A Report From A Patrol Convoy

It’s important to remember that our soldiers believe in what they’re doing, are just like you and me, only with more problems, and what they have to put up with to stay safe in conditions that can sometimes be very confusing.

At the begining of the mission my driver and gunner as well as myself were cracking jokes like we normally do at the start of a mission, you know to relax and loosen up for the ride. Well not 15 minutes into the mission I see a truck trying to pass our TCN's heading southbound in the northbound lane. I ask on the radio "How is that guy?" "I don't know, over." Sgt. "M" replies," I don't know if he's with us." "Stop him!". Sgt. "N" say's, I move my gun truck into postion speeding up to his rear. My driver is honking, my gunner is using his spotlight, and I'm flicking my go lights at him but he won't stop. " He's coming right towards you and picking up speed." I say to Sgt. "S". " Roger, I have eyes on." He responds. I tell my driver to cut him off and stop in front of him, his truck weighs about 18 tons, our's does not! My Driver pulls along side of him, I can hear my gunner barking instructions at him, " STOP, Pull the f--k over." My driver stops in front of him and makes a right hering bone between our TCN and the suspicious vehicle. I jump out with my weapon in hand and Shout to the driver" get out of the truck now!" " Open the door and get out now!" He does'nt do what I ask him so I charge my weapon, he has his hands down were I can't see them and he's in an elevated position only about 12 feet from me. "No english." he respond's. Arabee (arabic) ? I ask. He does'nt anwser. Iftah il bob, tal hena yella! ( Open the door and move here now)! I say as point to the ground in front of me. He opens the door and gets out of the truck, I'm lookin for my CC to come up. My guy's are still in the truck as they should be, my gunner has my back and I can see my driver from his rearview mirror. Irfa el dak, in daar! ( Put your hands up and turn around) I tell him. He keeps his hands to his side and he keeps looking around not at me which makes me even more supicious, he's speaking very fast and it's hard to understand. All he keeps saying is " No english." I know he understands arabic because he has been following my commands, I tell him " Is qut, bella achee."( Be quiet, no talking." )"Irfa el dak, In daar!" I yell. He then starts to walk towards me,he is at my 12, I move my weapon to my 10 o'clock and yell "AWGAF" (Stop). He takes one more step and I fire a warning shot into the dirt six feet to his right, he stops. By this time the CC has started to move up, my gunner relays to me that the CC is moving up to take over. "When he gets here were gonna move to the TCP." My gunner say's, " Roger", I respond. After the CC took over and we moved to the TCP I find out that the driver of the truck was trying to jockey for position on the road, Truck driver's operating in Iraq know not to do anything out of the ordinary or anything that looks like hostile intent. The way this guy was driving , everyone in my gun truck thought he was going to drive towards our ASV and either ram into it or blow it up. I don't know what he was thinking, somtimes you will have vehicles probe you to see what they can get away with. Who know's, It's a chess game. There's no grey area here, earlier that day, a man was stopped with his wife and child. It was very hot and he had to sit there and wait for two convoy's to pass. I could hear the child crying and the wife what I'm assuming , asking the husband what was he gonna do about the wait. The man gets out of his car and starts to walk over to me, I put my hand up and ask him to stop. I walk towards him " Marhaba, soba el higher?" ( hello, how are you?) I ask, I don't want anyone around my gun truck. " Anee zeen, shouk ron, winta?" (I'm fine, thank you and you?) As he points do the road and then to his watch and then to his family." Ahalin sahalin" ( I'm fine) Shouk ron, "Lezim in fet shek, sayarah." (I must search you and the car) I say. "Naam" (yes) he replies. He opens his door's, moves things around and helps me to conduct my search quickly. I point to a container of liquid, "my" ( water) I ask. "naam" he replies. " akill" ( food) I ask as I point to a bag of what looks like flour to me, "naam" he say's, " zeen arabee" ( good arabic) he say's. " shouk ron" I respond. I shake his hand and tell him" zeen , Fe man allah" ( good bye). He goes on his way and everybody's happy. No grey area today. One minute I'm helping a guy out the next, I damn near have to shoot one. Iraq is a very strange place, You go through an aray of senses and emotions. I just wanna get back to camp and watch the movies that my wife sent to me....

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