loborugger
10-21-2006, 11:31 AM
Friend me this on the e mail. This is a letter from a Marine officer to his family. It got forwarded around, and now Time Mag has picked it up. Worth a gander. Posted without comment.
>All: I haven't written very much from Iraq. There's really not much to
>write about. More exactly, there's not much I can write about because
>practically everything I do, read or hear is classified military
>information or is depressing to the point that I'd rather just forget
>about it, never mind write about it. The gaps in between all of that
are
>filled with the pure tedium of daily life in an armed camp. So it's a
>bit of a struggle to think of anything to put into a letter that's
worth
>reading. Worse, this place just consumes you. I work 18-20-hour days,
>every day. The quest to draw a clear picture of what the insurgents
are
>up to never ends. Problems and frictions crop up faster than
solutions.
>Every challenge demands a response. It's like this every day. Before I
>know it, I can't see straight, because it's 0400 and I've been at work
>for 20 hours straight, somehow missing dinner again in the process.
And
>once again I haven't written to anyone. It starts all over again four
>hours later. It's not really like Ground Hog Day, it's more like a
level
>from Dante's Inferno.
>
>Rather than attempting to sum up the last seven months, I figured I'd
>just hit the record-setting highlights of 2006 in Iraq. These are
among
>the events and experiences I'll remember best.
>
>Worst Case of D? Vu - I thought I was familiar with the feeling of d?
vu
>until I arrived back here in Fallujah in February. The moment I
stepped
>off of the helicopter, just as dawn broke, and saw the camp just as I
>had left it ten months before - that was d? vu. Kind of unnerving. It
>was as if I had never left. Same work area, same busted desk, same
>chair, same computer, same room, same creaky rack, same... everything.
>Same everything for the next year. It was like entering a parallel
>universe. Home wasn't 10,000 miles away, it was a different lifetime.
>
>Most Surreal Moment - Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility
>and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had
>put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we
>were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did
I
>know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who
banded
>together for support since they were considered social outcasts. The
>Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the
>rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad
>Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions
>rounded up by the giant infidels.
>
>Most Profound Man in Iraq - an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote
>area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen
any
>foreign fighters in the area replied "Yes, you."
>
>Worst City in al-Anbar Province - Ramadi, hands down. The provincial
>capital of 400,000 people. Lots and lots of insurgents killed in there
>since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They
>blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small
arms.
>We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers
>(much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can
>carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news. We have
>as many attacks out here in the west as Baghdad. Yet, Baghdad has 7
>million people, we have just 1.2 million. Per capita, al-Anbar
province
>is the most violent place in Iraq by several orders of magnitude. I
>suppose it was no accident that the Marines were assigned this area in
>2003.
>
>Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province - Any Explosive Ordnance Disposal
>Technician (EOD Tech). How'd you like a job that required you to
defuse
>bombs in a hole in the middle of the road that very likely are
>booby-trapped or connected by wire to a bad guy who's just waiting for
>you to get close to the bomb before he clicks the detonator? Every
day.
>Sanitation workers in New York City get paid more than these guys.
Talk
>about courage and commitment.
>
>Second Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province - It's a 20,000-way tie among
>all these Marines and Soldiers who venture out on the highways and
>through the towns of al-Anbar every day, not knowing if it will be
their
>last - and for a couple of them, it will be.
>
>Worst E-Mail Message - "The Walking Blood Bank is Activated. We need
>blood type A+ stat." I always head down to the surgical unit as soon
as
>I get these messages, but I never give blood - there's always about 80
>Marines in line, night or day.
>
>Biggest Surprise - Iraqi Police. All local guys. I never figured that
>we'd get a police force established in the cities in al-Anbar. I
>estimated that insurgents would kill the first few, scaring off the
>rest. Well, insurgents did kill the first few, but the cops kept on
>coming. The insurgents continue to target the police, killing them in
>their homes and on the streets, but the cops won't give up. Absolutely
>incredible tenacity. The insurgents know that the police are far
better
>at finding them than we are - and they are finding them. Now, if we
>could just get them out of the habit of beating prisoners to a pulp...
>
Greatest Vindication - Stocking up on outrageous quantities of Diet
Coke
>from the chow hall in spite of the derision from my men on such
>hoarding, then having a 122mm rocket blast apart the giant shipping
>container that held all of the soda for the chow hall. Yep, you can't
>buy experience.
>
>Biggest Mystery - How some people can gain weight out here. I'm down
to
>165 lbs. Who has time to eat?
>
>Second Biggest Mystery - if there's no atheists in foxholes, then why
>aren't there more people at Mass every Sunday?
>
>Favorite Iraqi TV Show - Oprah. I have no idea. They all have
satellite
>TV.
>
>Coolest Insurgent Act - Stealing almost $7 million from the main bank
in
>Ramadi in broad daylight, then, upon exiting, waving to the Marines in
>the combat outpost right next to the bank, who had no clue of what was
>going on. The Marines waved back. Too cool.
>
>Most Memorable Scene - In the middle of the night, on a dusty
airfield,
>watching the better part of a battalion of Marines packed up and ready
>to go home after over six months in al-Anbar, the relief etched in
their
>young faces even in the moonlight. Then watching these same Marines
>exchange glances with a similar number of grunts loaded down with gear
>file past - their replacements. Nothing was said. Nothing needed to be
>said.
>
>Highest Unit Re-enlistment Rate - Any outfit that has been in Iraq
>recently. All the danger, all the hardship, all the time away from
home,
>all the horror, all the frustrations with the fight here - all are
>outweighed by the desire for young men to be part of a band of
brothers
>who will die for one another. They found what they were looking for
when
>they enlisted out of high school.
>
>Most Surprising Thing I Don't Miss - Beer. Perhaps being half-stunned
by
>lack of sleep makes up for it.
>
>Worst Smell - Porta-johns in 120-degree heat - and that's 120 degrees
>outside of the porta-john.
>
>Highest Temperature - I don't know exactly, but it was in the
>porta-johns. Needed to re-hydrate after each trip to the loo.
>
>Biggest Hassle - High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a
>rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and "battlefield" tours (we take
them
>to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our
>briefs and commentary seem to have no effect on their preconceived
>notions of what's going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that
>they've been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of
>credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here.
>
Biggest Outrage - Practically anything said by talking heads on TV
about
>the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are
>consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted. Biggest
>Offender: Bill O'Reilly.
>
>Best Intel Work - Finding Jill Carroll's kidnappers - all of them. I
was
>mighty proud of my guys that day. I figured we'd all get the Christian
>Science Monitor for free after this, but none have showed up yet.
>
>Saddest Moment - Having an infantry battalion commander hand me the
dog
>tags of one of my Marines who had just been killed while on a mission
>with his unit. Hit by a 60mm mortar. He was a great Marine. I felt
>crushed for a long time afterward. His picture now hangs at the
entrance
>to our section area. We'll carry it home with us when we leave in
>February.
>
>Best Chuck Norris Moment - 13 May. Bad Guys arrived at the government
>center in a small town to kidnap the mayor, since they have a problem
>with any form of government that does not include regular beheadings
and
>women wearing burqahs. There were seven of them. As they brought the
>mayor out to put him in a pick-up truck to take him off to be beheaded
>(on video, as usual), one of the Bad Guys put down his machine gun so
>that he could tie the mayor's hands. The mayor took the opportunity to
>pick up the machine gun and drill five of the Bad Guys. The other two
>ran away. One of the dead Bad Guys was on our top twenty wanted list.
>Like they say, you can't fight City Hall.
>
>Worst Sound - That crack-boom off in the distance that means an IED or
>mine just went off. You just wonder who got it, hoping that it was a
>near miss rather than a direct hit. Hear it practically every day.
>
>Second Worst Sound - Our artillery firing without warning. The
howitzers
>are pretty close to where I work. Believe me, outgoing sounds a lot
like
>incoming when our guns are firing right over our heads. They'd about
>knock the fillings out of your teeth.
>
>Only Thing Better in Iraq Than in the U.S. - Sunsets. Spectacular.
It's
>from all the dust in the air.
>
>Proudest Moment - It's a tie every day, watching our Marines produce
>phenomenal intelligence products that go pretty far in teasing apart
Bad
>Guy operations in al-Anbar. Every night Marines and Soldiers are
kicking
>in doors and grabbing Bad Guys based on intelligence developed by our
>guys. We rarely lose a Marine during these raids, they are so
>well-informed of the objective. A bunch of kids right out of high
school
>shouldn't be able to work so well, but they do.
>
>Happiest Moment - Well, it wasn't in Iraq. There are no truly happy
>moments here. It was back in California when I was able to hold my
>family again while home on leave during July.
>
>Most Common Thought - Home. Always thinking of home, of my great wife
>and the kids. Wondering how everyone else is getting along. Regretting
>that I don't write more. Yep, always thinking of home.
>
>I hope you all are doing well. If you want to do something for me,
kiss
>a cop, flush a toilet, and drink a beer. I'll try to write again
before
>too long - I promise.
>All: I haven't written very much from Iraq. There's really not much to
>write about. More exactly, there's not much I can write about because
>practically everything I do, read or hear is classified military
>information or is depressing to the point that I'd rather just forget
>about it, never mind write about it. The gaps in between all of that
are
>filled with the pure tedium of daily life in an armed camp. So it's a
>bit of a struggle to think of anything to put into a letter that's
worth
>reading. Worse, this place just consumes you. I work 18-20-hour days,
>every day. The quest to draw a clear picture of what the insurgents
are
>up to never ends. Problems and frictions crop up faster than
solutions.
>Every challenge demands a response. It's like this every day. Before I
>know it, I can't see straight, because it's 0400 and I've been at work
>for 20 hours straight, somehow missing dinner again in the process.
And
>once again I haven't written to anyone. It starts all over again four
>hours later. It's not really like Ground Hog Day, it's more like a
level
>from Dante's Inferno.
>
>Rather than attempting to sum up the last seven months, I figured I'd
>just hit the record-setting highlights of 2006 in Iraq. These are
among
>the events and experiences I'll remember best.
>
>Worst Case of D? Vu - I thought I was familiar with the feeling of d?
vu
>until I arrived back here in Fallujah in February. The moment I
stepped
>off of the helicopter, just as dawn broke, and saw the camp just as I
>had left it ten months before - that was d? vu. Kind of unnerving. It
>was as if I had never left. Same work area, same busted desk, same
>chair, same computer, same room, same creaky rack, same... everything.
>Same everything for the next year. It was like entering a parallel
>universe. Home wasn't 10,000 miles away, it was a different lifetime.
>
>Most Surreal Moment - Watching Marines arrive at my detention facility
>and unload a truck load of flex-cuffed midgets. 26 to be exact. We had
>put the word out earlier in the day to the Marines in Fallujah that we
>were looking for Bad Guy X, who was described as a midget. Little did
I
>know that Fallujah was home to a small community of midgets, who
banded
>together for support since they were considered social outcasts. The
>Marines were anxious to get back to the midget colony to bring in the
>rest of the midget suspects, but I called off the search, figuring Bad
>Guy X was long gone on his short legs after seeing his companions
>rounded up by the giant infidels.
>
>Most Profound Man in Iraq - an unidentified farmer in a fairly remote
>area who, after being asked by Reconnaissance Marines if he had seen
any
>foreign fighters in the area replied "Yes, you."
>
>Worst City in al-Anbar Province - Ramadi, hands down. The provincial
>capital of 400,000 people. Lots and lots of insurgents killed in there
>since we arrived in February. Every day is a nasty gun battle. They
>blast us with giant bombs in the road, snipers, mortars and small
arms.
>We blast them with tanks, attack helicopters, artillery, our snipers
>(much better than theirs), and every weapon that an infantryman can
>carry. Every day. Incredibly, I rarely see Ramadi in the news. We have
>as many attacks out here in the west as Baghdad. Yet, Baghdad has 7
>million people, we have just 1.2 million. Per capita, al-Anbar
province
>is the most violent place in Iraq by several orders of magnitude. I
>suppose it was no accident that the Marines were assigned this area in
>2003.
>
>Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province - Any Explosive Ordnance Disposal
>Technician (EOD Tech). How'd you like a job that required you to
defuse
>bombs in a hole in the middle of the road that very likely are
>booby-trapped or connected by wire to a bad guy who's just waiting for
>you to get close to the bomb before he clicks the detonator? Every
day.
>Sanitation workers in New York City get paid more than these guys.
Talk
>about courage and commitment.
>
>Second Bravest Guy in al-Anbar Province - It's a 20,000-way tie among
>all these Marines and Soldiers who venture out on the highways and
>through the towns of al-Anbar every day, not knowing if it will be
their
>last - and for a couple of them, it will be.
>
>Worst E-Mail Message - "The Walking Blood Bank is Activated. We need
>blood type A+ stat." I always head down to the surgical unit as soon
as
>I get these messages, but I never give blood - there's always about 80
>Marines in line, night or day.
>
>Biggest Surprise - Iraqi Police. All local guys. I never figured that
>we'd get a police force established in the cities in al-Anbar. I
>estimated that insurgents would kill the first few, scaring off the
>rest. Well, insurgents did kill the first few, but the cops kept on
>coming. The insurgents continue to target the police, killing them in
>their homes and on the streets, but the cops won't give up. Absolutely
>incredible tenacity. The insurgents know that the police are far
better
>at finding them than we are - and they are finding them. Now, if we
>could just get them out of the habit of beating prisoners to a pulp...
>
Greatest Vindication - Stocking up on outrageous quantities of Diet
Coke
>from the chow hall in spite of the derision from my men on such
>hoarding, then having a 122mm rocket blast apart the giant shipping
>container that held all of the soda for the chow hall. Yep, you can't
>buy experience.
>
>Biggest Mystery - How some people can gain weight out here. I'm down
to
>165 lbs. Who has time to eat?
>
>Second Biggest Mystery - if there's no atheists in foxholes, then why
>aren't there more people at Mass every Sunday?
>
>Favorite Iraqi TV Show - Oprah. I have no idea. They all have
satellite
>TV.
>
>Coolest Insurgent Act - Stealing almost $7 million from the main bank
in
>Ramadi in broad daylight, then, upon exiting, waving to the Marines in
>the combat outpost right next to the bank, who had no clue of what was
>going on. The Marines waved back. Too cool.
>
>Most Memorable Scene - In the middle of the night, on a dusty
airfield,
>watching the better part of a battalion of Marines packed up and ready
>to go home after over six months in al-Anbar, the relief etched in
their
>young faces even in the moonlight. Then watching these same Marines
>exchange glances with a similar number of grunts loaded down with gear
>file past - their replacements. Nothing was said. Nothing needed to be
>said.
>
>Highest Unit Re-enlistment Rate - Any outfit that has been in Iraq
>recently. All the danger, all the hardship, all the time away from
home,
>all the horror, all the frustrations with the fight here - all are
>outweighed by the desire for young men to be part of a band of
brothers
>who will die for one another. They found what they were looking for
when
>they enlisted out of high school.
>
>Most Surprising Thing I Don't Miss - Beer. Perhaps being half-stunned
by
>lack of sleep makes up for it.
>
>Worst Smell - Porta-johns in 120-degree heat - and that's 120 degrees
>outside of the porta-john.
>
>Highest Temperature - I don't know exactly, but it was in the
>porta-johns. Needed to re-hydrate after each trip to the loo.
>
>Biggest Hassle - High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a
>rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and "battlefield" tours (we take
them
>to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our
>briefs and commentary seem to have no effect on their preconceived
>notions of what's going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that
>they've been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of
>credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here.
>
Biggest Outrage - Practically anything said by talking heads on TV
about
>the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are
>consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted. Biggest
>Offender: Bill O'Reilly.
>
>Best Intel Work - Finding Jill Carroll's kidnappers - all of them. I
was
>mighty proud of my guys that day. I figured we'd all get the Christian
>Science Monitor for free after this, but none have showed up yet.
>
>Saddest Moment - Having an infantry battalion commander hand me the
dog
>tags of one of my Marines who had just been killed while on a mission
>with his unit. Hit by a 60mm mortar. He was a great Marine. I felt
>crushed for a long time afterward. His picture now hangs at the
entrance
>to our section area. We'll carry it home with us when we leave in
>February.
>
>Best Chuck Norris Moment - 13 May. Bad Guys arrived at the government
>center in a small town to kidnap the mayor, since they have a problem
>with any form of government that does not include regular beheadings
and
>women wearing burqahs. There were seven of them. As they brought the
>mayor out to put him in a pick-up truck to take him off to be beheaded
>(on video, as usual), one of the Bad Guys put down his machine gun so
>that he could tie the mayor's hands. The mayor took the opportunity to
>pick up the machine gun and drill five of the Bad Guys. The other two
>ran away. One of the dead Bad Guys was on our top twenty wanted list.
>Like they say, you can't fight City Hall.
>
>Worst Sound - That crack-boom off in the distance that means an IED or
>mine just went off. You just wonder who got it, hoping that it was a
>near miss rather than a direct hit. Hear it practically every day.
>
>Second Worst Sound - Our artillery firing without warning. The
howitzers
>are pretty close to where I work. Believe me, outgoing sounds a lot
like
>incoming when our guns are firing right over our heads. They'd about
>knock the fillings out of your teeth.
>
>Only Thing Better in Iraq Than in the U.S. - Sunsets. Spectacular.
It's
>from all the dust in the air.
>
>Proudest Moment - It's a tie every day, watching our Marines produce
>phenomenal intelligence products that go pretty far in teasing apart
Bad
>Guy operations in al-Anbar. Every night Marines and Soldiers are
kicking
>in doors and grabbing Bad Guys based on intelligence developed by our
>guys. We rarely lose a Marine during these raids, they are so
>well-informed of the objective. A bunch of kids right out of high
school
>shouldn't be able to work so well, but they do.
>
>Happiest Moment - Well, it wasn't in Iraq. There are no truly happy
>moments here. It was back in California when I was able to hold my
>family again while home on leave during July.
>
>Most Common Thought - Home. Always thinking of home, of my great wife
>and the kids. Wondering how everyone else is getting along. Regretting
>that I don't write more. Yep, always thinking of home.
>
>I hope you all are doing well. If you want to do something for me,
kiss
>a cop, flush a toilet, and drink a beer. I'll try to write again
before
>too long - I promise.