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Update from Iraq Part 1
 Posted 9/1/2009 10:36:00 AM
So it's been a little while since I've updated anyone.
In July I was given an office in an old Iraqi Army building.
Someone who never knew me painted on my wall. As you can see (sweaty
office) it fits me quite well.
At the end of July my platoon and I moved south of Baghdad to a
little base called FOB Delta (near Al-Kut, Iraq for those of you
looking for a travel destination). We had to get our vehicles ready to
roll (18JUL). For reference, those vehicles weigh around 68,000 lbs
and can survive most anything you can throw at them. They're also
bigger than the regular semi-tractor you see driving on 465. Gas
Station is one of my guys while we were stopped at a heavily-fortified
US-only gas station on the way from Baghdad to FOB Delta. Nasariyah is
the view from one of these beasts of ...
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Lt. Jeremy Jones
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Update from Iraq Part 2
Posted 9/1/2009 10:23:00 AM
It gets hot down here. Hot enough to make road tar turn into
liquid and pool up on top of the ground (hot tar). I found a picture
of Saddam and did the obligatory "stand on Saddam's face and smile"
picture (mural). We had a cookout a couple of weeks ago but realized
that we didn't have any utensils to grill with - everything from the
chow hall is plastic. We had to use a putty knife and a sharpened
wooden stake to flip our burgers and hot dogs. We also have what
everyone refers to as "near-beer", non-alcoholic beer bought by the
Army for us to drink and grit our teeth to; it's only good for
seasoning burgers.
So we'll be down here for another couple of months. The extreme
heat (think hotter than 135F every day) is killing our equipment. We
live in an open-bay barracks. For those ...
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Lt. Jeremy Jones
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Independence Day
Posted 7/4/2009 11:33:00 AM
I was sitting at dinner today thinking about where I was this time a year ago. I remembered sitting in a tent in Bagram, Afghanistan, eating lukewarm hot dogs and hearing Polish soldiers talk about how much they loved being able to serve overseas and stand beside the United States in spreading freedom overseas. I should be home for next year's Independence Day.
Happy Birthday America
-jeremy
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Lt. Jeremy Jones
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A Month Already?
Posted 6/29/2009 10:36:00 AM
It's true. I've been in Iraq a month. A lot has happened since I arrived here. I left my unit behind in Kuwait to spent 2 weeks in Taji (Iraq) learning how to work with and train our partners, the Iraqi Army. 2 key words: patience and politeness. You'd think those would be common sense but apparently they are foreign concepts to the US Army and Marine Corps.
When I got to Baghdad to meet up with my unit I found out that we'd taken our first casualty: one of the soldiers in my company committed suicide. He was the guy that everyone else went to when they had problems so it came a huge shock to everyone in our close-knit unit. His memorial service was sad enough by itself but it brought with it memories of other friends I've had die overseas that didn't get memorial services and whose ...
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Lt. Jeremy Jones
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