On the March with WeBDeviL

Hey everyone, (mods you can move this to wherever it fits if you want)

Like I said, I would be (hopefully) updating this thread about my experiences in Iraq. I leave on a plane down to southern California in a few hours and have to report to Twentynine Palms at 9:00 AM tomorrow (0900). From there we'll take a short trip over to Camp Pendleton and then head for Little Rock sometime later in the week. I'll post pictures (if I can) when I'm in Iraq, as I keep this updated.

Camp Pendleton:






Twentynine Palms:





I'll try to keep this updated. As for now, I gotta go finish packing and clean some of my "personal" side-arms

1st Lieutenant David M. O'Connor, USMC,
-wD

Keep Safe!
I will be looking forward for your pic's!

Keep safe and keep us posted whenever you can.

Wow!

Well I'm quite interested in this thread as it will show all of us around the world how things look firsthand through the eyes of one of our own members.

Looking forward to some great photos and stories from you.

Be careful there and stay out of harm's way.

Sounds interesting!

Good Luck!

Good luck.
should be interesting to see the info and insights.

stay safe

Good luck, stay safe and try to keep us appraised of the situation.

If your a combat soldier, please make sure that in case you get mortaly wounded or otherwise permantenly impaired causing you to not be able to update this thread, have someone notify us in this thread or in another way. If you just can't get online and talk yourself its ok.

This just to make sure people aren't wondering what happend to you while your just unable to get online, instead of wondering if something bad might have happend to you.

Anyways, best wishes to you and be safe.

[edit on 12-7-2005 by thematrix]

Heh, I will definitely keep that in mind. I do believe my specific deployment won't be for the purpose of mid-day security, but rather of night ops. That's what I've been informed and told can be "public" information (family, friends, etc.)

So, we'll see. I'm trusting in my men to have my back, and I think they'll do fine. I'll be assigned to a new platoon, and be given the position of leading the platoon on the night missions when deemed necessary.

The next time I'll post will probably be tomorrow, or when I reach Little Rock, so I'll see ya'll then.

Let's not ruin ATS while I'm gone, ok?

-David

Alright, well, for anyone interested, here's my first update for ya'll. Here's a pic of our kind transport that we'll be using to fly over to both Little Rock, as well as Kuwait. Here it is for ya'll.

This is our friendly crewmember Shean. He'll be helping us over to Kuwait. I don't have much time, but this is the first update for everybody:






This was taken last night. Beautiful piece of machinery, it really is, our C-17. We've been ordered to prepare for shipment over to Little Rock on Saturday. Yesterday we had a full day of briefing on the situation and tomorrow we will be doing some briefing in the morning, followed by a review of platoons (in which I have to meet and greet my platoon). On Saturday we will be shipping out to Little Rock for no more than 3 days. Probably reach on Sunday and stay until Tuesday doing some more rapid deployment briefings and two days of quick platoon training. This is what it means to be on rapid alert, I'll get back to ya'll soon.

-David

David: Thank you. You're a great American.

Well, we're here in Iraq now, somewhere in the Northern parts of it. I'm stationed at a "non-disclosed" installation somewhere northwest of Baghdad. Here's a pic for you:





And:





There isn't really much going on here. So far (By so far I mean a few days), other than some small-arms fire that were not aimed at my deployment, our patrols have been going cold so far. We did run by a small satchel that was deployed on the side of the road, however. We found it during one of the night patrols, radioed into detachment HQ, and that was that. We let the demolition guys take care of it, we didn't stick around to find out if it was live munition or not.

We have patrols every two nights or so, and on those nights, we'll usually run two - three different recon. or regular patrols through the city and it's outlying areas.

Of the two days that we don't run night patrols, one day will be spent with security detail on the base itself, while the other day may consist of a) nothing or b) a day operation through the city, defensive means only. (Meaning we are not to fire unless fired upon, etc.)

Unfortunately, I think that is why the media makes Iraq out to be such a mess, and I can see now why some may consider it to be like Vietnam. Not that I do think it will turn out like that, from what I have seen so far, and heard so far, this place is fairly quieter than what the world's media makes it all out to be.

Anyways, the rules and regulations upon which we must operate are already not settling well with me. I fear they are putting my men in jeopardy, and I hope that I am wrong.

As for some of the stories I have heard, this place isn't all that bad. Beautiful nights, great landscape; the only problem is this heat. Other than that, the violence isn't all that bad - or as extreme - as it is played out to be on TV and in other forms of media.

That's all I know for now, I'll update after my next operation (probably tomorrow night sometime).

-David

[edit on 26-7-2005 by WeBDeviL]