And the rest of the story...maybe

So what did I do for the rest of the three weeks while I was there? Good question.

The next few days were filled with the necessary tasks of setting up a command post and operating base for many dozens of soldiers. My job was to help when nobody was on the radio, but primarily to send and receive radio traffic so we had a good idea of where and when our soldiers were. Our primary concerns included food and water status and resupply of both. The heat and distances between units made resupply an enormous priority. The second day one of the companies went out and bought some food from the locals. Otherwise, our supply system ran fairly well and we were able to resupply food and water without issue.

I had duty from 09:00 to 21:00. I usually arrived just after 8 o'clock, however, to make sure I was keyed in to all the events and tasks from the night before. I didn't leave, usually, until after 10 PM so I could fill in the Night Battle Captain of the day's events and tasks. I then walked the few feet to my bed (a cot, thankfully) and slid into my sleeping bag and off to sleep. No here is where it gets weird: I got cold. Yes, I woke up shivering many nights around 4:30 AM. The air conditioner ran all day, every day and was very effective at night. I did every thing I could to trap heat and keep the AC out of my bag. I never could understand people being cold in Iraq, but I get it now. It was, and still is, one of the most disconcerting things to happen to me here.

I ate MREs. I shaved with a water bottle's worth of water (1.5L). I did not do laundry, although I sweated every single day-- even while sitting in the tent with AC listening to radios and trying not to move. The sweat just ran down my brow, legs, and arms. You may have heard, I took one (1) shower for those 3 weeks. I did have clean socks and undershirts. We all must have smelled something fierce!

Two weeks into the operation, someone got the bright idea to do another air assault to a nearby town. Despite my misgivings, we did it anyway. This time I was no the ground convoy, still in charge of radio traffic. Upon arrival in 30th Tamuz, a small village of about 60 houses, we set up shop in what looks like something from the Southwest-- a large dirt courtyard with rooms opening onto it. We sleep on cots again and sweated even worse because this time we had no AC. For the first two days I was on Benadryl which made me delirious and tired. (I had a bug bite that was infected. Eventually, we squeezed three balls of pus and one ball of black blood out of it. I think that is bad. I'm fine now, though, so no need to worry.) I stopped the Benadryl for the next two days and continued to sit in the shade and sweat.

We went back to our first command post. I found that my cot had been hijacked so I took a stretcher and slept on it for the next few nights. It was actually very comfortable. And then the madness began.

We were supposed to do this entire operation with the support of the Iraqi Army. Right. Long story short, the IA was supposed to arrive one day, but the US advisors said they wouldn't arrive for two weeks!!! Unsat. Especially since we sent over half of our forces back in anticipation for the arrival of the Iraqi Army. Two days later, unbeknownst to the advisors, the IA arrived in force and we conducted handover and got the heck out of there. Phew, I am glad that is over.

Remind me to tell you about the house we stayed in the first day.

Pictures will follow this post.