Day 59

Time has been going fast. I haven't been able to make it to the computer because we have been busy with patrols. Routines in the army generally get easier as time goes on, but it can be tough to get the ball rolling. My job is to pull rear guard out the back of the stryker vehicle Alpha 51 attached to 4th platoon. We go out in convoys of 3 vehicles or more (usually more) and guard the highway that connects Baghdad to the north. A lot of roadside bombs are planted along this route and every so often insurgents will attack with small arms fire and RPG's. We've taken a few casualties.
So we get a mission - You're going out with three other vehicles from 0000 to 0600 to patrol route tampa. We gear up the stryker with the mortar equipment a few hours early, get radio communications set, and coordinate with the other vehicles. Then we roll out the gate and sit on the median enforcing curfew. Sometimes we are with abrams tanks, heavy armor humvees and strykers. We have to wait for them, because there's no way to identify them.
My vehicle has been lucky enough not to "hit contact" in over ten missions. This is lucky. This is also not to say that we haven't run into trouble. A suicide bomber blew himself up at the Iraqi army traffic control checkpoint. Civilians have been shot on our shift and bombs have hit convoys very close to us.
Last night we went to the Iraqi army compound to stay the night. We were a quick reaction force if needed. Me and the driver of our vehicle, PFC Thompson ventured into the compound itself, an old building stripped to the essentials. There was a squad of Iraqi soldiers hanging out in one of the rooms and they welcomed us. We proceeded to play dominoes, watch some TV and then eat food. They put a tray of vegetables and beef patties on a small table on the floor. We removed the dominoes from the table and loaded the vegetables into pita bread and ate. Then we had tea. What nice people. I new some words in Arabic and they could pick up enough English that we could have a conversation. The food was fit for the weather and left us with a good feeling in our stomachs.