Exit Strategy: Month 6 Day 22

Friday, February 22, 2013

Month 6 Day 22

Notebook Entry

Dan Gar to Spin Gar, another patrol to investigate shooting

Journal Entry
PB [Patrol Base] Dan Gar to Spin Gar in the early morning with Echo Mobile. Hopped on a patrol going to see if the locals knew of the shooting of the contractors. Sgt Salim did his class first. I spoke to the ANA company XO. He was a piece of shit, excuse, excuse, excuse. He did say one poignent thing "unless the reports come from Marines, no one cares." I think he's probably right. On patrol, found on land mine buried to fuck up marines on patrol. Control det of that. It rained on us and all of the ANA [Afghan National Army] and the Marines went internal. It was a 5 hour patrol, but it wasn't a death march and I had been on patrol the two previous days, it wasn't that bad. Gave and intel overview in the CoC. The 1stSgt came in the middle, I stopped out of respect and honestly asked if there was anything that he needed. He thought I was challenging his presence there and said he was more important than I was. Whatever. I guess the guy was some former recon operator (you could tell because he had kneepads, a Secret service earpiece, a throat mic in addition to all the regular kit. This is why they don't put combat arms guys in combat arms units as 1stSgts, that's not their job. On patrol he tried to run the thing even though his Sgt was nominally in charge. He personally investigated every bulge in the side of a path by sweeping the dirt aside at a suicidal pace. His own Marines even commented on how he dug up IED, he didn't uncover enough to reveal what it was and then call EOD. This is what some Marines are, thrill seekers, reckless dick measures. This may not be the war for them. Salim and Neckpai were both dead and racked out at 1800 in the hooch. The hooches there are much nicer than the ones that we have higher up, they are wooden quansit huts, nice to sleep in. In fact every one of the positions that I stayed at at the platoon and company level was better than the crap that I have to live in for a year. I guess there is an assumption that higher is always living better, but I don't think that's accurate. The chow is better at Dwyer, but then again we don't have stand alone grills and BBQs every night either. hell Mintz [my friend] had his own computer connected to the net in his room in addition to the SIPR and NIPR drops that sit next to his bed. I am more than a little bit jealous.