I think my brother got one of those cards. He said the card had the funniest comment in it. Here is an article about his unit. It really puts into perspective how dangerous it really is over there!
This is an article about Sid's unit and his camp and men. He's ridden
in
one of these too; don't know which one.
Convoy duty in Iraq: Riding with the Four Horsemen
By REBECCA SANTANA
Associated Press Writer
CAMP ADDER, Iraq (AP) -- The soldiers call themselves the Four Horsemen
as
they barrel down roads with nicknames like "The Widowmaker," staying
alert
through the night on a mix of Mountain Dew, Red Bull and adrenaline,
hoping
to find roadside bombs before the bombs find them.
"There's always some out there. There's a threat every night," said
Sgt.
Brian Parker, 36, of Mankato, Minn., part of a four-Humvee convoy
escort
team based at Camp Adder, about 200 miles southwest of Baghdad.
Guarding convoys remains one of the most dangerous assignments in Iraq
despite billions of dollars spent armoring Humvees and developing
equipment
to detect and evade bombs. Insurgents constantly use new ways to hit
the
troops on their long supply routes, and the soldiers struggle to keep
pace
with the changing threat.
In keeping with their biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse theme,
the
soldiers' Humvees are named War, Death, Famine and Pestilence. "You
mean I'm
riding with Death?" asked a truck driver they were protecting.
On any given night, the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry
Division,
which includes the Four Horsemen, has more than a dozen convoys on the
road.
By the time they leave Iraq, the brigade will have logged 2 million
miles
and encountered an untold number of bombs.
So far, the brigade has lost five soldiers from roadside bombs while
guarding convoys.
The U.S. military has aggressively pursued ways to minimize the use of
road
convoys. It flies in supplies whenever possible. Some bases have begun
purifying their own water so it doesn't have to be delivered. But the
sheer
amount of supplies needed, especially weighty items such as fuel, mean
convoys are still needed and remain a primary target of the insurgents.
"Much of the insurgent activity in the country is aimed at trying to
impede
the flow of supplies to U.S. forces, and there are no easy solutions to
the
tactics they employ," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the
Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute.
To improve their odds against the roadside bombs, often called by the
military "improvised explosive devices," or IEDs, the Minnesota unit
has
bulldozed brush and debris away from roadsides where the insurgency is
strong.
They also have spent millions of dollars in development projects in
areas
near the convoy routes. The idea is that if people feel they're
benefiting
from the troops, they won't work for the insurgents and they'll be more
likely to turn in people who are.
The Four Horsemen also constantly share information with other units
who've
been out on the road, to compare IED experiences and learn what new
tactics
are being used.
"While war has always been a cat and mouse game of
action-counteraction, the
IED fight epitomizes it," said Col. David Elicerio, commander of the
1/34
Brigade Combat Team.
"They rapidly develop new techniques. If proven successful, they spread
that
knowledge as far and as fast as possible," he said. "We do the same."
The unit doesn't make public the numbers of IEDs it has found before
detonation or the number that exploded, but says the trend shows
success.
The brigade says that since it arrived in Iraq in April, the number of
IEDs
spiked in May and June, but then fell in July and again in August.
They've also increased the percentage of IEDs discovered before
detonation
from 10 percent in May to 37 percent in August.
But the troops remind themselves every day that the danger can't be
eliminated.
One of the soldiers killed, Brent William Koch, 22, from Morton, Minn.,
who
died June 16, was from the same platoon as the Four Horsemen. Although
he
rode with another team, Koch was in their platoon and trained with them
for
six months before deploying to Iraq.
On the backs of each of their four Humvees, the Horsemen painted a
picture
of a motorcycle - after Koch's love of bikes - that incorporates his
initials.
"It's a sign that Brent is always covering our six, even from above,"
said
Day, using the military jargon for watching out for danger from behind.
Road obstacles aren't limited to bombs, or always dangerous.
They begin with the humorous interruption of stubborn camels crossing
the
road, and then climb up an ever-more-dangerous scale that includes
spikes on
the road, kids throwing rocks, small-arms fire and rocket-propelled
grenades.
The explosions, such as the one that flattened a tire on one of the
fuel
trucks they were protecting during a recent mission, don't shock the
soldiers any more.
"I actually had a fuel tanker blow up right in front of us. An IED on
the
side of the road, it hit the truck, and we had to drive through a wall
of
fire to get to the other side," said Sgt. Jason Slinden, 23, of Hugo,
Minn.
"Nothing else has been quite as big as that."
Since taking over the convoy mission in May, almost every member of the
team
has earned a combat action badge, testifying that they've come under
enemy
fire or been in the vicinity of a bomb going off.
Preparation for each mission includes good-natured teasing and
joke-telling.
Many said they think about what can happen during a mission, but once
the
drive begins they put it out of their minds.
"Do I think about death? Do I think about Koch?" said the team's
leader,
Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Hjelmstad, 37, of Battle Lake, Minn., while
rolling
through the desert of southern Iraq. "Yeah. But you got to get yourself
back
out there."
