Got any extra prayers out there?

I found out my cousin had to go back into the hospital becasue his cancer is acting up again. Sucks to spend Christamas in the hospital. So if you could divert all those prayers for me to him. I'm sure he'd appreciate it.

And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddeling kids!

I've changed email address again! You can find me at tommie.hustle@gmail.com. I know you are saying why do you have 60 trillion email address well this is why. Email over here is a game of cat and mouse between the IT guys who have two duties.

1. Keep the network running smoothly.

As one would suspect we don't have a lot of pipe (i.e. Bandwidth) so it is imperative that the IT guys attempt to minimize that amount of traffic that comes across as well as protect the network from worms and viruses. That means that the block file sharing ports like FTP and the put caps on the amount of data that can be transferred on any particular connection so in general that means that we are limited to connections that allow basic text and HTML and we can't get large attachments.

2. Control the flow of information.

For obvious reasons the Military and the Government doesn't want a whole bunch troops IMing back home whining to Mommy about how hard it is here and how much they hate it or about a patrol where they had to kill a some insurgents in detail. So they block the ports (communication pathways from one computer to another) that allow for instant messenging. So when there is a heavy load they will deny connections to certian sites (Yahoo, Hotmail, CNN, Fox, SI, bigbooties.com) so they can keep the network up.

Well this doesn't work well for me and people like me that "know" the system. I know that they have to keep some ports open becasue sometimes there is a need for them to get large files onto the network. With the right connections you search around to find some open ports here and there and you can get out to somewhere you shouldn't be or get in something that in general will trigger a response. But, like I said it's a game so they will open ports then we find them and then they close them and then they open others. Well when there is a crunch hotmail and yahoo are usually the first sites to get blocked. Google on the other hand hasn't reached the level yet (most marines aren't savvy enough to even be concerned about google mail) so with the 1000M of storgage space and amount of up time it gets. It's better for me to get my mail there as opposed to keep playing the "will hotmail work today" game.

I'll try to update you all as to where I'll be accepting email over in the right hand side of the blog. Continue to use the email addresses you have and eventually we will filter to the latest one.

One thing I learned from Emmett Till

Miscegenation will get you killed. If you really want to incite a group of individuals to war all you have to say is they are taking our women. There is nothing more infuriating or more rage inducing, than the idea that your woman was “stolen” from you by the enemy. It is the ultimate humiliation. From the days of Troy, to the tale of Romeo and Juliet, to Rosewood, Florida to the deltas of Mississippi, and the deserts of Baghdad, Iraq (remember how after the fact Jessica Lynch was raped by the barbaric Iraqi soldiers yet Shoshana Johnson wasn’t touched) all you have to say is those guys over there are taking OUR women over here and you got any war you want. That’s war in one easy step.

Let me tell you how the chow hall works around here. It’s much like high school the Blacks sit on one side, the Whites sit on another side, Hajii soldiers sit in one area, and Hajii workers sit on the other. Now then yesterday we had some Hajii females in the chow hall and one of them (there were probably a dozen of them) was bad as hell even for my standards. Her measurements were probably 35-27-38 5’6 about 125 lbs and she had long dark curly hair about shoulder length with one blonde streak in it and hypnotic green eyes. She was very exotic and she had a sirens aura about her. In reality, all of the women were at various stages of cute by virtue of having on civilian (western) clothes and perfume.

That woman one just happened to catch my eye because she walked past me and she was wearing “stripper smell”. Victoria’s Secret has some fragrance that strippers buy in bulk and the only place you will ever smell it is in the strip club or in this case the chow hall in Fallujah. The funny thing was that my dentist, who is from Iraq, told me right before I left to beware of the women with those eyes. Well these women were chumming it up with some about a dozen of the soldiers. I mean soldiers and the women were laughing and giggling and holding hands and touching and just having a grand old time. There were no problems in the world with this bunch. Now then if you looked around you could see the Iraqi men with their leers and stares. To me it was all just haterism. Don’t get mad sucka, because your broads were wearing Choosin’ Shoes that’s just how it goes. But, I can tell you this they are going to go home and tell their buddies how the Americans are taking their women and teaching them their dirty American ways. And the only way we can stop them is if we kill more Americans. Let’s go to war because they are taking our women. That is how they are going to go back home and incite more hated against the Americans. It’s a shame really because those pitiful people who are in power know that the miscegenation fastest way to understanding, acceptance, and eventually peace.

Studio Magic pt 2

I have time to think so I'm thinking about Rumsfield's visit to Iraq on "Christmas Eve". Then I start thinking about the nature of time. For example right now for me it's 2:45 pm for you all it's 6:23 am. Unless you had a really hard time putting that bike together for little Timmy you were probably asleep when I wrote this.

So I'm thinking he got here around 5am on Dec 24 my time which is 9pm on Dec 23 the east coast and let's say he did 10 hours here and he left at 3pm which is 7am on Dec 24 on the East coast and then it takes roughly 13 hours to fly back East so he get back to the states around 8pm and gets home around 9:30 or 10:00 still in good time to make it to the President's annual Christmas party. Of course whey you all got up on Dec 24 and watched the morning news and it appeared that he was spending the day in Iraq for Christmas Eve and would miss Christmas in a glorious sacrifice of his own time for the troops. On a scale relevent to how you perceve time he was gone before Christmas Eve even started. If he gave joy to the troops that he saw (most of the troops I talked to didn't even know he was here) and he makes the faithful back home feel better then I suspect it is a win/win however....

Things in the mirror as further than they appear and even time can be spun for political advantage.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well it's not snowing here but, it's raining like cats and dogs so I figure it's pretty much the same as a white Christmas.

I talked to my Parents last night. I told them I would call about 7:00 pm their time which was a bad idea because that was 3:00 am my time. Then with the rain I wasn't able to get a good signal to call. But, I ended up getting to them about 45 minutes later than I said I would. By that time my brother and his family already left so I missed them by 15 minutes. Sucks because I really wanted to talk to my brother and it's difficult to get a signal out of here. But, I talked to my parents for about an hour about different things. And it's always good to hear their voices light up when I call. It's like listening to little kids get what they want for Christmas.

My Christmas wish for you all is to get up and give your families and loved ones that extra hug. Forget the presents and all that those things have always been junk to me (since I've been an adult) but, take the time to realize the people in your life and what they mean to you. This is my Christmas wish to all of you.

Most surreal moment in Iraq to date.

I'm here calmly working on a piece of hardware that is having some problems, my boss (more on him later) asks me if it is ok if we listen to Christmas carols (When did it get to the point that you have to ASK someone that?). The carols are talking about this is the most peaceful time of the year and Jesus is the prince of peace basic Christmas stuff he really has a good mix of Christmas stuff. While we are listing to carols they start shelling into town the tanks are right by my office so the whole place shakes and it's VERY loud. You know what after the first one I don't budge and keep tracing a wire from one end to the other. I've jumped harder when I've heard cars hit the brakes now I don't move when I hear cannons. I have now entered Crazyworld, this is too surreal to process. As for Jesus, he ain't here and he ain't coming until he can get some bodyarmor.

Any contact is good contact.

One of my co-workers (more on him in a future rogue's gallery) went home for Christams. He is from Huntsville, AL and his flight landed in Atlanta, GA where my parents live. He gave them a call while he was in town and talked to them while he was there. I talked to my parents this morning and it could tell it was really good for them. He describe to them the life we live out here the enviroment, showed my parents some pictures or Iraq and of me, and really just gave them some contact to me. I could hear in my Mom's voice that she really took in every bit of what he showed her and what he told her and she enjoyed it. I'll tell you it's good to have good people around you and I can not thank him enough for taking the time out his time home to spend it with my parents. They needed that "contact" with me. I think it allowed them to sleep a bit easier tonight. At anyrate I think it was a good Christmas present.

From the Peanut gallery - 12/24/2004

Keep those questions coming it one of the things that I really enjoy. Thanks to all the people that shoot me emails. I really have to take time to really thank a friend of mine named Sara. She shot me an email when I was feeling a bit lonely so that was really cool.

Q:
Well email me about the mood with this latest bombing?

A:
Uncomfortable, but this is combined with the general pall that has enveloped the base. As it has gotten closer to Christmas the stress of this place is really coming to a fever pitch. You know how people are supposed to get more cheery well it’s the polar opposite around here. People are cussing at people more, they are gruffer, and there is a level of depression that just weighs in the air. We have Hajies all around in here they do all sorts of work so they are all around everyone is on edge because we are sleeping with the enemy and you just don’t know which one wants to kill you today. It’s sad in a broad way that those that just want to get a check are getting hassled. Better you than me sucker.

Back to the original question no one wants to die but it’s the operational hazard. There are signs around here that read “Complacency Kills” it up to everyone around here to not be complacent.

One thing I would like to say is the media is unfair to the contractors that are out here. You know who those four contractors where? Cooks. They were fucking cooks they are there saying hey would you like more rice with that? BOOM! and it’s over. It’s sad to me I mean these are the people that served you food in your high school cafeteria. I mean for me I’m out here for one reason and one reason alone. Greed. For others it’s not that easy some people are really out here trying to support their family. I know people in my corner view Halliburton as the evil empire and on an overall level I can agree with you. When you see it on a person level it’s not the same. These weren’t greedy executives rolling around in dirty 100-dollar bills, tooting coke. They were cooks and food service people, good old everyday average Americans and some good people that lost their lives. I just wish the media spent time explaining to the American people about the Americans that do come out here to work. Not people like me I’m in cahoots but people that just want to make a living.

Q:
How does it feel to be a grown up?

A:
If you ask any of my ex-girls they would tell you I never grew up. HA, HA, HA! Most times it feels pretty damn good. It feels bad when you realize you can only depend on yourself. The only difference between being an adult and a child is they remove the safety net, they just don’t tell you when.

Q:
What the hell does morally ambiguous mean?

A:
My judgment of the goodness or badness of human action and character is open to more than one interpretation. I don’t believe in good and evil in the traditional terms. I mean I know evil when I see it (i.e. when a person is denied access from a product they legally and rightfully purchased) and I know good when I see it. But in general I don’t see situations as good or evil I just see them as situations. What I do believe in is the Law of Self-Preservation:

1. A person will do whatever is necessary to continue his or her own existence.
2. A person will do whatever is necessary to live at his or her own level of comfort.

To achieve that people will lie, steal, kill, hook, or get regular 9 to 5. After those two requirements are met then people will apply abstracts like respect, kindness, honor, and liberty.

Q:
What do want to do when you get back?

A:
You know, I haven’t really thought about it. I haven’t been here long enough to miss anything. I mean I know I’ll go home and spend time with my family. I guess I would like to get some of my partners together and we might take a road trip or something. I don’t have any definite plans. I never do.
Q:
You ready to come home yet?

A.
What home? I don’t have a home. I mean I have an address in the states that’s where I live its not home. Home is more than that. I don’t view home in the same way you do. I don’t have a childhood home like you do. I didn’t go to Grandma’s every Christmas. As matter of fact the first time I lived in the same house for Christmas for more than 5 years I was 20. Even at that I had been out of that house for 2.5 years. I’ve never physically lived at the same address for more than 4 years. I could say yes I miss my family but, guess what? I haven’t seen them on a daily basis in the last 13 years so for me being in Iraq or being in Phoenix is about the same, emotionally. For me there isn’t much to miss (not yet at least). As I read this it sounds colder than I mean to sound I know that. I’m a military brat we don’t make long-term connections. We have a get up and go lifestyle that goes for people, places, and things.

Q:
What is your biggest regret??

A:
I tend to not regret things in my life. Everything happens for a reason. But, if I could choose one thing I wish I had been more honest with my ex-fiancé. She didn’t deserve the ride I took her on.

Q:
How do the soldiers feel about Rumsfield’s Auto-Signed Sympathy Letters?

A:
They don’t. I can only speak for the ones I’ve spoken to I’m sure people around vary. But, in general they don’t care if he signs them or not. They have a feeling like “Guess what? I’m fucking dead. Who cares if he signed anything?” They aren’t moved by such actions to them it’s trivial it’s not they know the guy or anything. Plus they are like the guy has a regular job he has other things to do besides signing letters all day. Again, It’s part of the morbid humor that only comes from people that are trained to kill. Me I see it different but I can see their point. If you are dead do the people that are left really care about that sheet of paper or how it was signed? For some it gives a sense of closure but you still have that giant hole of having a loved one ripped from your life. If that paper and they way it was signed fills that hole then that solider probably wasn’t a loved one.

Q:
Did someone actually ask you to marry her?

A:
Yes. Let me explain this one because my inbox got blown up on that one. It was an inside joke. Before I left, people asked me what would it take for me to not go to Iraq and I said if I had a wife and kids then I wouldn’t even have considered it. So I got several variants of let’s get married or I’ll have a kid for you. And every time I talked to some of them they would say ready to get married yet?

Anyone that knows me knows I’m not really marriage material. I’d probably be a way better parent than husband. If I could have a kid and not get married or have to pay child support then that would be gravy.

Q:
Do you believe in love at first sight?

A:
100%. That’s the easy part but no one asks if you believe in love at sight 20,173.

Studio magic

If you all notice the soliders standing around the Secertary of Defense you will see that none of them are armed. Soliders are always armed in Iraq. I guess it wouldn't look so friendly if he was taking pictures with troops with M-16s and 9mm on them.

In reality I know it's just a security procedure but, just wanted to let you all the difference between photo ops and reality.

I have to go to the bathroom

This has to be the worst part of being here. Going to the bathroom is a major event. If you have to go to the bathroom what do you do now? You get up from the chair or bed go down the hall or in take a few steps in your room and bang you are in your bathroom. Well what if you had to leave your house and go about 7 houses down. Now think about it being 40 degrees outside? You really learn how to pre-plan for such events. I'm pretty lucky I'm a GS-13 which is rank equivent to a Colonel so I can use the Officer and Staff NCO facilites which tend to be a bit cleaner than the general use facilites simply because less people use it. But, that isn't saying much I still have to walk about 300 yards to the nearest bathroom.

Rogue's Gallery: Entry 0002 - Corporal Ricky Schroder and Lance Corporal Coot

Cpl. Schroder and LCpl Coot let’s call them my Iraqi tour guides. We had a job to some maintenance on an antenna it was my first time in a Convoy. I remember when they said we had to go out. In my mind I started to freak out. My co-worker is saying don’t worry about it we don’t have to go far and the entire route is secure. Maybe so but, we still have to leave the base and I left my cape at home. So my tour guides come up and introduce themselves to me. Schroder looks like Ricky Schroder from the Silver Spoons era he looks too short and cute to be out here and Coot, with those GI issued birth control glasses they got on him, looks like the1^st runner up in the annual West Virginia/Kentucky Mr. Inbred contest. Complete with goofy tobacco stained smile. So I suit up and get in the HUMMV and I’m sweating like crazy in my palms. Schroder is driving and Coot is riding shotgun I’m sitting in the back trying to hide myself behind the door and then I realize I can see the ground from inside the HUMMV from where the rust has eaten holes in the HUMMV (please write your congressman and tell your friends and family. These kids are riding around in deathtraps) and It didn’t get bad until we actually left the base. Here I am on a road in the middle of Fallujah and I’m trusting my life to two guys who 7 months ago were flipping burgers at Burger King. While we are riding Schroder turns around to me and says to me as soon as the base fades out of view,

“So they don’t let you contractors carry guns?”

I think to myself, “Great time to ask that question Sherlock.”

I reply, “No, they don’t let us carry guns.”

Schroder says, “Sir that’s fucked up they don’t let you guys carry guns.”

Me: “No fucking shit, how about you keep your damn eyes on the road and get me to this fucking antenna!” now that’s what I THOUGHT it came out like this.

“I agree, but the way I see it I put my faith in the fact that you guys are better shots than the Hajiis.”

“Roger that sir, you don’t have to worry Coot over here is proven sir.”

Coot turns around and smiles (complete with tobacco bits in his teeth) like a kid who just learned how to tie his shoes or put his clothes on all by himself.

For those of you who don’t know proven means that you have chalked up a confirmed kill. Kid is 18 years old and is good at killing. Sounds bad but on the whole it’s ok because he isn’t going to be good at picking up chicks. You have to have some type of skill.

Dear Jane

America feeds on the hopes and dreams of it's young. This 21st centry warfare is unlike any we have ever seen simply because we have females out in the field. All wars have taken their toll on young relationships and this one is no different. It always sucks for someone to leave you it never feels good especially around Christmas. I know a young female SGT who is in love with some guy back in the states and it has been over a month since the last time she talked to him. The guy changed his number (isn't this the first clue), his sister won't pick up the phone when she calls, the guy hasn't written or even sent an email. I mean how hard is it to shoot an email saying

"Bitch I'm izzout!"

It's sad to me. I mean if you have someone out here and it's not working out then you need to at least have the heart to tell them. People live for that bit of communication with their old lives. The least you can do is be enough of an adult to give them closurer. Like I said in the beginning it's better to question why someone is with you as opposed to why they left.


She was talking to me as I passed by and of course how women do she wants to explain the entire relationship. Once she said she hadn't heard from the guy in a month I'm thinking

"Ok, soooo why are we having this conversation, I think you need to move to the next stage of grief. Denial is about to buy some property in your mind if you don't get it together."

Now, that's what I THOUGHT that thought came out as

"Hmmm, I don't know sometime guys can be forgetful when it comes to writing and stuff."

Yeah I lied, sue me. She needed someone to lie to her face at that particular moment. Hard truth is not something you want to dish out to someone who can't realize after a month the guy is out AND they have an M-16.

It's sad, I mean for all these people stuck out here this holiday season. But, the way I see it she isn't the first and won't be the last.

Intro to Mortars and Missiles

I got a few emails after people found about the bomb attack on troops in Mosul well I’m ok but, I know people out that way so my mind is wondering but, I’m playing the odds game and figuring that they weren’t the four contractors killed. But, to me that’s not saying much. Wounded only means you weren’t killed that doesn’t mean are in one piece. When I get my new camera I’ll take pictures of what shrapnel from a missile does to a steel cargo container from a distance of 30 yards. Anyone who wasn’t instantly knocked to the ground (lucky) will probably have to spend the rest of their life pushing shrapnel out of their bodies.

How do I/(we) feel? Same way you feel at home, we get CNN, Fox, Google and all that stuff just like you do the soldiers and Marines we get news 24 hours a day. If anything I would say that the Soldiers and Marines are more informed about the world than the average American. The news we get is all from an international point of view. So we saw it like you saw it. It comes off as something that is far away and not part of our “reality”. My heart goes out to the families that were already on pins and needles. Now they can hope to get an auto signed letter for Christmas.

I was going to save this for another post but I figure I’ll discuss it now.

Mortar attacks:

A mortar is defined as a muzzle-loading high-angle gun with a short barrel that fires shells at high elevations for a short range. The typical ordinance that the insurgents use 82mm rounds I’m sure someone can tell you the exact range but I would suspect that they couldn’t reach more than 3 or 4 k and that is a liberal estimate. The problem for the insurgents is that to use them on a military base they have to wade deep into US territory. Besides the regular patrols that are out there you have "other" defenses that make any attack on a base with a mortar a suicide mission. A typical plot now is that they set them up somewhere and rig them to fire by some mechanism (i.e. filling the mortar tube with water and freezing it then placing the round on top of the ice then they place it somewhere and wait for the ice to melt or set it to fire with an egg timer). The mortars cause chaos and the perpetrators are hours away by the time it launches. From what little I know if they were able to perpetrate this with mortars that would be the most likely scenario. Mortar attacks are the most unpredictable and the most likely to not cause damage.

Missile attacks:

These are far more dangerous simply because they have a much further range (6 to 8 miles) so they are very much in the range of safety for the insurgents. The flaw with them is that they need to be set with coordinates to hit their targets and most of the missiles that they have out there are surface to air missiles and not surface to surface missiles so they either miss the target or they are duds because they don’t have enough time before impact to prime the fuse. If they have something like an exact GPS location then they can easily find whatever target they want.

The reality is that the US military did a great job of convincing people who actually knew how program the missiles via GPS to stop doing it and not to show others how to do it (via lead lined contracts). There are people out here that know how to prime them to launch (it’s like hotwiring a car) but not to prime the fuse it’s by pure luck if they can. CNN is reporting that it was possibly a mortar attack or bomb attack but I think a missile attack was far more likely.

The other thing is that missles come in batteries that means you aren't going to get one missle you are going to get a volley of 4 to 10. From what I know that attack on Mosul sounded like a rocket attack.

Years ago when I was a young and dumber engineer than I am now I took a crypto class from a man named Doug Stell and I never forgot the first thing he told us.

He said, “Always assume the enemy knows what you already know.”

After that he went into the theory or pubic key cryptography and some modulus equations and lost me within 4 minutes. That is something that is so true here. We have Iraqis that work on the base doing jobs around here and I know that some of them by conviction or fear are playing for the other team and they go back and tell the insurgents where everything is located. There is no spoon and there are no secrets.

Have you ever had a Navy Shower? Whoa dude I'm not into that freaky shit.

When I first got here a guy asked me have I ever taken a Navy Shower and I'm like what?
Well let me explain how showers around here work. We have a limited supply of potable water so as a result they ration water depending on troop movement or other activties you may have more or less of a chance to take a shower. Well when you do take a shower you have about 6 minutes (max) to take a shower. This is how it works

1. Turn on the shower, get in, and hope to go that there is enough hot water pressure so you can have a semblance of a warm shower. You get enough water on your body, hair, washrag, and soap then you turn the water off.

2. Lather up and begin to clean off your body. Also take this time to lather up your hair.

3. Turn the water on wash the soap off your body and hair.

4. Turn off the water.

5. Get out and dry off.


That may work well when it's 140 out here but, when it's 30 it's not so good.

Rogue's Gallery: Entry 0001 - Lance Corporal Toker

I will do some of these every now and again about some of the more interesting people that I meet. To let you all know these are not real names and may or may not be an amalgamation of more that one person. Consider them archetypes or avatars of the people that I have met in Iraq.

Toker, this kid what can I say about him. You ever meet someone who is smart as hell but is short on to common sense side (some people I know would say it about me) that's Toker.

Well let me tell you about this kid. He graduates high school at like 15 or 16 heads to college for a year or two transfers from that college to MIT. He's there for a while and during the summer when he's interning for the US Postal Service his buddy comes to him and tells him he just joined the Marines and that the recruiter is really cool and says that the Marines work with the best computers in the world (jokes on you jack). Toker meets with the recruiter and soon after that the unlucky fuck is digging sandbags at Paris Island. Just his luck the war breaks out and now the kid is cleaning sand out of servers in the middle of the Al Middleofnowherefuckingstan Desert. The guy that recruited him should be moved to the head of psy-ops ASAP.

This is the thing about Toker as soon as he spoke to me I thought,

"This guy is CLEARLY not built for the Military."

He reminds me of the typical net denizen that in real life would be found here asking questions like this.

This kid is simply too smart for military and he has an independent streak that is tolerated by his superiors simply because he is the only reason that his unit is up and running. He his good at his job and he knows this to be true. He does the BARE minimum to tow the line. I see that he gets to talk to superiors in a way that would have many of his fellow Marines, even those of higher rank, out digging ditches for days. Reason he gets away with it is that the people that work with him know NOTHING about computers short of the on and off button. The people in his unit are the type of people that keep Best Buy in business for “professional” installation of anti-virus software. While he is not a Semper Fi for life kind of guy he is good Marine and he is good at keeping the network up I've met a lot of good networking guys but, I don't know many that can monitor network traffic and keep the heart of the system moving while getting shot at.

Well the other thing is this guy is a script kiddie and the military is a virtual nirvana for script kiddies. Toker knows the basic in and outs of Internet Explorer. If you haven't started using Firefox and Zone Alarm this guy is the reason you should stop reading right now and download it. He has organized a group of like mind IT guys and general geeks that call themselves Blue Team the spend their off time seeing how many passwords they can compromise (I'm shocked that people are still using password1) then they report that to the user. Today this guy is performing a noble service however before he joined the Marines he had some less than admirable ambitions, I call it 21^st century joyriding.

The use of some well placed keystroke loggers on non firewalled IP address, execution of some well known IE exploits, and weak passwords he found himself in possession of some mighty fine bank account numbers, SSN, addresses, birthdays, maiden names and stop me if you know where I'm going with this.

Toker's plans were to set up some offshore accounts and create his on fiefdom on some small Caribbean island once he left the Marines. If I know about it that means that there was some fatal flaw in his plan. NCIS pays the guy a visit and informs him that besides using Marine resources to start his tropical kingdom he they also have a signature that they can match to his. Well now they got the kid for petty larceny (he claims that he has more money but, they can't trace it back to the signature or the Marine resources). Now then this is were I part ways with the kid. Obviously he never took crime 101. If they get you on something you shut the hell up about anything else they didn’t get you on regardless what they know and what you agree to. You go to your grave say you never did any crime what they don’t know won’t hurt you.This spree would have a normal person set up for some real jail time but, he isn’t regular person or in a regular situation. By the time this all went down he was either on his way to Iraq or in Iraq and I guess his CO figured that he would be more of a service keeping the network up over in Iraq over keeping his asshole taped up in prison for 2 years. It also helps that his backup is nowhere near as proficient as him. Good kid but if it were up to the backup to perform like Toker then we'd all be speaking Arabic right about now. I don't think the unit wants to think about life without Toker. But, things aren't all good for him once they head back to the States Toker has a nice cell in the Brig waiting for him. He has to do six months in the brig; he is busted back down to PFC, and has to come back to Iraq to support another unit. All and all what he got compared to the alternative is not a bad deal. Yes I know this sounds incredible but, I checked with others in the unit and the story is pretty solid. So basically someone likes the guy and saved him from a dishonorable discharge. The way I see the situation it pays to be well liked by the right people in high places.

All and all I have to say I like him though he's like me in someways. Plus he was able to track me down. I guess that's my fault for being sloppy.

Looking for a hat

Does anyone know of a baseball cap that is wood or wicker or something like that in the front and has an ankh type symbol on the front of it. If you can find it please shoot me an email. I'd like to have it.

Instant Messenger update

Well, one thing I can say is that the Military guards their ports VERY well. As a result the only IM program I can use for now is AIM so if you want to chat with me the best way to do it for now is to download AIM. While you are at it get a copy of Trillian your Mom will love you for it.

Saw some real ugly stuff

I was at work checking some server responses and casually glancing over at the projector where they get video feed from their UAVs. Well it is around dawn/dusk time and for those of you who don't know that's when the criminals, kidnappers, insurgents, and terrorists like to operate. Why? Night vision is least effective during that time of the day. It gives them some cover of night and reduces the effectiveness of US forces. Well the group I was with that day is in charge of doing surveillance on certain supply routes. They spotted a car that stopped on the side of the road and two people got out and popped the trunk. If you get out of your car and you pull anything out of the trunk besides a tire you are setting yourself up for failure. They zoom in on the guys and, I have to say the resolution on this thing was incredible to be as high as it was up, you can make out faces easily. So now if you ask yourself how do they know they got person X that how they know. With the right light and right angle you can get as much detail as you do when you see yourself on a security camera. Pretty amazing stuff.

At any rate they fly over and watch the guys set up the IED (Improvised Explosive Device) and then let them take off. The idea is that these guys will lead them to a weapons cache and they can take out the whole lot of them. While this is going on you have a flurry of activity going on you have people making sure they see what they think they see.

Is it an IED?
Are you sure?
How do you know?
What gave you that indication?

There is a real process to this and as we know mistakes are made I can tell you that it is not for lack of trying to avoid it. The Marines are VERY concerned with making sure they have the right target at the right time. These decisions to bomb something are not made willy-nilly. I think it is important to say that. There is an opinion in some circles that these military people have a hard on for blowing things up. Not the case, they are VERY particular about what they attempt to do. They shadow these guys back to their safe house and watch them back into the driveway and some more guys come out. I would say there were 4 or 5 of them.

They stand in a circle for a bit and then they start loading more ordinances into the car. Well at that time they had seen enough and called in an air strike. Seconds before they fire (because you have to lead the target) one of the guys gets in the car and moves it I assume he was trying to move it to get closer to the hatch where they were and I mean like 3 seconds later a missile hits where the car was and now those three guys are standing. Two of the guys are incinerated instantly. The third guy was not in incineration range but was in the blast range and you can see him rip apart. I think you see his head, one arm, and his chest or his lower torso and one leg either way it slaps up against the house next to it.

To get an idea how that it looked think of having a raw chicken leg quarter and having Randy Johnson pitch it like a fast ball at the side of your house. Same effect.

Well as expected the car tries to take off but it gets lit up. The engine explodes but the guy driving somehow lives. He jumps out of the car (bad idea) well the explosives in the back of the car catch and then blow up. This guy gets doused in flames. You can tell by the heat signature (they are using night vision at this time) that this guy is clearly on fire and clearly alive running around in circles. Well then two more things happen. They strike the house with a bomb and blast it and then a guy on a bike takes off. What the insurgents use guys on bikes or walking for
spotters. These spotters are unarmed they can walk up to a convoy to surveillance and then go back to there buddies. Of course if the soldiers or marines shoot an unarmed civilian walking down the street there is hell to pay but that's how the operate. Anyway they unload on him and you see him split in three pieces (I don't know if one of the pieces was the bike) but I know he was at least ripped in half (not including the larger chunks you spread out from the area).

Now this was the most amazing part 4 more guys come WALKING out of the house.
One of the ops personnel tells me that Iraqi houses are built very well and have a bunker like quality to them it can take up to 3 strikes to level a standard house. I think he told me it's cheaper to use 3 500 lbs. JDAMs as opposed to 1 Bunker Buster plus even if they use a bunker buster there is still a chance they don't get everyone. I was too caught up in the moment to really listen for details.

So the bail out and see their buddy who just stopped running (the guy tells me more than likely he is still alive but, his leg muscles have probably separated from his bones much like a meat on a grill) well two of the guys start throwing up (and probably a few other bodily functions as well). With night vision you can't see the faces per se but, I know what throwing up looks like plus they have zoomed out so the flash from the strikes won't blind the camera. Next thing you know BOOM another bomb hits the house and sends debris all over the place one of the guys is knocked down by the impact and a the other three start running. Well that didn't last long they
dropped a few 40mm round on top of those guys and they blew in to chunks. Then they
ran back over the last guy with some sort of ordinance to make sure he was dead.

They hit the house with another bomb and dipped.

Back home every Christmas time there is always some asshole politician that is whining about the effect of violent video games on our society. I can tell you this right here, right now videogames are exactly what a 21st century war is going to look like. But, these guys are going for the wrong ones. Games like Doom 3 or Grand Theft Auto are not going to have your child ready for war. Jagged Alliance 2 (from my perspective this game was really the closest to what I saw), Civilization 3, Starcraft strategy games are what will allow the warriors of the 21st Century to get used to war. If you are good at those games then I have a rich Uncle that has a job for you. I mean it looked just like a videogame, you can get the perfect camera angle, zoom in, zoom out, select your weapons, plan your attack. I didn't realize what I saw until after the fact. Then I realized that I have just watched people die in real life, in real time. Will someone have to go out there and verify the kill? Yes. Will someone have to look at what at one point were humans now reduced to giblets? Yes. But, these are things that while horrific in nature are something that a 3 year medical student could probably handle. With the introduction of unmanned vehicles I see us as Americans getting further and further away from the visceral violence that has encompassed all the wars that have preceded this one (well one on one violence).

Now then don't mistake my tone for weakness or sympathy for their situation I'm not sympathetic. These were killers plain and simple. Had they had the chance they would have killed anyone I know in a heartbeat. They didn't care who came down that road if they crossed that path at the right time they would have been dead. Still I had a front row seat to watching someone die. How do you cope with that vision? I'm not sure yet.