For once, an accurate forwarded email regarding Iraq (sorry; long)

[Recursion]

And I can say it's accurate because I know this dude; he was my best PFC 3 years ago and now he's a sergeant.

And if you don't know what that means, a lot of people had to die to turn a PFC into a sergeant in 3 years :(

If this moves you, hug a vet. Better yet, write your congressman to get now-Sgt. X out of there RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.

Oh, he's wrong about the "worst smell" record. I was a Mortuary Affairs clerk. He wasn't. Enough said.

>
>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 twenty 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 Déjà Vu - I thought I was familiar with
>the feeling of déjà 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 déjà 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. I 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 as 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 (searching for Syrians) 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. Killed over
>1,000 insurgents 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 the 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.
>
>Best Piece of U.S. Gear - new, bullet-proof flak
>jackets. O.K., they weigh 40 lbs and aren’t exactly
>comfortable in 120 degree heat, but they’ve saved
>countless lives out here.
>
>Best Piece of Bad Guy Gear - Armor Piercing ammunition
>that goes right through the new flak jackets and the
>Marines inside them.
>
>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 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. Man for man, they now have more
>combat experience than any Marines in the history of
>our Corps.
>
>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 affect 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 - what a buffoon.
>
>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.
>Talk about ingratitude.
>
>Saddest Moment - Having the battalion commander from
>1st Battalion, 1st Marines 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. Cpl
>Bachar was a great Marine. I felt crushed for a long
>time afterward. His picture now hangs at the entrance
>to the Intelligence Section. We’ll carry it home with
>us when we leave in February.
>
>Biggest Ass-Chewing - 10 July immediately following a
>visit by the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Zobai.
>The Deputy Prime Minister brought along an American
>security contractor (read mercenary), who told my
>Commanding General that he was there to act as a
>mediator between us and the Bad Guys. I immediately
>told him what I thought of him and his asinine ideas
>in terms that made clear my disgust and which,
>unfortunately, are unrepeatable here. I thought my
>boss was going to have a heart attack. Fortunately,
>the translator couldn’t figure out the best Arabic
>words to convey my meaning for the Deputy Prime
>Minister. Later, the boss had no difficulty in
>conveying his meaning to me in English regarding my
>Irish temper, even though he agreed with me. At least
>the guy from the State Department thought it was
>hilarious. We never saw the mercenary again.
>
>Best Chuck Norris Moment - 13 May. Bad Guys arrived
>at the government center in the small town of Kubaysah
>to kidnap the town 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 machinegun so that he could tie the mayor’s
>hands. The mayor took the opportunity to pick up the
>machinegun 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 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 my
>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 my 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 Kathleen 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.
>
>Semper Fi,

[Kagemusha]

1. Ah, so you know this guy...

I read the e-mail on Larry Johnson's blog. Compelling stuff. The polling data just out about how 75% of Sunnis now support the insurgency would keep this guy up awake at night if he didn't have only 4 hours of sleep every day.

[Recursion]

5. Well, for all I know someone else wrote it...

...and he just forwarded it to me. If he did, he signed his name to it and put his gf's name in too. Who knows?

[Recursion]

8. BTW, nothing against him if he did

I just mean I have no idea.

[Kagemusha]

10. Gotcha. But the contents have the ring of truth regardless.

This isn't the sort of stuff someone makes up, generally speaking.

[DemReadingDU]

13. here is link to letter on Larry Johnson's website

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/09/a_marine_in_ira.html

[Bucky]

2. Wow. Thanks for posting this. I didn't know insurgents had armor piercing

I mean, I figured they might have some, but your friend makes it sound like its almost standard issue to them. My ex students who signed up for the service never share this candidly with me when I get to talk to them--it's a little gut wrenching to me just reading about it--they have to live it for months on end. I'm twice as proud of them now, and of course twice as worried.

[Recursion]

4. 1 out of 1000 seems like a lot...

...when they're pointed at you.

[genie_weenie]

3. I remember the Ramadi Bank Heist

Inside job of the IP. Pallet loads of cash wrapped in black trash bags just loaded up and taken.

Fuck I know this guy...

[bigbrother05]

6. Thanks for posting

heartwarming

[ewoden]

7. Why does the e-mail leave me with the tragic feeling

That I have just borne witness to a insane game of wack-a-mole at the local arcade involving obsessive compulsive players with a million dollars in quarters.

[Bucky]

9. So, dmesg, what was this guy like when he was under you?

You seem surprised that he made sergeant so quick. Maybe he's just that good. On the other hand, I know the army has been having trouble hanging onto senior noncoms. Surely all the private contractors can't be accounting for all of hte shortfall. Could such a shortage also be affecting the Corps? I know the same conditions that are driving down Army recruitment is driving up Marine recruitments--people inclined to fight today figure they might as well go first class. But are Marine senior sergeants also in short supply?

I'm curious to learn more about this.

[Recursion]

11. Am I "surprised"? Not really

I always thought he was a good Marine. Good enough for Sergeant in 3 years? In 2001 I would have said no way. But then again this is today's Corps, not my Corps. I'm not in a place to judge. He was a good guy and would be a good leader. I trust him.

Retention is down across the board. Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force. People (like me) with one tour in got sick of it and left. So guys like this are left to take over.

[windbreeze]

12. I would venture to say....

That the more days you spend in a war zone...the quicker you become mature...This is not child's play, it is not a video game on an x-box or playstation....this is real, and those bullets, missiles, bombs and insurgents are real...they kill...and if you don't pay attention, each and every one of them can kill you...I am sure that 3 years have matured this boy/man in ways living at home would not have done...

There is truth in the writing...and sorry, but I found myself chuckling about some things, in spite of the seriousness of the situation overall.... I commend this person for having enough humor left to make someone reading it chuckle..it's probably what keeps him sane...I have such compassion for all those serving....how I wish they weren't in a spot to have these experiences...
wb