Counting Down the Days...

As the days wind down to the end of deployment, I try experience Iraq as much as possible. I know most people must think that life is hell here, and in many ways it isn't fun. With my free time however I am finding more and more ways to enjoy myself and live this lifetime opportunity to the fullest.

I have posted many pictures of all the unique hobbies that have been occupying my time. First off, we built a range for the Iraqi Army and I wouldn't pass up on breaking it in for them. Firing tracer rounds at dusk is always fun to watch.

Next, I found my very own tank, a Russian T-72 that I'm thinking about shipping home.

In this photo, I tested out the Iraqi off-road course with my Humvee. This particular mound had a pretty steep grade, but nothing the Humvee couldn't handle.

Next, I jumped in to drive the Russian BRT 8-wheeled armored troop carrying vehicle. It is kind of like a small Stryker. I got it rolling, but I had a lot of miss-shifts with the odd stick shift configuration.

Not so enjoyable, but unique to the region are the dreaded sand storms. It is more like dust the wreaks havoc on the respiratory system.

So I'll be back home soon. I'm going to go on a nice long vacation first with Colleen, starting with a cruise in the Bahamas. After that i'm looking forward to seeing everyone and enjoying life in the home of the free and the brave!

Take care,

Matt

Life working with the Iraqi Army

Salam Aleukum,

As the weeks go on, I become closer and closer to the Iraqis. I have accepted working with the Iraqi Army 14 hours a day as my new life. Life at home seems all but a dream, but I still long to return.

At first working 14 hours a day seemed like a drag; but if you think about it, I'm in Iraq, what else is there to do. So the boredom of waiting for an exciting event to be broadcast over the radio that requires my quick reaction, or a surprise visit by an Iraqi Officer, has been replaced by finding ways to best occupy my time. I'm taking a vocational course in Entrepreneurship, Small Business, and Property Management which is could be just the track I'm looking for when I come home. I'm also studying diligently for the GMAT(Graduate Management Assessment Test) so that someday I might be accepted into a good MBA program.

At first I was bitter about my new position, but now I am making the best of it and give it my all. The key is keeping a good attitude and respecting the Iraqis as you would a customer. I'm here to serve them and it is their turn to take over their country. One good thing about my job is I am culturally immersed and have learned great skills in serving people, making key on the spot decisions, and always striving to better the operational process. Things certainly run much smoother than when I first got here; it makes me confident in my ability to be thrown into the the mix of any situation, and have the insight for improvement.

Colleen is in Oregon now. She's been enjoying all the great Summer recreation: Eugene Rodeo, wakeboarding, and more! She's also busy looking for jobs and wedding sites. It's going to be strange coming home and actually enjoying myself; I'm not sure if I'll be able to handle it!

I left some pictures for everyone. The first is of old Iraqi Army remnants of war. Camp Taji has thousands upon thousands of junk military vehicles from the Saddam era. Camp Taji is also the home of where Saddam's cousin, "Chemical Ali", stored his weapons. These chemical weapons were used to kill the Kurds by the 10s of thousands, eradicate those living in the swamps to the South, and decimate the Iranians by the 100s of thousands. There has been a few American Soldier's injured here after being exposed to chemical weapons stored in hidden caches outside of Camp Taji. It's easy to forget how truly evil the Saddam regime was.

The second picture is of my Interpreters. They are very hard working, only taking 4 days off a month to go see their families; simply incredible stamina and dedication throughout the years of war.

The last picture is of an Iraqi Officer and myself. He gave me the turban as a gift. The Iraqis have great hospitality that I try to emulate.

Take care!

End of the Platoon Leader Era

l


Hello All,

It's been awhile, as I've been adjusting to my new job as the Iraqi Army Coordination Cell Shift Leader. Big changes have happened for me and there are even bigger changes to come here in Iraq. I will leave some photos of my last days as a Platoon Leader. First is a picture of me and an Iraqi Lieutenant, second picture is of me giving a gift to a Sheik, and third is me talking to a local family.

So it was my time to move on from being a Platoon Leader. Being a Infantry Platoon Leader in a combat zone has been the greatest learning experience of my life. You learn more about yourself and what you are made of when you face the dangers of possibly being being blown up each day. You learn to face your destiny if you are one of the few unlucky ones and put faith in God that he will spare you for another day and another chance to try and change the world for the better. I will speak the truth that before I deployed I was scared, but now I am willing to stand up and face the dangers of the world as a necessary part of life. I would have rather stayed as a Platoon Leader for the rest of the deployment, but I needed to move on to a staff job.
Lets just say I learned alot of lessons as a Platoon Leader that has allowed me to mature as an adult and be a responsible role model for my generation.

As far as my new job goes, its not as glorious as being in charge of 30 Infantry Soldiers and 3 Stryker vehicles. Nonetheless it is necessary and far more important in achieving our goal of letting the Iraqis take over their own country. I work 13 hour nights interacting with Iraqis to make sure they are ready for joint patrols with American forces. Where my job really becomes key is the transition to Iraqi led patrols. This will be challenging to make sure that the Iraqi Army goes through the right motions for preparring for missions and integrating the Americans in a useful and safe manner.

Colleen is looking forward to moving to Oregon at the end of the month. She will be looking for work as a teacher or maybe even try out sales. I will be coming to Oregon in September as well and will likely go back to school and find an interesting career path.

Tell next time,

Matt

AIR RECON!

Hey everyone,

For my latest post I will describe an Air Reconnaissance that I was privileged enough to go on. Basically we conducted this mission to discover more about the new area I am in from the birds eye view of a helicopter. The first picture shows me with my foot propped out ready to jump on any unsuspecting terrorists from above...

The second photo shows our wingman flying by our side. You can also see the extensive irrigation systems they have established coming off the Tigris River. This allows them to cultivate and farm for miles away from the river making it much greener than one might expect in Iraq.
They farm lots of wheat, barley, palm orchards, and orange orchards. Something has bloomed recently too and it has wreaked havoc with my allergies. Allegra seems to be helping alot however.

The third photo shows me enjoying the flight, enough said.

I want to thank everyone who sent me best wishes on my birthday. This may not be a very nice place to celebrate but the messages were nice. My Platoon was nice enough to get me a Cina-Bon cake.

I decided to fly Colleen out to Oregon for her Spring Break. She's enjoying hanging out with my folks for the week! She's been looking at a lot of Wedding sites also. You might want to hint Tokatee to her ;)

I've also been thinking alot about my career when I come home. I read about the border in our Stars and Stripes newspaper just about everyday and I want to get down there to help. I was considering the Border Patrol again, it sounds exciting and if I have my Fiance with me, we could enjoy a nice standard of living down there. I just have to convince her of that!

Well, I'll let you all know of my next career ambition on my following blogs. There are so many intriguing options out there.

Take care,

Matt

Off to a new area...

So I've been a little bitter lately, as soon as we start getting used to our Area of Operations they tell us to pack up and leave to a new area. Doesn't make much sense as far as continuity and building relations, but being in the Army you learn to expect and prepare for anything. So it is time to start the steep learning curve again to learn our new Area.

At least I have knowledge now how to best prepare my Platoon for next time. I feel like I already have some experience under my belt, I am extremely confident in myself and the capabilities of my Platoon. I know exactly what they are lacking in and I have a comprehensive plan on how to fix those shortcomings. I have become very demanding of my soldiers lately and although they would rather relax, they know that I am making them work hard for their own good. Out of all that you get a real sense of accomplishment and my leaders know that we are the go to guys to get any mission done for them.

So I ended up having to drop my graduate course. I had some wishful thinking going on that I would have enough time to do college courses here. Although I can't get a head start in my graduate degree, I know by dedicating all my time to my soldiers, I can mold them into an elite force that both my soldiers and myself can be proud of. My goals are ambitious, but I know it will pay off in battle and I am enjoying it. How many people can say they enjoy their work?

I want to thank those of you who have sent the care packages. My soldiers and I have really enjoyed them. We've had some mishaps however throwing candy at the children. They like to run out in front of vehicles when we do that. We haven't hit anyone yet, but I don't allow my soldiers to give out candy anymore.

I left some pictures of us in action with Iraqi Security Forces.

Finally on the streets!

Welcome From Iraq,

So after all the years of waiting I am finally roaming the streets of Iraq. It has been a long time coming, over 6 years of training and I am finally puting my skills to good use. The anticipation is over and that is quite a relief.

We have been so busy lately it has been hard to spend any leisure time to communicate back home. It is a steep learning curve getting to know the area as well as the outgoing unit. I feel like I will never know the area as much as the outgoing Lieutenant. He is quite an impressive guy, a West Point Grad and a very street smart people person. He knows Arabic fluently and the locals here love him, his Arabic nickname is close to being know as "The Great One".

So I have some big shoes to fill. I've started arabic lessons with my interpreter, Tom. They say if I spend half an hour to an hour a day at it, I should pick it up fast. Hopefully I will get pretty good at it by this Summer. The interpreters here are very helpful, most of them are from different areas of Iraq and we like to hide their identity for their safety.

Being outside the "wire" has been pretty exciting. We have some guys who are scared to death and some who thrive on doing this work. I feel like I am at my best when conducting missions and interacting with the locals. You forget about everything else in the world and completely focus on what needs to be done, how you can help these people, and how to make sure everyone makes it home un-harmed. I can already tell my character is developing differently. I actually enjoy being so busy and focused, having no free time at all. I am always looking for ways to improve my Platoon.

Most of the locals enjoy talking to us. This has been a good area last year and my goal is to keep it that way. Kids absolutely love us. They jump up and down, waving their hands, and even dance for us. As soon as I have some candy on my hands, i'll be handing it out every day. They also love soccer here. The older kids often ask me for pens. Its surprising how well educated some of the villages are. In one of the photos I am standing with Omar, he speaks english very well.

The food isn't too bad outside of base. It is mediocre inside the base though. I've been eating often with Police Captains and Sheiks(Tribal Leaders). They love their falafals. They are very good, you stuff them with chicken, lamb, or beef, and fresh vegetables. Yumm!

I have more work to do. Talk to y'all later.

First Post from Iraq

Hi Everyone,

So I decided the easiest way for me to communicate with all my friends and family is to create this blog. This will let me stay focused on my work while keeping everyone updated on how I am doing here.

Due to operational security I cannot get too detailed in what I am doing in Iraq. Right now we are preparing our equipment in Taji and we will be moving to JSS Istaqlal in East Baghdad.

The accommodations in Taji are very nice. We have 2 person rooms with lots of space, single bed, AC, electricity, and we can add whatever appliances we want. The dining facility is incredible. We can choose from almost any food imaginable and it is very good. We have anything from country scramble and omelletes for breakfast to T-bone steaks and shrimp for dinner. This place so far puts any base in the states to shame. Thanks KBR!

So mostly everyone is excited to start the missions. It has been a long wait to get down to business. We have been training since September and feel more than ready to get out there. The last two months have been a drag with little to do. Now I know what it felt like for the soldiers waiting for the initial invasion. Lets just get started already.

To kill some of the boredom, I started grad school this January. I am in Penn State's Geospatial Intelligence Certification Program. It is a continuation of my undergrad degree in Geographic Information Systems, but it concentrates more on the intelligence aspect, such as satellite imagery analysis. My Dad is pretty excited that I am a Nittany Lion now!

So we are going to JSS Istaqlal for a short time period. The base has been handed over to the Iraqi Security Forces and they are ready to take over the region completely. We're ready for anything though. News is that it has been calm lately, but you never know when Iranian Special Forces might show up again. They are the chief instigator of violence in this region.

So I posted some pictures of Kuwait. Lots of camels. You have to watch out for them as they run right in front of your convoy. Kuwaitis fine up to $75,000 if you hit one too. They have different colored camels too: brown, white, and black. White supposedly being the most valuable. Also a picture of me at the shooting range. I have an M4 that shoots a .223 in semi-auto or 3 round burst. I was hitting man size silhouettes at 600 meters. I have a 4X ACOG scope, a laser designator for night firing with night vision goggles, bipod, and a surefire tactical flashlight all mounted on the weapon.

I will try to get more pictures up later. I am unsure if my internet connection will be any good in the small JSS we are going to, but I will try to write as much as I can. Be sure to check out our website that we have made for updates on our wedding: http://www.mywedding.com/mattandcolleenerb/ We are developing it more each day.

Miss you all,

Matt