INDCJournal: On Patrol with Team Gator

« First Examiner Piece/Hangin' with the IPLOS | Main | Where in the ... »

January 06, 2007

On Patrol with Team Gator

Posted by Bill

Last Wednesday I rode along on a mounted patrol with members of Bravo Company, Second Assault Amphibious Battalion, aka "Team Gator." As my recent predecessor Bill Roggio described their mission:

The traditional mission of an Assault Amphibious Battalion is to land Marines on the beach, using their huge Amphibious Assault Vehicles (or AAVs), which hold up to 20 Marines and a crew of three.
Here in Iraq, the mission has changed. The Gators have been assigned to patrol Route Mobile, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Route Mobile, which, along with Route Michigan, are the two largest roads running east-west through Anbar province.

Route Mobile is an essential supply line for the Iraqi Army, US Military and al-Anbar as a whole, as well as a main conduit for civilians and insurgents traveling between Syria, Ramadi, Fallujah and Baghdad, among other stops. It's undoubtedly also one of the most explosive stretches of highway on the planet.

Bravo Company is commanded by Captain Eric "Disco" Dominijanni, 34, a charismatic officer originally from Queens, NY. I scratched my head when Dominijani greeted me as a "fellow paisan," until he explained his Chinese, black and Italian heritage. A talented chef who was offered his own show on the Food Network (turned down because of deployment to Iraq), he fed me with a gourmet stash of provolone, prosciutto and salami while conducting a briefing on the Gators' mission.

"Our job is to patrol up and down MSR Mobile, provide route security and convoy security. Basically anything that happens on Mobile is my responsibility," he explained. "We clear it of IED's and provide security for ourselves, anyone who is transiting: military convoys, contractors, IP's (Iraqi Police), the IA's (Iraqi Army), everyone who runs down mobile."

He outlined the nature of the threats to security: Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) placed along the road, Vehicle-borne IEDs (VBIEDs) driven at their targets, small-arms fire (SAF), rocket-propelled grenades (RPG's) and snipers who sit along the highway in palm groves and buildings. Two Marines were killed and several injured in the month of December. Morale improved when they caught most of the insurgent sniper team responsible for the attacks.

I asked him who the enemy was:

"A lot of (those who plant IED's) are poor farmers who have no money. Some just drop them off on their way to work. A local insurgent leader or ringleader will say 'hey, here's $5 to drop an IED against the Americans," sometimes more if they video them dropping it. It's also almost like a rite to manhood out here. We're getting kids, like 18 and 19 years-old that are trying to look like men, get that symbol of manhood and establish themselves as local leaders in the community. And what's the best way to do that? It's to fight the infidels."

I suggested they join football teams instead.

"Well actually we're doing that, we're handing out soccer balls, and you can actually see the impact in some areas with the younger kids. All kids want candy, but when you see them and they are waving when you drive by, that's a key indicator - but only when no adults are nearby, because some of them will slap their hands down. Some areas are friendly and some are not; you'll feel it, like back in NY. When everyone scatters, something is about to go down."

After a full meal and briefing, I headed out to the vehicle to meet the section commander and his crew.

Larger size

Team Gator patrols in an Assault Amphibian Vehicle Personnel 7 (AAVP7A1), also known as an Amtrak Trak, Hog or Gator. The Iraqis call them "the Green Dragon." AAV's are big and boxy enough to wonder just how their 27 tons float, much less maneuver on water.

In the rear is a loading and unloading ramp for the 20 Marine infantry that the craft is designed to hold, but the crew typically mounts the vehicle by climbing up the sides.

My trak and the section of three vehicles as a whole were commanded by Staff Sergeant Niceforo "Joker" Mendoza, a laid-back Marine from Plano, Texas. Mendoza sits in the turret ...

... which swivels 360 degrees and houses the rig's main guns, a .50 caliber machine gun and a Mark 19 grenade launcher. His responsibility, in addition to commanding the vehicle and section, is to monitor the sides of the road for threats.

The driver, Corporal Randal "Wopper" Galan, sits on the left front of the vehicle.

In addition to operating the AAV, he's the vehicle's crew chief. During missions Galan monitors Mobile's three lanes.

"Between the two of us, not much gets by," says Mendoza.

Corporal Tommy Colvin is the third crewman, as well as the section's mechanic.

I sat behind the driver in the "troop commander's seat," traditionally the station that lets a Marine infantry commander gauge "just what his troops in the back are rolling into," explained Mendoza.

With the crews mounted and ready, the Gators rolled out of Camp Fallujah ...

... and on to the arid stretch of highway dubbed "MSR Mobile."

The highway's median is littered with smashed and broken guardrails. Earlier in the conflict, insurgents and their hires were placing IED's on the inside of the rails, making them impossible to spot without having parallel patrols cover each other from both sides of the road. Engineers took care of the problem by destroying the tempting hiding places.

Lowered into the hatch, the crew leaves snipers little-to-no target, though Mendoza jokes that he faces exposure in the turret because he's "so damn tall." 360 degrees of armored glass panes give crew members a view in front of and around the vehicle.

The search for threats is constant. Cars stopped by the side of the road are potential VBIED's. Mendoza watches their wheels for an outward turn signaling an attempted charge at the Traks. When a suicide bomber makes a run at one of his vehicles, the turret gunner on that Trak and/or another vehicle covering the Trak uses its guns to destroy the vehicle before it can close and detonate.

IED's can hide in or behind innumerable objects. While on patrol, we slowed for tires, rocks, more tires, more rocks, trash and ...

... holes made from previous IED explosions.

"One of the insurgents' favorite things to use is a hole from a previous blast. If it's in the concrete, Seabees or engineers will go out with Quikrete to seal up the hole ... so when we see a hole it makes us nervous. They'll also stuff it inside tires. Firestone must give them their tires over here, because there is rubber everywhere. We started burning dead animals because they started stuffing them with IEDS."

"Any time you can't see on the other side of something, you have to assume it's an IED. We approach slowly. If it really doesn't feel right, we stop, form the vehicles in a defensive perimeter."

Mendoza then looks through various optics to assess the threat. If one is found, an Explosive Ordinance Disposal team is called out to take care of it.

A couple of hours into the patrol, Mendoza ordered this vehicle stopped and searched along with its occupants.

"I saw two trucks and one white car. The area we were in has been prone to everything from kidnapping, to carjackings, to basic burglary. Part of our job out there is to keep the Iraqis safe as well as Coalition forces. It appeared that the occupants of the white car might have been trying to burglarize or carjack the two white trucks, and I might have pulled up to disrupt it. When we pulled up and I got closer, I saw there were four male occupants in the vehicle, which made it even more suspicious, so we just conducted what's called a "SNAP" vehicle check on them, where we block off the road and conduct a search. We pulled in tight, real tight, the way we did to combat any snipers or anybody who was watching us, to keep my guys who were on the deck (conducting the search) as safe as I could."

No weapons were found and the men were let go.

"Last month on the same road, I was actually down by the Abu Ghraib prison, and I was stopped by an Aegis convoy, which is a British civilian-run contractor. They'd just taken some small arms fire up near the Iraqi checkpoint, so we pushed up to see what was going on, we got there right after the engagement. I went to talk to the Iraqi soldiers to ... check the area out. While I was doing that, another bus had pulled up, stopped, talked to the Iraqi captain, who was able to turn around and tell me in English that some buses had gotten hijacked up the road. So we took off with the Iraqi Army captain, following his humvees to try and find these buses."

"As we got closer to the area, I saw the buses about two kilometers to the south down that road, and as I pulled up, there were five or six sedans that took off along with the buses. I was able to get the buses stopped so I could chase down some of the cars - not gonna happen in an Amtrak, they were too fast. So we went ahead and searched all the buses to make sure there were no hijackers in them. We got the buses cleared (with the Iraqi Army). (The bus drivers) were nervous about getting attacked again so we escorted them with a humvee gun truck all the way out of our area. "

"Had I not shown up, they would definitely have had some hostages, they would have robbed every single person on that bus clean. The people on that bus were from Baghdad, they were trying to make their way out of the country to Syria, so they pretty much had all of their possessions they could carry on them, including their money."

I asked him who the perpetrators were:

"The vehicles that we came on matched the vehicle descriptions of the ones that fired on the IA's (Iraqi Army), so there is no doubt they were part of an insurgent cell looking for means to get money to purchase weapons, either by straight burglary or by kidnapping individuals and holding them for ransom."

Blue sky, open hatch.

Larger image

Other than the SNAP, a brief stop for a maintenance issue and various IED checks, our patrol wound down in the early evening hours peacefully, the gators heading back towards base to meet their relief. Unfortunately a sister humvee patrol was hit by two IED's at the close of the shift, but the section escaped with rattled nerves, two concussions and superficial damage to their vehicles.

What struck me about the seven-hour patrol was how tough it was; not only from keyed up nerves that come along with looking for explosives, trying to draw small arms fire and worrying about snipers, but its discomfort (the seats are not La-Z-Boys and the trak is loud), length, tedium and temperature - the January evening in the Iraqi desert quickly became frigid. I can only imagine how uncomfortable these patrols are in the summer, especially when you consider that they lasted 12 hours on Mendoza's last deployment.

These guys work hard.

After queuing up with other vehicles for refueling ...

... the Hog was parked and the crew headed for Camp Fallujah's chow hall.

Unloading.

I then sat down with SSgt Mendoza and asked what defines a successful mission:

"Successful missions for me ... bottom line is bringing everyone back into the wire, alive, with all of their fingers and toes attached, and everything working the same way it was when we left. If I can do that, it's a successful mission for me. If I can find things, that's like bonus. And that's really what keeps us going. It's like the ultimate Easter Egg Hunt, except you're not getting candy or money out of it, it's just the satisfaction of a good day's work.

I have to go find these IED's, but I don't want to do it recklessly. Leading these guys out here looking for these IED's, and to make it successful, you really have to do two things - that's ... to trust your gut instinct and your brain, you really need to know what's going on out there. I can teach you 300 different ways to look for IED's out of textbooks, but if it doesn't feel right, then that's the best indicator of all."

I asked why he liked being a Marine:

"My favorite part about being a Marine is just being with my fellow Marines. Being with those young kids ... I call them kids, but they're men, but... they're (a little over) half my age so a lot of them were in grade school when I started out. Almost all of them were in high school when Septemer 11th happened. 90% of my Marines in my section watched the invasion of Iraq on TV, and I look back and think about Desert Storm, how I watched Desert Storm on TV - these kids are out here for a reason."

"They knew what they were getting into and I don't want to let them down."

"(I like) just being around them, being with them. Going out there every day with them. There have been a couple of times where they left the wire without me because of injury and it killed me, ate me up inside. I couldn't stand it. But both times I sat there right in that radio room, listening to that mission. I have a wife and two kids back home, that's back home. Out here I have nine young Marines who depend on me to not take them out there and get them killed."

I asked him how Fallujah is doing and how he regards the progress of his mission:

"I like to think I'm making a difference. We have to be doing something right, with how the IEDs are going down. Now, with the bad guys shooting at us? We almost invite them too, because it gives us a chance to do some killing ourselves."

"I keep hearing Fallujah is a safe haven, it's an oasis compared to what it was last year. It's such a huge change between last year and now, we must be doing something right. We're working on the security issue, but the Iraqis have to stand up and do that for themselves, as we're not gonna be here forever."

"But we'll stay as long as necessary to get the job done."

Please support citizen journalism, as you are willing and able.

If you'd prefer to donate via check, please e-mail me and I'll provide you mailing instructions. Thank you for your support.

Posted by Bill at January 6, 2007 07:10 AM | TrackBack (8)

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.indcjournal.com/cgi-bin/mt/dafrules/tapaz.cgi/2916

Comments

Great stuff.

Posted by: Donnah at January 7, 2007 12:03 PM

That is some serious hardware.

Posted by: Flea at January 7, 2007 08:40 PM

Any time you want to ride again I will be here until April. An update for you, The next day while on the same road I found an Improvised Rocket Launcher (IRL) with a 57 mm Rocket. The Improvised part was a PVC pipe set at the edge of the road and pointed at the correct angle to hit my turret. No injuries as my eagle eyes prevailed again. Take care Bill.

Posted by: Joker at January 8, 2007 11:43 AM

Thank you kindly, sir, for the lift and the offer.

Stay safe.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at January 8, 2007 01:33 PM

Bill, thanks for writing us this.

Marines, thanks for everything.

Posted by: SpaceMonkey at January 8, 2007 02:10 PM

Question: What percentage of the IED's look truly "improvised" and what percentage look "manufactured"? Indigenous or imported?

Posted by: edhesq at January 8, 2007 02:56 PM

Bill, thank you so much! God bless these guys, the salt of the earth. Thank you, United States Marines!And of course the Badgers. I pray for your safety. All of you.

Posted by: Maggie45 at January 8, 2007 03:03 PM

Thank you for this front lines report, Bill.

Posted by: AFKAF at January 8, 2007 03:41 PM

Thanks for the absolutely accurate view of how things are in that area. I was in the same AO in 2005 with a Weapons company with the same mission (MSR security but in Humvees) and was attached to the gators for two weeks. I can't see how those guys live in those things...kind of like rolling down a mountain in a dumpster with a tire fire burning inside. Keep the heat coming and stay safe, guys.

Posted by: Neil at January 8, 2007 10:30 PM

This is good stuff. I really appreciate your being out there and sending us the real skinny.

Can't say enough good things about those Marines. They are the best and I'm behind 'em 100%.

Hope they can get this thing done right and then come on home.

Posted by: Jimmy J. at January 9, 2007 12:29 AM

As a member last go around (APR - OCT 2006) of the once mentioned "sister humvee patrol", imagine my surprise upon seeing the words "Team Gator" in print anywhere.

Good Stuff, but I feel that Trax (AAV's) are perhaps *ahem* embellishing their role in patroling MSR MOBILE.

TOWS and SCOUTS are the two infantry platoons attached to Team Gator (and therefore under their control) that still patrol MSR MOBILE (according to the article and some Tracker's pained admission, no doubt). Trax are too slow, break down too much, and probably hog too much gas to effectively patrol AO Raleigh from end to end along MSR MOBILE for 6/7 hours at a time. When we were there, a combined 6 sections of TOWS and SCOUTS were out patrolling every hour of everyday in our Humvee's, while 1 or 2 sections out of a Company of Trax milled around somewhere each day (we'd see them once a week maybe).

To be fair, things could have changed and that might not be the structure anymore (it was when we left).

But I have the suspicion that Mr. Ardolino is being fed a line of huge BS from Team Gator command as to who is primarily securing MSR Mobile along one of the most IED prone stretches of highway in Iraq.

I have no problem with the Trackers, who are good guys, fellow marines, and proved themselves in serious combat with us on at least one amazing occasion. They kick tail.

But seeing credit being taken away from those who readily deserve to at least share some of it is infuriating. Team Gator Command is screwing us still.

---

I realize this sounds terribly whiny, but if it hasn't changed, these guys deserve more than to be mentioned as "sister humvee platoon" for what they are doing right now.

Posted by: Amused Grunt at January 9, 2007 01:17 AM

Sir -

1. I was not informed that Team Gator was the only unit - nor "gators" the only vehicle - that works on Mobile.

2. The patrol was 7 hours, and immediately met by a relief patrol at the end.

3. There are SCOUTS and TOWS attached to Team Gator, and they were mentioned in the interview with the CAPT, but I did not include all info, including an overall description of the make-up of the Company.

4. The intent was to cover just one slice of life patrolling Mobile.

So, no bs was fed to me - any failure in conveying the role of humvees or other elements working to keep Mobile safe, is my fault alone.

All elements deserve credit, as that's an awful tough job.

Thank you for your service.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at January 9, 2007 01:28 AM

why are Iraqis going to Syria to escape the violence in Baghdad? Why don't they just leave the city limits or go to Kuwait?

Good work, sir. Keep it up.

Posted by: Rachel at January 9, 2007 07:46 AM

Great piece!

I'd wondered about this stuff. Thanks for getting it.

Posted by: Nancy at January 9, 2007 08:27 AM

Great documentary of the mission you guys do. Rest assured, you guys are appreciated no matter what Nancy (botox) Palosi says!!!

Joe in SOUTH TEXAS!

Posted by: Joe in Texas at January 9, 2007 08:28 AM

My brother, Cpl Sasser, is over there with Team Gator. He's a driver in 3rd Platoon. I pray for the safety of The Men of Bravo daily...almost hourly. Thank you for your report on what his life is like. Keep up the good work.

Posted by: Kathy at January 9, 2007 10:38 AM

Excellent post. All I read about is the failures in the patrols. I had no idea of the complexity and how closely you monitor the street scene.

Thank you for service,

Posted by: Al at January 9, 2007 09:26 PM

my son(cpl. curtis)is currently deployed with team gator and we are grateful to you for giving us a glimpse of what part of his life is like.i hope you will keep up the good work.

Posted by: robbie at January 11, 2007 06:50 AM

Good to see how well the wars going. All the highway guard guard rail has had to be removed, the sides of the highways are littered with garbage, the economy is so screwed that civilians will plant IEDs for 5 bucks, Iraqi citizens are fleeing the country to escape the violence, US military is so short on suitable vehicles they have to patrol a highway in armored amphibious craft with tracks which must do wonders for the surface of the highway.

Well done America, way to totally fuck up a country and region even more than it was already fucked up.

Posted by: Euro at January 11, 2007 07:57 AM

Thanks for the information Bill. I'm donating again today because I appreciate getting quality information that helps me understand what the situation is like over there.

My son is patrolling in the Scout platoon in humvees. Having some information about whats going on keeps me from imagining the worst and gives me some modicum of relief.

Maybe you could revisit them later to do a "before and after The Surge" post. Thanks!

Posted by: Jim at January 11, 2007 10:09 AM

I was in from 88 - 92 and served in saudi/kuwait during Desert Storm as, you guessed it, a 1833 Amphibian Asault Crewman. Then, like these fine Marines, we were employed as armour without any amphibian opts. I see the vehicles (I can't beleive the AAVP7A1 is still in use. I thought they would be to A2 by now) and recognize the equipment. My old friends, the Ma Duce (Browning M2 0.50 cal machine gun) and the Forty Mike Mike (Mark 19 40 mm automatic grenade launcher)are still doing their jobs well. All I can say is God bless my fellow Marines. I pray for you every night brothers. Keep your powder dry and your six covered. We all want you home alive after the mission is complete. Then we will; salute, cheer and fill you with enough beer to float a battle ship. Semper Fi!

Posted by: John the Marine at January 12, 2007 01:12 PM

Oh, yeh. I just read a comment posted by "Euro". I have one thing to say to Eurotrash. Go fuck yourself you little coward piece of shit. You're probably French which means your a doulbe piece of shit. We should have left your sorry asses to the Nazis. I hope the rag heads come for all you and this time we stand by and let them kill every one of you. Need not one save (please note I refer to western continental Europe, not England and Ireland. You guys are alright.).

Posted by: John the Marine at January 12, 2007 01:24 PM

yuvsckq osxvenwiy oyqa xqkuh amzjoq cqnewyhas lbixd

Posted by: lxqm vnpdec at January 24, 2007 06:44 AM

Cool site. Thank you!

Posted by: child jump little at January 25, 2007 08:01 PM

re John the Marine's comment to Euro: where the hell does JtM get off on calling the French "cowards"? France lost a far larger portion of her male fighting-age population resisting the Germans in WWII than the US lost in all of WWII. That goes double or triple for WWI, where France, with a population a fraction of that of the United States, lost far more men in WWI than the US lost in all of WWI and WWII put together. (Over 1 million Fr. men killed in the mud of the Somme and the 9th circle of hell Verdun, and other horrendous WWI battles.) Euro's comments are all valid - using tracked AFVs for patrolling huge stretches of highway is not economical for either vehicle or highway. And finally, neither al Qaida nor Iran was in Iraq before the US "shock & awe" invasion of 2003; the US govt. is crying oceans of tears about both being in Iraq now, though they both hate each other (Al Qiada Sunni fundamentalist jihadis despise Iraqi Shiite fundy jihadis, much less Iranian Shiites, & vice versa.)
So - how much blood & treasure do we have to spend fighting those two groups (Shiite & Sunni hardliners); while allegedly "protecting" the civilians caught in the middle? And like the US Revolution, pleading "innocent civilian" is not an option: you are either for the loyalists or for the patriots, neither side will tolerate wishy-washy "innocence" when they (eventually) come patrolling through a given town or village.

And finally, Americans have nothing to teach Europeans about running colonial empires or fighting global wars; the USA defeated Germany in both wars only because the French and British "held the fort" long enough for the US to engage in WWI, and at no time in WWII did the combined US, English, (or even including Free French) armies ever face even 1/2 of the German Wermacht or Luftwaffe, both of which were tied down and bled white on the Eastern Front. Not to overlook, the nuclear physics from which the a-bomb was designed was based on "Euro" science (Fermi, Teller, Szilard, Bohr and other a-bomb pioneers were all Europeans), and America's other claim to technological glory, the Appollo moon rockets, the design teams were led by Werner von Braun's V2 German scientists!

JtM's response sounds about as reactionary and reflexive as, well, invading a nation that was no threat to its neighbors, & without having hundreds of experts speak their lingo, or even knowing the difference between Sunni & Shiite.

Other than that lecture, appreciate the reporting from 'the front' by INDC Bill.

Posted by: Verifi at January 28, 2007 11:47 AM

First of, VERIFI, if you have comments on wars and the individuals fighting in them, I believe you should have first hand experience or know the subject you are ranting about. Your comment, "...invading a nation that was no threat to its neighbors..." is dim-witted! Yes the United States is not a neighbor of Iraq, however, what was 9/11 all about other than the reasoning behind going to Iraq in the first place? The reason behind using the tracked and ARMORED vehicles is to keep our comrades safe. It is apparent that you have never been in any kind of fight let alone have something explode 10 feet from your face. The concussion alone is enough to rattle your ear drums to the point they bleed and you cannot hear for weeks. So when these bastards place EFP's (shape charges) that cut through steel like butter, soldiers/marines can live even if only to live in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives.

John the Marine....fuck yeah!!! Those pansy-ass frenchies didn't have the balls to help us out, why should we give a damn when these camel jockies start blowing up their precious home land!

Verifi: If you think the French or Europe or whatever bum-fuck place your whore mother gave birth to you from is so great, why aren't you in their fighting forces...or why aren't they helping to solve the problem in Iraq? And don't give me the excuse..."Iraq isn't a problem"...because execution isn't legal, nor is murder. How would you like it if men came to your house, pulled your mother out of bed at 2 in the morning, cut off her breasts, raped her, beat her, tortured her, then tied her to a chair in the middle of a road in town and released dogs on her that mauled her almost to the point of dying. Oh by the way these people called off the dogs only to set her on fire and release a statement that if anyone were to remove her corpse, they would be given the same death...

Your comment about there not being AQI in Iraq before 'shock and awe'...uh, who was Osama bin Laden??? AQI!!! That's Al Qaeda in Iraq...for the frenchy euro-trash MF I'm talking to. Yeah, he is Taliban...but as well, AQI. Where was he establishing networks...uh, Iraq....you should know what you are talking about, because you are obviously uninformed!!!

The last thing I have to say...if you are going to pratronize something, please know what they hell you are talking about, especially if you are some dumb ass, ignorant, dense, foolish european piece of shit!

Posted by: blow em up! at February 2, 2007 09:32 PM

Oh, yeah...I forgot...VERIFI...kiss my ass!

Posted by: blow em up! at February 2, 2007 09:40 PM

The great thing about being in the military is any differnce in opinion goes away when you are faced with a life or death struggle on a daily basis. I guess I should post some answers for the questions left by so many people from around the world so here we go.

- Improvised Explosive Device is defined by a munnition set to detonate in an other then intended manner. So with that said anyting left on the road with wires attached or a radio reciever is considered improvised. Some are more intracite then others.

- Running tracked vehicles on the road do little to no damage. We have rubber pads on each cleat and the design gives it as much pressure on the road as an SUV. Look at the pictures of the road. We have been running these streets for years and they are in better shape then those back home. By the way we fill all pot holes or blast holes when we find them. Using tracked vehicles also gives us the ability to run across open desert regardless of weather conditions. (it does rain here)

- I am not sure why they are leaving there homes and going to Syria. This culture is nomadic. I just try my best to give them a safe road to travel.

- To the Grunt who was here with Delta Co. I do not know what to tell you other then stop crying. Delta had one Plt assigned to another camp, and one Plt assigned to PTT missions. Since Bravo Co has arrived the patrol scheduel is even accross the board. and in the past four months my section has not missed a mission or had to replace a vehicle while on patrol. Does it happen, sure, it happens to all Sections. I have been called out twice to fill in for a Scout or Tow section so they could replace a truck. It is nothing to get all high and mighty about. As Marines we complete the missions we are assigned, or have you forgotten that, and the fuel tank on an AAV holds 171 gallons of fuel. In a 7 hour patrol I will go threw around 50 gallons of that covering over 100 miles in a single patrol. I know this is not great fuel mileage for those who are thinking it but we do weigh in at a lean 27 Tons. I respect the hell out of anyone who runs these roads in wheeled vehicles. After looking at the hits an AAV takes from IED'S I have a hard time finding myself getting in a truck to patrol MSR Mobile.

- Should we be here or not does not concern me. I choose to put others before myself. In a nut shell that is what military service is all about. The Iraqi people do it all the time, they help each other out and the first thing they ask is not what religion you are. If one is in need they do what they can to help. When was the last time for no reason you offered to tow someone off the highway because there car broke down. Everyone around the world should try putting someone else befor themselves for a change. That simple task would do wonders.

- Lastley thanks for all the support we get from everyone. The Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen really do appreciate the support.

I do not have all the answers, even with 13 years of service and multiple tours to Iraq. I just do what I can while I can. The ones who want us here show it every time we stop horrifying things from happening. Those who want to return to a country were people are taken away and never seen from again can meet me anytime. I am the good looking guy in the big AAV on Mobile.

Semper FI

Posted by: Joker at February 6, 2007 01:34 PM

This is an excellent and sobering journal on the dangers all of you face every day.

Bless all of you for your service to America!

Posted by: charles cozic at February 8, 2007 12:22 PM

I am glad to have discovered this site. It's like an o-club or nco club. People can exchange war stories, gripe or whatever.

The only criteria that seems to count here is whether the contributor makes any sense!

God bless you all from a retired squid.

Posted by: PJ at April 13, 2007 09:12 AM