3/2 Stryker Brigade
 

Just a shameless plug.

The book "My War : Killing Time in Iraq" by Colby Buzzell. A quick and dirty read. He takes his influences from Hunter S. Thompson and Vonnegut and it shows in his writing. Wouldn't bring this up, but my son is mentioned on page 186 (or is that 184?).

First of the new army: Fast, Mobile, Armoured and Surgical. My son goes back to Iraq with the 3/2 in June. They were the first of this new breed of soldiering. Buzzell was in my sons platoon on the first deployment...

Damn, but he left out the part about my son falling down a well in the middle of the night while they were sweeping a field en route to getting some bad guys "hey, where's netherton? hey? he was just here?"

Glen

Glen, just said a prayer for your son and the efforts of all our men. Thank him for us for the service.

ditto from me, you know I wish your son wasn't going back, once should be enough, but give him our blessings and thanks from the tinker clan.


Ed

Glen, You son was probably safer down the well, than sweeping a mine field. TH

Nothing shameful about bragging on your kid. And now he's got something to tell his grand kids. "I was the only Tunnel Rat in Iraq!". Falling down a well in Vietnam would have been considered a tactical maneuver. :D

Best of luck to your Son. And all other Sons and Daughters over in that stink hole.

RS

He told us a lot of funny stories when he'd call home. Many of them ended up in the book. My daughter (Tom, you may recall when we visited that we were on our way to Ft Leonard Wood to see her graduate), has been in New Orleans since the day Katrina hit -- they mobilized her unit 24 hours before the storm made landfall -- what's this slow to respond crap?. She'd rather be back in Afghanistan, she said. But she's stuck in Orleans until February.

We went ashore into a village one time to check for contraband. I was walking behind a Gunnersmate , who was carrying a 12ga pump gun. I had an M-14.

He suddenly stopped and looked back at me wide-eyed. He pointed down toward his feet and mouthed the words spider hole. I kneeled and aimed at the spot between his feet. He stepped back and with the muzzle of the 12ga, flipped the lid off. He shoved the muzzle into the hole and started racking rounds and firing.

After he had emptied the shotgun. I stuck the muzzle of the M-14 into the hole and peeked in. It was a hole about 2' deep full of shredded chickens. The villagers had put their chickens in the hole to hide them before they left the village.

The Gunnersmate was from then on, known as Col. Sanders. :)

You can occassionaly find humor in the worst of situations. It's what keeps us sane.