American Soldier says,
Not AWOL!

I have been fully immersed in a very important project. It has many things to do with military members. I’ve neglected to post stories for a long time. Partly because I’ve had to endure some things on my own, also this new project. I will say that the Soldierlife site has opened many opportunities and has allowed me to meet some great people. For that would not be possible without the Milblog ring. Something that I am proud to be a part of. I am happy that this site has received worldwide coverage and visitors.

So I want to ask the readership what they think now? It seems that milblogs, unless you become a political or strict military orientated site has a certain life span. It just seems that way. What would you like to get from this site? Would you be interested in my new project? Where oh where should this site go.

You let me know.

EDIT: 300+ hits at the time of this edit and I’ve received 0 emails and 1 comment. I really want to hear your feedback.

American Soldier says,
I shot at a man once for driving his vehicle towards me in Iraq. He was off the road and at an accelerated pace. He was within 100 meters before I shot him and even then it would have been too late if he had set off his charge. The scenario played out in my head over and over after and even to this day I think about that day.

I wondered if he was just a pawn trying to test our limit and how we would react to that situation. The terrorists we fought against were testy little pricks. It was almost like a game of cat and mouse sometimes. They knew our ROE (Rules of Engagement) and always seemed to reach the point of almost getting killed. However, on this day it played out a little different. I never tried to go out of my way to hurt anyone. Sometimes you had to be rough and other times it wasn’t needed, but you never gave an inch. This particular day was like any other day in Ramadi. It was morning time and curfew was just coming off. We were doing our rounds in and out of the city. Keeping the main roadways clear and sustaining a watchful eye of people stopping and dropping. This was a common method to drop IED’s when a vehicle comes to a stop and they just drive on. One thing that was a challenge in the city was the amount of traffic in the morning. It would build up and despite having an up-armored vehicle you couldn’t move an entire column of traffic. You could bump and grind at times but things always seemed to bottle neck at certain points. You tried your best to not fall in those situations. My crew and I decided to keep at the lower part of one road. There was a Bradley at the other end so they could also watch for people dropping things from their vehicle.

I decided to stop a car to inspect it. It was lowered in the rear and 9 out of 10 times the weight is from tires, bad shocks or just random items in a trunk. You can never be too careful. So I had my other truck pull security in front of us by pulling ahead of the suspicious vehicle and my gunner turned around to ensure no other vehicles came towards us. I always tried my best to provide 360 degree coverage. Anyway, the search was routine. Most are when you have guns pointing in your general direction. I was looking under one of the seats when I heard one of my guys yell, then a shot rang out. I jumped out and saw this vehicle moving towards us fast.

Now, I know this sounds crazy but I remember in some situations, things seemed to just go in slow motion. This was one of them. I raised my weapon up and fixed the vehicle into my reflex sight. Here is how it broke down.

– There was already a verbal warning.
– Visual warning.
– A warning shot.
– The vehicle was still coming.

All of this had been done within a few seconds. I estimated that the vehicle was about 100 meters give or take from us. I squeezed my trigger and a single shot, found its ways into the driver’s side window, center mass….

The vehicle turned a little and finally came to a rolling stop….

If the vehicle would have blown up, my men would have been killed most likely. 100 meters with a VBIED is sure death. The Rules of Engagement are a guideline and you do your best to ensure you follow them in the order prescribed. Sometimes you have to go from waving them off to a disabling shot or even a kill shot. Every time you pull the trigger, you question your decision, which is reality. You have mere seconds to decide if you will kill someone or hesitate. You develop these instincts in war that seem to heighten the will to survive.

The point of this entry is to give you a glimpse of what reality can be like when faced with such tight rules that can cost you your life. Like I said, you develop the instinct and learn it at an accelerated rate from trial and error. Seeing your buddies hurt or killed is that accelerator. The ROE is your worst enemy in war. However, it can be your best friend when you rationalize the decision to kill someone.

Red2Alpha says,
I hate the fucking internet. This opinion has been brewing inside my dome for years but recent events have finally forced it to the surface. Way back in the old time days of 1995 I first became aware of this internet thing. At the time I was still in the 82nd ABN Div and living in the barracks on Ardennes. No one had a connection to the net. I only became aware of it once I got out. I had driven one of my HS friends to Chico State and he took me to the computer lab and showed me how to use Yahoo to look things up. Now, growing up I had a Commodore 64 which I used to play really crappy games on. There was one computer in my grammar school which we used to draw pictures on with LOGO, in between playing that educational game Oregon Trail. There ends my computer education until the Chico State computer lab. In that lab I, and at a loss of just what to look up, I typed in Robotech ( yes, I am a geek). Hundreds of Robotech related sites popped up, mecha specs, character info, and pictures. I was amazed. Wow! nearly anything I was interested in was on the net for my enjoyment. A whole new world opened for me.

Now the net is  everywhere and you can find anything on it. Including video and pictures from the war. It seems the one modern technology that Haji has mastered is the internet. You can watch video of American Soldiers getting blown up by IEDs, killed by snipers, civilians getting their heads cut off all in the comfort of your home. I try to avoid that kind of stuff, it saddens me and makes me very, very angry. A few weeks ago I made the mistake of looking up sniper videos from Iraq. I had consumed a few to many adult beverages and… Well, lets just say it was a mistake. Since returning from Iraq I have been aware that there was video of my friend Arnold Duplantier II being shot by the sniper motherfucker that killed him. My buddy Doc had seen it and told me that I shouldn’t watch it and for over a year I resisted, until that night. And I found it. I watched my friend die on my laptop followed immediately by the footage of my squad leader being shot in the neck by the very same sniper. In the video is the HUMMVEE that I was on, I was gunning that day. You can watch Doc interacting with SSG Cooper then step away, out of picture, before Cooper is hit.

I vomited that night, it brought back all the feelings of that day, punched me right in the face with all those repressed emotions. I called Doc after and told him that I was glad he was alive.

Then, today, driving home from work I hear that the Iranians have video of them taking the British crew that they now hold hostage. And you can see it on the fucking net. Just like you can watch my friend die, along with other American Soldiers and Marines, just like you can watch Nick Berg, Daniel Pearl, and that poor Korean dude get their heads cut off by those sub-human bastards we are fighting.

Enough.

I don’t want to see this shit anymore. It hurts to much. Now, I can hear you saying,”Well, R2A, if you don’t like it, don’t look it up and don’t watch it. Stupid.” And your right. I was wrong, I shouldn’t have gone looking for it and I sure has hell shouldn’t have watched. But I did. You can’t control the internet and, you know, I really don’t want to control the net. Once you do that we are no better than North Korea or Iran. But it doesn’t stop me from hating it and hating the content that is available on it and from knowing that some sick bastard is getting off on watching people die on it.

I need a drink…

Our newest addition to our family was born late last night. There are many reasons to call this baby a miracle. From almost giving my all in Iraq to watching as my new daughter took her first breath, I am a changed man forever. Something changed with her arrival. I can’t put my finger on it, but I can feel it.

American Soldier says,
The first installation of many new things to come. I want all my viewers to know that I am not moving from the text form of Soldierlife. I am merely evolving to bring you a different type of media to experience from.

Some plans with this new content is to resurrect the book and put it into a picture/video format. I hope you enjoy the ride.

Mil-vlogs are here to stay!

NOTE: All footage was taken by me. That soldier is me as well….BOO!

American Soldier says,
Subscribe today, tell your friends to subscribe. Soldier Life is going to a whole new platform of Milblogging. I deem this Mil-vlogging!

See you soon…

American Soldier says,
This last month has given me a lot of time to view things from a different perspective and evaluate some things that I might have overlooked otherwise. I made a trip to Idaho and visited my good friend Chad. I got away from things but not really. Being in Idaho just gave me a chance to remove myself from one environment and seek solace somewhere else. My trip was one of the best I’ve had in a while. Idaho is much like my neck of the woods. I said a few times that it was like home but in a different state. The way the roads are setup, the woods and the good natured people.

I had a great week. I caught some fish, had a few cook outs, took a dip in a lake, camped, shot varmints, hunted the illusive coyote, I met some great folks from the NRA. The one thing that stood out was being able to talk about my experiences comfortably with the people I met. They didn’t judge me, they just listened. They live in a place where appreciation for family and our rights is paramount.

I opened up a few times to Chad and told him some of the experiences I had over there. The whole trip was worth it.

The day I left something occurred that really topped it off. While in line to get my tickets, I saw another soldier. We really stick out like sore thumbs. Anyway, I get to the Kiosk and he was right next to me. He asked me if I was coming or going. I told him I had been back for a few months now and I came back early due to being wounded. I asked him his job and he said he was a crew chief on a C5. He said he had just gotten back the night prior. He was pushing his 8 month old baby in a stroller whom he never seen until the day before. It put a smile on my face.

Well I kept bumping into this guy along my travels and I swore I knew him from somewhere. I just couldn’t place it. The Army can seem very small but I didn’t remember him from any prior bases I was at. While on a layover, I saw him and his family. I approached him and ask him about the aircraft he flew in over there. At that point I figured he might have been on the same plane I was on when I was evacuated. I describe the flag in the hull and a few other things. Sure as shit that was the same plane he was the crew chief of. He tended to me while I was laid up on a stretcher. I was in and out for the duration of the flight but I remembered his face. What are the chances of that?

We parted ways and I was just happy that I had met him. I really didn’t know how to respond. So I went to the terminal of my next flight. He was passing by and he came up to me pushing his baby. The words that came out of his mouth really stuck with me. “In the 16 years of my career I’ve always wondered about the guys that we flew out. You have made my career come full circle by meeting you.” The man had tears in his eyes. He explained that he always wondered about the ones who were hurt. He knew the disposition of the ones in boxes but the ones on stretchers like me, where did they go and how did they make out?

We had some more words between two soldiers who were strangely reunited, one on a trip fresh from the war and another enduring the mental war. It was good to have that experience; it closed a few things that might have hampered a bit longer.

Since being back I have decided that I will be most likely self publishing Soldier Life. Unless a publisher comes along and wants to pick it up I will begin the procedures to do it myself. While in Idaho, Chad and I spoke of this a few times. I think I almost owe it to my readers to release the book. There will also be a 2nd book as well. This is going to go into a place where the feint of heart will need to take the book in moderation. I am going to write about the raw reality of war and what I went through personally. How it affected me mentally, physically, my family and my experiences as a whole. I don’t care if publishers think Soldier Diary’s are not the genre of the month or not, people want to know about the war. Even if I sell one book, one person will be enlightened. To be quite honest, publishers who are solely about money can go fuck yourselves, why not go out on a limb and publish books with meaning and not worry about how much it’s going to inflate your pockets. Take the small amount of money it does make and donate it to random lower enlisted soldiers who are collecting food stamps because the fucking government is too cheap to raise their pay. Sorry, I digress. It just pisses me off.

Anyway…

So that is where I stand. The experiences that I have encountered in the last month, the closures, the plans and most of all, the time to reflect.

I will be announcing the progression of the book soon. Just keep a watch out for it.

American Soldier says,
I have been doing some catch up on the news. I will say that the media here in the United States is piss poor. Why is it that the MSM’s report Baghdad as being the war? Shit doesn’t even really go on there. There are far worse places in Iraq that have story’s that would blow one’s mind if they knew. Where I was at, I hardly EVER saw reporters there. Heck we didn’t even get USO people there. Simply put, they were scared to be there. At least in Baghdad you could be behind 2 miles of heavily fortified protection.

I know my boys back in the ‘raq’ are fully engaged on a daily basis and I haven’t read a single blurb about the good things they have been doing.

Other than being engaged and fucking the enemy up, we did great things as well. We enabled kids to go to school, we protected children along certain routes, etc, etc. If the media only knew what these big bad killing machine US Soldiers really did? Could they possibly show compassion or not shoot someone? It’s always about the bad or Baghdad!

American Soldier says,
Hello All,

I wanted to let you all know how things are going. I have noticed you all stopping by and wishing us well.

AS has been extremely busy since his boots hit the ground. And even now, as I am sure everyone has read in the news, he is even busier. He does have some down time which is spent playing Xbox or watching a movie. We are in touch pretty often. I must say, I do love those 2AM phone calls.

He has been getting packages from home every other week. Lots of goodies to snack on and drawings from the children and other little things. He looks forward to them when he knows they are coming. And we have received our first package from him. A few carved figures from stone, a beautiful rug, and some other hand made gifts.

With any luck he should be able to drop a line in the next few days. So drop in to say hi. I know that he does keep up on the site. Posting is just tricky for him.

Thank you all for the prayers. We have felt them on many different occassions.

Mrs. AS