I went on leave to utah back in feb. Proposed to my girlfriend now fiance. got to shred at deer valley(that was a first) and of course my favorite place solitude. then came back to afghanistan 15 days later.
fighting season died down from november to when the leaves turned green (late march). Shit is back up and cooking off. We have taken one rocket since it has started back up, much better then when it was a few rockets and mortar rounds every other day. Thats not surprising though since the poppy fields dont get harvested in pakistan for another week or two. Then come those darn talibanny after that is over.
The scouts are out and about as always. We got our own battle space now which is different. They are using us like infantry rather then using us for recon and night time work. I do 2-3 dismounted patrols a day. Those can be movements from 5k to 10k which take anywhere from two and a half hours to 5. We avoid using the same route more then once whenever possible. If you create to much of a pattern dismounted ied's start popping up.
We were assigned to man and run patrols out of a afghan national police check point for this last little bit of time. I was nervous as fuck for awhile about it. The police commander there is a known taliban facilitator. He has been the lone survivor of many police check points that were over run by taliban. We go and live out there for a few days come back to our fob and refit then go right back out. One night right after i got back from patrol my team leader came up to me and said i needed to give some medical attention to a police officer who got beat up. I go over there and see that he is pretty much already packaged up and treated. Not much i could do since he was already taken care of. Since we are trying to win over this police commander for our own safety i went ahead and cleaned and changed bandages and pumped some fluids into this guy who got the royal shit kicked out of him. cant really go into that story yet but it was cool/crazy. word to the wise though...dont go hustlin.
there is a village we patrol through that has old mujaheddin fighters in it. Those are the guys that got rid of the russians. been fightin for 30 plus years. they are bad ass. but dont like us much. they say they dont have taliban in there villages and dont want the US around either.
thats about it. i didnt tell everything with as much gusto as usual because i guess you could say im burned out and im tired, ready to come home. get life back to normal.
but NS im keeping it gold and glossy out here. just a few more weeks. keep the spirits up and stay aware of my surroundings and all will be well.
so a word to the wise, dont go hustlin
