Oerdin's Iraq thread.

[Lonestar]

Hang Tough Oerdin.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Barinthus
Torture chambers?!? Have you seen those up close? It must felt strange to be in one. :shudder:

They are located on my compound though the original "equipment" has been removed as evidence by the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights. The cells are 3ft by 4.5ft and there are no lights or air holes. They are made out of solid concrete and a solid steel door covers the entrence. When the door is closed the only light comes from a small crack at the base of the door.

[Barinthus]

Creepy, Oerdin.

Sirotnikov, there was a documentary on Saddam on the History Channel. It mentioned there were three or so intelligence agencies in Iraq spying on each other. Saddam was so paranoid so he had spies spying on spies which was spying on spies.

[Ted Striker]

Hey Oerdin do you think you guys could use some more guys to help out? I'm sure it couldn't hurt at least...

[pchang]

Are you volunteering Ted?

[Dinner]

Ted: There is always room for one more. Though if you started training now you wouldn't be ready from another 6-8 months.

[Dinner]

Today had it's share of ups and downs. It started with us doing an assessment for a new turkish language TV station that's being built in Kirkuk during which the owners asked us to do an interview for their first broadcast. I suspose I will have my picture on TV even if only in one of the more backwards and out of the way places.

A few of the neighbors have complained to the city council about the TV station being built in a residential neighborhood so I took the opportunity to walk around and try to get a feel for how the people really felt. I spoke with seven families, including one Assyrian Christinan family who's daughter spoke excellent English and who's mother kept asking me if I was married, and all of them voiced concerns about the station being a possible terrorist target. They felt that since they were so close to the station their property might be damaged or their family hurt in any terrorist attack. Three claimed the TV station was blocking reception to other channels (which is strange since Turkman Tv hasn't even started broadcasting yet) and two others thought they might get cancer from the television waves. Still, the security concerns are valid so when I wrote my report I recommended that hesco barrier be constructed on the street leading to the station and that grant money be allocated so the station can hire armed security guards.

The down time came when I was listening to the radio on our way back to Alpha company's safe house in Kirkuk. A truck load of guys from the IO company I often work with got hit by an IED approximately .5 miles from my compound. They were making the one mile trip between the Kirkuk Air Field and the CMOC when a buried bomb exploded on the side of the road. No one was killed but three were injured and I know and often work with all three. One suffered a blown ear drum from the explosion, another had a piece of shrapnel go through his left hand breaking several bones, and the other was hit in the head and neck by shrapnel. The last fellow had his life saved by his helmet and the kevlar neck guard which is part of our body armor.

The rest of the day was spent in the town of Amle Shobby which is located adjacent to the far west side of the Kirkuk Air Field. Amle Shobby is an entirely Sunni Arab town and most of the people moved there to take part in Saddam's Arabization campaign of the Kirkuk area. Still, the people seem friendly enough and three days ago we spoke with several leading figures in the town about refurbashing several public buildings. A Civil Affairs team had the local high school redone last summer and the place still looks nice though the elementry school was completely looted a year ago (we're talking even the glass stolen from the windows and the electrical wires riped out of the walls) and day care center is in truly sorry shape (it looks like the yard for the day care center has been turned into a village trash dump). We're trying to get CA to refurbash the elementry school and the day care center plus we'd like to see if we can't find 5-10 local businessmen to write business plans and apply for small business grants from the CPA. It's not much but its a start and maybe just maybe Amle Shobby will stay in the Coalition camp instead of joining in with the insurgents.

[Barinthus]

I hope your comrades will be able to recover from their injuries without any problems.

Hope the efforts to keep Amle Shobby from joing the insurgents will be successful.

[Dinner]

Me too.

[pchang]

Try to vary your routes. Don't go the same way all the time. Have you looked into getting a cell phone jammer?

[MOBIUS]

Hey Oerdin,

I may not agree with the reasons behind the war but you seem to be doing good things over there, so keep up the good work and stay safe!

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by pchang
Are you volunteering Ted?

I feel bad for these guys getting blown up while I'm here safe in the USA living a spoiled life.

If there was a magic machine that would let me trade my life to bring back one of the guys with families I would do it. And that's not an exaggeration.

But the question I was asking was actually does Oerdin think he needs reinforcements or are there enough troops there already to keep the situation handled?

There was an article I read somewhere that supposedly quoted one of the Marines saying it would be nice to have some more guys to close off the escape routes. I was wondering if that was the author's spin though he was putting on it.

[DanS]

Hey Oerdin. Has the CPA been disbursing funds at a good enough clip for the work that you are doing?

Keep up the good work.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by pchang
Try to vary your routes. Don't go the same way all the time. Have you looked into getting a cell phone jammer?

No cellphone jammers are currently available and we vary our routes as much as possible.

[Chemical Ollie]

Recent events raise some reasons to worry. I've seen burning Abrams, burning Humvees, burning oil tankers, burning mosques, burning helicopters, everything burning, you name it...

And what's this buzz about an armistice? An armistice sounds like a better wording of US army begging for mercy? Hope you are OK, Oerdin!