Oh, It's Christmas?!?

LOL......

I just looked at my watch and realized it is Christmas! It's easy to lose track of time when you work 7 days a week.

My Christmas wish came true. NO MORTAR ATTACKS for the day. Sad, eh?

I miss everyone but have gotten used to it. I've only been home one time in 14 years for Christmas.

Met a ham operator today

I met Wally today. He has a nice setup for his radio station. It's too bad he's leaving in a few days.

Wally gave me an Iraqi military CW straight key. Totally cool! Thanks, Wally.

My ham radio station.

I've got my radio and antenna set up now. My antenna is a 140-foot Zepp flattop fed with 300-ohm ladderline.

My first contact was with Wally, YI9HZR. It was funny because he's located on Taji, too!

Most of my QSO's (contacts) come from Europe. I haven't heard a peep from the states yet. Hopefully conditions will be better in the summertime.

I have a lot of noise interference due to the sad shape of the power grid here. So, I stick mostly to CW (morse code) for a majority of time.

Relief in place.

We're relieving 57th Signal from Fort Hood. They seem to be a nice group of people. I know they are really glad to see us.

The relief-in-place has gone without a hitch and now we're running all the signal in this area.

Covoy from Baghdad to Taji.

Well, we are moving to our final destination of Camp Cooke in Taji, Iraq. Home of the 1st CAV.

We lined up all the vehicles in convoy order and were waiting for our SP time. Three mortars landed about 200 meters from our position. We didn't know at the time that it was as close as they usually get due to the fact that if the insurgents got closer they would expose themselves to hellacious counterfire. It was our first experience with the hatred of our enemy and we learned our lesson.

Once we cleared the gate of the camp and got onto the MSR we were on the lookout for anything. Baghdad is more like a slum than a city. Trash and bombed out buildings were everywhere.

Taji is worse.

We entered the province of Taji and noticed that traffic was very light in the lanes we were travelling. That's a major warning sign that there may be an IED or ambush. All we could do is keep a sharp lookout and be ready. Thank the Lord that nothing happened.

Our platoon sergeant was leading the way and a big dumptruck refused to move out of our way. So, the lead vehicle (a Hummer) rammed him from behind. It scared the crap out of him but he still didn't move. When our lead gunner swung the .50 cal in his direction, a pedestrian on the side of the road motioned for the driver to move off the road. That pedestrian probably saved the dumptruck drivers vehicle from heavy damage.

That's the way of business here. We own the road. It seems cruel to outsiders but it has to be that way. The insurgents purposely try to slow our convoys down. The faster we move, the harder it is to accurately target us via IED or small arms fire (SAF). So, we move as fast as is safe and will do whatever it takes to protect our soldiers.

One note-- one of our NCO's--I'll call him "Nick". He is a top-notch gunner who didn't allow a single vehicle to approach from the rear of our convoy. A woman tried to pass and even held an infant up to the windshield but Nick remained steadfast. We really appreciate him and all the other excellent gunners we had throughout the convoy.

Everything and everybody made it without any problems.

Movement Time!

We've got our movement orders.

This is being posted after the fact due to security issues.

There wasn't much excitement on the entire trip into Iraq.

The only part that sucked was sleeping around our trucks at the Kuwait border. It got so cold that night that frost covered our trucks, sleeping bags, and weapons. My greatest thanks to the nice SSG that brought out hot coffee and soup. We were never so glad to get moving!

We proceeded to Camp Freedom (Victory) without any incidents.

Some background info.

This blog is to serve as my online diary of events and thoughts while deployed to Southwest Asia in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III.

Camp Virginia, Kuwait

I'm in the 327th Signal Battalion (Airborne) from Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

This time I'm actually doing my job as a radio operator. It should be boring.

Currently we are at Camp Virginia, Kuwait awaiting orders for movement into Iraq.

Camp Virginia is a support base with the absolutely WORST chowhall I've experienced in 14 years of Army service. No exaggeration. The MWR facilities are decent. AT&T makes a buttload of money here. Be advised that if you have a 500-minute AT&T prepaid card and use their phones--the card will only last for 250-minutes. If you use regular DSN lines the full 500-minutes will be realized. Caveat emptor!

The PX is tiny. Don't expect to get much until you head north.

We should be moving into Iraq soon. More to follow.