Iraqi Soldier Update and M16 vs AK-47

I was out on a battlefield circulation the other day and the soldier on the left summed up everything that I had talked about in my last post. Check out the scope on his M16. It is held to the carrying handle by electrical tape, he can still use the iron sights on M16 if he wanted to. The scope is a Bushnell 3x9 adjustable with a graduated reticle, only problem is that the reticle is crooked and looks more like an X than a +. If you look at the Soldier’s ankles you can see he is wearing his knee pads in the normal American Soldier or Marine manner around the ankles. Soldiers and Marines do this because kneepads strapped tightly to your knees cause your knees to sweat profusely in the heat. Most Soldiers have mastered the art of quickly pulling up a knee pad if they have to take a knee for an extended period of time. I asked this Iraqi Soldier why he wore the knee pads around his ankles and his response was that was how the Americans did it. Finally the piece de resistance and the reason I decided to post this picture as well, is the pistol that the young Soldier is sporting in a thigh rig. I don’t like wearing my pistol on my thigh, I prefer it strapped to my body armor, but that is just me, most American’s wear a thigh rig which is why this soldier wears it that way. I found it unusual that this young Soldier had a pistol, since pistols are a symbol of authority in Iraq and are typically only reserved for officers or senior NCOs that are related to officers, so I asked this soldier what kind of pistol it was Glock, Beretta, or Tariq (an Iraqi made copy of an circa 1950s model Beretta). The response that the interpreter got made him laugh and of course piqued my curiosity. Evidently the pistol was an airsoft pistol. For those of you not familiar with airsoft pistols they are replica pistols that shoot plastic BBs and are popular for teenagers who play war games with them. In this Soldier’s effort to look like an American and be more intimidating to the bad guys in the local population he was wearing a PLASTIC BB GUN as part of his duty uniform. Let’s hope he never runs out of M-16 ammo.

I’m sure many of you are wondering why one Iraqi Soldier in this picture has an M16 and the other one has an AK-47. Starting sometime last fall the Iraqi government decided to buy and field the M16 and a few M4s to their Army. This guy belongs to a tank battalion that was sent down from Taji to Basra about 9 months ago, as part of the only armored division in the Iraqi Army, he is considered part of an elite unit and as such his unit was among the first to be issued the M16.
I’m not sure if it was a good idea for the Iraqi Army to buy the M16. But when you talk to all of the Iraqi Soldier’s who have one they think it is much better than AK-47. For the desert environment I would prefer the AK-47 whose parts do not fit together as tightly as an M16/M4. This means that it can get extremely dirty and still function perfectly. The M16/M4 will function fairly well in the desert, not as bad as some of the recent media articles make it out to but it will fail more often than AK-47 because of it’s more precise nature and tighter fit of its component parts. You constantly have to clean it to make sure there is not much dust built up on it. I’m sure that the US government is selling stocks of older M16/M4 without the modular rail system as most Army units are switching from the M16 to M4s with the modular rail system, hopefully this allows the government to recoup some of the costs spent in Iraq on the war but it is more than likely an effort by Colt Defense and the other members of the Military – Industrial Complex that make versions of the M16 to continue to profit after the Global War on Terrorism is over.

A little outdoor entertainment

Macen has been enjoying a slide/swing set in the backyard. The pic above is from the first time he climbed up it and found the wheel.
He enjoys the slide the most and goes down it with one leg in front of him and the other leg bent back. He seems to think he can climb back up the slide and got frustrated when he couldn't do it. So he kept practicing and now he can. Which means he uses the 'steps' on the other side as a slide. It is a bit bumpy for him but he has made both sides multi-functional. He's an equal opportunist when it comes to sliding.
He's not sure about the swing. I don't know if it sits too low to the ground or doesn't swing enough but its not as thrilling. I think it has more to do with it containing him since he's not one for sitting still. We'll have to try the real playground sometime and test a different swing.

The smell of sunscreen

That is what Macen smells like these days. And I will be joining him after getting burnt this weekend.

We (Macen was a huge help) got his pool set up and he has been enjoying it. So much that even if he doesn't have the proper swim attire on, he doesn't care and hops right in. He has slipped a couple of times and went under. He's not a fan of it but it doesn't upset him either.

A Typical Iraqi Soldier

Things have been going well since my last post and we are settling down into a steady state similiar to what we had at Ramadi with just more combat type operations, patrolling, checkpoints, etc thrown in. We have removed all but two of the rows of seats in our room and I now have a cot instead of sleeping on the ground. We didn't gain any room though since we acquired 7 new Marine augments that brings our personnel numbers more in line with a Marine Corps sourced Brigade leveal training team. We are glad to get the extra troops as it allows to keep our COC/TOC (Command Operations Center/Tactical Operations Center) up at all times and not having to tear down all of the radios when we would pull the whole team for a mission. The bad part is that the septic tank that holds our bathroom waste has filled up and we are having a hard time getting someone to empty the tank, too many issues with it to discuss here, but that means we are only getting showers when we get back to the main division camp every 4-6 days and our waste has to go into either a bottle or a bag and then get burned, so we are having lots of fun there.

I've been taking pictures and then writing blog posts on my night radio watch so I've got a few posts worked up and since I had a little extra time at our camp where the internet is I thought I would post one fairly quickly after the last. I hope everyone enjoys.

For this post I wanted to talk about the Iraqi Soldiers. For the most part the junior enlisted soldiers in the Iraqi Army are not that different from American Soldiers or Marines. See the pictures below.

This picture is actually one I took while we were at Ramadi from one of the platoon checkpoints we used to man just outside of the city. Check out the soldiers in the last row. The first soldier has on a Marine body armor, and hanging off of the body armor is an Oakley sunglasses case, and he has Marine issue ammunition pouches and first aid kit placed on the body armor in the same way that a Marine would place them on his body armor. The same soldier has a night vision google mount on his helmet and the many of the Marines and Soldiers wear their sand googles turned around backwards just like he is wearing it. The second soldier in line is also wearing US Military Issue sand googles and the third soldier has an old style night vision google mount on his helmet.

If you look at the above picture you will see that the soldier has an optic of some kind placed on the front of his AK-47. Almost all US forces in Iraq have a scope or close combat optic an Infrared Aiming Device for night operations, a surefire flashlight and a forward pistol grip on their M4 carbines. It is not unusual to see an Iraqi Soldier attach an optic like this one to their AK-47. I actually looked through this soldiers optic and it does have a lighted crosshair in it, but it appears to be from an Airsoft style BB-gun and it is held on with parachute cord and duck tape and is not real stable. I wouldn’t want to try and use it, but the soldier was all excited and proud when I took an interest in looking at it. I’ve been told that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I guess the American Soldier and Marine should be flattered that the Iraqi Soldiers want to be like them. Personally I think that Iraqi Soldiers have the right amount of motivation, and with the right training and the right leadership Iraq will have a very professional army in the near future. The problem is the current leadership, some are better than others, but as the old Saddam era officers fade away and retire, hopefully the nepotism, cronyism, and corruption, and the suppression of the non-commissioned officer corps will fade away with them.

These last two pictures I found amusing. As in all the majority of other third world countries there are no copy right laws. If there were copyright laws, I want to know when did Tommy Hilfinger come up with a line of Tactical Accessories? This soldier bought this load bearing vest in a local market and every ammo pouch on it has a Tommy Hilfinger logo sewn on to it. I guess brand names are as important to some Iraqis as they are to some Americans. Also as with the first picture you see that non brand conscious Iraqi Soldier is wearing an old green camouflage body armor and once again has much of the same “flare” that you see on American Soldiers and Marines, this Iraqi has flexi cuffs, d-ring with gloves, night vision google mount and an hand held radio. He is wearing a stocking mask, not because it is cold outside, it was actually closer to 105 degrees this day, but because he is from southern Iraq and does not want to be recognized by someone who doesn’t know he is in the army and may threaten his family.
I have an excellent example of a Soldier who has been threated because he is in the Army. My G-1 counterpart Lieutenant Colonel Jumaa and his family live in Sadr City. He went on leave just before the latest round of violence with the Mehdi Army, sometime around Easter. His leave was only supposed to be 9 days. He called the Brigade Commander and let the Brigade commander know that the situation in Baghdad had turned violent and that the Brigade should not let Soldiers go on leave for awhile. Several days later he he called again and said the situation had calmed down and that Soldiers could go on leave, but that he would not be able to return to the Brigade since members of the Mehdi Army in his neighbor hood had threatened him and his family if he returned to the Army. Lieutenant Colonel Jumaa stayed at his home, supposedly under house arrest from about Easter until the latest Mehdi Army ceasefire around Memorial Day, almost two full months. I’m not total sure about his story since there is some rumblings that he might be involved in the Mehdi Army and I don’t think he is the most competent of the Iraqi Officers , but it is an example of the threat that every Iraqi Soldier faces while serving their country.

Finally as I go out on patrol and interact with Iraqi Soldiers I have asked many of them what their families think about the Brigade moving to Basrah. I was actually surprised that most of them had not told their families, since a large number of the soldiers in the Brigade is from southern Iraq; Al Nasirayah, Al Mayranah, areas not too far from Basrah. When questioned why they hadn’t told their families the overwhelming response was that they did not want them to worry because at the time the Brigade moved down here Basrah was supposed to be a dangerous place. So the Iraqi Soldier is just like American Soldiers that don’t always tell their families when they are in danger. Don’t worry I haven’t been in any danger in Basrah, yet.

Cool car

Macen loves any kind of cars/trucks, big or small. We've had this one inside because of the recent rain we've gotten. He hasn't quite gotten it to move forward but he can move it backwards.









Drinking and Driving - normally not funny, but here it is.

13 months

We had a calmer month than previous months and we've welcomed the change. Macen says 'oh' and he says it in a couple different tones, depending on what he is doing like falling down or picking up something heavy. He knows how to turn the tv on in the computer room so I am going to have to do something to fix that. He has been holding food out to Maggie for her to eat from his hands. Both of them love that; me not so much. Macen likes to suck on ice cubes - cold stuff has never bothered him. And he has started dancing quite a bit when he hears a catchy tune.

We finished up with the breast milk. And you would have thought I was actually breastfeeding and I had to wean Macen, I was so sad to see it go. But pumping for 8 months and getting almost 13 months out of it, isn't bad.

We are spending alot of time outside. He loves helping me with yard work, playing with his outside toys and taking walks in his stroller or wagon.

Purrfect Picture

I just thought this was a really good picture of Mo and wanted to share.

Those of you who have listened to me complain about Mo peeing on our bed nearly daily, he has a bladder infection. He didn't have the same symptoms as he had the last time he had an infection so I didn't think it was that. I thought he was upset with all the chaos of us coming and going every few days. So after doing atleast a load or two of our bedding almost every day for awhile, he is getting pumped with pills a couple times a day now. Hopefully this will be over soon, he will get better and not be in pain, I will no longer end up sleeping on the couch, I can finally get a full night of sleep and the washer/dryer will get less action. I feel awful that I let it go on for as long as I did.