Pendaelose

As soon as I saw your unit patch in the pics I knew you were 2 SCR. I was guessing 2/2 SCR because we were so close to Sadr City at FOB Falcon.

I was a contractor with 2 SCR and moved with the regiment up to FOB Warhorse, where I stayed for another two and a half years. I swear your face is familiar, but I'm sure I would have seen you in the DFAC 100 times if you were on the main FOB. If you knew me I was "Mr. Bailey" one your CSSAMO contractors.

I spent 4 years in Iraq myself. 1 as a soldier, and then 3 more as a contractor. Nothing too exciting, I was a Fobbit (Very seldom left the "base", for non-OIF Vets out there) doing IT support, but I still noticed plenty of what you mentioned.

I was there Apr 2003-Apr2004 (Tallil), and then I went back from Dec2007-Aug2010(FOB Falcon, FOB War Horse). I was deployed with the 171st ASG in uniform. As a contractor I supported 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, 1-25th Stryker Brigade, 2-25th Stryker Brigade, 1st ID, 4th ID, and a whole bunch of MP companies that rolled through my area. Not sure if its funny or sad, but as a Contractor there for years on end the soldiers start to look like short timers... they're only there for 12-15 months before they get replaced by someone new. After the 3rd or 4th rotation you stop trying to get to know them.

Anyhow, as Arlo Guthrie said, "That's not what I came here to tell ya' about".

During my first tour we did the change over from the Sadam money to the new bills. We knew the convoys delivering the money would get hit so we sent Abrams with the bank trucks. The "ambushes" happened, as expected, and we murdered the crap out of them. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was in the range of 120 militants killed, and another 70 captured. We lost 1 man and a couple were wounded. Back at Tallil we were ecstatic, high fives and congrats all around. The whole thing went great.

CNN's report... "Another deadly day in Iraq, 2 convoys ambushed, 8 dead." They didn't mention that 6 of the deaths were from traffic accidents in Kuwait and 1 was an accidental weapon discharge. They never lied, but they sure as shit stinks didn't tell the truth either.

Edit: Added deployment details

That would also give the illusion that all the asteroids and space stations are in tidally locked geosynchronous orbits.