Iraq
Afghanistan
Deployment
Baghdad 2006-2007 15months
Babylon 2008-2009
Samarra was an insurgent strong hold and we had numerous battles there. My unit (1-4 CAV) earned three Valorous unit awards during that one deployment.
I was with 1-26 Infantry on the Baghdad deployment. We ended up getting extended to 15 months during the surge. We were the hardest hit unit since Vietnam. We lost 35 Soldiers in that 15 months. One MOH recipient (Ross McGinnis) and the unit earned the Presidential Unit Citation.
My third trip I was with 2-28 Infantry and we were basically escorts for the PRT rebuilding the Babil ruins. During this deployment we earned the Meritorious Unit Citation
Fallujah, Iraq, NOV 04-FEB 05, opcon'd to B/1/3 USMC; Follow on operations with 2d Recon and 3d Recon (FEB - OCT 05), primarily in the Zaidon area; occasionally out to Faris. Probably the worst part of being deployed was when I got home. Division just dumped us at the door, VA didn't give a screaming damn and all most civilians did was ignore or discount what we accomplished.
Â
Second tour to Iraq (MAY - OCT 08) - my biggest enemy was boredom.
Â
First tour to Afghanistan (DEC 08 - MAY 09) - biggest obstacle was getting the
materials necessary to build out our facilities. Since I didn't work for a DoD entity (my entity was charted by the National Security Council), I didn't have a DoDAAC to which I could charge the materials I needed. Ever resourceful, however, I found a lot of "stuff" on post!
Â
Second tour to Afghanistan (DEC 09 - MAY 10) - biggest challenge was dealing with the bureaucrats trying to run a war.  Atypically, however, I actually kept my mouth shut - an admirable exercise in self control worthy of recognition.
Kuwait to Baghdad Mar- Aug '03: had to work hard to ensure that all 15 of my Tank Plt members (16 if u count me) made it home in one piece, especially when we parked our tanks and began foot patrols in Baghdad.
Samarra, Iraq '05: had to overcome a lack of civilian government in the city as I was the JCC NCOIC, also working with the Iraqi LNOs with the different ING units operating within Samarra conducting raids and pushing information up to the Provincial JCC in Tikrit through YahooMail lol, that was the communication method used at the time for the JCCs. Once we closed the JCC and I moved back to the FOB, "it was herding cats" as being the S2 NCOIC I was tasked with overseeing the BN Interpreter pool.Â
While we were out there, we were attacked multiple times with indirect fire (mostly 107mm rockets and 60mm mortars). A few times we took small arms fire, all of which was ineffectual, thank god. Most of my time at FOB Shukvani was spent doing customer service stuff for the military, basically getting people flights and coordinating the logistics. As a result, I had to put up with a lot of hostility from higher ups who didn't appreciate being told how things worked by a lowly E-3 with an E-5 billet. Since I was on-call, we were working at all hours of every day and slept and ate and hygiene when we could. Sometimes we didn't have time for any of that. I witnessed some deaths out there that have haunted me ever since, and even had some unfortunate run ins with a navy E-5 and a Marine O-3. I was on edge and just didn't take anything from anybody at that point. I overcame a lot of that anger and irritability since coming back, but it's still there. Coming home really did suck for me and for my fellow marines.
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google