My name is Sgt. Smitty and I'm writing my experience as a soldier fighting on the front lines in Iraq, and Iran .the enemy is a well ready, combat experienced terrorist group that can blend in with the civi's .and knows the area better than his own hand. While we are fresh new troops who never has seen desert before; also the enemy fought off the Russians defeated them, and took their weapons, but that's later on in the story.
Chapter 1
The beginning
Well when I was about 17 I thought you know maybe I should be a soldier ,and kick some ass for the land of the free .so I signed my rights away ,and joined the army at 18 .I went through basic ,and that was a challenge since I was a tiny mother fucker, and could barely do 5 pull ups ;but mark my words by the end of basic I was pumpin them things out .since I didn't really think much into my life I thought eh fuck it I'll just be basic infantry ,so my MOS was infantry ,and so I was the grunt that did all the shitty work .but I wouldn't trade it for nothing.
Now I was going to my first assignment and that was to fortify and provide support for FOB Oscar since it was located in the middle of fucking nowhere, and the only easy way to get to it was by helicopter, and lucky me it was in the middle of hostile territory . when we landed the FOB was under fire and the commander ran up to us screaming "drop your shit load up and get to the south wall and fire back at the goat fuckers" already not even 2 minutes at the FOB, and I was getting shot at from everywhere so I ran with my small squad of one support gunner, and three riflemen when we got to the wall I could see the enemy they were very organized, and it looked as if they did this once or twice before. There was two RPKs firing from trenches, and at least 6 ak47s scattered through the brush I told my support gunner that had the m240b to fire on the RPKs ,and suppress them so me and my riflemen who had the good ole m4 carbine ,and one had the m302 hand held grenade launcher ;so we tried to pick off the AKs after about 30 minutes of constant firing I yelled "get the fucking 302 ,and blow their asses out of their implement" ;so he loaded up and shot a couple of rounds and the next thing we see is body parts flying then we knew we had done our job. I told my men good job for a first day of real combat, and let me tell you I was not ready for that I was expecting to be shown around a little, or at least to where we would hang our hat; but I had a job to do .so I reported to the commander saying "we have gained control of the south sector and cleared out the hostile threat for now" he simply said "nice work for fresh troops you are now in charge of the south sector since the other person that was is now in that body bag if you need any supply's fill out a supply request form and just give it to me and I will make damn sure that it gets to the right person". Now let me tell you that was very promising and I could see why he is in the bag getting tagged and loaded on to the Blackhawk headed home. The wall as they called it was a 15 foot long stretch from an mk19 bunker, to a 50cal bunker, and the wall was just a tiny 3 foot tall sand bag, and stone wall. well for one I knew that wasn't going to keep me alive let alone my fellow brothers ,so I knew that me, and my squad had a nice little project during our 12 month long deployment .after the assessment of damage we were able to get ahold of some supplies like ammo MREs and water .I did put in a request form for some more sand bags and plywood since ,I was going to make the south wall stronger, and more fortified ;but since we were in the middle of nowhere that was going to be hard do get ahold of .I told my men to get their entrenching tools it's basically a cool little foldable shovel ,but any ways I told "them to start shoveling some dirt and rocks into a 5 foot high by 4 foot wide dirt mound", and so that way we have plenty of cover .while they were doing that I was making little shooting windows made from the sand bags ,and broken 2x4s so we could shoot through those without getting shot. It was getting dark now I knew my men was getting tired so I told them "ok let's call it and get some food in us and chill for a bit" they all jumped up without a complaint, and headed to the mess tent for some MREs .the MREs where all mix matched so we all just grab and go hoping we don't get some horrible vegie one or a vegetarian one. Luckily neither of us did we all had half way decent meals which was great, since we all needed one. It was getting a little chilly outside so I said "ok let's go get some of the scrap 2x4s and start a little fire after we get the food heated up". They all said "hell yea let's do that I'm fucking cold" I laughed at that and got up and told them ok let's go. We went around asking for some wood, and trash anything that would burn for a little bit, now let me tell ya we got a crap ton of trash since no one wanted to burn it themselves hell I'm not arguing. My support gunner looked at me a sarcastically said hey "Sgt how the fuck are we getting this lit we don't have a way to" I looked at him like he was a damn idiot and laughed while saying "well we are in the army go get me that jerry can and toss me you lighter I'll show you how to light this up" they all looked at me like um what the hell is going to do. After about 5 seconds he walked over and got the can one of the other men tossed me his lighter and said "now don't set your ass on fire", and laughed. I looked at him and told him "yea thanks for the encouragement bud" after I said that I started pouring the gas on the wood making sure it was nice, and soaked then handed it off to the gunner. I grabbed a piece of paper lit the edge on fire tossed the lighter back and told them "now stand back and watch boys" ,and place the paper on the wood; and the next thing that happens is a fire ball then the sight of a very nice fire that felt like it was from hell its self. We then sat down passing story's about life, and stupid shit we had done in high school and then one of my guys said "hey Sgt what is one thing you did with you high school sweetheart" . I looked at him and told them "well boys once I got a text saying hey baby guess what I'm home alone and that I should come get her", the men all started saying ooooh you went to go get ya some didn't ya Sgt I told them "that's what you think but any ways I got in my truck cranked the old piece of shit up, and floored it to her house; and when I got to her place. 15 minutes later she walked out the door yelling go go go ,and jumped in I asked what's going on and she told me her dad came home early ,and then I saw him coming out of the door with a gun and he started to pop rounds at my truck hitting it a few times but damn boys let me tell ya I was scared that day". My men asked so you go and pick your girl up and get shot at after all that trouble did you get some I said "yall are some horny ass mofos but if you want to know I didn't that day we just went to town to get some lunch and ride around" they all looked at me and said damn that was a plot twist we were thinking you got somewhere that day I laughed "I tell ya this is why I'm going to love this squad but if you want to know that bad I'll tell ya another time" they all went damn I said "ok let's get in the cots and sleep we got a big day tomorrow". .after that long day of a firefight, storytelling ,and getting to know each other better so we can get a stronger bond as brothers ,and working our ass off so we can live safer we decided to call it a night now we wait for tomorrow to come.
