it’s been pretty rough over here lately. we lost 4 guys on easter sunday night. i am putting the pictures here because one of these men was the 4000th american to die in iraq. i made the mistake of seeing news stories about the 4000 mark and got pretty mad about it. no one gives a shit. you may not think about iraq much but you ought to.
-hey what’s going on man?
-not much. just hanging out, living the fobulous life. got a sweet gastro-intestinal bacteria infection.
-yeah? how is that working out for you?
-well i wrote a 500 page book on the differences between the toilet stalls, so things are looking up.
-wow. exciting.
-yeah plus i get to take all these dumb pics i have on my computer and put them on the internets.
-you’re like a rock star!
-yeah i’m kind of a big deal.
Well the neighbor’s dogs were at it again last night. i fell asleep to the sweet sounds of a herd of paladins calling to each other in the night. Like the coyotes call to make you feel alright, it’s nice to know that those boys are out there getting at it. Of course what this really means is that i couldn’t sleep because a half a mile is not going to do much to dampen the concussion much less the noise from a 155mm barking behemoth.
War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. -Cormac McCarthy in his book Blood Meridian
some of the songs that are always played in my truck
manowar -hail and kill
rebel son – 123
bangles- walk like an egyptian
clash – hateful
prodigy- minefields
spiderbait- black betty
von bondies – lack of communication
the who- baba o’riley
bel biv devoe – poison
yeah yeah yeahs -black tongue
smile empy soul – this is war
dropkick murphys – dirty glass
metallica – of wolf and man
teen idols – come dance with me
sublime -santeria
rem- don’t go back to rockville
old crow medicine show – wagon wheel
hank williams iii – pills i took
guns and roses – mr browstone
beastie boys – sabotage
arrested development – tennessee
Hoping to turn enemies into allies, U.S. forces are arming Iraqis who fought with the insurgents. But it’s already starting to backfire. A report from the front lines of the new Iraq
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18722376/the_myth_of_the_surge
This guy has got it spot on.
i have tried hard at keeping down the level of acronyms and general jargon that finds it’s way onto this site. i guess i haven’t been perfect at it so here are some terms you need to know to begin reading the rest of this:
fob – forward operating base = large base filled with several battalions, so a couple thousand people, mostly support
cop – combat outpost AKA cob – company operated base = a smaller base run by a single company out in a neighborhood
fobbit – one who stays on the fob; another term for pog
pog – person other than grunt – definitions vary but at the least someone who isn’t in a combat arms job
it has been interesting coming back to the fob. i was in full blown heathen mode when i rolled back. i was living in the middle of sadyiyah, central baghdad, with about 100 other smelly guys and rolling out on endless patrols. when you go out in sector you are as close to free from the law as you can get. we are masters of our muhallah (neighborhood). one gets used to random gunfire at all hours, shifty panhandling iraqis, and the constant search for weapons and bad guys. but now i am surrounded by a bunch of whiny pogs who don’t do anything but sit on their butt and shop at the hadji stores. it is a completely different army down here. case in point: i got yelled at today by my sergeant major, this is the senior enlisted person in the battalion, pretty close to god on earth. well our csm is a joke that nobody respects due to his gross unprofessionalism and his allergic reaction to leaving the fob. either way this guy was hollering at me outside battalion because i did not pick up the mail on time. he was hollering that i have to check in with this guy at battalion each morning to verify that i showed up to get the mail. “that’s your corrective training you understand me?!” it took all my discipline not to laugh at this clown. i just don’t understand how people get so worked up about stuff like that. i never really love the infantry until i have to leave it. how do people survive when their job doesn’t involve bradleys, machine guns, and prisoners of war? boggles the mind.
