Phone calls home

Jan 15

Back at FOB Hefner. Today the CG's jump got hit with and IED just down the road and had one urgent surgical medevac. We went to help even though it was Cajun's zone but when a two star general is involved, everybody wants some face time. We arrived just minutes before the bird came in. I've had a lot of time to think while I've been over here and there have also been times that I wished I had time to think. I may not be as religious as I should be but there is no question as to miracles that have occurred. RPG's bouncing of vehicles. RPG's hitting vehicles with no one in the back. Mortars falling only inches from hitting us. Anyway, some call it luck. Not me. And I'm thankful for it.

    I heard today that my friend Ben Barker is back with the company and I'm looking forward to seeing him. I had not talked with my friend Greg Murphy for years and made a point to call him before I left for Fallujah. The talk was good. He had been mad at me for a long time and when someone's mad at me, my last defense is to be mad at them, and that's where we were.

    He told me that he was going to be a Dad and that I was going to be an Uncle. That meant so much to me because I always thought of him as my brother. I have not spoken with him since, but I didn't want to die in Fallujah without "making up". I hope we fall right back into our old ways. I called home just a few days ago. I call home more than I thought that I would, but it's more for them than me. First my Dad, we spoke for a good while. I told him about Sgt. Davis and all the dead Iraqi's. I hadn't planned on letting them back home know that kind of thing but it went okay. I called my Mom and knew that we wouldn't talk long but just wanted to say hi. She said to me, "You're still in California, right?" I was shocked.

The War is not Over

Jan 10

I see more dead bodies in one day, than anyone should have to see in a lifetime. I am numb.

Not more than a week ago, while conducting a route recon of "Golden" we discovered 8 dead bodies in the middle of the desert, all blindfolded and hands tied behind them, lined up and shot while standing. Bullet casings 7.62 scattered on the ground ten feet in front of them. They had been killed not more than 24 hours before we found them. Their clothes were still soaked in blood and the dogs had only begun to eat them. We informed the Iraqi police and days later the bodies were still there.

We are in Ramadi now. Have been for a little over a month. We work out of Camp Ramadi and every three days we drive about an hour east to FOB Hefner (Forward operating base)Everything was going well. We fell into our routine and were planning on smooth sailing until we went back home.

FOB Hefner

On January 6^th Sgt. Davis was killed. While taking blankets to another OP to be given out to Iraqi's, a piece of shrapnel from an IED went through his head. I wish that I would have known him better but am glad I didn't. It would have just made it harder.

We took his body back to Camp Ramadi and had his driver,Kliff, over to the house. Johnstone had got a ½ gallon of Crown Royal in the mail and we drank to a fallen marine.

When I say that we had fallen into our routine, I am admitting that we were guilty of becoming complacent.  Everywhere you look in Iraq you see signs that read Complacency Kills. You were told stories of Marines that had died with ipods in there hands and in there sleeping bags instead of alert and on watch.  I am not saying that anything done different would have saved Sgt. Davis. It woke us up that we were not home yet and there are people that are trying to kill us.