FOB BJCC Balad Joint Coordination Center
O’Ryan – Atruz Battle Compant
Cruz-Morris
Today was probably the best rainy day I will ever have! We had a day filled with FOB hopping;
woke up, loaded the black hawks and took off. Our first stop was FOB BJCC – Balad Joint Coordination Center. This Battalion is known as the Black Lions and was the first battalion first battalion in WWI to successfully conduct offensive operation. I’m not exactly sure what that means but I’m sure my G-Pa understands it, so I had to include it! Sargeant Major Lewis presented us with one of their coins and we took some ‘traditional’ pictures then followed up with autographs and pics for the soldiers! This crest has been my favorite because it’s a lion and I’m a leo ;-)!!! (The pose in the picture is the way the lion is posed on their crest!)
On our way to our second stop our flight crew did what I refer to as ‘crazies’. They had a little fun with the helicopter and they would go straight up and then drop straight down and it was
literally just like a roller coaster; we floated out of our seats, stomachs dropped, hands went up and we all just laughed. It was so fun!! We then landed at O’Ryan – Atruz Battle Company and were immediately treated to some DFAC food. When the soldiers came in for the appearance we had the opportunity to hold the flag again for a reenlistment ceremony. There were 12 soldiers who reenlisted and 2 of them had captured 4 ‘bad guys’ just last week. At the end of this appearance we received another coin, but this one was different. These coins were made for just this group of soldiers that arrived in December. There are only 250 of them in existence and they chose to share one with each of us. I have number 136!! Stop three was Cruz-Morris which is an Iraqi and U.S. base. They picked us up from the landing
pad in a MRAP- Mine Resistant A (the flip over thing we road in yesterday). This is the first time we encountered Iraqi soldiers and it was neat to see the interaction between the U.S. soldiers, Iraqi soldiers and Ugandans. Again it was an autograph and meet and greet session. They then presented us with Certificates of Appreciation and we departed back for our current place of stay. We are here for two more nights which is why I currently can’t talk much about it. I will say this place is NICE for our options in Iraq!! (Pic is us with the Iraqi Soldiers)During the black hawk rides I wear a headset and listen to all the flight crew conversations. At
times they will talk to me too or I can ask questions if I have them. While we were flying over the middle of nowhere I caught a conversation about a cave looking thing. They then went into describing landmarks surrounding this ‘cave’. When they were done I clicked in and asked if that ‘cave’ is something they will later investigate. They said yes! They landmark mysterious areas and will later send soldiers on a mission to find out what it is. Sometimes the Iraqis will hide their weapons in places like this. When flying we noticed random squares of palm trees and learned that the Iraqis used to hide out in these palm groves and would come out and shoot at the U.S. aircrafts. Once we got back we were taken to the ECP – Entry Control Point. This is where all the trucks that come in and out of this place get cleared. They x-ray every single truck and truck driver and then physically search every vehicle individually and finger print each passenger. The security around here is crazy. At the bigger bases many of the workers are TCNs – Third Country Nationals or local nationals.
I likely will not blog tomorrow night because we have a 12:30am performance for a Super Bowl pre-game show then we will be watching the Super Bowl during the wee hours of the morning. The bases some how got approval to have beer on base and each person is allowed two beers during the Super Bowl ;-)!!!
Thanks again for keeping up with my travels through my blog. I hope all is well back home! Miss you all!!
Good Night!
p.s. there was kareoke in the dining area of the place we are staying and the cupid shuffle came on so we taught some soldiers the cupid shuffle!
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