who's counting

After 5 days outside of our humble dwellings, 2 brushes with extreme danger, 500 sand flea bites, 2 close encounters with scorpions, and multiple days of flourescent urine streams, I am back and not so fresh.

We left 5 days ago on the 15th of the month to conduct "section house" taskings WNW of our current position. Essentially, we squat in a compound in a village for any number of days and conduct patrols out of it. We were driven to a suitable position in the middle of Panjwaii and dropped off with 3 days supply of water and rations. (resupply would come on the 3rd day) My rucksack was unbelievably heavy. I had inadvertantly packed 36 litres of water and rations as well as my kit required for the job. You see, Fink had told me to pack 36 waters when I had already packed 24 litres. What I had failed to understrand was that he meant to pack 18 litres and not 36 litres. When he told me to take more water I asked Are you sure man? thats gonna be heavy", he goes, "ohhh its not that bad" Yeah I guess it wouldn't have been if I had packed 36 bottles instead of 72, (500ml bottles). So we hump our kit into the house after myself and Riley had cleared it and got settled. We were put to work within an hour of our arrival. Someone had found an IED in their field and we were the only friendlys in the area. We stepped off and came to a grape hut with the ANA surrounding it. The 4** crew set up their security and we moved in to take a closer look. Cleared up to the suspect device and took our time ensuring it was safe to do so. Dug into the dirt after locating the bomb and uncovered a 5gl plastic container full of frag and a 105mm shell full of crap as well. We took care of the situation and pushed back to the house. The bugs would begin their assault on yours truly.

Most of us failed to bring our bug nets, thinking the critters wouldn't be too bad. We were wrong, so..... very...... wrong. The first night I fell asleep with only my lower half in the sleeping bag. The heat was so uncomfortable, one would literally perspire lying down at 10 pm. It wasn't until around midnight when the temp became a little more tolerable. Well, I woke up covered in bites from head to toe. I was already messed up but now it looked as though I had the measles. For some reason the sand fleas liked the taste of my skin better than anyone elses. At any rate, I was itchy as hell and very uncomfortable.

The next day the ANA showed up once again. Their commander opted for the blue sweater look and the smoke the hashish all day routine. He was highhhhhhhh! We stepped off and began checking things out in the village. It wasn't long before a civilian approached and let us know that the Taliban had ran off when we arrived and had dropped a bag of goodies for us in a field. We patrolled to the location and discovered a burlap sack full of IED components. The ANA was pretty stoked as well as our section and we returned the the house. Another presence patrol would be conducted simultaneously with ours without engineer support. It was somewhat of a meet and greet with the villagers. It would turn out to be a very lucky patrol.

Day 3
We stepped off early in the morning and were drenched within 10 minutes of departure. We pushed north, Morrison at point, Riley and I 3 men back. The ANA led the patrol through grape rows and difficult terrain. They could move a lot easier because of their lighter loads and freedom of fashion. We proceeded south down a walkable route, progressing into the town center. I stopped after passing back a large gap in the wall and turned around. Months out here has given me somewhat of a spidy sense of my surroundings and I checked out the gap a little closer. I dug into the earth and located a command wire running away from the gap and into a field. Everyone was pushed back, and I began searching further for the charge. Turned out to be a 105mm casing right under the path that about 10 ANA soldiers, 3 Canadians and yours truly had just walked on top. Our EOD buddies were called up and exploited the scene further.
It wasn't long after that when our patrol stepped off to another possible IED location. We approached from the south and moved toward the town mosque. The ANA commander pointed into a field off to our west and began throwing rocks at a suspect IED. Riley began approaching and I looked off to my right at a wadi running north to south. I pulled out my detector and swept the side of the wadi. Immediately the thing began to beep and I knew there was somehting big under the dirt and scrub. I brushed off the top layer and saw 2 large pvc pipes, 12" long and 12 " in diameter, chalked full of explosives oriented in a wayt to blast at our approaching patrol. Riley finished the excavation and found the battery, receiver and the antennae all hooked up and ready to go. I'm not sure why we are alive, but am very relieved that the thing didn't go off. This would have killed everyone in the vicinity. The ANA were running around taking pictures of the thing and didn't fully understand the danger they were facing. We pushed back and waited for EOD to make their way to us.
The day finally came to an end and I tell ya the sun never looked so good coming through the clouds.
Again, night falls and the bugs come out. The heat is unbearable in our light sleeping gear, so I opted for the fully clothed, cap over the face posture until my OP shift. They still got me. At one point my proximity sense went off. I turned to my side in the middle of the night, flicked on my headlight and there was a scorpion, the size of a small chicken egg chomping its claws and scurrying for my face. I was up in a flash trying to catch the damn thing. It crawled under my air mattress and dug in. I finally jammed him into a container and took him over to the critter killing floor. We had quite the collection by the end of it all. The ants would eventually come and carry the critters away.

Day 4
A slower day as we pushed east to a more open area of the towns exterior. We checked out various compounds, our ANA counterparts doing the same. Pretty uneventful for a change and one of the shorter days. We spent most of the time in poppy fields, pushing through different objectives and providing security for the ANA. They would do the same for us. The weather began to somewhat cooperate and the temperature was a lot cooler. We hoped this would keep up for the night ahead. It did and I had one of my better sleeps of the 5 day stint.

Day 5
Time to get out of there. Well, that was the original plan. We were suppose to leave at 0800, back to the PH but stopeed short when word came around another IED was emplaced and ready to go. Shit......A local had informed our call sign the night before that there was something suspicious on one of the routes we had frequented in the last few days. He was asked to provide more information on the device nad he insisted he would meet us in the vicinity the next morning. This set off alarm bells in my head. Well, at 1000 we stepped off, monitoring our local helpers progress toward our position. We met up with him under a tree well outside the towns core and he gave us more information on the device. He told us where to go and what to look for. Riley, Sankowski and myself pushed off toward the direction of the IED. We were looking for a black string running through a field toward a grape hut. The grass was 3 ft high so I told the guys to high step it thorugh the field so as to not set off the device. Something was lost and long gone through the translation. We finished the sweep and found nothing. It was getting hot by the second and I decided to approach the possible location. Riley would look at the walls and I would look at the road. The informant said it was right inbetween the two of us, yet we found nothing. It wasn't until we turned around and began clearing toward our rear elements that Riley found the "black string" coming out of the wall... It turns out it wasn't a black string at all and instead was a battery, a recevier, an antennae, as well as 2 DFCs oriented down each way fo the road I was standing on. DFC ( Directional Fragmentation Charge) This task had scared me to begin and now I was shitting my pants. We got out of there right quick and gave our friends EOD another call. At the time they were tied up with another IED that ole Hawk had found in the vicinty of our PH. We spent all day waiting for the team to get to our location. They would end up never showing up. The American EOD team showed up at the end of the day and took care of our business. It was theri first call in theater, and they were amped up. Guns up, all hurt locker style. They were pretty switched on and by that time we were switched right off.
The device was handled and we would finally return to our platoon.

The guys had a hell of a week while we were gone. Well, the two guys. Red is back in KAF for a rest and Blencowe remains there for more testing on his noggin. So that left ole Hawk and Dorner leading the charge on this end. We had good int. that there were weapons caches in our AO. Well, the int was bang on. The guys ended up unearthing an arsenal of weapons, ordnance, 2 suicide vests, mortars, baseplate, optics, radios, IED components..... you name it..... 6 weapons caches in a field striking a huge blow to the insurgents at the start of their fighting season...... D Coy is getting the job done out here, there is now no doubt about it. Our platoon alone has found and taken care of 76 IEDs since the start of tour out of D Coys 120 plus finds.........

1 month left.........but who's counting

The bird keeps coming back and paying me a visit..... xoxo