for that matter. We took it slow and checked every orifice on that route. We didn't find it, so either the enemy had moved it or it had never been there. Along the way the rain had picked up yet again. This made walking on the paths borderline impossible. We were all sliding everywhere and wiping out on every incline. At one point I couldn't stand up without sliding toward a wadi. Johnson came to my aid and hung on to a wall and extended his arm. A 4 hour patrol turned out feeling like an 8 hour one, simply due to the stress on our bodies trying to keep balance. If we would have came under contact, or for some reason had to run anywhere, it would have been bad. Anyway, we all made it back and the patrol was successful. Tomorrow is a new day, and if the rain doesn't stop it should be another slick one.....
As a side note.... I've found strength when I needed it and comfort when I asked for it....... Keep us surrounded by your prayers... Thank you.....