New contest: Name the HUMMVs

One last thing; I've been trying to come up with something similar to Krusty and Sideshow Bob to name our HUMMVs (if confused, see early July postings). Since we have three HUMMVS, I've thought about making it the Three Stooges, or the Pep Boys. Thought about World War II nose art like aircraft had back then, but I don't think any bikini-clad pinups would fly out in town. Thought about the Jilloy (private joke; my family will get it). Can't seem to land on the perfect one. Any ideas? Must be simple, easily painted or drawn, unique, and funny.

A catholic church in town! You could have knocked me over with a feather!
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An average street in Civil Camp. And yes, that is all trash.
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Another electrical picture for my Dad. He loves these things, and I believe he thinks that I am exaggerating about the lack of any codes over here.
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A slime filled open sewer in the street in Civil Camp. Mmmmm! Imagine what 110+ degrees made THIS smell like.
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On patrol in Civil Camp yesterday. What doesn't convey is the heat and the smell.
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This is what Top Radke's jeep looks like next to an M1A1. Guess who would win THAT fight?
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The CO and Top Radke on the .50 cal. I have plenty of pictures of Top at the shoot like this with his fingers in his ears.
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A good shot of SSgt Walsh and Capt Rush. SSgt Walsh was the primary instructor on the 240G and SAW for the shoot, so he made sure we officers didn't break anything or jack it up too bad.
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SSgt Walsh and I at the machine gun range, firing the M240G 7.62mm machine gun.
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A trashed building in Ramadi. This is admittedly pretty bad, but also pretty standard. I won't tell you some of the other things (some surface laid, Gy Marr) that cover this place. This whole country needs to get on line and conduct a decent police call.
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Another shot from the roof, looking west into Ramadi.
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Ramadi. This was shot from the roof of our building over there. Late afternoon, quite beautiful. It's when you get up close that it ain't so pretty.
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Update - 06 Aug 05

Sorry for the long delay in getting back on here.

Since the last update, we did indeed swap companies to Ramadi, so Gy Ellis and SSgt Walsh are back with us and SSgt Decamillo and Gy Roche are over in Ramadi for a few days. I went with the convoy up and back when the swap occurred; pretty interesting. Nothing like being the lead vehicle behind an M1A1 main battle tank on a convoy at 0430; that thing at night all blacked out screaming down the highway has GOT to scare the crap out of the bad guys. Believe me.

Been busy this week with local patrols and other operations. Got the team out to the machine gun range to just practice a bit. Firing machine guns and traveling with them safely is just not something we are all expert at yet. An M4 rifle or M9 pistol is easy: magazine in, round chambered, on or off safe, etc. But the care and feeding of a .50 cal, M240G, or M249 can be potentially more hazardous. I will include a couple of pictures from our time on the range.

Hmmmmm, other news… Believe it or not, the chow hall at TQ has steak and lobster once a month, so three of us made the 4.2 mile drive last night to attend. I had just finished up walking on a patrol with Top Radke through Civil Camp, felt like I was going to drop from heat exhaustion, drove the HUMMV with the two other Marines game for the trip, and was eating steak and fried shrimp an hour later. This is one strange deployment, my friends.

I have been negligent in keeping up with my Absurd Moment of the Day. Here is one from the other day. I was in the office of an Iraqi officer talking to he and some other officers about an upcoming operation. Behind the other officers, playing on DVD on a television, was an old World Wrestling Foundation match with Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper, volume off. Trust me, very distracting when trying to listen to an interpreter. Just s-t-r-a-n-g-e.

Just for S.A. (situational awareness), SSgt Walsh is still easily leading the team in terms of mail received. By a long shot. Exponentially. Both in letters and packages. Just thought I’d mention it.

Will write more soon. Again, let me know if you have any things you would like me to expound on.

P.S. Just learned from my father-in-law that he has half of Ocala, FL “tuned in” here. Guess I better get serious about updating this thing. Again, I invite suggestions for subject matter. There is only so many ways I can say, “I’m hot, the jundee did something off the wall again, and my back hurts”!

A shot from the turret on our HUMMV during yesterday's operation. The camera focus is off, but you can see the palm trees ahead and the mosque / minaret (sp?) ahead.
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A shot to the left at the same position. THis was fairly high ground, so you can see the suprisingly green band of palm trees down near the Euphrates River.
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A shot of a house from yesterday's patrol. If an earthquake ever hits this place, every home would go down like a house of cards. Stacked cinderblock with a really poor mortar job, and I GUARANTEE no rebar or reinforcement of any kind.

They do, however, have a satellite dish. Who knows what it is hooked up to.
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Ice. Beautiful, wonderful ice. Gy Greene has locked on about 10-15 bags of ice daily from the Army for our 5 coolers. When he rools up with them, we all stop what we're doing to get them into the coolers before they melt before our eyes. It is an all-hands-on-deck event.
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A fantastic picture of a palm tree here on base. I include this because Gy Roche is working on something to mark our vehicles with which will have the sillhouette of one of these.
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Hi, all. Just a quick posting today. I start these things at the "house" and then almost a week goes by, and I'm still fooling with them. Guess I'll post what I got.

Man, you would not believe the biggest issues we seem to have these days. Right now it is air conditioning; who has it, and who doesn’t. Who takes matters into their own hands and removes swamp coolers from other buildings to “install” as wall units into their rooms. Who threatens Neville the A/C repair guy with cutting the power cords of all the a/c units if Neville doesn’t fix his room NOW (and this guy's a/c hasn’t worked since we got here). It has honestly been one of those days where I spent about 15 minutes on actual tactical issues and 12 hours on the most ridiculous, non-tactical, sanity-draining issues you have ever seen. Iraqi interpreters who don’t like Jordanian interpreters; Iraqi soldiers who bust the locks on two empty rooms (signed for by Marines) and take the bunkbeds out across the parking lot in broad daylight. It IS the Twilight Zone. The nickname for Iraq is “the IZ” for some reason. I think I will start calling it “the TZ”.

Working with the Iraqis is kind of like playing poker. We have our cards (gear, assets, money, knowledge); they have theirs (native personnel, speak Arabic, have ALL of the “boots on the ground”). Each day, each conversation, each operation is exactly like playing another poker hand. There are days when it feels like playing five games of multi-dimensional poker. Luckily, our guys are pretty good poker players, but it can get tiring. As Marines, we’re used to making the plan, executing the plan, giving orders, following orders, etc. These guys are not as… exact. You have to see the consequences, the give-and-take, over the LONG run. If I win this hand, what will the cost be tomorrow. If I shame them into going to Ramadi on schedule, what will they NOT do for me next week. This is the Land of Unintended Consequences.

Other news: the new battalion which took over from 1/506th is the 1/110th, a Pennsylvania National Guard outfit. They are a good unit, and I think that we and they will have a great working relationship. Their CO is a former Marine, and since half of our team is from Pennsylvania, we have started off on great terms with them. We all have a really good impression of these guys.

I’m off for now. Hey, if there are any specific questions that anyone has out there, about the camp, about the area, about the equipment we have, please let me know. I feel like I am just rambling sometimes, and would be glad to address questions and comments from the peanut gallery.