Angels Among Us

"Sixty Stryker tires were strapped five-high into the belly of a C-130 cargo plane heading for Mosul. After weeks of riding in a Humvee with CSM Mellinger and crew, at times sharing a dusty but air-conditioned tent in Baghdad with bold mice, it was time to go "home."

Each day Stryker tires get blown off, sometimes sailing hundreds of feet before landing smoldering on a rooftop, or a car, or the ground. So the belly of the airplane was filled with replacement tires, and three passengers: an Australian Naval officer, a US Army officer, and me.

While away from Mosul, I had assiduously tracked the news, but the news just doesn't do it, not even over here. Email was little help unless answers like, "When you come back you'll find out" and, "You know damn well I can't tell you what's happening unless you are here," count as informative. Even as the airplane lofted into the sky, Deuce-Four was conducting a raid, hauling in explosives, mortars and other deadly devices.

The C-130 landed in Mosul and the Stryker tires and stowaways tumbled out onto the blistering runaway, as scorching exhaust blasts from the still-running engines added to the haze. Inside the airfield shack, military phones were not working, so I could not call the 1-24th Infantry for a ride, leaving me stuck at the airfield. But soldiers are usually quick to give someone a ride, so when I spotted a sergeant who looked like he was going somewhere, I asked for a lift. Strangely, he had never heard of 1-24 Infantry."
Michael Yon

This is and has been for a while now and interesting blog, unfortunately it reminds me a lot of Kevin Site blog, and we all know what happened to him.