.Live Blogging an Embed from Forward Operating Base Tash
FORWARD OPERATING BASE TASH, Iraq (2:41 a.m. Iraq time) — Finally reached my embed destination, a muddied joint security station run by a Marine rifle company that is located a few miles outside of Ramadi. shoe-horned around an Iraqi police station.
I dropped my gear off in the barracks and had a briefing with Capt. Brian O’Shea, the commanding officer of E Company, First Regimental Combat Team, Second Battalion, Ninth Marines. We discussed some of the plans for the week including meeting with local sheiks and going out on patrols. For security reasons, I won’t be able to talk about the timing of these events until after they take place.
Violence in this region has declined greatly, said Gunnery Sgt. George Brown, the logistics chief. The last major attack occurred in September when a magnetic improvised explosive device went off behind an MRAP, but no one was injured. “They tried blowing up my X.O., but they missed,” Captain O’Shea said. That was also the month that E Company first arrived in Forward Operating Base Tash.
My flight here from Camp Taqaddum was a few hours behind schedule and I spent the time talking with private security contractors from KBR and a few Marines who were all flying west to Ramadi with me. We shared our plans for life back home after Iraq and talked about how strange it is that this place now feels like home.
Eventually we were lined up in the dark next to the helicopter landing zone. In one line was more than a dozen KBR employees and few Marines. I was in the second line with an Iraqi. We communicated through gestures, shrugged and laid down on benches next to each other to wait some more. Two CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters landed and we boarded them in the dark. We flew over Lake Habbanyah and upon landing I immediately stepped into some ankle deep mud. It has been raining for the past few days in Ramadi and it is impossible to walk anywhere without sinking into the ground.
Lance Cpl. Noah Haberman gave me a tour of Camp Ramadi and we stopped at a coffee shop on the base to pick up a vanilla chai latte for a Marine sergeant. Lance Cpl. Haberman assured me that no other Marines enjoy that drink.
I caught a ride to F.O.B. Tash with a convoy of MRAP armored vehicles from E Company. I was strapped down in the back, but I still needed my helmet to protect my head from bouncing off the roof as we drove along the wet, muddy road.
Captain O’Shea provided a detailed briefing of the operations at F.O.B. Tash and nearby F.O.B. Sedgwick, which he also oversees.
The captain praised his rifle company’s ability to patrol the battle space of what used to be a battalion task force. And he repeatedly singled out the responsibilities being handled by young soldiers. “How old were you when the World Trade Center went down?” Captain Sedgwick asked Cpl. Steve Preston, the company’s intelligence chief.
The corporal said, “I was in the ninth grade, sir.”
baghdad Bureau
Well, we already know they'll take place this week, right?
I dropped my gear off in the barracks and had a briefing with Capt. Brian O’Shea, the commanding officer of E Company, First Regimental Combat Team, Second Battalion, Ninth Marines. We discussed some of the plans for the week including meeting with local sheiks and going out on patrols. For security reasons, I won’t be able to talk about the timing of these events until after they take place.
Violence in this region has declined greatly, said Gunnery Sgt. George Brown, the logistics chief. The last major attack occurred in September when a magnetic improvised explosive device went off behind an MRAP, but no one was injured. “They tried blowing up my X.O., but they missed,” Captain O’Shea said. That was also the month that E Company first arrived in Forward Operating Base Tash.
My flight here from Camp Taqaddum was a few hours behind schedule and I spent the time talking with private security contractors from KBR and a few Marines who were all flying west to Ramadi with me. We shared our plans for life back home after Iraq and talked about how strange it is that this place now feels like home.
Eventually we were lined up in the dark next to the helicopter landing zone. In one line was more than a dozen KBR employees and few Marines. I was in the second line with an Iraqi. We communicated through gestures, shrugged and laid down on benches next to each other to wait some more. Two CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters landed and we boarded them in the dark. We flew over Lake Habbanyah and upon landing I immediately stepped into some ankle deep mud. It has been raining for the past few days in Ramadi and it is impossible to walk anywhere without sinking into the ground.
Lance Cpl. Noah Haberman gave me a tour of Camp Ramadi and we stopped at a coffee shop on the base to pick up a vanilla chai latte for a Marine sergeant. Lance Cpl. Haberman assured me that no other Marines enjoy that drink.
I caught a ride to F.O.B. Tash with a convoy of MRAP armored vehicles from E Company. I was strapped down in the back, but I still needed my helmet to protect my head from bouncing off the roof as we drove along the wet, muddy road.
Captain O’Shea provided a detailed briefing of the operations at F.O.B. Tash and nearby F.O.B. Sedgwick, which he also oversees.
The captain praised his rifle company’s ability to patrol the battle space of what used to be a battalion task force. And he repeatedly singled out the responsibilities being handled by young soldiers. “How old were you when the World Trade Center went down?” Captain Sedgwick asked Cpl. Steve Preston, the company’s intelligence chief.
The corporal said, “I was in the ninth grade, sir.”
baghdad Bureau
Well, we already know they'll take place this week, right?
posted by madtom at 10:38 PM
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