Day 280

It has been getting colder here in Baqubah. This morning I woke up to a light snowfall. It turned to a drizzle as the day went on and we lit up the new industrial heaters. The heaters are like jet engines that sit on the floor spitting heat out the back end. Our squad has been drinking a lot of tea and coffee to keep warm, and a few guys are going ot the next level getting all kinds of coffee shipped to them. Today we tried the new variety pack including Ethiopian, Mexican and Indonesian coffee.

Out back on guard shift we have been lighting a small fire. Standing around in the cold can be a real killer. The Iraqi Army soldiers find wood in various places and keep the fire in a small pan to contain the ashes. As I write this in the computer lab at Camp Warhorse I can smell the wood smoke on my uniform. The majority of visitors at the gate want motorcycle badges, which are issued from the compound. Yesterday an Iraqi boy needed to see the dentist so we took him back to Warhorse. The kid played PlayStation while he waited to go and was pretty good at it. I think their family must have been wealthy.

Our headquarters platoon is made up of the mortar squad, the two snipers, the armorer, a guy that is switching to officer, and the medics. That basically comprises all the soldiers that are not 11B infantry. Besides going out on foot patrol with the commander, we do odd jobs like escort people or vehicles to Camp Warhorse and other locations. Occasionally we will do a mission. The other day we went and set up a traffic control point to search cars and identify possible terrorist suspects. I'm not sure found any, but we got a lot of names and license plate numbers. We made a road block with concertina wire and waved the cars through one by one to be checked. After a while too many cars were lined up and we just let them all through. Most of the locals are familiar with a checkpoint and know how to behave. If they keep coming when you give them the signal to stop, we're told to shoot the engine block. After that go for the driver. I think this must have happened enough times that the people know what to do. Luckily there were no incidents, everything went smoothly.

So far in our deployment I have been very lucky. I have not been shot at, rode in a vehicle hit by an IED, or had any accidents. Things have been slowing down, but there is still constant danger. Today first platoon was headed back from the government center and they hit an IED which injured two soldiers. Crawford, a guy from Pittsburgh got a serious concussion, and Hadley from Atlanta took shrapnel. Luckily both of them are able to continue fighting. They will both receive purple hearts.

Pretty soon there will be internet and showers and heat out at the JCOP and it won't be any fun anymore. It will be civilized. There are lots of signs that U.S. forces will be here in Iraq long term. The war on terror will never end it seems. We're just sitting tight waiting for summer to come around.