So here for my second update, sorry I havn’t been writing a lot it seems like I rarely have enough time off to write anything. So I’m still here….truckin along with my platoon. Things are well, just working hard in our area doing what we can for the Iraqi Police the Army and the local sub-district governments. The last couple weeks we have had a couple interesting missions.
Something that most people probably do not know about in this country is the SOIz, I think I mentioned them before in the last posting. I will break down pretty much what they are. 2 years ago the US realized they had 2 problems. One was that they were getting blown up in every village they went to, the other was on the opposite side of that, they had no one to protect the villages that were getting blown up too. So they decided to create the Sons of Iraq. They, up until this point, are a US funded organization. So basically what they CF (Coalition Forces) did was go into these towns and hired damn near everyone to protect it. They get paid about 250 a month to pretty much sit on checkpoints with AK47s and protect/be there when people come to emplace bombs.
What is happening with the organization right now is that US is no longer funding it. SOIz are going from US run to Iraqi Government run. Some 20% of the SOI soldiers will be absorbed into the Iraqi Army and serve with them. The rest will go under Iraqi Army command and pretty much be like a sub branch of their Army. So what my platoon has been doing over the past couple weeks is paying out the SOI contracts for the US government. This is a joint operation between us and the Iraqi Army. What we do is pretty much line the guys up, check there names by their forms of identification and then pay them the last amounts.
Here is the problem; the SOI and Iraqi Army do not necessarily get a long so there has been a lot of mistreating of SOI soldiers going on. We have to watch them carefully during these “transfers” as we call them. But the facts still are there, in a couple months we won’t have anything to do with the SOIz anymore and they will be under orders from the Iraqi Government. The other problem is that we don’t know for 100% sure that the Iraqi Government is even going to pay these SOIz soldiers down the road. They have said they are going to…but you can pretty much take that word at will. As they say over here “In shalla”. It means “God willing” so they don’t really make any solid plans per say. Everything is God willing it will happen. Its pretty damn frustrating to me to tell you the truth. But anyways the big risk there is that if the Iraqi Government doesn’t pay these people…they go back to the street and guess where they will get paid from….yep.
So basically if the Iraqi Government reneges on their agreement about 30,000 people just in the Kirkuk Province that used to be hired by terrorists will be back jobless and not protecting the villages. So the next couple months are going to be very interesting.
I have met some interesting soldiers here so far. I am collecting their patches and their beret pins to put in a shadow box when I get back. I trade them something for them or give them $5 or something. They are normally pretty agreeable as long as I pull money out. We have been training the Iraqi Army platoons and stuff lately. I have some pretty cool pictures with my soldiers training the Iraqi soldiers and also some funny videos of them trying to clear rooms and stuff. Its great. I am trying to think of something original from the states to get a couple of the big wigs that I work with on a regular basis but havn’t come up with anything yet. So if you think of something post it in your comment at the bottom.
My towns are doing well for now, we are just working on projects with them. Our platoon is currently accountable for about a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of contracts….that’s a weird feeling let me tell you. No real violence going on so that’s always good news. I did meet the biggest Iraqi I have ever met the other day. He is an Iraqi Police officer in one of my towns. I would say 95% of people here are smaller than I am, but this guy looks Samoan or something, he is huge. I have a picture of him and as soon as I figure out how to post pictures on this thing I will do it. I have over a thousand pictures already just from random crap we are doing.
Well I need to get some sleep. On a serious note though, as much as the whole SOIz transfer is touchy here and could end up blowing up in our face it is pretty cool to be such a big part of it. This is one of those things that I think our kids will be reading about in history books in 15 years and I will have pictures and video of the transfers actually happening.
I’m doing fine though so don’t worry about me. I keep myself busy all the time. I just recently started making friends with some other LT’s in another Battalion. Its nice to have someone to converse with that really don’t have anything to do with your job. I have gotten several packages from you guys that really mean a lot to me. Mail Call is like xmas every day. I miss everyone and I cant wait to see yall in August (hopefully).
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Saturday, February 21, 2009
First Update
Hello everyone, im glad that I finally got this up and running. I know that everyone has been emailing me asking me what I have been doing and now I can finally update yall without sending out a hundred emails to do it.
So I made it to Iraq. I am stationed at FOB Warrior in Kirkuk Iraq. So far things are going well. My platoon is spending ALL of our time getting to know our new battle space for the remainder of the deployment. My platoon is responsible for a pretty large battle space. We have two sub-districts, which are like city councils, and about 70 or 80 villages. We are also paired with an Iraqi Army Battalion that is currently training up to stand on its on two feet. At this point in time we are responsible for training and patrolling with the Iraqi Army unit...which can be challenging at times. The language barrier does not pose as much of a problem as you might think. I have 3 interpreters assigned to my platoon, all which are very good at their job.
I have met so many interesting people here I do not know where to start. In my biggest Sub-district I have kinda a mafia thing going on. The mayor is the head of the clan, his name is John. Little back round on him, he was targeted by a VBIED (vehicle born improvised explosive device) about a year ago. He was in the hospital for several months but made it out with minimal burns on his face and the loose of his left arm. He is an interesting person though, he has 5 wives and 20 kids. (how about that Meghan, I'm not so crazy wanting 5). The most amazing thing about this country and its culture is the extent of their generosity. When we walk in the door, we our the guests in their house and anything that we want is offered to us. Its very nice but also imposes a sort of guilt after a few visits. You can tell the people who like you because they will offer you more things. We drink Chi Tea a lot. It is their favorite drink over here. Served hot in these mini glass cups with a small spoon and a ton of sugar at the bottom. Its said the faster you drink the team the more of a man you are (since its served so hot).
The head city council man for that sub district is Mr. Bob, who is John's brother. He is mainly the go getter in the town, more on the business side though. He works very hard for the furtherment of the community.
Then the most interesting character is COL LEE. He is like the head hit man for the mafia. He is in charge of the security of their whole sub-district but is known pretty well all throughout the area. He carries this little stick around, its more like a third of a broom stick and if any of his soldiers get out of line, he beats the mess out of them. The first time I saw it I wasn't sure what to do. One soldier made a joke about another's mother and that's all it took. It was pretty interesting. Col Lee is a SOIz contractor (Sons of Iraq), pretty much hired mercenaries or old terrorists that the US now pays for "security" but more or less we are paying them to not try and kill us. Its actually weird because it does work pretty well. Only the US is transferring over authority over the SOIz to the Iraqi Gov in like 2 months and there is no guarantee that they are going to pay them....so we will see what that brings. The Col has about 875 soldiers under his command and is pretty much my biggest work horse. Any time I need something, I give him a call and he gets right on it. Same goes for him, he calls my cell phone at odd hours needing very specific things and we don't really ask questions, it just gets done. He has become a pretty good friend though, he gave me this weird little gold necklace in the shape of Iraq and some earrings for Meghan. I have to get him something in return so if you have any idea's let me know.
In that sub-district we have to projects on-going right now. They are two tech-schools. One is a construction school and the other is an agricultural school. I check up on them every week and make sure they are getting paid, getting the right materials but most of all i cross reference all their invoices that they submit and we pay for with what they are actually using. The construction project is actually pretty good, for Iraqi construction anyways. The students enjoy working and they will get a little certificate stating they are certified to build or do repairs or something. Not a bad deal but the problem is not being qualified to do the jobs its actually having the industry to work.
Well that looks like enough for my first update...glad you stopped by to read. I miss everyone and cant wait to get home. When I get internet in my room I will try and post some pictures to go along with the info.
So I made it to Iraq. I am stationed at FOB Warrior in Kirkuk Iraq. So far things are going well. My platoon is spending ALL of our time getting to know our new battle space for the remainder of the deployment. My platoon is responsible for a pretty large battle space. We have two sub-districts, which are like city councils, and about 70 or 80 villages. We are also paired with an Iraqi Army Battalion that is currently training up to stand on its on two feet. At this point in time we are responsible for training and patrolling with the Iraqi Army unit...which can be challenging at times. The language barrier does not pose as much of a problem as you might think. I have 3 interpreters assigned to my platoon, all which are very good at their job.
I have met so many interesting people here I do not know where to start. In my biggest Sub-district I have kinda a mafia thing going on. The mayor is the head of the clan, his name is John. Little back round on him, he was targeted by a VBIED (vehicle born improvised explosive device) about a year ago. He was in the hospital for several months but made it out with minimal burns on his face and the loose of his left arm. He is an interesting person though, he has 5 wives and 20 kids. (how about that Meghan, I'm not so crazy wanting 5). The most amazing thing about this country and its culture is the extent of their generosity. When we walk in the door, we our the guests in their house and anything that we want is offered to us. Its very nice but also imposes a sort of guilt after a few visits. You can tell the people who like you because they will offer you more things. We drink Chi Tea a lot. It is their favorite drink over here. Served hot in these mini glass cups with a small spoon and a ton of sugar at the bottom. Its said the faster you drink the team the more of a man you are (since its served so hot).
The head city council man for that sub district is Mr. Bob, who is John's brother. He is mainly the go getter in the town, more on the business side though. He works very hard for the furtherment of the community.
Then the most interesting character is COL LEE. He is like the head hit man for the mafia. He is in charge of the security of their whole sub-district but is known pretty well all throughout the area. He carries this little stick around, its more like a third of a broom stick and if any of his soldiers get out of line, he beats the mess out of them. The first time I saw it I wasn't sure what to do. One soldier made a joke about another's mother and that's all it took. It was pretty interesting. Col Lee is a SOIz contractor (Sons of Iraq), pretty much hired mercenaries or old terrorists that the US now pays for "security" but more or less we are paying them to not try and kill us. Its actually weird because it does work pretty well. Only the US is transferring over authority over the SOIz to the Iraqi Gov in like 2 months and there is no guarantee that they are going to pay them....so we will see what that brings. The Col has about 875 soldiers under his command and is pretty much my biggest work horse. Any time I need something, I give him a call and he gets right on it. Same goes for him, he calls my cell phone at odd hours needing very specific things and we don't really ask questions, it just gets done. He has become a pretty good friend though, he gave me this weird little gold necklace in the shape of Iraq and some earrings for Meghan. I have to get him something in return so if you have any idea's let me know.
In that sub-district we have to projects on-going right now. They are two tech-schools. One is a construction school and the other is an agricultural school. I check up on them every week and make sure they are getting paid, getting the right materials but most of all i cross reference all their invoices that they submit and we pay for with what they are actually using. The construction project is actually pretty good, for Iraqi construction anyways. The students enjoy working and they will get a little certificate stating they are certified to build or do repairs or something. Not a bad deal but the problem is not being qualified to do the jobs its actually having the industry to work.
Well that looks like enough for my first update...glad you stopped by to read. I miss everyone and cant wait to get home. When I get internet in my room I will try and post some pictures to go along with the info.
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