Going to a far away land.

My company has been granted the honor of serving the nation by travelling far far away to a little country called Iraq.

** Disclaimer: I will be privy to first hand information and operational security matters while deployed. I will not put anything out on the internet that would even be remotely classifiable as OPSEC. I believe that the public has the right to know whats going on from every point of view they can, but do not believe that the details of an attack or specifics of a casualty are necessary.

So, back to this little country. It's about the size of California and by know you are all tired of hearing about it. In fact, some of you may know more about Iraq than you do about your own country.

This is the second time my company has been to Iraq, and hopefully things go as well this time as they did last - zero KIA and only 1 or 2 Purple Heart recipients.

My intent for this blog is to show the true, no bullshit, no agenda story of a year (or so) in Iraq. I consider myself to be a typical person who is going - I have a wife and kids who will miss me. I have a company that needs me and a country that I've chosen to serve that has told me that that is where I need to be to best serve the country.

I serve the country as a patriot and because I believe in the Constitution and the government. If you don't like the USA governmental style, you are welcome to leave and either find something better or make something better - its up to you.

The war in Iraq sucks for us and our troops who go there. We have lost almost 2000 brave men and women in our efforts to free that country. At this point, its not a matter of IF we can stand them up, its a matter of HOW. There is no simple, easy solution to the political matter of Iraq. The bottom line is - if we don't continue to have Soldiers in Iraq until the country is fully capable of dealing with the troubles that are currently plaguing it, we put our own security at risk. The insurgents don't care WHERE we are, they will attack us anywhere. If we aren't THERE to get attacked, they will come here and attack us. It may be callous, but I would rather go there for a year, put my life on the line, get shot at, bombed, etc, and be able to shoot back with 7.62mm, 5.56mm, and cannons knowing that its not my family or my neighbors family that is in the background. If it comes down to them or me, its them. If it comes to accidently (and they are accidents) killing civilians there, or killing them here, I'd much rather it be there that they die. Selfish? Yes. Cold? Yup. True? Without question. Survival of the fittest sometimes rears its ugly head.

So, the bottom line is - I'll go to Iraq, do my job, and come home because I would rather fight the insurgents on their land than mine.

My wife hates it, but deep down I know that she understands.

I intend to blog daily-ish from now until the end, in order to maintain communication with the world and so that those of you who may be going in the future know what to expect.

Thus far, this is what we've done in regards to Iraq:
1. Have received deployment orders.
2. Have shipped equipment and containers.
3. Have trained for the last 18 months on theater specific tasks.
4. Qualified with weapons almost monthly.
5. Been to the CS chamber.
6. Received cultural awareness training.
7. Begun to deal with those Soldiers who are desperate to get out of it - more on this, later.

What's left before we go:
1. More shooting.
2. More family time.
3. Rear Detachment inventories.
4. More classes.

That's it for now. I'm adding a casualty tracker to the end of the blogs to show the quick stats for company - and my company only. I will track injuries and casualties and possibly put a brief description of what happened.

CASUALTIES:
KIA - 0
WIA - 0
EKIA - 0
EWIA - 0