The Long Awaited Blog Arrives...

About 6 or 7 months ago, I said I was going to blog about my experience in Iraq as the first "aid and assist brigade" to have boots on the ground. Seeing as how my boots have been on the ground in Iraq for about 3 weeks now, I figure now is better than never to start it. I could say that I was waiting for the go-ahead from our commanding general up here (I mean...I did go to a briefing held by him today in which he said "we love blogs." <--- I'll be sure to watch what I write, though...ha.), but let's be honest...I'm notorious for my procrastination.

So let's get started here. We (the 4th Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division) have assumed control of the Iraqi province of Ninevah. We (the 5th Batallion of the 82d Field Artillery) are a smaller part of the afore mentioned Longknife Brigade responsible for the city of Mosul and its surrounding areas. Being that we are field artillery in a country that doesn't let us shoot artillery rounds anymore, we don't do field artillery. As artillerymen, we pride ourselves on being able to accomplish and/or break near anything. Over the next year, for lack of a better word, we will serve as infantillerymen. You're probably saying, "hey, John, Infantillerymen, and it's root, infantillery, are not real words." To that, I say add it to your vocabulary. It will undoubtedly be used again in this blog. Also, there are some key words that will likely recur throughout as well that, to the non-military type, will seem unfamiliar. So, I will attempt to help you all out as best I can. Please comment with any questions you may have and I will try to answer them as best I can.

As I said before, I had to go to a briefing today held by Major General Cucolo. He showed us why the area we're in right now is so crucial. I won't go into all of it right now, but I'll try to find a map to post up here to show the "human terrain" as he called it. There are several, several groups of people that are about one misguided comment away from civil war. We just happen to be in the middle of that, all while trying to get rid of about 3 terrorist groups still active in the area. Oh, and while all that is going on, we're providing security escort for various State Department and UN personnel in order for them to get the Iraqis that are willing to work with us the help they so desperately need. Needless to say, now that combat operations are over in Iraq (Thank you, 24 hour news networks), we're still seeing plenty of things that can blow up and kill you.

That pretty much lays the foundation. (read: I'm done writing for now.) I don't want to give too much away in the first writing. I apologize for not leaving you with a juicy cliffhanger, but there's about 11 months of possible cliffhangers to look forward to, so stay with me.

-j