What I Did Today

Yesterday one of the Shurta in one of the companies we advise killed his friend in the same company. He fired four rounds point blank. One round was stopped by his armor vest, and another was stopped by his helmet. The other two were stopped by his, well, between his vest and helmet. It speaks very well for the armor capabilities of the vest and helmet he was wearing, unfortunately, no armor on the face.

That much is the truth.

The rest of the story is kind of sketchy. The shurta who shot the guy panicked and ran away. Apparently (depending on which Iraqi you talk to), he made a telephone call to his unit to say he would turn himself in today. Which, reliable reports say he did do just that.

Also depending on which Iraqi officer you talk to (and believe me, I try not to), you will get two different stories leading up to the shooting. One version is that they were arguing about something and one of them opened fire. The second is that they were two friends talking and the one shurta had an "accident" with his rifle.

Well, that's all I know about that. Truthfully it is all anyone is likely to know. At least us Americans. I got the sense the Iraqi officers were embarrased by the whole thing, especially having to explain it to us.

QUIZ ON TODAY'S POST

1. Have you ever been shot in the face with an AK-47? How did it make you feel? Discuss.

2. Has anything ever exploded near you when you were posting to your Blog? well it just did here and it scared the shit out of me. Discuss.

3. Did you forget what shurta means?

4. If you are a policeman who shoots another policeman accidentally, who do you turn yourself into? ANSWER (a different unit)

Never type in an MRAP

I am writing this in the back of a bouncing MRAP (look it up, lazy) on the way to the front gate of FOB somewhere in Bagdad. So get off my ass if there aresome spelling, grammatical, or explosive errors in this text. I haven't posted any blog entry in quite a while, and before myreadership driftsinto thenegative numbers, I figure I had betterslap something together and release it into the wild web.

My purpose with thispost,and I suppose I must have , is to let all three of you know a little bit about what goes on in my tiny corner of the war.I am on a NationalPolice Transition Team. An advisor, if you will. My team is 11 US Army (from various job descriptiions) and three interpreters, all Patriotic Iraqi citizens who are trying to make their country a better place. Just kidding, they make 1400 bucks a month (a fortune here) and are counting the days until they get the US resident Visas approved so they can move to the heartland and steal our jobs. Just kidding, they're really a bunch of swell guys (but they are allapplying to live in the US).

OK, this is getting just a little too bouncy, I'll have to get back to you (stop reading for half an hour to simulate the wait). Ok, here we are. How was your break?

Like I said, we are a National Police Transition Team (advisors, remember? Just a check to see if you are paying attention). We are in Bagdad, but aside from that I am not going to be any more specific. Bagdad, for those of you who have not listened to or watched the news since about oh, 1990 or so is the capital city of the country of Iraq. It is considered to be one of the hottest cities on the planet, temerature wise, which makes you wonder just exactly why people thousands of years ago stopped here and said, “what a great place! Let's settle here, it's much nicer than the place we just came from which was..........”,hell the sun or Mercury I guess.

Anyway, the National Police. Sounds like a police force, doesn't it? Well, it isn't. Not like Americans understand a police force. Picture an Infantry unit that wears blue tinted camoflage and you've got it. They carry rifles and machine guns, but their pickup trucks have police painted on the side, so who am I to judge? Many of their Shurta (Arabic for Police man, remember that, I am not going to repeat it again), are uneducated, poorly trained, and some are on drugs a great amount of the time (I get this from one of our interpreters). Many can't read or write their language. Their weapons are cruddy, rusty, dirty AK-47s (which of course, the AK being the AK, function just fine). Their officers are fabulously corrupt (more on this later), an in fact, you can BUY a position in the National Police as an officer. They are consistently short of all manner of supplies (gas, ammo, etc.).

But.......they're effective. Or at least something is. Bagdad is at it's lowest level of violence in years, shops are open, kids go to school, there are political posters up and down the streets advertising for the upcoming elections this fall. Yes, there is still violence, sectarian and otherwise. People are still getting blown up. But not as many as before. And it's declining. AQI is considered kind of a joke.

What do we do as advisors? Our team is broker into sections and each one has a counterpart in the Iraqi battalion. For instance our team commander meets with and advises the Iraqi commander. Our intelligence officer meets with and advises the Iraqi intelligence officer. I meet with and advise the NCO's who run the Command Post. A lot of our duties involve data collection. We have many reports to send up to “headquarters” (in the mount olympus kind of sense). How many patrols did your unit run in their sector this week? How many of them were jointly ran with the US battalion in the area? Were there any “significant activities” (what you civilians would call “crimes” like you know anything)? Combine this with other pieces of data, such as how many gallons of gasoline the unit was supplied with, how many shurta are on duty versus how many are on leave or AWOL, write it all up and email it on up to Mount Olympus and it dissapears into a “file” until it gets "briefed" in a "presentation" to a "VIP".

We do accompany the shurtas on some of their missions, which are mostly what are termed "cordon and search". What this is, a unit will block off a section of city (a block or two) and systematically (or as systematically as Iraqis do anything) search every house, or at least the ones that look like they have something cold to drink inside. The two I have gone on were mostly to inform citizens of the new privately owned weapons ban in effect in the city. In the past each household was allowed to have one rifle (usually an AK-47) in their house for protection against bad guys. But now they are not. So the police go around and gather them up (noone is arrested for still having one, the guns are merely confiscated). Also the police will check the registration of cars sitting in driveways (car theft and false registration is a booming business). Also, they'll confiscate cold water and other drinks from the refrigerator of anyone lucky enough to have working electrcity. They will do this right in front of you without a second thought.

Other than that, we are a small team, so everyone has to or three other jobs that must be accomplishedin any military unit. For instance, I am the "calendar manager" I create and manage our short and long range schedules so that we operate like a well oiled machine. Just kidding, we usually do many things at the last minute, based on our Team Leader getting a cellphone call from his Iraqi counterpart. But our schedule still must be maintained, and that's my job. I'm getting very familiar with Microsoft Outlook (even though I always feel dirty after using Windows. This was written on a machine using Debian, in case you were wondering).

Ok, that's about all that I am going to writefor now. You are just goig to have to take another break at this point, because I have to save this to a memory stick, and then wait until I get back to my laptop that has internet access and transfer it to the web. I don't know how long this will take, so get yourself some lunch or a cold drink or something.

Stay tuned for my next post, which will talk about the "Sons of Iraq".

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. How long has it been since my last post? Do you care?

2. What is a Shurta?

3. Did you look up MRAP? Why not?

4. What are your feelings about Microsoft?

just a short one

I have a few hours downtime here so a short post seems in order. Working with the Iraqi security forces certainly is a challenge. I am working on a longer post that will detail more, you all will just have to wait. Suffice to say, policeman are not allowed to charge "tolls" at checkpoints, especially when they charge only those who are a different sect of Islam. Anyway.......

For anyone interested here is my physical address here:
SFC Mark A. Buus
1-7-2 NPTT
Unit 2508
APO AE 09361

you all have a good 'un

What do They Use for Fabric Softener?

A NEW post, finally

Well, here I am, in Baghdad again. I haven't posted in a while, so here's the (brief) story of the journey here.

We left Kansas on the 21st of June (my Anniversary!!) and flew to Germany on an airline I had never heard of before (North American Air? Where does the Army find these?) and then on to Kuwait city. Busses met us at the airport and we were driven out to a place in the middle of the Kuwaiti wilderness called Camp Buehring. Really in the middle of nowhere. Of course it's like two in the morning, and for some reason we have to be given two hours of briefs before we go to bed. Mostly stuff like, don't get caught outside without your hat on.....and make sure you always have your ID card with you. Oh, and don't make scorpions and camel spiders fight, or you will be charged under article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, cruelty to animals. Then we were allowed some sleep.
The week and a half or so of time at Buehring were spent with classes and training, most of which was a repeat of stuff we did in Kansas. We even had a test on Arabic, although you didn't put your name on the test, so I am not sure what that was all about. Mostly we just got used to the heat of the Arabian summer. Oh, and I ran into Steve Zahn, who was there showing that actors who play goofy sidekicks care about the troops.
After a week and a half of this crap, we were bussed (at night again) to an airfield about an hour away and loaded onto a C-17 and flown to Baghdad International Airport. There we got some breakfast and were bussed to some giant tents where we lived for the next two days, waiting for flights to our next destination. Loaded up on CH-47s (at 3 in the blessed AM!) and flew to a base north of Baghdad called Tajji. There we were put in barracks and started a whole new round of classes, all of which were repeats of stuff we had before, again. General Petraeus did come and talk with us, that was rather interesting.....skinny little guy.
After 8 days of THAT, we were flown BACK to Baghdad, to a place called FOB Falcon, where we finally met the team we are replacing. More on that in the next post.

George Takei to marry His Long Time Partner, Brad

Watch this YouTube clip from the original series and tell me no one saw this coming.

Purple Heart

I am going to be blunt: No blood, no heart.
Anyone who says otherwise,
please write to me.

The Five WORST ways to get drunk

Well, click on this link for the article, but I can add more to the list:

1. Three words: Jordanian Spiced Whiskey. Especially when you buy it from some "shopkeeper" in Mahmudiya, Iraq. Super especially when he offers to sell you AK-47's at 60 bucks a pop and wants you to come alone with him to his shop. Thinking back on it, I should have shot the guy. At the time, I just gave him the ten bucks for the bottle and mixed it with Gatorade. Two days later, I bought a six-pack of Egyptian beer from him.

2. Two Words: Egyptian beer.

3. Another tip from Uncle Mark's Drink tips and Other War Stories: Never EVER, EVER, EVER buy vodka from Romanian soldiers in Afghanistan. And especially don't do it three or four times. But if you DO, mix it with gatorade. Sense a pattern here?

4. I don't want to get a certain Special Forces medic in trouble, but..........did you know that Jim Beam comes in cans? Neither did I. Although, it DOES help you forget the sight and sound of a chest tube going into someone. By the way the sound is "crucnhhbhhhhhhhh"


5. OK......many of my six or seven readers are not going to believe this......BUT. Hand Sanitizer. When I was a Drill Sergeant, I knew another Drill who had found two privates obviously drunk. Upon further investigation, he determined that they had mixed Purell Hand Sanitizer with.......wait for it.......gatorade. One of them blew a .19

6. SOJU

7. GRAPPA

Oil prices to drop, here's why

Article in the New York Post about how Oil WILL get cheaper. It makes a bunch of sense. Keep your Hummer!

Google News in a perfect world

What Google News looks like today.

WHAT IT SHOULD LOOK LIKE

Barack Obama's ancestors owned slaves

Ok, I can't believe after such a lull in posting I am posting TWO articles about Barack Obama, and especially another one that will get my seven readers into a fight over who can accuse me of being a rascist first. Let's not even get into what side the Democratic party was on before the Civil War.

Anywhooo-here's the article!

Barack Obama is Not a Black Candidate

Letter to the editor that I did not write, but makes some valid points.......comments calling me a rascist start in 5...4...3...2...

The Letter

Miltary students can't wear uniforms to graduation

Marine and Soldier want to wear their Uniforms to High School Graduation, High school says "NO", would open the door to other honorable organizations wishing to show pride in themselves. Perhaps these two wanted to show pride in accomplishing something that is possible to fail, unlike High School.

Bill Gate's Dad gives a comencment address

Pretty good for a guy who's son never finished college. Wait.........I didn't either. Son of a bitch. Anyway here is a link to the article:

Here's the link!!!!!!!!

How the world sees me

My Chaplain

Chaplain Dan Knight conducted the ceremony at my marriage and gave one of the best prayers I have ever heard. We were about to go on a "cordon and search" in Fallujah in '03 and he was asked to give a prayer before we rolled out........

"Lord, there are bad people out there tonight. Help us kill 'em. Amen"

Of course there was a Time magazine reporter in the crowd and that quote made it into the magazine. His superiors (chaplain - wise) did not find the prayer too...........whatever.

Anyway, here is a little article about him.

I have known some really great Chaplains in my day in the military. Chaplains in the Airborne and Special Operations always seemed to be more into their jobs than others...I once had a Green Beret Chaplain who always motivated the troops and put smiles on their faces, called cadence in unit runs, and was the most proud member of the unit. I wasn't very religious and didn't see the Chaplain for religious support, but it was very comforting to know that he was there, ready to listen, ready to be a medic for my heart and soul.

Here is someone you should know about - Captain Dan Knight - a former Green Beret A-Team Commander, Gulf War vet, HALO and Scuba qualified...Chaplain. I don't know Captain Knight personally, but I think he was an 18E in the 5th SF Group in the early 1990's. Some of you might have known him.

This via the Detroit News/Washington Post:

VOLTURNO BASE, Iraq — By day, this military camp is a self-contained American bubble in a bizarre setting. Off-duty soldiers listen to country music, watch big-screen basketball, eat grilled steaks, read e-mail from home and jog around an artificial lake, built on a landscaped former resort for Saddam Hussein’s cronies.

By night, the base becomes a launching pad for forays into another world that is equally surreal but far more dangerous. Lightless convoys rumble into the nearby city of Fallujah, where troops hop out and creep through deserted streets, searching houses for enemies and weapons. Then they rapidly withdraw, listening for the crack of gunfire and praying they will make it back to the base without a bomb exploding in their path.

On most missions, the raiders of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment are accompanied by Dan Knight, a strapping captain with a shaved head, an aw-shucks drawl and an awesome resume: 12-year Green Beret, Persian Gulf War combat veteran, Special Forces company commander, demolitions expert, high-altitude jumper and deep-sea scuba diver.

Knight carries no weapon, though he mightily wishes he could. Instead, tucked in his rucksack is a book covered in camouflage canvas that says “Army of the Lord.”

...Out in the field, though, the soldiers’ appreciation for his presence is clear. When the commando chaplain jumps into an armored Humvee bound for Fallujah, the nervous jokes stop and a sense of calm seems to pervade the soldiers gripping their rifles in the back of the vulnerable, open vehicle.

By the way, another interesting fact about him. He and his wife are high school friends with Faith Hill. After we got back from Iraq he invited her to come and do a free concert at Fort Bragg. And she did.

Memorial Day

Next monday is Memorial day. For those of you who think its just for BBQs and enjoying a free day off, here is an article about the holiday and why we observe it.

that is observed on the last Monday of May (observed in 2008 on May 26). It was formerly known as Decoration Day. This holiday commemorates U.S. men and women who have died in military service to their country. It began first to honor Union soldiers who died during the American Civil War. After World War I, it was expanded to include those who died in any war or military action. One of the longest standing traditions is the running of the Indianapolis 500, which has been held in conjunction with Memorial Day since 1911. It is also traditionally viewed as the beginning of summer by many, since many schools are dismissed around Memorial Day.
----Courtesy Wikipedia


Some of you may know personally someone who has died in the service of their country. For those of you who do not, here are three I personally knew. One was a colleague, one a friend, and one a Private I helped train while I was a Drill Sergeant.

Staff Sergeant Paul J. Johnson
Specialist Jeffery Wershow
Private Junior Sanchez

Keep these people, and all people who died far away from home, scared, hurt, and missing their families. They died for you.

A haiku

The Day is Dragging
Tomorrow I fly to Knox
and hug my two boys

Quite Possibly the Coolest hobby ever

War Dead Cremated at Facility for Pets

Haven't these people ever read Steven King?