Thread: FID Iraq
View Single Post
Old 04-28-2006, 19:57   #3
Crue
Asset
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: NJ
Posts: 51
I think we are about as embedded as you can be. Our COP is actually a bunch of Iraqi houses with a HESCO perimeter. I live in a house that has a joint US/IA COC. Some of the other team members live in houses with the jundies. At first I was a big advocate of having our own team house but it just did not work out that way, so we live/eat/ socialize among the troops 24/7. Its actually pretty funny when a non team member comes around we all sit around and talk thier ear off because we are all happy to see a new face around. A lot of the soldiers I know just about as well as I knew some of my Marines. We thought the whole culture issue would be a huge thing but it has really turned into a non-issue (save the social class issue).There are some religious ones but soldiers are soldiers the world over and a lot of the bull sessions I have with them just degenerate into the same type of conversations soldiers have been having since the time of the Romans, ie booze, women, and stupid officers.
Some of us have picked up a passable amount of Arabic, that gets us through basic planning/patrolling though a lot of the more in depth things require the use of terps.
The Bn I am with actually has thier own battle space, actually thier whole Brigade does. So to me it is not as if we are using them to further any policy of our own. Everyone on the team has been here at least twice and dont look forward to comming back so it is in our self intrest to get these guys to fight this insurgency on thier own. They do all the planning, they work thier own intell, mission planning, etc. We work the fire support, urgent medevacs, and step in when things look like they are going get friendlies killed. Basically we just push them to gain and maintain contact with the enemy. My main focus right now is trying to empower the NCOs, once we crack that nut I really things will drastically improve.

Sorry if this post was disjointed probably filled with bad grammer and spelling. I am on radio watch right now and it is late, and I just had to get a few things out there before I hit the rack. I will try to fill out some more details and sitreps (if anyone is intrested) as I get more time.
Crue is offline   Reply With Quote