Fresh Meat (and pictures!)

Me and Abu Zeckie, one of my interpreters, baking in the sun.

Been talking a lot about the bad and the frustrating recently, thought I'd try to hit some good stuff.

There is a new US unit I work with now. They are getting accustomed to the new area and doing discovery learning. It is a bit frustrating, as they ask a lot of questions, assume the worst of everything at times (as they should), and overly react to most instances. But that's ok, we did the same thing until we got our legs under us. The good part is that they bring a fresh perspective to the game, and they have already started to change a few things for the better. I have good hopes for many of the ideas; they are changing some of the things I didn't agree with that the old unit did. Those guys were great Americans, too- so far I have lucked out with coalition units. What is notable is that the new unit is a national guard unit, and they bring a different mentality to the area. Most of their soldiers are citizens who are policemen, firemen, business owners and employees on top of soldiers. They are older, which physically isn't a great thing, but this isn't an overly physical fight anymore. Their maturity and different approaches to problem solving is refreshing.

Our IA unit is taking a bunch of bad things off the street like this:

The IA brings the stuff they find back here. The problem is they let it pile up on our compound. The IA does not have any Explosive Ordinance Disposal units trained in our area, so they rely on Coalition. Where they found the 250kg bombs I have no idea, but there was a bunch of IEDs ready to go, frags, mortar rounds, and homemade explosive by the 5-gallon cans. A lot of it is stuff left over from the 2006-2007 civil/sectarian war, but it's still dangerous. In my first couple of months here, we got rid of a bunch of stuff, but they have been busy and found a bunch more bad stuff, including this:

It is a suicide vest. Homemade explosives and ball bearings. How anyone could be manipulated to strap on one of these is beyond me. But, we got a tip on this one last week, we did a raid and here's the results.

I'd love to be an EOD guy. Call me crazy, but I have always had a fascination with blowing stuff up. That's all our current EOD team does-- they go out every day and blow up stuff people find. And they get paid. I have to say if I was single with no attachments, I would resign my commission and enlist as an EOD guy.

I have even enjoyed progress with my Iraqi Brigade Commander. I figured out that instead of telling him what to do, I ask questions that help him draw his own conclusions. Getting him to commit to anything past a week is the current challenge. He is easily distracted by lots of flashy things. He has lots of ideas, but has trouble following through with them. At least it gives me something to do for the next couple of months.

That's about it. Hope you are well, and thanks for reading.

Ron