Major K.

One God

I had an interesting coversation with one of our interpreters the other day.  We call them "Terps" because we feel the irrational compulsion to abbreviate everything in the military.  This particular Terp was the son of a Shia mother and a Sunni father.  So, when asked which he is, his reply is "both."  He had asked me if I was a Christian and I said yes, specifically the Catholic denomination.  I was asking about certain commonalities between Islam and Christianity.  The nature of the question was that Jesus Christ is revered in Islam as a great prophet.  The Terp then asked me how many "gods" we had in the Christian faith, because they only have one in Islam.  I then explained to him that we had only one as well, in fact, the same one as in Islam.  He looked at me perplexed.  I then explained to him the concept of the different manifestations or persons of the one true God and my understanding of it based on my sixteen years of Catholic education.  He was surprised to learn that indeed, Muslims, Christians, and Jews all worship the same God.  He nodded his approval and lit up another cigarette.  This was a well educated man from Baghdad in his late twenties, not some shepherd from the countryside.  I was a little surprised.  I wonder what the folks out in the countryside think.

Update

SGT Ferguson, I guess I can use his name now that his story is in the local paper, is actually at the Navy Hospital in Bethesda, MD.  He is continuing to exceed expectations.  According to one of his best friends here, who has been in close contact with the family, he is now awake and talking lucidly.  He also has good use of his right arm and hand.  There may be more to it than that, but that is the latest that has gotten back here.  Thank you for all of the prayers.  Things have been quiet herein our area for the past two days.   I like quiet.  Quiet is good.

Miracles and my lack of faith

I finally got my sorry butt to Mass yesterday.  It was refreshing.  I have been going 1000 mph since LT C. left to go on leave and have had little time for anything but a few hours of sleep a night/morning.  While kneeling after receiving communion, I thanked God for my life, my wife, my family and many other things.  I also apologized to him for my lack of faith.  This is why.  Another one of our HMMWV's was hit by an IED the other day.  One of our medics, SGT F. was in the gunner's turret for some reason when it happened.  He was wounded very badly.  He took a piece of shrapnel to the head about the size of a child's finger.  It came in right under the edge of his helmet.  As he was MEDEVAC'd to the hospital, I prayed for his recovery.  I then spoke with those that were there at hospital and learned that the prognosis was not good.  They did not expect him to survive the next 24-48 hours.  I then prayed that he would not suffer unnecessarily if he was to leave this life.  One thing that everyone forgot is that SGT F. is one big strapping ox of a man.  He is the type of imposing figure that indicates without words to those who see him that he is not to be messed with.  Well, the very next day, SGT F., who should not have survived, had wiggled his fingers on his right hand and blinked his eyes.  The Battalion Surgeon, and the Neurosurgeon that operated on him both said that such a development was nothing short of miraculous.  SGT F. is now on his way back to Walter Reed Army Hospital in DC.  He is not out of the woods yet by any stretch of the imagination, and if he does recover, will never be the same.  But I will pray and look forward to him exceeding everyone's expectations again.  For those of you that might be of the praying persuasion, a few on Doc (SGT) F's behalf would be appreciated.

Where to begin...

I'm not exactly sure.  It has been quite awhile since I last posted.  A great deal has happened since.  Some of it, I can talk about.  Some of it, I cannot.  As most of you have probably seen from the major media, things have picked up here quite a bit.  We have had a rash of IED's in our area.  Some we have caught before they were detonated, some we have not.  This brings me to the bad news.  The MP Platoon that is attached to my Battalion has been hit again.  The news is not good.  May PFC Samantha Huff rest in peace.  I did not know her, but her comrades speak very well of her.  She was only 19 years old.  Her HMMWV hit an IED one night about a week ago.  I shall spare further details as I know them.  The important thing is that she served honorably, and by all accounts was a good soldier and woman.  It is frustrating trying to fight an enemy that hides among innocents strikes with no rhyme or reason other than to bloody us and shake our will.  But then again, that is why they call them terrorists. 

Well Said!

Rob over over at Trollingfortinfoil has vented my frustration, or at least one of my frustrations, for me.  He did so beautifully.  His comments on Godwin's Law are great.  It is about as reliable as Murphy's Law.  Speaking of good reads, I would like to make a shameless plug for my buddy CPT(Soon to be MAJ) Sam Morgan.  He has published a new book on leadership.  He knows that of which he writes.  Check it out.  Things are very busy - IED's going off all over the place the last few days.  This ain't over yet...

Ahhh, the "Multi-lateral approach"....

Too many decision makers leads to indecisiveness.  As usual, everyone has agreed on what to do about Darfur - absolutely nothing.  A token multinational  force has been sent in to stand by and watch the slaughter continue.  The weird thing is that this link is from the belly of the beast - Al Jazeera.  Even they realize that ACTION is needed.  On a more pleasant note, I actually squeezed in a short trip to the gym today - my first in the 2 months or so that I have been here.  I can't tell you how good it felt to do some PT.  I missed it.  I must find more time.  I know I have some stashed somewhere around here....

Flying Leathernecks

You have to admit, they do have the coolest dress blues.  Two new bloggers merit your attention.  Howdy and Hurl over at Camel Spider are two Marine Cobra Pilots (Those are attack helicopters for those of you on the westside) that have arrived in theatre about a month ago for their second tour.  They are in the desert west of here, keeping busy as we all are.  Now, back to work!

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Things have been heating back up again, literally and figuratively.  The weather is now in the low to mid 90's during the day, which means a few things:  First, the sewage puddles and trash heaps that are scttered through out the city are stinking like never before.  The FOB is actually one of the more fragrant places around, and only due to the mild nature of its stench.  Second, with the return of spring and warm weather, so somes the return of the insects who are finding a cozy and inviting home in the aforementioned trash heaps and sewage puddles.  At this point, the flies are worse than the mosquitos.  They even harass us while brushing our teeth in the latrine building.  They are not as bad as they were in the Jordanian desert, though, where the covered anything living or once living that stood still.  On the "figurative" side, our big operation the last week seems to have kicked over an anthill.  We have definitely seen an increase in IED's in our area over the past week.  I think they are looking for a little payback of their own.  There is still plenty of hunting left to do.  This is a picture of one of our squads before launching to get some IED makers.  It was a good night.  No one was hurt and we brought in some of the guys that got CPL Watkins.

I can't speak dutch!

But apparently that does not matter.  I have my first international link.  The Soul Rebel has taken an interest in this humble blog.  He is apparently considering posting in english as well as dutch.  Feel free to stop by to encourage the effort.  I would like to know what he is writing as long as I am linking him.

Ladies & Gentlemen, We got 'em!

I am finally able to post this one because I now have reasonable certainty that we have all off the scumbags involved in the killing of CPL Watkins in custody.  They all went down without a fight when we burst through their doors in the middle of the night.  We got the first 2 about a week ago and have since rounded up the others.  I hope that CPL Watkins is pleased with us as he looks down from above.  These cowards are going for a nice long stay in Abu Ghurayb Prison.  It took a while to drill down the details but the wait was so worth it.  Most of the time, I hate being the Battalion Intelligence Officer, as I am an infantryman by training and most of my experience.  Times like these, however, it is a great job, as not only do I head up the detective work that goes into catching these guys, but I get to go through the door with the assault team on the raid that bags them.  The bigger fight is far from over, however, and after another 28 hour shift on the job, I conked out for about 3 hours to be awakened by fresh developments from informants.  I woke, worked again for another 20 minutes to provide guidance to my staff and then conked back out.  That was a few days ago.  We are back to the grind looking for other scumbags, like the ones that killed a guy from our sister battalion here on the FOB.  I hate RPG's.  Back to Work!