Saturday - August 28, 2004

The Front Lines

Hi I’m SSg Mike ********, from Fort Myers, FL, serving with the 82nd Airborne out in Iraq. I’m 29, unmarried, and have been proud to serve in the US Army since I left Bishop Verot High School. Like all paras, I keep jumping out of good aeroplanes, so I figure I’m kinda nuts. My personal motto is “Proud to fight, fight to win”.

We’re out in Al Anbar Province, west of Baghdad. It includes a bunch of names you’ve probably heard of, like Fallujah and Ramadi. We call it The Badlands. Most every day some towelhead hero is using us for target practice. Sometimes we lose a guy, and often someone gets injured. Sometimes we can’t hit back, for operational reasons. But if the officers do let us get up close and personal, the towelhead dies. Nobody messes with the “All-American” if they want to collect their pension.

Not that it’s a healthy place for us. Living in pup tents in some goddam desert, nothing as far as the eye can see. One of the guys from Utah says it’s just like home, except you can’t buy a beer and there’s no Burger King.

There’s a sandstorm at the moment, so at least the jeehaadis can’t see us.

Not that we can see anything either. It’s like a dark orange fog that tastes like metal. It gets everywhere, into your clothes, hair, food, bedding.

Still, you shouldn’t join Uncle Sam’s army if you can’t take a joke.

What’s not a joke is the way we’re not allowed to fight properly. Look how we had to back out of Fallujah before the job was done. Now the same thing with that Al Sadr in his mosque. They should have sent in the 82nd. Why?

Here’s a clue. Paras are deadly-accurate riflemen and I guarantee they’ll hit every jeehaadi – our kill-ratio exceeds rockets. That's right! Two reasons. One, we are trained marksmen and we carry close-combat optics on our rifles; anyone comes within range of us and fires, we can quickly target them and take them out. Second, we like to get up close and personal. Not like helicopters and tanks shooting from a mile away, they don’t know what they’re hitting, enemy, empty buildings, could be anything. We are trained to operate in risky situations with minimum equipment, so we go in to 200 yards or less, where we can see their eyes, that is until we make their face explode. Like I said, we would have taken that mosque 2 weeks ago.

Guys, we really appreciate all the support we get from people like you back home. Kinda makes a change from all those whining peace hippies. My Bishop Verot Vikings coach always used to say “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. Should have added “And the girlies start crying”. So we appreciate the patriotic support from sites like yours, and the emails, and the parcels. It keeps reminding us that we represent the greatest country in the world. That’s how every United States soldier usually can keep smiling.

Thanks, guys!

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/28/2004 at 06:14 AM   
Filed Under: • War-Stories •  
• Comments (13) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner