Outside Looking In

I thought this article, written by a French soldier serving with the 101st in Afghanistan, was pretty cool. We often forget the military culture shock that foreign military professionals have when they get a close-up view of the US military and our troops. In a way, the deep impression that we make is a double-edged sword; while the impression is almost always singularly positive, it creates the impression that we can do anything, from a tactical/operational point of view. This sometimes generates resentment when we don't produce results right away, because of the mindset that "they could easily do it if they really wanted to, so they must be blowing us off."
The Mungadai are butting up against this in our advisory role. We're so rich, so tactically capable and logistically "fat" in comparison to our Iraqi brethren, that failures to produce results on the most outlandish requests is viewed as a willful disregard of our counterparts' priorities.
Some of the French author's views are chuckleworthy:

Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and creatine - they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them - we are wimps, even the strongest of us - and because of that they often mistake us for Afghans.

I'm sure that most people are shocked when they discover that the top priority for the vast majority of US troops, when given some downtime, is to hit the gym. The greatest source of frustration for most of the guys serving in remote COPs is the lack of PT venues. Still, no one is so built that

Beyond the wearing of a combat kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to annoy them in the slightest.

Obviously, the Army gets a "T" in training training troops on the principle of "shut up and suck it up." I don't think any of our guys lack for discomfort after putting in 12-16 hours in full battle rattle. I start the day at right around 6' tall, I end it at about 5'7". At the end of the day, when I take off the kit, my decompressing back sounds like the pneumatic pump of the MRAP door.

To our outside observer, the support of the American people for their troops is preeminently evident:

Each man knows he can count on the support of a whole people who provides them through the mail all that an American could miss in such a remote front-line location : books, chewing gums, razorblades, Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much the American people backs him in his difficult mission.

Some of our author's comments would be considered a left-handed compliment:

And combat ? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all

Hmmm. Not sure too many of our senior NCOs would concur with that, as they constantly remind our troops that "you ain't Rambo, knucklehead."

I remember that Jean Larteguy, French paratrooper and war correspondent, author of The Centurions, wrote in his autobiography that the French soldier will heal from his wounds much faster than his American counterpart, because the Frenchman knows that he has no one to really depend on but himself, while the American knows that he can wait for his military to help him heal. Not sure why that quote popped into my mind on reading the article; probably because I don't read a whole lot of literature authored by French soldiers.

Another Mosul Article

This article is pretty good. We were on this particular operation, and the good CPT Harper is right; it was a circus.

Thank You, Coral Shores High School...

For the boxes of goodies. The guys enjoyed all the stuff you sent us. Well, maybe not all of it. We'll be doing a class later to explain to some of the Mungadai what deodorant is, and how one actually uses it. Then, we'll be enjoying everything you sent.

Mosul, Not a Pretty Picture

This article paints the best picture I've seen of describing Mosul. Especially vivid, and accurate, is the portrayal of Western Mosul, our AO:

The core of the insurgency is in the Ottoman Empire-era old town and nearby western Mosul — densely populated areas, interlaced by narrow alleys stacked with cheek-by-jowl houses and burrowed under with tunnels and caverns.

Oh, and bad guys? We've got bad guys for days:

On the security front alone, Mosul is a complex nut to crack. Not just al-Qaida, but more than a dozen Sunni Muslim and other insurgent groups are on the loose, together with criminal syndicates and rival tribes.

Read the whole thing, and you'll get a good idea of where the Mungadai spend their days and nights.

IED Factories and Whatnot

This article offers a slide show on IEDs found in Mosul. One of the problems is that IED "factories" are just peoples' houses, and as you can see from the slide show, the components of the IED are pretty small; easy to hide, easy to cache, easy to move if the bad guys think the heat is on (and, after the last couple of days, the Mungadai are pretty sure that the bad guys think that the heat is on).

Also, the slide show shows a bag of HME (home made explosive). We found an IED loaded with this stuff a couple (three?) days ago. Once we convinced the ISF to stop playing catch with it--no, really-- we isolated the device and called EOD to blow it. The relatively small container packed quite a wallop. In fact, the blast was strong enough that I thought the EOD guys had put charges on it and factored a high "P" factor (P=Plenty) into their demo calculations. Instead, they said they had merely run a wire and sent a current through the device. I was pretty impressed with the power of the "Home Made" IED. Ours didn't smell like cinnamon, though.

We've got pictures and video of the blast, which we'll post as soon as we get the chance.

Mosul Article

I found this article on Mosul; it's dated, as the elections have come and gone. But some of our brethren from Thunder Squadron and Lightning Troop are quoted. No comment on the political content of the article, I just wanted to see if I could figure out how to post a hyperlink.

Mongo no like magic box. Magic box frightens and confuses Mongo. Where the heck is Buddha when you need him? (See, guys? I used "heck" to maintain the family- friendly nature of the Mungadai blog. Get the picture?)

Wheels Wheels Wheels

As you look at this and say to yourself “oh they got a truck stuck in the sand” there are a few versions of what happened on this infamous day. The bottom line is, our very own Wheels managed to get an Army Strong four wheel drive combat ready vehicle stuck in the only MUD in the middle of the DESERT. Now doesn’t that make you think to yourself, hmmm. Now we all know Mr. Murphy; I guess it was just Wheels day to hang out with him. For all those that have crossed the barrier where action meets reaction, welcome to the fine line of physics… Basically, a 42,000 pound vehicle on wet sand equals sinking. Way to go!
On a brighter note we continued on to Badoush, Mosul where we assisted the National Police in detaining over 40 plus bad guys.