Update on my imminent departure
As I previously posted, I am in the middle of something called a RIP/TOA, or Relief in Place/Transfer of Authority with a National Guard unit out of Kentucky. They are here to take over my unit’s job, and we couldn’t be any happier to see them!
They seem like a decent group of guys, but I can see already they are going to have some issues. First, they didn’t follow our advise from when we first started talking to them months ago and brought WAY to many Chiefs and not nearly enough Indians. In their group of thirty, they have no less than two lieutenant colonels, five majors, four captains, two sergeants major and two master sergeants. I think they have only one private. That’s way too many thinkers and not nearly enough doers.
The two U.S. Army bases in Mosul got hit hard last night - harder than we normally see. I’m not actually in Mosul, just nearby, so I didn’t experience any of the carnage. It was a combined mortar and small-arms fire attack and resulted in several U.S. wounded. Normally, you only see a couple of rockets or mortars, but this was a full-on barrage. I’d rather not give numbers until it’s reported in the media.
Because Mosul is nearby, we ratched it up our security a bit, but didn’t overdue it. We were already on a higher state of alert because of Ramadan, so we were already ready to go. The insurgents in the area are using Ramadan as a good excuse to attack Coalition forces and those that support them, so we had to be prepared.
Something new on this base is some pro-Saddam propaganda that showed up on a street sign along our main street. It was painted to look like one of our Arabic street signs, but in fact, talked about how Saddam was the true messenger of peace and how someday Muslims would rule Jerusalem. The only reason we English-speakers even knew about it is because one of our interpreters pointed it out to us. Needless to say, the sign didn’t stay up very long after that.
Speaking of interpreters, one of the interpreters who works specifically for my unit was attacked by terrorists yesterday. His car was shot up pretty badly, although he survived the assault without being injured. Needless to say, he’s pretty shook up and we’ve allowed him to stay on the base for awhile.
Iraq is still a very dangerous place to be - for both Americans and Iraqis.
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