Thursday, May 25, 2006
First Patrol
We left at 5 AM this morning to search a house about a kilometer and a half away for a known insurgent. The search turned up little, but it was a good chance for me to get out and see some of the terrain. It also gave me a chance to get out and walk around with my gear on and see how it works out. I have quite a bit of new gear since my last deployment, and as any infantryman knows, until you get out and walk with it on for a while, it’s impossible to know how well it will work. Because of the nature of our training back in the States, this was really my first opportunity to move a couple of kilometers with it on. With a few tweaks I think it will work pretty well. The Navy takes new ships out and “shakes them down” to work out some of the bugs – this is the grunt version. The patrol was a short one, lasting just under two hours, so we were back before it got too hot. I know I won’t stay that lucky for long, but it was nice not to kill myself on my very first trip outside the Corral.
The terrain around here is eerily reminiscent of my time in An Nasiriyah in 2003. Since we are on the banks of the Euphrates, the area is lushly vegetated. It’s also crisscrossed with small irrigation ditches, some of which can just be stepped over, but some of which require a running leap to clear. The mud clings to the bottom of your boots and gradually increases their weight, which doesn’t help when trying to jump over a ditch. We cut through numerous fields and fenced-in yards, trying to avoid roads as much as possible.
The patrols are made up of mostly the Iraqi soldiers, with a few Marine advisors. We try to send a small ANGLICO team out with at least one patrol a day to help them control artillery or air support if they get into a fight. The Marines from the MTT are all from combat arms specialties, so they are pretty good when it comes to controlling artillery, but the ANGLICO Marines have much more experience working with aircraft. I couldn’t help but smile to myself remembering the advice I had gotten from some of the older captains in ANGLICO before deploying. One such gem was that the Camelbak was worthless, since you could just carry bottled water in your vehicle. Nothing against those guys, we just happened to land in the one part of Al Anbar where cross country foot patrols are the norm. ¶ Thursday, May 25, 2006
We left at 5 AM this morning to search a house about a kilometer and a half away for a known insurgent. The search turned up little, but it was a good chance for me to get out and see some of the terrain. It also gave me a chance to get out and walk around with my gear on and see how it works out. I have quite a bit of new gear since my last deployment, and as any infantryman knows, until you get out and walk with it on for a while, it’s impossible to know how well it will work. Because of the nature of our training back in the States, this was really my first opportunity to move a couple of kilometers with it on. With a few tweaks I think it will work pretty well. The Navy takes new ships out and “shakes them down” to work out some of the bugs – this is the grunt version. The patrol was a short one, lasting just under two hours, so we were back before it got too hot. I know I won’t stay that lucky for long, but it was nice not to kill myself on my very first trip outside the Corral.
The terrain around here is eerily reminiscent of my time in An Nasiriyah in 2003. Since we are on the banks of the Euphrates, the area is lushly vegetated. It’s also crisscrossed with small irrigation ditches, some of which can just be stepped over, but some of which require a running leap to clear. The mud clings to the bottom of your boots and gradually increases their weight, which doesn’t help when trying to jump over a ditch. We cut through numerous fields and fenced-in yards, trying to avoid roads as much as possible.
The patrols are made up of mostly the Iraqi soldiers, with a few Marine advisors. We try to send a small ANGLICO team out with at least one patrol a day to help them control artillery or air support if they get into a fight. The Marines from the MTT are all from combat arms specialties, so they are pretty good when it comes to controlling artillery, but the ANGLICO Marines have much more experience working with aircraft. I couldn’t help but smile to myself remembering the advice I had gotten from some of the older captains in ANGLICO before deploying. One such gem was that the Camelbak was worthless, since you could just carry bottled water in your vehicle. Nothing against those guys, we just happened to land in the one part of Al Anbar where cross country foot patrols are the norm. ¶ Thursday, May 25, 2006
