38. Flashes from Explosions

Written: April 29th and May 1st, 2003

Tuesday, April 29th
Woke up at 0700z. Hung out again. Didn’t do much other than fill water jugs for the company and gather more walkways for our tent area. We have spent many of our days scavenging the airfield for things that will be useful to build our new home. We use everything from parts boxes to old aircraft walkways. We have now gathered enough material to make a walkway that goes through our small camp. It is nice because it keeps our boots out of the dirt (and maybe one day, out of the mud if it ever rains).

Played X-Box with Alpha company for a while. We played Halo. Great game.

Today they said that we have switched roles from Combat to Stability operations. I guess that means that we have won the war and will now work to help the population? We were also told that there will soon be some Iraqi Freed Fighters who will move back onto this base. Not sure what they will do or how we will work together, but it is interesting that those who we were fighting just a few weeks ago will now be our allies and will work with us on some level.

LT Karkalik showed up today. He flew up with Sam and CPT Hester who returned from Doha (they had a mission to fly some deceased soldiers to Doha). John Selby returned from Doha but without a t.v. Damn. This is getting frustrating. We have this X-Box all ready to play, but no t.v. to use it with. We were told that AAFES would be set up in 2 days here, I bet we can get them to bring a t.v. up here for us to buy. It will just take a while.

Because the threat is diminishing, we no longer have to carry our protective masks any more. They have to be within 10 minutes of us.

Fred flew down to Udairi today. Chad and Randy flew 2 bodies to Doha. Apparently the bodies that Sam and CPT Hester flew to Kuwait yesterday were Iraqi bodies and not the correct bodies that were supposed to go to Kuwait. So, Randy and Chad flew the correct bodies down there and will have to fly the other two back up. Sam said the bodies stunk really bad. Unfortunately, even in death you can get the "run around."

Watched “Ghost Ship” and ate popcorn. Movie was stupid. We are going to watch, “The Ring” again tomorrow.

I need to fly goggles in the next few days, by May 1st, or I will go uncurrent.

Wednesday, April 30th
Took Chris, Shawn and LT Karkalik on a tour of the base. We saw boxes of mortar rounds, belted ammunition and bunkers and trench lines all around the base. I showed them all the sites that I have seen a few times now. When we got back to the south gate, we saw a dog that was just walking around. A Humvee pulled up behind us and we heard a gunshot then the dog yelping. The guy who got out of the truck shot the dog but only wounded it so it was limping away from him. He finally caught up with it and killed it. (we have a problem with dogs wandering around the base so the Army animal doctors are going around eliminating the population so they don't spread disease here)

When I returned, Glenn was here so we talked for an hour before he had to head across the runway to his tent. He told us about the Chinooks that were engaged with rockets on March 23rd or 24th. He said that the aircraft were engaged with 20 rockets and that at least one of the aircraft were hit. One sling load was jettisoned but it was apparently hit as it fell free! Amazing.

Brock Geiger, from Alpha Company let us borrow his TV so we can finally use our X-box! That was really cool of him to let us use it. I may ask him if we can just buy it from him. Played X-box with Dave and Kenny then watched, “Sorority Boys.” Funny movie.

CPT Cushwa told us that we had to trim our mustaches back within Army regulations tonight. We were all pissed but knew it would happen soon. We all used Fred’s mustache trimmers and trimmed them up. Most people cut them off but I left mine on.

Thursday, May 1st
Woke up at 0830z. Walked outside and LT Karkalik asked me to teach him about the new PPC. I sat down and a small group joined in and we all reviewed the new card. After that I played Halo with Fred and Sam! We had fun.

Last night there was a small firefight at the front gate. Apparently, 2 trucks with guys in the back, came charging at the gate. An M-1 tank, that was guarding the gate, turned its gun on the truck and fired. Everyone jumped out of the truck before the impact. One guy was stuck inside. I guess they jumped back into the other truck and drove away. I heard reports that a few guys were captured but I haven’t heard anything to confirm that.

The news on television may not talk about hostilities much more, but things are still happening here. I think most of it is small pockets of resistance attempting small attacks on our forces. I heard that some U.S. forces were shot in Baghdad and the occasional attack happens (like last night). Every night, while here at Balad, I have seen tracers flying up in the air followed by or preceded by flashes from explosions. There is still threat out there and to me it seems that although the number of hostile forces has decreased, in my opinion, the threat has increased, because it seems natural to let your guard down a bit because the large battles are not going on anymore. I will still keep my guard up as will everyone else here. (deja vu)

At 1200z the Company’s pilots gathered for a PPC exercise. Sam gave them the data and they worked on filling out their cards. While they did that, Sam reviewed the standards with Fred and I and discussed some other areas. When the pilots finished filling out their cards, the IP’s took 2 or 3 of them at a time and went over an oral on the card and the information on it.

Javier, Billy and I prepped to fly NVG’s tonight. We gathered all the necessary information then went to the aircraft. We took off at 1720z and flew the local area followed by a GCA (instrument approach controlled by ground radar) inbound. It was an extremely clear night. We could see city lights all over and the lights were so bright at times that it seemed to light up the sky. We flew over and followed the Tigris River for a while and then proceeded to fly around the local checkpoints to and from Balad. While we were flying, we could see tracers being shot up in the air as well as flares. We also observed a huge explosion to the south that lit up the sky. Some of the tracers were within a half mile of us, but none of them were shot at us (as far as we could tell).

This was my first time flying goggles (for more than 20 minutes) in 45 days so I felt a bit rusty. It was zero illumination and was therefore very dark. It was nice not to have to land in the dust like we did in the past. Good flight.