what will i remember

what will i remember?
By Herkiechick

a while back i asked a soldier ......what will he remember about his tour?...... he's the 3rd acr soldier, Steve, (who i have shared another of his letters previously).... in howitzer battery, i'll share some of what he had to say...Sorry it reads kinda choppy i am pressed for time and cut and pasted from some of his letters:



i've realized a lot of things over here but the bigist
thing
is that things are what you make them. being pissed off and angry
isn't
going to get you home any quicker and it doesn't help anyone. every
stituation presents an opertunity to have fun. i strongly belive that
you
can have a blast doing whatever as long as you truly believe.
- as for cows... yeah they all have horns aparantly... wierd huh?
- beer, milwakee- yes.. didn't they film "strainge brew there?" "ole
milwakee"- we got coors in colorado but i grew up with raineer beer or
olympia in seattle.
- as for what i will remember most about this tour... we'll the quick
response is the "heat" but the true answer is not just so simply put.
it
has been a tour of ups and down do to the loss of good friends and the
creation of new ones. i remember the little kids, the fear in the eyes
of
the unknowing, the long hot nights sitting up wondering if we are going
to
be attacked with mortars and if we are going to have to shoot
counterbattery, the checkpoints, the searches, the recons, the raids,
the
shitty phones in ramadi, the mad mortar man..... there are a lot of
things i
will remember but the thing i will rember most are the people.... iraqi
and
coalition.... the people after all are where all the other stories stem
from. we are what make up this experience. more will follow....
time up.

i couldn't have
asked
for a better group of guys to deploy to war with... they really are
great.
every one does what they do. no one is less or more importaint it is
just
different. that is what i say to everyone who says how great the air
force
is and how they have it so nice. it is just he nature of what the job
is.
naw mean. not better or worse ... just different. shit... we would be
suckin' without the air force and even the coast guard for that matter.
(thanks though for all that you've said... your right we don't really
realize it i guess... maybe when we get home and we can chill out for a
bit.
hummm.)

yeah that whole leave thing... kinda a good thing but also a bad thing.
i
didn't get to go... along with a lot of other guys so i wouldn't really
know
but it seems to me it would be hard to leave your family and kids and
all
that.

as far as us being covered in dirt... well we had been in arif john for
like
a week and that was the cleanest we had been in like 8 months so it is
good
to know that we still looked filthy. ha! i guess we didn't wash our
armor
and kevlars though so that may be why. we just try to keep the
importaint
stuff clean... you know... teeth,feet, sun glasses... etc. ha. it's
all
good... liveing conditions are much better now but are a far cry from
what
you got it seems

-as for my mos i'm a 13 Z.. or A or something. 13 B are my gun guys
and 13
E are my fire direction guys and 13 F are my forward observers-fisters.

-so more army stories huh... well i gotta have my tunes and we do a lot
of
driving so when ever i'm rolling out or cruisin' out down down in
wonderfull
iraq i am sure to pump my beach boys or biestie boys. i've found that
the
localls love a little beat with their security. little kim also gets
the
kids dancin. my driver wired up some speekers in my humvee so we have
getto
iraqi suround sound. kinda funny driving thru mid day falujah with a
little
limp biskit or john denver! ha. gotta keep it as much fun as we can i
guess.

- or let's see... there was this one time we decided to park, occupy,
this
old iraq training camp... or so we thought. it sounded like a good
idea
untill it turned out to be a big ass ammo supply point that started to
blow
up. the iraqis like to take the ammo apart and use the powder to cook
their
food and the brass to selll for scrap. the only problem is they smoke
while
they do it... hummm.. problem.... yes.... so this whole place started
to
blow up under us. lame. it was okay... big shock waves and stuff but we
decided to move out when the rockets started to cook off and fly over
our
heads. we were all... what is that wooshing sound... those are f'ing
rockets man... time to get the f out... naw mean. yeah so that was
kinda
crazy... also kinda weird when you see the explosions and it takes like
10
sec before it hits you.

-or lets see... when we first came into country we got hetted up north
so we
wouldn't have to drive our tracks and the het drivers stoped 40 miles
south
of bagdad and said ... later! "bagdad is 40 miles north... have at it"
we
were all what the helll.... we of course had no oporder or anything...
eventually my smoke(platoon sgt) showed up and lead us into our PAA.
kinda
a trip... just getting dropped off and shit. all we say on our way to
our
PAA were blown up tanks around every corner and little dudes running
thru
the woods. we made it though with out a scratch.

as for the hood thing. we sleep on our hoods to get out of the sand
flees
and also because that way i could still moniter my radios. we never
new
when we would move and it was just best. also the buildings were all
blown
up and full of dog crap and old iraqi trash, cloths etc. not exactly
the
best... most of my guys would just sleep on thier guns or on cots next
to
them. we didn't really have a place to call home. itwas where ever we
stoped. also... it was kinda to hot to worry about anything but eating
and
the missions at hand. i did get a wickid tan though.

how rude! right?! sorry i had to cut that short. one of my guys got
a red
cross mesage... his little kid is in the hospital with a respritory
infection but... it sounds like he is going to be okay. it is hard when
we
get those mesages because they only say so much... naw mean?!

as for if i've killed anyone and if i've been shot at well.... i don't
really like to talk about all that... i try to focus on the good that
has
come out of all this place. i will tell you this though... bullets do
make
that cartoon sound when they get really close.

all of my really good stories are good because of how the operation
developed and well... i can't really talk about that stuff... at least
on
the phone or over the computer... you know how it is. it is weird how
the
best stories always seem to be the worst time at that time and later
they
seem okay cause it is over.

as for other army stuff... well... i started out as an LT as a FIST
team
leader. in this... i was a FSO or a Fire support officer. i rolled
with
the manuver forces and called and planed artillery fires.... kinda a
balls
to the wall deal and then after a little over a year i moved to FDO or
fire
direction officer.... in this i was responsible for doing all the math
and
shit in order to hit what the observers called. we transfered data so
the
guns can hit what they need to. after about a year at that i moved to
PL
platoon leader and that is what i'm doing right now and in that i
preety
much worry about he fireing platoon of howizers and emplace ment and
all
that. i'm also kinda XO too right now since as soon as we get back i
take
over the position. no big thing. our current XO is rolling out soon
to set
things up in the rear... lucky bast. whatever. so yeah that's a
little of
whats up with the whats up.

again thanks for the pictures... you seem so happy and modivated.. that
is
awsome. you sure have a grip of stipes on your uniform....that's cool
though. if your gonna do it mines well do it right. ha. i don't
really
know all the airforce rank but from what i can figure a crew chief is
kinda
like a staff sgt or an E6 or E7.. right? i don't know. do you guys
where
civilian clothes when you are off duty? inthe one you have an old navy
shirt on..... i haven't worn civ. clothes for 10 months... crazy. i'll
try
to dig up some more pics... pictures say so more than words... even if
i am
dirty in them. ha.

okay well... i'm off to screen my guys for emotional stress... for
redeployment... kinda lame we have to do paper work when i know my guys
so
well and they are all okay... its good though i guess.

picture this......flip flops....humvee....crew served
wepons.....chasing
"evil dooers" across the iraqi country side. ha!