Greeting from Iraq!

[Doobie]

Hey all! Maybe a few of you will remember me. I left in March for Iraq with the 101st. I'm currently in Mosul, Iraq and after answering my family e-mail, my second stop was right here at AO. WHOA! things look different! Sounds like AGD has coninued to kick a$$ while I have been gone.
My wife sent me the Shatner DVD to watch over here and it was cool to see some of you on it.
I'm returning to the states in a few days for an Army school, Advanced Non-Comissioned Officers Course for those that care, and will hopefully be on AO a little more. Thanks to those that wrote me. We could not have done it without the support of people back home!
I'll be glad to answer any ?? about the war and Iraq that I can. I'm looking forward to being a part of Ao again.
(hopefully i'll have my x-mag waiting for me...hehehehe)
:D
Doobie

[Animal Mother]

How many confirmed kills? :D

[Miscue]

Yay! Good to hear from you.

[G-Rock]

Doobie...

Dude look me up when you get back....

Chris

[Army]

Originally posted by Animal Mother
How many confirmed kills? :D
Rude.

Doobie! Good to hear from you again, HOOAH!

Yes, we spiffed up AO just for you.....NOT! LOL :D

Come back safe, and good luck at ANCOC.

[IromKnight]

Where you or any good friends of yours in on that Uday and Qusay bust?

Thanks for serving man!

[cockermongol]

Originally posted by Animal Mother
How many confirmed kills? :D
I also would like to know. :D

[logamus]

its great to hear your alive and well. i wish you and all the troops a safe and swift return home!!!

[edweird]

Hey bro... good to hear from you. I hope they get off their arse and send you back ASAP.


Thanks for answering the nations call. When I started seeing my fellow armed services brothers headding to Iraq enmasse I ony wished that I could share in the danger to keep another of us safe. Enjoy your final days in Iraq and we eagley await your full time return to AO!

[kosmo]

ANCOC eh? Congrats. Hope lifes treating you tolerably in the desert. I feel like such a tool, Im gonna be the only person in the Army without a combat patch:rolleyes:

[Jonno06]

woooo..welcome home party for doobie at his house!!!!!!!!!

[AngelBoy]

Welcome back to the family again. Tennessee misses you, come back home!!!

[pito189]

DOOBIE, whats up you ole balla you. You still have that 50lb gun waiting for you when you get back, even if the X-Mag isn't ready.

Be safe, and come back in one piece. We all miss you here in the great U S of A.:D

[Recon by Fire]

I'm real proud of my brothers-in-arms there Doobie, I sometimes hate that I am no longer in. Take care and come back safe :)

[hitech]

Glad to hear you will be returning safely. :D I'd like to hear what it was like for you personally over there. I'm sure you have enough "stories" to fill many pages. I'd really like to hear what it was like from your personal viewpoint.

[pballck]

YAAAAA!!!!! Can't wait to have my p-ball partner/ hubby back safe and sound!! :) Hopefully he's ready to go PLAY!!

T

[AGD]

Yo DOOB!! Way to represent!! Come back home and maybe we will have a chat party for ya!!

AGD

[Eagle]

Greetings my brother in arms from the Navy capital of the world! I just got back from 6 months of bobbing around at periscope depth in the Gulf about a month ago, I know how good it is to get back home.

[Doobie]

WOW! Thanks everyone! Don't worry pballck (my wife) I can't wait either and I am ready to play!

TK...Thanks for the personal respose. I shouldn't be suprised though. That's what makes AO such a great place!

I'll be back around the 11th of August. My school date is not until 9 Sep. I'm thinking a little Splatt/Shatner II may be in order.:D
We shall see.

I will answer some of the ?? you all asked when I get back. Internet time here is rare, so it will be easier when I return. A heartfelt thanks to all!:o

[Oregon_pb_]

1: Where were u guys stationed at in Iraq?

2: See any 'action'? See lots of explosions?

3: During the advancement stages pre 'victory' announcement by Bush Early May (it was May right?) when they announced then retracted the Offensive was going on "hold" for a few days because supply lines were running thin (later retracted and tried to write over they ever said it) were you guys really short on food? Like 1 meal a day like they said?

4: Same question, but later on, did you have plenty of food and water during your overall stay there? (Plenty as in the average for you service folks!)


5: How long were you in Iraq total?

6: Did the Iraqi people you met seem cooperative with the US forces?

7: Bring back any barrels of black gold for the US? We need to pay for this thing some how!!



Just figured I’d throw a few your way!!!

Good job and welcome back!

[Tack]

Great to hear from you man. Was wondering how things were going over there with you. I would have hated to find out anything bad came your way.

If it wasn't for my bad knees I probablly would have been over there myself. 101, or a MP unit more than likely. Oh well, guess it's better for me to take care of my knees and let the healthy ones kicke some real butt. I'll just dish it out on the paintball field.:D

Keep us updated on things.

Tack.

[Doobie]

Hey All! Man it is good to be home! I got back last night and most of my family was there to see me. It really was good seeing them. I'm a little overwhelmed at the support my fellow paintballers have been showing me! It really makes one feel good about doing this job. During peace time, we tend to feel overlooked and it nice to know that people that care are out there. Now..

To answer some of peoples ??:
1. No. I didn't kill anyone. A sniper in my platoon did. (600meters through the front window of a moving car no less!) I got shot at plenty and even had a hand grenade blow up about 10 feet away from me just last week! The pucker factor was up, let me tell you!

2. We moved from Kuwait all the way through Iraq to Mosul in the north. We hit An Najef, Karbala, Baghdad, and some town I can't even begin to spell, then Mosul.

3. Food. I was a Scout, so I only carried 1 MRE a day anyway. I don't know about everyone else. After the "Hostilities" we got 3 a day.

4. Water. There was a time in Mosul, during stabilization ops, that we were down to 2 bottles of water a day. It happened to be during the 120 deg heat! Piss poor planning on someone’s part if you ask me!:mad: By the time I left the problem had been fixed.

5. I was in Iraq for 5 months. Deployed for 6 months (1 month in Kuwait)

6. The people are generally pleasant. The Arab world is different and they are very social people. I made some good friends, like my interpreter; Sala, the laundry guy; Shamel, the contractor I hired to fix the building we lived in; Layith. All good men. Most people hated Saddam, and thank us for getting rid of him. They just have their own ideas on how to fix thing now.

7. Ouday and Qusay(sp?). I wasn't involved, but my Brigade was. (2nd Brigade the "Black Hearts". Anyone with a black heart on the side of their helmet is in my brigade)

[Hexis]

Thanks for your efforts. I know I appreciate them.

[SIGSays]

i don't even get 1 MRE a day... MRE's are bangin'! i just wanna go to bootcamp for the mre's

ever try the jamaican prokchops :) MMmmmMM!

good luck with all you do... and i'd like to say thanx

[personman]

Welcome back! Its good to see you safe back here man.. thanks for what you did over there :)

[edweird]

Welcome back man!..... enjoy your time off and rest well.

During your time off Im sure your trying to rid yourself from the sand that has now became part of your very existance but that stuff is impossible to get rid of I swear.

[dcmander]

What firearm are you holding in that picture?

Kinda looks like a G36k, but I dunno. :)

Can you list all the equipment you carry on a regular day over there?

[Doobie]

The weapon is an M-4 (M-16 variant). It has mounted on it a Aimpoint red dot sight, a PEQ-2 Infrared laser sight and illuminator and a Sure-fire tactical flashlight.

BTW, here is another pic of me and my scout team and our “Toys”. 1/502 Scout Team 1. Call Sign “Mohawk 1”

[Doobie]

Also..


I will be coming to Shatner 2 in PA!

I will have some kind of banner or sign at my camper. Come by and say hi and hang out! I really want to meet some of you guys!

[Recon by Fire]

Darn Doobie, that is a big scout team! Is that a scout team of 11B's or actual 19D's? What is the actual unit in the 101st? When I was in the 25th ID (Light) our Scout Platoon was 6 of us 19 Deltas. Typically operated as 2 mans Scout sections. We had a 1 Hummer per man, like we got to use them, we rode chalks on birds mostly.

Welcome back again!

SCOUTS OUT!
RECON LEADS THE WAY!

[pito189]

Dang Doobie, you guys carry out all that stuff when you are out scouting? No wonder your 50lb Mag doesn't bother you. :)

Truley glad you made it back safe buddy.

[breg]

DOOBIE!
It's great that you are back!! I can only begin to imagine just how hard the pucker factor was kicking in when that had gernade went off. Though I have a few questions :

Did you happen to find any IED while you were there? I heard that those were quite a problem.

Does Doha still have that huge PX? That one beats the heck out of the one here at Kirtland AFB.

It must be nice to have a water tap where the cold water is actually cold, and not hotter than the hot water. It was like that in Kuwait when I was there last summer.

Did you ever get asked by any of nationals about "Same Same?"

It's amazing about how social and friendly the average Arab is, isn't it? Also, did you notice how if they had any food or anything, they would offer you some before they ate? I felt bad, because we were not allowed to take anything from the TCN's and to refuse and offered gift was an insult to them. I felt so bad. But, it was policy and we were not to question policy. You know?
Though to quote King Edward from Braveheart: "And so you return unkilled by the heathens."

WELCOME BACK, GREAT TO HAVE YOU HOME!!!

[Doobie]

Recon- Yep, were 11B's. Our Scouting is a little different than 19D. I can break my team into 2 sniper teams. One 7.62 team and one .50 cal team.

Pito- Waz up dawg! Yea, I actually missed the 50 pounder. That will all change when I get the new Hotness!

Breg- Never found any IED's. Kinda sumfin I didn't wanna find, ya know?

Wasn't in Doha. Camp New York out in the desert.

I can only asume "same,same" means homosexuality. I heard about that. At least in Northern Iraq, homosexuality is strictly forbiden.

Very nice people on average. If you expressed any interest in something they owned, they would give it to you. It did kind of cause some awkward situations. ("No, I can't accept your mule. No, there is nothing wrong with it, I just can't":) )

[breg]

Yeah, the TCN's would come up to us and ask if "You like Same Same." Really made a person uncomfortable. 'Course, I got more exposure to the natives than most, since I was a Force Protection Escort. I can honestly say that that was the worst job I ever had. It's just that you had to over come the language barrier, keep an eye on them as they were doing all sorts of work on base, not help them when they worked, and stay awake. No small feat when half of the TCN's are sleeping, it's 130 degrees and you didn't get much sleep the night before.

I guess that Kuwait was a little less strict about things than Iraq.

One thing I noticed when I was out there was that a lot of the women had AMAZING eyes. It was really strange.

One of the most interesting thing I got to expirence while was out there was the Arab Vendor. We cvould go downtown in Kuwait while I was there and it was really interesting. They would see you walk by and start yelling for you to come to thier stalls and try to get you to buy all manner of things. One really popular item was jewelry. There was a couple of vendors that would do just about any piece of jewelry that you could think of. And, it was for a decent price.

All in all, I learned a lot about that area of the world. I learned that most Arabs are as indifferent to us as we were to the people from the next town over. They showed a poilte interest in you, but could care less that I was a Westerner.

Also, I heard that the coffee from that area is awsome. Did you try any?

Also, did you bring back anything cool? Everyone in my unit was asking for sand from Kuwait while I was out there. I have a few friends out there right now, and I pray for them daily. I can't say exactly where, you know the whole OPSEC thing...

Well, in closing, it's good to know that one more made it home.

[H.K S.O.C.O.M.45]

NOT to sound like a gun freak wait i am . did you ever even fire your COLt -m4 carbine ? and what did you carry as a sidearm a 92 fs or a H.K .45 soccom / AND I WOULD THINK THAT FORM A REACON TEAM YOU GUYS WOULD USE MP5S. but did you ever get a chance to like sit in sudams chair ? i would sit in it than drop a couple of .12 ga shells itno it :D . well hay man glad you mad eit back saftly hope your squad kicked some major a$$.

[kosmo]

WTF man. Its not a video game, youve probably never shot a weapon, you have no freakin clue how an Army recon team operates, and nobody is impressed that you know that Colt makes M-4's. Now go back to playing Rainbow Six until you grow up a little more.

[Recon by Fire]

Recon with MP5's? LOL A scouts main weapon is a radio :) If you are shooting while performing reconnaissance, you're doing it wrong!

[Doobie]

Easy Kosmo...it's obvious he knows not what he says.

H.K S.O.C.O.M.45 : Here's the thing. An MP5 is an excellent weapon, but not well suited at longer ranges(150meters+) as it shoots a 9mm round. The MP5 is great for room clearing. The M-4 is good for both. When you move from open desert to urban environments and back to desert, you need something for both environments. The only guy who carried a sidearm in the squad was the M24 sniper. This is because he carried a bolt action 7.62mm rifle as a primary. His sidearm was a standard gov model M9 Beretta. We may have been recon scouts but we did't get the $$$ the Special Operations guys did. We didi get better gear than the standard Infantry guy though. Didn't see Saddam's chair, I was never in any of his castles. Sorry. I probably would have left a steamer in his chair. :D

Recon- Your right! The radio is the best weapon we had and we trained hard on fire missions, close air support, and CCA calls. If i'm shootin'...I'm runnin' too. 5 guys are a little out numbered. Break contact...the only battle drill we practiced. :)

[G-Rock]

Originally posted by Doobie
If i'm shootin'...I'm runnin' too.

Not this weekend when I am shooting at you bro!!!!! Hey if you are lucky, I might let you hold my X-Mag!!!

Glad to see you back man, some of us will be at the field this weekend, come see us man, and Sue, she is dying to see you!!

Welcome back, and look a brother up when you got time man!!

Chris Geiger

[MidnightRider]

My utmost respect to you and all of the people in the armed forces. You do something I know I could never do.

Now if you are still answering ?'s I got one for you. How big is the 101st? The reason I ask is that I have a cousin in the 101 and in the only letter to the family I have yet to read mentioned he was stationed in the northern part of Iraq too. His last name is Snook. Is the rest of the 101 still over there or are they planning on coming back anytime soon?

Again I stand and applaud(sp?) you and everybody else who fights for this country.

Peace

MR

[G-Rock]

Well I live in clarksville, right next to Fort Campbell. My mom works on post, and the word going around here is Febraury or March right now.

As for the size of the 101st, it is a full division. Maybe doobie could answer alittle bit better of the actually numbers, I am tired and half asleep.

Chris

[H.K S.O.C.O.M.45]

ddue trust me i no about guns man i shoot .22 target rifles and i used to do skeet shooting and no i dont play rainbow six i dont play vido games .and i bet i have shot a gun i have shoot many ar 15s m16 beret light fifty (thats a 50 cal rifle ) many shotguns all types of pistols desert eagles, colts, s&ws ,rugers ,berreta ,H.Ks ........etc and if you dont think i no how ask some of my friedns thay all no i no bout guns

[G-Rock]

Originally posted by H.K S.O.C.O.M.45
ddue trust me i no about guns man i shoot .22 target rifles and i used to do skeet shooting and no i dont play rainbow six i dont play vido games .and i bet i have shot a gun i have shoot many ar 15s m16 beret light fifty (thats a 50 cal rifle ) many shotguns all types of pistols desert eagles, colts, s&ws ,rugers ,berreta ,H.Ks ........etc and if you dont think i no how ask some of my friedns thay all no i no bout guns

Okay I think he meant know at these points!!

All joking aside, H.K.S.O.C.O.M.45 asked a good question...In school we all learned (well if you went to school) that the only dumb question is the question you didn't ask. He had a question and asked the individual who could best answer it...

Hence he asked Doobie (oh and by the way I will be welting you doobie, hehehehe)!!!!! Gosh I am so glad you are back so I can trash talk to you instead of pito, I mean pito was getting old with me pimping him all the time!!!

Oh and what is wrong with playing computer games...I do, man I love Ghost Recon, especially with the ming gun mod...OH MY REAKING GOD!!!!!!!!!!! 1134 rounds a minute!!!!!!!!!!

Peace out all,

Chris

[H.K S.O.C.O.M.45]

there aint nothin wrong with computer games but i will take a real gun over any vido game any daY. i would rather be playin airsoft or paintball or shotin guns than vido games that all ! sorry but i like target shootin its fuj my friedn jake can put a bullet through a life saver )thats .22 ) i can hit the life saver but i can only get a pellet through it well welcome back

[Doobie]

G-rock,
Waz-up brutha! I saw Sue at the PX Thursday. She looks great and it was good to see her. I will TRY to stop by Saturday morning, but no promises. I have "family obligations" down in Nashville. It's my Mom's B-day and all the kids will sctually be there for it. It's the first time, in like...forever! Like I said though, I will Try!
Also, I've been dodging REAL roounds for the last 5 1/2 months...What cho got!?

I'll call you man


The size of the 101st? It is 3 infantry brigades and an Aviation brigade. Each brigade has about 1000 to 1250 people in it so about 5,000 or so. That is a rough guess as there are a lot of support elements also. They won't be returning until Feb or Mar '04 and the whole 101st minus one Battalion is in Mosul, Northern Iraq.

[MidnightRider]

thanks for the update on scheduale

[G-Rock]

Originally posted by Doobie

Also, I've been dodging REAL roounds for the last 5 1/2 months...What cho got!?

X-MAG, enuff said brotha...hehe..

Good to have you back man, if you can't make it on satuday I understand, you spend time with your family, I know they have been thru alot with you gone.

Holla at you later bro.

Chris

[fcpchop]

thankx 4 serveing man, glad to c u back alive

[goat]

Doobie,
We have never met and chances are we may never, but if we did I would be honored to give you a firm hand shake and say "Thank you".
The lifestyle and freedoms we enjoy in this land were payed for with American sweat and blood in far off country's.
Job well done.
Goat

[endipaint]

i second that :) exept maybe ill catch yah at emr sumday

[endipaint]

i gots a question how is the army treating you? my dad was in the army in the early 60's and he said the got treated like shizzle and the air force got treated sooooo much better is this still true...although things have changed alot since nam i was jus wonderin cuz im lookin to b in the rotc program for the army. thanx!
~max~

[GhillieGuy]

I always wanted to be a sniper.. About 3 months ago in the paper i heard of a sniper that was shot in the face with an AK and lived(knoked half his teeth out). He even went to the same school as me.

[kosmo]

Including all of the support elements, 101st is roughly 15000 people. And endipaint, how the Army treats you depends entirely upon the unit that your in and you yourself. If you get in a bad unit, and you have no knowledge of Army Regs and arent willing to stick up for yourself then they will bend you over backwards and cornhole you all night long. But there are some great places to go in the Army so its hard to say. But as a general rule, the Air Force lives better than we do. Better barracks, much nicer posts/bases, and the AF gets a lot more funding than the Army does, so even though they never go out to the field, theyve got much newer equipment.

[ERut]

Way to go anyone in the armed forces!!

[endipaint]

ok thnx for the info man:)
also how many troops do we have in korea?