Operation Stay On Line

Yet another completion of a week long operation. Basically, did the same thing we have been doing; house searches, searching fields and farms (while staying on line in a good looking formation), and the occasional raid. There were some highlights about this op. Like the day my squad had to stand security over a fish market. The stench was horrendous and we had to stay there for most of the day. I’ve upload a picture of how they stored fish; Iraqi just keep it on ice and when it thaws out, it drains to the outside.

My squad has also been unofficially designated as the mountain goat squad. Why you ask. It seems like every time there is a cliffs or high ground, we have to be the ones to go up to and check it out. I also ran across a lot of rooms, if that’s what I can call them, built in the caves of these cliffs. People build up mud brick walls and make a little room. From what I have seen, people just use them as storage rooms. I’ve found one full of corn feed. Once again, check out my pictures on flickr.

This past week has also included a lot of action for the Marines of Lima Co. Just to let you know, my platoon, so far, is the only one who has yet to engage in a fire fight or take small arms fire. One of the platoons did get ambushed and it turned into one of the longest fire fights since Fallujah. Can’t get too specific on the details. There was one night when we had 4 separate engagements in one city. Rumor has it, there were at least 30 funerals the following day.

Near the end of the op, we ran across a large weapons cache. It had all kinds of explosives, rifles, ammunition, and machine guns. To set an example to the terrorists in the area, we blew up the house. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a before picture, but did take an after picture; so check it out.

Almost forget, I was part of a raid that netted a high value target. This guy had computer CDs with some pretty crazy stuff on them and even a poster of Osama bin Laden with a lot of stupid writing on it.

If anyone is interested, here is a link to a web site that has adopted our company. It shows all related news stories about us: http://www.reminderpublications.com/marine/marine.html. You will have to look for the link on the left side bar.