new guy retires early

After a brief 11 day excursion down the road I am now back with the good ole boys. My good friend Chuck Baird and his crew replaced us on the 3rd and I spent the better part of an afternoon briefing him on what to expect and what to look for over the next few days. They've spent the majority of their tour conducting mounted operations all over the countryside while we have been pounding soil since day one. They were a touch nervous but who can really blame them.. I did the best I could with the time alotted to take him through our sop's (standard operating procedures) and how we've been adapting throughout this tours entirety. All the while trying to minimize redundancy.

They certainky hit the ground running. This morning I woke up to hear "BIP in 5" as their platooon had set out at 0430 to conduct clearances of multiple grid squares. The next few hours would yield another 3 explosions, all within their box of operations. Not sure as to what they've been finding, but if it BIPs I reckon it was explosive in nature.

So I got back to the PH last night to finally see the whole crew of E##$ back together again. This has not happened since we all first arrived in theater back in October. Every one of the guys is doing fine. Blencowe is back with some hearing loss and strutting around in suspenders of all things. Rediger remains the same quiet and reserved individual, (still waiting for him to explode)Upon rereading this explode is not the appropriate term... sorry Red. Bergeron suffered from heat stroke yesterday, due to the 50 degree heat and a full day of clearance operations. He's good to go today. Maddin and Dorner are currently in no mans land conducting search operations within our AO for 36 hours. Riley is still hard chargin and good to go as he was the first day... Last but not least, ole Hawk is racked out in his cot next to me right now, I reckon to escape the heat through unconsciousness. Props to Sgt. Fyffe and the boys while I've been gone. Yesterday they found the elusive 82mm recoilless rifle that we've been looking for since late Oct. It was buried in the ground within the little town to our south. This thing can send a molten slug through any armour and it remains the weapon of choice for insurgents to do just that. Another HUGE find for our platoon on the verge of a fighting season, which, if we continue to find all of htese weapons, will be a heavily one sided fight.

The IEDs continue to blow up all around our AO and beyond. I offer my condolences and symapthies to the family of the latest Canadian soldier killed in this God forsaken country. Details are unknown and speculation is disrespect. 2 others were injured very badly. Word is, it was their 3rd call. This happened well outside our AO. I am beginning to think they have a new emplacer in the area that we patrol. In the past 5 days, 4 IEDs have exploded. The last 2 a donkey was killed and the latter was an explosion that rocked the backside of an ANA pickup truck. All okay. This leads me to beleive that whomever is triggering/emplacing does not have much experience. Perhaps we nabbed the regular guy... dunno... Last night the air erupted in heavy 25mm fire and machine gun just down the road from where we live. Apparently my suspected rookie emplacer was digging in an IED on our MSR. The *** crews observed and engaged killing the newbie. Upon the BDA (battle damage assessment) we recovered a complete up and running IED, a tac vest full of insurgent goodies, and observed the hole he was going to put it in. A veteran IED emplacer is a little more careful.

Today it looks like rain. The clouds are heavy with dirt and water and the thunder is moving in overhead. Not much goin on for the rest of the day. Hopefully Dorner and madiin don't get too wet.,... until the next.... peace