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Steve Smith's Army Blog
July 2004 - Posts
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The ArmyTimes published this story/poem that does a good job of describing the feelings and events that go into a convoy/mission for engineers here in Iraq. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it! Read More...
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Some more FYI info for anybody getting called up... There are ATM machines as far as Kuwait, but none in Iraq that I've seen. For cash, you need to go to Finance and either cash a check or get a draw from your pay. Nobody in Iraq takes credit cards that Read More...
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The forecast for the next 30 days is a daily low of 95 and highs in the 130s. Going to be the hottest part of the year. It doesn't really feel as hot now as it did when I first got in-country, but that's just because I'm acclimated, I think. Share this Read More...
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It's been a few days since I've had a chance to post. Blew some stuff up today (yay!). I've been out on a few more missions in the meantime including one a couple of days ago that involved a decent amount of ordnance being destroyed. I got a decent little Read More...
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Donna Leinwand contacted me yesterday about doing an interiew via email for USA Today, and asked if I would put her contact information on my website so that other IRR soldiers might contact her. I need to coordinate with Public Affairs before I agree Read More...
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ArmyTimes reports Increase in troop strength could hamper modernization efforts . Quote: Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker renewed the Pentagon argument that the military can get through the current high level of deployments with temporary increases such as mobilizing Read More...
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Well, I got my first experience with the locals today when we did a drive through a village area today. I was in the back of an APC in a small convoy; basically we were just patrolling and trying to find out what was in the area. One take-away I have Read More...
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Today was my first mission outside the base camp. I'm serving as a platoon leader for a combat engineer line platoon. There's actually a PL already here whom I'm shadowing until he leaves in a few weeks to become XO of another company. That's good because Read More...
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1. FRS Radio and/or GPS. The Rino 120 works as both but chews through batteries. The radios can be useful for non-tactical usage on bases. 2. Name tapes - you'll want some extra ones of these for your bags, IBV (bulletproof vest), boonie hats, trousers Read More...
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I found out yesterday that I'll be a line platoon leader, something I did back at C/112 in Columbus in Ohio, so I'm pretty comfortable with that. I'm actually excess at the moment, shadowing the current PL of the platoon, until he takes on an XO position Read More...
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Ok, here's a bunch of publicly available info on Kirkush/Caldwell/Balad Ruz that I picked up over the last couple of weeks but didn't post because I didn't want to disclose where I was going until I got here for security reasons. Robert Alt describes Read More...
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Finally managed to fly from Balad to my unit at Camp Caldwell. Checked in with my unit this morning. More to come later, but all's well here, and I may have the chance to unpack in another day or so (naturally they weren't expecting us here and have no Read More...
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Human Resources Command published this update on the IRR callup yesterday. Apparently thus far only 450 or so soldiers have been called up out of the 5600. The 5600 will be called over a period of time to allow the mobilization stations time and resources Read More...
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ABC News wants to hear from IRR soldiers to find out how they feel about possibly being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Contact them here. Also, the Norwich Bulleting wrote an opinion piece stating the obvious about the potential for a draft in the future Read More...
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I found Robert Alt's blog and these pictures he took while in Iraq. His accounts seem to provide a more accurate depiction of life here than the CNN doom-and-gloom snippets we see every day. I'll try to take and post some pictures at some point, but for Read More...
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Most of the people I came over with brought most of what they thought they would need to the CRC in Ft Bliss. And most of these people bought a few more things at the Ft Bliss PX, or local shops. After getting a ton of gear issued to us at Ft Bliss, including Read More...
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Captain Bunch was recently interviewed on CNN, and his family is quoted in this article, Reserves Brace For Call-Up Notices . He's with me now in Iraq. His CNN interview transcript is here . His story is a lot like mine, and he's also originally from Read More...
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On July 12th the ArmyTimes published Recalled To Duty with references to their interview with me. Overall I'm happy with the article, but there are a couple of minor corrections I want to make for the record. It says I've been out for 2 years but it was Read More...
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I flew into Iraq a couple of days ago and haven't yet made it to my new home unit. Chris and I shipped together from Camp Doha Kuwait (camp wolverine was recently closed) into Balad along with a few Field Artillery IRR officers with stories somewhat similar Read More...
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Made it to Kuwait. Flight time was 5 hrs to Maine, 2 on the ground, 7 hrs to Frankfurt, Germany, 2 on the ground, 5 hours to Kuwait = 21 hours. Kuwait is strangely only an hour ahead of Germany, or 7 hours ahead of east coast USA. We arrived at about Read More...
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I spoke with Jane McHugh from the ArmyTimes today and may be featured there in an upcoming story about IRR callups. Hopefully I didn't make a fool of myself or anything - we'll see how my comments come out when taken in bits and pieces. I'm not sure if Read More...
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After a few days back in Ohio on a pass, I'm now back at Ft Bliss CRC. Should be shipping out to Kuwait in the next few days. Not much new here except that I got an email from somebody at CNN wanting to talk to me about my IRR callup experience. I'll Read More...
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