Soldier's Diary/The Last 24 Hours In Iraq

[HeavyLift]

i told you guys of our bird that had its legs ripped off...well here is a picture of what it looks like during the day...lucky it was a clean break...

travis

[goschbrandon]

Great stuff, keep the pics coming . My grandpa got a kick out of the pics when I showed him- he did 3 tours in Vietnam and enjoyed comparing his experiences (ie: "we had to make our own toilets" when he saw the portajohns ). He said the mess hall and portable PX are pretty much the same though. Chappysfj40, is that a Seabee patch in the pic with you in a hardhat?

Stay safe over there!

[chappysfj40]

yesit is, i am the lone seabee here at our Iraqe base, gets pretty darn frestrating to see the wat construction is done by the locals when you know there is a much easier way and safer way to do thing, but hey its there country....
Take care

[chappysfj40]

Here is a good example of Iraqi engineering. hahhaah

1st is of Iraqi soilder ties to crane hook to get him up higher.
2nd pic Iraqi soilder is on top of a WRETCH forklift with a ladder to reach higher

Amazing stuff
You cant make this S**T up.........
Cheers

[landcrusher909]

Randy, we got the email thanks its very cool. things here are busy but we are all doing good. for everyone who has sent me a pm things will be out next week sorry it took so long. well i have to get to work you all have a safe day and keep the post coming

[HawkDriver]

Hey Rob,

I got your box of apple slices yesterday. Thanks man. All the guys dug in and enjoyed all of the goodies. The 'there and back' cd you made friggin rawks man. What a great collection of old timer cruiser pics. Do you have that available on the site here somewhere? Everyone would get a real kick out of it. We are going to try the popcorn on the blades out on the flight line to see if we can get it to pop lol.

I'll get some more pics up when I can get this damn govt computer to cooperate with me. We've been out of internet at the rooms for weeks now.

Thanks again man.

[landcrusher909]

Originally Posted by HawkDriver

Hey Rob,

. We are going to try the popcorn on the blades out on the flight line to see if we can get it to pop lol.



Thanks again man.

Very Cool . we are glad things made it ok. it seems like its taking longer to get stuff over there to you all. anyway we are all very interested to know how you pop jiffy pop and we are looking forward to the pictures . Keep safe and our best to you and those serving with you. the rest of you mudders out there will have your jiffy pop headed your way soon its been busy here. sorry for the delay. and yes i have tried to post the There and Back Again slide show but i cant get it to work so the only copies are being shipped over there feel free to make copies if you can. Thanks again

[HawkDriver]

Cool man, I finally got these pics uploaded to this computer. Here's my box of apple slices lol. Some of the guys digging in.

Thanks again so much man.

[HawkDriver]

Alright, here's a few pictures for you guys.

That's pretty crazy that you guys ripped off your landing gear in an LZ. We've had our share of landing gear problems here lately. A month or so ago, just after lifting off at about 100 kts I had my LH MLG strut exploded. I thought we had been hit by something cuz it was so loud. We came back in and hovered for about 45 minutes while my maintenance guy disassembled the thing and set us down on some stacked up ply wood. Some cool pictures I gotta dig up for you guys. Then my buddy ran over a belt of 7.62 rnds from his door gun and popped his main tire. Then the tail wheel popped on another one of my buddies. I think it might just be all the extreme heat and shit around here.

Oh man, reminds me of the last time I was here, we were way up north in the Kurdistan area being escorted by a flight of 2 Apaches hauling some dignitaries back down. Well just after we picked em up we saw that the trail Apache was missing his whole tail landing gear part. We found it on the runway and called em and told em. They had to fly the 2 hours back to Kirkuk immediately. Had a good pic of me holding it, it was funny.

One more landing gear story real quick from last tour. For some reason these guys from a unit out of Balad air base had some sort of tail strut problem and decided to one time fly it back to their base. Well they had used a cargo ratchet strap to hold the strut up in flight. They wrapped it over the top of the gear box cover and under the strut. Well in flight it worked it's way into the gap between the drive shaft cover and the gear box cover and began to ride on the drive shaft. Well as they were on approach the drive shaft failed and they lost control and slammed it in pretty good. Ended up knocking the whole tail boom off and I'm pretty sure it was a total write off. Some of the bonehead shit you see around here. Like chappy says, "you can't make this shit up". HAHAA.

So here's a couple of pics that I know the chinook lovers will enjoy. The traditional hawk being slung by the all mighty CH47. This was the aircraft that my buddies were flying when they got shot down by heavy machine gun fire. They fought a fire on board and had to land single engine in a field. Only one of the passengers took a bullet but they did a number on the aircraft and the inside was pretty scorched. Their sister ship came in and picked up that crew and passengers. I am so glad that my boys all made it out of it alive. It was a pretty close one. I tell ya, I'm in the company of heroes here, the best bunch of guys.

[HawkDriver]

A couple more. I took a trip down to Kuwait last month. This is the border of Kuwait and Iraq, there are 3 huge trenches dug and a lot of fence along the border. This is one of the trenches.

Some camels.

Hawk shadow taking off from Crossed Sabers in the green zone down town Baghdad.

[HawkDriver]

A blown 55 Land Cruiser.

Junk yard on Taji where I live. There are a bunch of different yards here with all kinds of tanks and vehicles and shit that have been dragged in from all over hell. It's crazy to walk around and see the remnants of a defeated military.

Just another truck that's been sitting here since the war.

[chappysfj40]

holy cow hawk that is some crazy stuff, i remember when we flew into taji on chinooks we had to fire off the flares and return fire at something, that was day one in iraq for me, lololol what a eye opener,hahaha... then while i did my time and death by power point i too went that that same junk yard, you may reconize this pic.
Enjoy guys and thanks again
cheers chappy

[beaufort-fj60]

is that a DUKW off to the right of the fj55 pick?

[KliersLC]

Looks like it....

[IronYuppy]

Originally Posted by KliersLC

Looks like it....

That's what I was thinking...

having a DUKW in the middle of the desert might shed some insight into why they lost.

[Window]

Originally Posted by chappysfj40

hi ya all again, here is a couple of the Aussies 80's, pretty cool trucks, if you thought they were heavy before you should see them now, WOW. armor........
They teach the national police teams here. Great bunch of guys, We had a BBQ with them last night and what a time that was. Talk at you all soon

cheers

look like a couple of the 100 series rigs.

So what do you think of the aussies? Get to play cricket at all?

Good luck with everything you are doing over there.

[PacToy]

070812

Sorry about the delay in posting to this thread. We have definitely had a good spell at catching the bad guys in the last 2 weeks. Not only are the Marines understanding the odd things, the not so odd things, and what should and should not be happening in our AO, the Iraqis have really been a big help with our success as a whole.

We are in a pretty good groove now. We have got a good working relationship with the Iraqis we train and work with and it feels good.

Our AO is shaping up a lot. It is good to see things getting better and better in this part of Al Anbar. A lot of work still ahead of us though. We just keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep doing what is right.

Today has been an admin day with the mail and mobile PX coming to our COP. The Lt got promoted, we went and destroyed a bunch of seized gun powder and propellant that was associated with “suicide vests”, then did a quick range shoot for a little relief. Now the team is BBQing some steaks and burgers, smoking cigars and listening to Johnny Cash, Skynard and Metallica on a iPod. It is not a whole lot of excitement per se but for us, it has been a good day and the morale of the team is high.

I would like to give a shout out to my brothers and sister and my little niece Mikayla. We are doing good and I hope to see you all soon.

1st pic) I ready the gun powder and propellant for disposal. I was in the one in charge of the disposal of the powder as that is part of my MOS. No big concerns lighting off loose powder though.

2nd pic) Boom! There she goes. Good stand off, no fragmentation pieces and a well placed tracer worked pretty well.

3rd pic) Pic of me getting some trigger time relief.

[G8RMANJAX]

Hiya Brotherman....

Great to see another post. So glad you are doing well, and everyone's moral is great... Keep Kicking that A**!!!

It was so great to get to talk to you a few weeks ago... The whole family was... "guess what... I heard from Randy". Then the other would say "so did I, see you aren't the only one that is special". We can't wait for you to get back.

Mikayla is doing well, getting ready to start kindergarten next week, she has been so excited about it. She sure does miss her Uncle Randy... everyday it's daddy can we see if Uncle Randy sent me some more pictures. Then when she sees the post and sees her name, she gets excited. Look daddy, there is my name.... I can't wait to get home tonite, knowing that I have already seen them at work today.

I love you and am super proud of you!!!! Stay safe and watch your six.

The eldest of the Rodney Clan,
Mike

[73fj]

Originally Posted by PacToy

070812




3rd pic) Pic of me getting some trigger time relief.

My dad would be hollerin..." PICK UP ALL YOUR BRASS! "

Stay safe.

[tomatopants]

If anyone needs ANYTHING over there, send me a PM with your APO address, and I'll send it to you.


Food, drinks, etc.

No Land Cruisers. Lawl.

Towels, pillows, blankets, just let me know.

[mminter1973]

Originally Posted by tomatopants

If anyone needs ANYTHING over there, send me a PM with your APO address, and I'll send it to you.


Food, drinks, etc.

No Land Cruisers. Lawl.

Towels, pillows, blankets, just let me know.

I am stationed in Kuwait and we need very bad

How many Kegs can you send?

[tomatopants]

Originally Posted by mminter1973

I am stationed in Kuwait and we need very bad

How many Kegs can you send?

My grandma sends tons of stuff over there, but was always told alcohol was not okay.


However, if you want me to track down a home brewing kit, they never said anything about shipping them.....

[landcrusher909]

great stories and pictures everyone, Randy SnT would be great but take care of family first. Hawk thanks for the pics and pm the family dug it. the rest of you guys things are getting packed up after Hawk mentioned the There and Back Again cd i made more copies so for all the boxes. Heavy and Chappy hope you like old school off roading LOL anyway you all stay safe and write when you can . one question for Chappy "size does matter' well looks to us like one of those new fancy implants. Thanks for your service

[mminter1973]

Originally Posted by tomatopants

My grandma sends tons of stuff over there, but was always told alcohol was not okay.


However, if you want me to track down a home brewing kit, they never said anything about shipping them.....

I was just kidding man. I can do without for 6 more months