I asked Mike if he minded my posting one of his letters that he wrote me from Iraq when he was there from April 5, 2003 to November 7, 2003 and he said he didn't mind. So here is the first letter I got from him. Just shows a little of what went on over there from his perspective (he had been in for 9 years at this point in time) and what he saw and thought.
April 25, 2003
My Dearest Paulette,
I just got your letter late last night, about 10:30PM our time, the platoon was already asleep when the mail came in. I got a chance to read your letter during my guard shift. Sorry I haven't written but finding the time hasn't been all that easy.
The night we left we didn't actually leave in the air until about 1 AM so the next 22 hrs were spent on the plane. We had to land in Milan to refuel and we were on the ground for about 2 hours there. Then off to Kuwait. By the time we got to Camp Wolf, it was nearly 4:30AM Monday morning. Serious case of jet lag, jumping 9 hours ahead and spending 22 hours on a plane sucks. We weren't at Camp Wolf too long just a few hours, all the drivers and there TCs went to the port to find our vehicles and the rest of the platoon headed to Camp Penn. Once we got to the port, finding all of our equipment was quite a task, a whole division's worth of vehicles just spread all over the damn place. It took the better part of Monday to track down all of our platoon's vehicles. We had an accident while moving all the vehicles into the right rows for movement. One of the tracked vehicles caught on fire, due to sand bags catching on fire sparked by an arcing battery. A small fire quickly becomes a big fire. Myself and Sgt Perkins and C Co. 1st Sgt finally got the fire under control with about 10 fire extinguishers and quite a few water bottles. The whole inside of the vehicle was just about burned out, and stunk of burned sand bags for days. Not a real good way to start your first day in country.
We got the word to move to Camp Penn about midnight that night, all of the tracked vehicles were put on trucks and all the wheeled vehicles had to make the drive to Camp Penn. Almost 6 hours of straight driving. We got to our new home, about 6:30AM, we set up a make shift motor pool and find ourselves a tent to put our gear in. Surprisingly, the tents had AC, but nothing much else, just pick a piece of real estate on the ground and call it your own. We staged out of Camp Penn for about 7-10 days before hitting the road again. I never got the chance to use the phone due to the masses of people waiting to use them. Can't say I was heartbroken to leave that damn camp; dusty, hot, lousy food, almost no clean port0pottys, not your resort type place. So we finally make it to roll out day to Baghdad, at the time we didn't know it was going to take almost 28 hours of almost non-stop driving worth to our next assembly area. Again, all the tracked vehicles were put on trucks and all the wheels got to drive. It wasn't much fun sitting behind the wheel that long. The first little town outside of Baghdad we rolled through was like going back in time. I've seen third world countries before; I don?t see how these people can live as they do. The road in was littered with destroyed Iraqi vehicle, tanks, trucks, transport vehicles, it was kind of eerie because there were quite a few destroyed US vehicles too; more than I think the news was reporting.
When we finally reached Baghdad, we stopped about 5 km outside the actual city and unloaded all the vehicles and drove the rest of the way in. Baghdad itself is hard to describe, with the blown up buildings, masses of people looting the stores, buildings on fire, thick black smoke from burning tires, to coin a phrase, it looked like a war zone. Tensions were quite high as we drove through the city, because parts of the city, 3rd ID hasn?t cleared or secured yet. So basically, we were driving through the Bad Lands for quite some time. You couldn't tell who was who, soldier wise, they all look the same. We all came out with no shots fired, that was a good thing. We had a change of mission in route which called for us to keep moving north to the city of Tekrit, the town Saddam himself was from. Needless to say, that meant even more driving by yours truly. It was almost another 20 plus hours behind the wheel. The thing about Tekrit was all the enemy forces that fled Baghdad supposedly went there for refuge. Our job was to go there and draw them out. Once we get about 10 km from the city, we get frag o'ed and get new orders sending us to the most northern city in Iraq, Mosul. Because instead of going to Tekrit, like the Intel guys thought, all the enemy forces went to Mosul. The plan was still the same; go into the city and draw them out. The problem lied in how to enter an unsecured city. The plan that was briefed to us was we were to stop short of the city and link up with the 101 ABN who was also in the same situation. As always, things never go as planned.
We wind up driving into the middle of the city at about 10-15 mph, not a real good idea, I'm thinking. I'm trying to drive and keep my rifle at the ready just in case I may need it. We get into the heart of the city and that's when the fireworks started. We were all following one another like ducks in a row one behind the other when all the flares started getting shot off, that wasn't too bad, it was when the tracer rounds started zipping by things got a bit uncomfortable. The Lt and I were lucky when several tracer rounds passed between our vehicle and the one that was behind us. No one returned fire because no one saw where it came from. We slowly snaked our way through the city to an abandoned Iraqi airfield controlled by a small group of Marines, taking pot shot fire the whole time. I think the LT aged a few years in about 45 min or so. We re-link up with the rest of our platoon on the flight line of this air base. And secure ourselves for the night.
During the day things were somewhat calm until the sun when down. That's when the light show starts. Tracer rounds zipping around, fires being set, explosions going off all around the city make for quite a unique situation to live in. The Marines time in country was nearing their 30 day mark and they were due to return to their ship, which would have us and the 101ABN to secure the airfield like always, things change and we spend roughly 3 days on the flight line of the airfield and we find out that we are moving again, where we don't know,. When we finally move, we move about 2 km from where we were at to an abandoned Republic Guard Base. Home Sweet Home.
The first few days were uneventful until yesterday. The BN XO gives us the mission to patrol around the perimeter of the camp, simple enough you would think, but as always Murphy had to rear his ugly head. Because the base was abandoned, the looters were running all over the place taking whatever they could carry. The Army didn't care about that, they just didn't want them getting a hold of any weapons or explosives that were in some of the buildings, and there were plenty for the taking. While on patrol, if we were to see anyone with any weapons, we were to detain them and take the weapons, and stop any vehicles we thought might look out of the ordinary, but here everything is out of the ordinary. On our 1st mission out, we sent 2 gun tracks with 4 people per track, safety in numbers. About half way through our patrol we stop by a row of somewhat burned out buildings, we were sending a situation report back to our FDC track. As we are about to move out, we hear a number of loud bangs, an AK-47 round hit the first track in the rear hatch and passed between two of the guys standing in the back. Under our Rules of Engagement, we can't fire unless fired upon. So, we all return fire into the building the shot came from, called it in and tried to break contact. About 10 min later a tank shows up to back us up. Once the tank showed up, they stopped shooting at us, they didn't want to mess with the tank I suppose. The tank was going to fire its main gun into the building but due to the ordinance in the buildings, they decided against this and the tank was called off station.
Almost as soon as the tank left, they started shooting again, so we again returned fire into the building. We decide the situation was starting to get somewhat out of control so we withdrew back to our Platoon assembly area. We took a well deserved break and checked the damage to the first track. The back hatch took 3 hits from the AK-47 fire. Those guys were lucky no one got hit because when we engaged the building it was less than 50meters from where we stopped, so basically they were on top of us, very close range. So we refit on ammo and go back out on patrol, #2 for the day, different crews this time, except for me. I went both times out. During our last patrol, we avoided the area where we made contact before, why push your luck. Again we stopped to check out a building, all was quiet until the crew of the 1st track were getting back into the track and we heard 3 quick shots from a building across the road. This time I marked the target with a yellow smoke grenade from my 203 so the rest of the guys would know where to fire. Track 2, my track, laid down a hale of bullets while the 1st crew got into the track and tried to break contact. In all the confusion, it was hard to say how many rounds were sent into that building.
Once we regrouped and headed back in, the reality of what happened twice in one day was starting to take its toll on some of the guys. 95% of them were scared shitless. Once we got back to our little platoon AA, the news of our 2 firefights had quickly spread around the camp, due to the fact we were the only ones to return fire thus far. So, since I've been here, I've been shot at, at least 3 times, maybe more, it's hard to say around here. I'm fine though. No injuries. Don't worry about me too much.
**This part is personal :-) **
I'm not sure how long we'll be here, but word has it once we are done here we'll start moving south, a nasty rumor has been floating around that we may be here til December, nothing has been confirmed yet. I guess that just about hits all the high points since I've been here. I miss you very much sweetheart and I hope this thing ends soon so we can be together again. I'll sign off for now, we have another day of patrolling to do tomorrow. Take care of yourself and be safe. Write soon, I'll write when I can. Love you. Michael
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