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A Soldier’s Story First Sgt. Robert Jennings |
First Sgt. Robert Jennings, with help from his interpreter, tells the story of "Little Red Riding Hood" to 6-year-olds at a local school.
Fallujah raid
spurs attacks
Despite the rise in activity
in Kirkuk, soldiers carry out
community service projects
From last week to this, it's like night and day again. After the previous week's lull in attacks, the enemy activity picked up in our area as expected this week. Once U.S. and Iraqi forces entered Fallujah, the bad guys came out here in Kirkuk. This week ranks up with the top three or four since we arrived back in January. We already had civil projects on our schedule and we didn't let this sudden rise in activity deter us.
Nov., 8, 9:20 p.m. » Local police have discovered and disarmed an improvised explosive device (roadside bomb).
Nov. 9, 7:45 a.m. » Today we headed to Amu Shabi, a small Arab village, to hand out school supplies to half of the schools. There are only three schoolhouses, with each catering to two schools. Three schools attend from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the other three from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. They alternate mornings and afternoons weekly. This morning we went to the girls' high school, ages 13-15; one of the boys' primary schools, ages 6-12; and one of the girls' primary schools, ages 6-12.
We also added a twist to this week's school activity. Through my interpreter, I sat down with all the 6-year-olds at the boys' school and told the story of "Little Red Riding Hood." They seemed fascinated by all the different voices I would make trying to bring the characters to life. Then giggled as my interpreter mimicked the story in Arabic.
Nov. 9, 8:30 a.m. » The windows in the girls' high school rattle and a low rumble is felt. I know this is an explosion, so I signal my interpreter to call the police and investigate.
Nov. 9, 9:30 a.m. » We received an update on the earlier explosion. Capt. John Hallett, of Concord, Calif., left with half the soldiers present to investigate. Our training with the Iraqi National Guardsmen is definitely paying off. It seems a taxi filled with explosives stopped well short of one of our checkpoints that was conducting vehicle searches. The driver exited, got into another vehicle that fled the scene, and his taxi then exploded. There were no casualties.
This seems to be a new type of weapon employed throughout the country. First there were the improvised explosive devices. These are still being used, but we have been able to detect or deter their use by saturating the areas of operation. Our enemy is finding it difficult to effectively place these.
Then there is the suicide car bomb. We are seeing fewer of these lately. I would imagine this is a hard job to recruit for, and there has to be a limited supply of volunteers.
Now we are seeing cars full of explosives that are being command-detonated from a nearby location. These are difficult to detect because there are so many cars parked on the roads. We are already developing ways to counter this, and have employed those methods. But like always, we will have to continue to adapt to our cunning enemy.
This taxi exploded Nov. 9 near a search checkpoint. There was minimal property damage and no casualties.
Nov. 10, 8:09 p.m. » One of our interpreters relayed a message from the police. A mortar was fired at the airbase, but landed short in a neighborhood. We had a patrol in the vicinity that investigated. The round struck the roof of a cement house and caused no damage.
This is the disturbing part of this whole business over here. We try to make sure who we engage is actually the enemy. These guys we battle on a daily basis don't care who they hurt.
Nov. 11, 8:40 a.m. » A large explosion has just been heard around the city. Radio reports are coming in from all over. Our observation posts are reporting smoke over a mile away from the patrol base, so I know this one's big.
After piecing all the reports together, it was determined that the city's mayor was the target of a car explosion. Witnesses say that a parked car exploded as the mayor's car drove by in his armed convoy. There was extensive damage to his car, but he was located in another vehicle in the convoy. Four of his security personnel and four bystanders were taken to the hospital for treatment.
Nov. 12, 5:34 p.m., 10:05 p.m. and 10:23 p.m. » Several 107 mm rockets scream overhead toward the airbase. None of the rockets exploded, no casualties reported.
Nov. 13, 8:30 a.m. » Another rocket is heard moving toward the airbase; again no explosion.
With the Muslim holiday Ramadan ending, we were hoping to see a decrease in attacks. But with Fallujah and other nearby Sunni Muslim villages fighting for control with coalition and Iraqi security forces, we are preparing for yet another increase this week.
I ask everyone back home to say a prayer for all of the servicemen and women deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
God bless and aloha.
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Visit with injured
soldier is 'uplifting'
I received an e-mail from a soldier who didn't deploy with us because of a permanent injury he sustained in a basic training vehicle accident. Even though Sgt. Wes Cleland, of Oklahoma, has been injured since his arrival to the company a few years ago, he earned the respect of all the company leadership because of his work ethic and "can-do" attitude. He is now attending advanced training for his new job in Maryland.This week, he spent Veterans Day with Spc. Charles Woolwine. Regular readers of this column remember that Woolwine, known to his fellow soldiers as "the Machine," lost his leg below the knee on May 2 in a roadside bomb ambush. He is now at Walter Reed Medical Center on the long road to recovery.
Here are excerpts from Cleland's e-mail.
"I spent the better part of today with Woolwine. He is the same ol' Machine. ... He told me he went running yesterday for the second time since his prosthetic has been on. His Physical Evaluation Board is on 10 January 2005 and he asked me if I would help him out with it since I am so close and know him on both a professional and a personal level.
"He wants to return to A Company and his anticipations are to be back fully operational by May. Just seeing him today was probably one of the coolest things that I have ever had happen to me. It was almost as though nothing was wrong with him. Except I had to walk a little slower for him to keep up. ... He is doing well and asked a lot of what I knew of what was going on with A Company. I could only tell him what he already knew. ... Today was a totally uplifting experience for me."