Some Excitement

I just finished another long mission and have some time to write about it.  I have so much to write I will probably split it up into two posts.  I'm telling you just in case you are confused.  This was another mission just like the last one, we went to the same place and did the same thing.  Usually it is a boring mission.  The drive is a couple of hours and then we have to wait for up to six hours for the trucks we are escorting to flip their cargo so we can come home.  This time we got smart and my driver brought his portable DVD player and we watched a lot of movies in the back of our truck while we waited.  The DVD's helped, but they weren't the only thing that made this mission a little more exciting. 

I guess as the weather warms up the enemy is becoming a little more active, especially along the rout that we usually travel on.  Last night, in fact, we had to take an alternate route because a fuel tanker was blown up on or normal route while we were waiting for our cargo to flip.  That means that we passed the bomb on the way in!  A few days before that we were involved in a couple of interesting situations.  It turned out to be a long night.  First, not long after leaving the base on our way home, we came upon a telephone pole that had fallen in the road blocking our path.  Upon further investigation it became obvious that the pole had been felled by a very big bomb a few minutes before our arrival.  It left a crater four feet deep and blew a section of the road apart.  I am in the second truck in the convoy so although I was not right next to it, I had a front row seat.  We still don't know what happened, but our guess is that either they blew the bomb on purpose to block the road in anticipation of an ambush (which never happened although we kept a sharp eye out for it) or that it went off early and that their target was the next convoy to pass (which was us).  Either way, it got our attention!  After about an hour we made a path around the debris and continued on.  

A few miles later, and as the sun was just coming up, we heard a large BOOOM!  An Iraqi police officer signaled us to stop and explained to the truck in front of us that a bomb had just gone off a little farther down the road.  We decided to continue on because we really needed to get the convoy home before it got too late. It wasn't long before we came upon the scene of the explosion.  A few infantry soldiers in armored personnel vehicles had just arrived on the scene and were taking care of a civilian whose truck had been blown up.  Our lead truck went forward to assist while we stayed about 200 meters behind to provide security for the semi trucks behind us.  As they approached the infantry soldiers the guys who set off the bomb started shooting from a nearby building.  We could hear the shots and our lead vehicle could see the muzzle flashes.  They couldn't return fire because the infantry had moved into their line of fire, but they were still in the line of fire of the enemy.  After a short firefight between the infantry and the enemy, the enemy ran off.  I got to watch the whole thing!  I wasn't scared (I am in a bullet proof truck) just interested in finding my camera so that I could take some pictures!  We had to wait for a helicopter to land and retrieve the injured civilian and then for a tow truck to recover a stuck army vehicle that had gotten stuck in the mud during the action.  At about 8:00 am with the sun hight in the sky, we finally were able to proceed.  It was quite a night!  Once again, we think that the bomb went off prematurely, either by an innocent bystander (the civilian) or by the guy setting the bomb up (again the civilian).  The next convoy by was probably the target.  Either way, again, it was a close call.  Someone was looking out for us that two bombs went off just before we got to them, and not as we got to them.  That's the way it is out here.  

Well, now the mission is over and I have a day or two to relax before we go out again.  Our platoon is building a reputation for running into trouble.  We are the only ones who have seen anything since we've been here!