Day 350

Today is Good Friday. There is no mass service held here on Sundays or holy days, although the battalion chaplain comes around and holds a brief service every so often. The commander knows I'm Catholic and he mentioned it before our 1200 patrol today. When we reached Abu Matheina's house which was the destination of our patrol, there was a spread of Iraqi food in the main room. On most days Matheina's crew of CLC guards serve us tea as we guard the rooftop and surrounding area. Today I was lucky and served on the commander's team. That means I got to sit in the room where he and Matheina hold their regular meeting. As a result I ate more food than the other guys.

Lamb is a staple of Iraqi food and we ate samoon which is like pita bread, along with salted vegetables (yes salted) and lamb cutlets that were cooked like hamburger. The food was pretty good and it is a sign that the partnership between the CLC's and our forces is progressing. There is hardly an active threat left here in Baqubah. Al Qaeda has been forced not only out of the city but out of Iraq for the most part. Al Qaeda has tainted their reputation with the Iraqi people by killing innocent civilians and using unlawful tactics to fight their holy war.

The other day we escorted a food and water clip around all day as it made several deliveries to the government center from FOB Gabriel only a mile or so away. I stood up in the hatch of the Stryker assisting the driver through tight squeezes and around barriers. The slat armor on the Stryker makes it almost too large for the streets here and traffic must yield no matter what. On the day we escorted the clip around there was a lot of traffic on route Venessa and we had to stop and wait for the IP's to clear the road of the line of civilian vehicles. Even with two sides to the road, there was enough traffic to clog the whole thing. Towards the end of the day we took a break in the staging area near the gate of FOB Gabriel where we loaded up the supplies.