Friday, May 25, 2007
View from above
Hello everyone,It's been over a week and it's still crazy over here, we have so many ground troops out and about. We had a convoy out for the last 5 days, all of there vehicles got destroyed by either being blown up (thank god while no one was in them) or shot at while traveling through. Lucky for us, no one was hurt! I know you all probably heard about the soldier they found, he was one of the 3 still missing (the ones they saw drug into the house last week). At this point he was not 100% identified but almost certain who he is. It's very sad, you talk to these people everyday in passing from point A to B, then one day they are gone. It feels like someone ripped your heart out. I have to admit the Marines are taking the brunt of it all, they are the ones on the ground. I support the air missions. Daily we support the ground troops from the air, we can see everything that is happening. That is our way of accounting for our troops and getting them help when in trouble. But the down side is we can see it from the air but getting the ground troops to a specific location for back-up or rescue is not so easy. Our only other option is to bomb the troubled area below and we can't do that if our people are within a certain proximity. Last week we had some outsiders on base with AK-47's, the base went on lock down while they hashed it all out. That happened about 100 ft from where I live but thankfully I was at work. On the other hand my roommate was still at the room so I patiently waited for her to arrive at work, she showed up about 2 hrs later, that was probably one of my weakest moments. Over here we (Air Force) are all very close and watch out for one another, we are in close enough proximity so we don't usually have anyone out of site. I will close for now, keep praying, we can all use it!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Missing soldiers
Hello,
I guess you probably have been watching the news, all those soiders we just lost happened at the border of my base, 17 miles from where I'm at. We lost 5 the first day, 13 the second, and 5 more who drove over an explosive device. Still unclear if any of them survived. After the detination, the Iraqis drug them out of the vehicle into a house close by. An A-10 pilot witnessed the whole thing from the air, we sent in ground troops to rescue them, still no word. Yesterday we had two patrol units get captured, no word on them either. It's getting really bad over here. Since I have been here I think only one day has gone by without someone getting killed or captured. We go into "River City" when something happens that way no one can call home or get on-line and talk about it until the families are notified, to say the least we spend alot of time in river city. It's very sad! Our base has a trauma unit so we get people in all conditions from all over, we see that chopper land every few minutes if that gives you any indication how many people are hit. I sure hope we stick to plan and leave here when we are scheduled too, I'v been second guessing how strong I am to deal with all this. Do all us over here a favor and remember us in your prayers, Thank you.
I guess you probably have been watching the news, all those soiders we just lost happened at the border of my base, 17 miles from where I'm at. We lost 5 the first day, 13 the second, and 5 more who drove over an explosive device. Still unclear if any of them survived. After the detination, the Iraqis drug them out of the vehicle into a house close by. An A-10 pilot witnessed the whole thing from the air, we sent in ground troops to rescue them, still no word. Yesterday we had two patrol units get captured, no word on them either. It's getting really bad over here. Since I have been here I think only one day has gone by without someone getting killed or captured. We go into "River City" when something happens that way no one can call home or get on-line and talk about it until the families are notified, to say the least we spend alot of time in river city. It's very sad! Our base has a trauma unit so we get people in all conditions from all over, we see that chopper land every few minutes if that gives you any indication how many people are hit. I sure hope we stick to plan and leave here when we are scheduled too, I'v been second guessing how strong I am to deal with all this. Do all us over here a favor and remember us in your prayers, Thank you.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Hello
Hello,
I thought I would drop you my first entry.
The trip over here took a few days. We were sent to an undisclosed location for a few days before actually entering into our location. we had to get clearence from the Iraq towers to fly overhead, with that said you would think it would be safe, no way they were shooting at the bottom of the plane but luckly we were higher than 30,000 ft so we did'nt get hit thank god. It was certainly an experience, even just knowing that we are coming into hostile air. What we were told about our base is that we are 140 miles North west of Bagdad in Western Iraq. This base is home of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. We are the major hud for convoy's for supplies and fuel, I have personally seen the convoy's pass through our base, it was approx 100 vehicles. Alanbar is the providence we are located in. Their primary religion is Islam. We have approx 15,000 soilders on our base, mix of Army, Marine, Navy and Air Force. We also have about 5,000 civilian contractors, they are the people we ar e concerned with as far as an attack. It's sad to think we are more concerned with people inside our gates then outsiders. This is all the infomation I have at the time, I will e-mail back when I can. Any questions?
Thank you,
Angelia Heckman
I thought I would drop you my first entry.
The trip over here took a few days. We were sent to an undisclosed location for a few days before actually entering into our location. we had to get clearence from the Iraq towers to fly overhead, with that said you would think it would be safe, no way they were shooting at the bottom of the plane but luckly we were higher than 30,000 ft so we did'nt get hit thank god. It was certainly an experience, even just knowing that we are coming into hostile air. What we were told about our base is that we are 140 miles North west of Bagdad in Western Iraq. This base is home of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. We are the major hud for convoy's for supplies and fuel, I have personally seen the convoy's pass through our base, it was approx 100 vehicles. Alanbar is the providence we are located in. Their primary religion is Islam. We have approx 15,000 soilders on our base, mix of Army, Marine, Navy and Air Force. We also have about 5,000 civilian contractors, they are the people we ar e concerned with as far as an attack. It's sad to think we are more concerned with people inside our gates then outsiders. This is all the infomation I have at the time, I will e-mail back when I can. Any questions?
Thank you,
Angelia Heckman
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