More News From Iraq

I just got back from a “welcome home” party in Modesto, California for my granddaughter. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, she is a Blackhawk Helicopter Mechanic/Door Gunner in the 4th Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division (4/3 ID). It was very interesting and heart-warming party. We had no idea what she was experiencing in Iraq. She basically kept things quiet until she got home to spare her mother excessive anguish.

The kid is 20 years old, 5’10” tall, a little over-weight, and quite pretty, with long brown hair. When she started talking, she went on for a long time. I politely kept my mouth shut. He other grandfather was drunk and never stopped blabbing. Anyway, she is one of only three women (a captain, warrant officer, and her) in a 395-man light infantry battalion. If you don’t think American women see hardcore combat, think again. Her main duty is fixing helicopters. However, she routinely volunteers to go on combat insertion, basic transport, and medical-evacuation missions.

I mentioned before that her chopper took some .30 caliber rounds on a patrol over Baghdad. Apparently, ground fire is pretty common when flying over Baghdad. Fortunately, her helicopter had been up-armored with steel plate a week before they took a lot of ground-fire. One round penetrated the wheel-well, splattered on her gun mount, and fragments passed under her face-shield and abraded her cheeks. Her sergeant took a round through the thigh. One round missed her pilot’s head by an inch. The important part is that she mounted the gun and returned fire in combat.

Later, they flew an insertion with 240 light infantry troops. They dropped them off in an Iraqi town, then flew away while the battle took place. The choppers then returned to pick up prisoners and wounded troopers. After leaving with their human cargo on the last run, they flew into a trap, a crossfire arrangement of machine guns staged around some irrigation ditches and berms. She said it looked like Disneyland with tracers coming in from all sides. One tracer came through her door and grazed her arm. The chopper took evasive action, but there was really nowhere to go, so a running gun battle ensued between the helicopter door gunners and Iraqis manning seven machine gun platforms. Rather than hide on the floor of the Humvee like Jessica Lynch, Valerie and the other door gunners blasted away seven machine gun platforms as the helicopters lumbered out of the trap. She got an impromptu (I think unofficial) medal from a 4/3rd Sergeant Major for her valor in action. Her mother found out about that little episode tonight! Mom, who is also regular Army, was in tears.

Valerie's helicopter crew was on the tarmac one night when a sniper opened fire on them. One of her crew was shot through the ear. The man next to him turned his head to look, and the second round went through his head, ear to ear. He was a 6’3”, 220-pound Polish soldier named Gregory Jackolowski (spelling?), and a good friend. When he went down, the other male soldiers ran off (for help). Valerie stayed, did what she could with bandages, and laid him on a gurney. They flew him out in 20 minutes, but he died in route to the hospital. When she returned to the barracks, her flack jacket was soaked in Gregory’s blood. She responded with amazing calmness and bravery. I wonder how I would react.

On the lighter side, she apparently carries an old Teddy Bear around with her in Iraq. In fact, the little bear has over 200 combat flight hours. An obnoxious woman soldier took Valerie’s bear for some unknown reason, and when Valerie saw the woman with her bear, she asked for it back. The woman said that it was her bear now. Valerie repeated that it was indeed her bear, it even smelled like her, and she wanted it back. The other woman dropped the f-bomb and sneered that she was a female dog. Valerie said something like, I don’t know how long you have been over here, but there's gonna be trouble if you don’t give me back my bear right now. The woman repeated the female dog stuff and indicated that she now owned the bear. Get stuffed, yada, yada, yada.

Apparently, Valerie will receive an Article 15 for female-dog-slapping that obnoxious woman to the ground. She did get her bear back. Any situation that involves an M-60 machine gun, incoming tracers, and old Teddy Bear is surreal. Regardless, they never taught Valerie that stuff at the Great Valley Christian School in Modesto. I think it was well worth an Article 15.

Someone finally asked Valerie what is going on over there. She avoided politics because the crowd was mostly uninformed relatives that never discuss heavy issues, and Valerie is politically conservative and amazingly well informed. She summed up Iraq pretty well. She said the kids are cute, and the women are pitiful. She said American soldiers could not touch anyone, especially the children. If they pick up a child or comfort an abused woman, the crowd will tear them apart. Adults and children actually fight for attention and goodies. She said if she was to hand a cookie or bottled water to a child, her older brother would likely knock her down and take the gift.

She said that Iraqi money has increased ten-fold in value since she arrived. She even buys Iraqi money as an investment. Valerie said that things are a lot better there, but the insurgency is serious. Someone asked her if the Iraqis hate us. She said that three-quarters of the people want us to be there, but one quarter hate us. Unfortunately, she said that one quarter of the Iraqi army is insurgents. She said that we still have to finish it over there. She likened it to a half-painted wall.

When asked if she would return after counting 372 days and 6 hours in Iraq, she said, “in a minute”. She will probably be going to warrant officer’s school, but doesn’t know if they will send her back to Iraq, Afghanistan, or maybe even Iran. She will be going back to Fort Campbell next week. My wife and I will fly back to visit her in March.

 

QD that is one Extreemly Brave Young Lady and please pass on my best wishes to her on her safe return and the future.

De Orc :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

Makes an American proud of it's military. Goes to show the brave actions that are performed daily in such a hostile environment by our young soldiers when they are ordered to go into harm's way. You have a veteran to be VERY proud of. Tell her to always stand tall and wave that flag as long and as high as she possibly can.

 

Very Cool, good for her. I got an ART-15 once and tell her not to worry, pay the fine usually $50-$200 bucks and look the Commander Straight in the Eye, never waivering. It really mess's with his mind

Bone

 

Awesome story, thanks for sharing it. I am sure she serves your country well, and too bad more women are not really tolerated in the USA Military, I think they work harder and fight harder than men.

 

Please extend my gratitude for serving and protecting our country. She is fighting against the worst enemy this country has seen in it's history and she needs to know that there are many people that support her and what our troops are doing.

Thank God they are fighting those SOB's there, than here.

 

Please tell Valerie that we are very proud of her and her fellow solders. One like her makes up for a million of the Danr's in this world, and the reason the USA will not be beaten over there.
One more thing, and that is tell her I will pay what ever the cost of the ART-15 may be. Just send me a bill and her address and I'll see that she get the money back.
Great gal, take good care of her! She's a winner and a 'keeper'.:thumb:

 

Thanks for the post

 

I appreciate that, but it won't be necessary. Good idea though. When she would not talk about anything over the telephone this year, I thought that she was merely being dramatic. She used to be a bit of a "drama queen" in high school. Well, it was very real. She is a different person now.

You can not imagine how different her actions and demeanor have been relative to my in-laws. There are no warriors or great thinkers on that side of the family. Valerie is also interested in world politics and events. She studies such things on the Internet. She knows five times as much as her mother and relatives. Her mother actually became very nervous last night when the kid started nibbling around the edges of the conservatives vs. liberals debate on dealing with the Islamic threat. Her grandfather (a Peruvian) continued to babble about his frigging tennis club while she talked. He was apparently a professional tennis player at one time. Anyhow, my Germanic little wife got up, stomped over to him, mockingly choked him, and told him to be quiet while valerie told her stories.

We probably won't hear anything else from her until she returns from Afghanistan next year. I won't even ask. That's how you treat real war veterans. A twist on Bill Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell".

 

Why is it when you talk to soldiers and veterans of this war, THEY all believe what they are doing is just and right?? [Sure they may be some disgrunted soldiers, but I haven't met them.] Then they ask me, why is it that the main stream media here in the states are reporting everything that is bad from their mission?

This is not sitting too well with our troops as many have told me that they lost a lot of respect for the main stream media and those people that say "they support the troops, but don't support the war" Their comment back is, "How can they support me but not support what I do. I know what I am doing is good for this country, good for the people of Iraq, and good for the security of our country by taking the fight to the enemy...how can you NOT support that?"

I just extended my hand, shook his hand, thanked him for his service, and replied, "We have many freedoms and rights in this country and one of them is the right to be stupid." He smiled back knowing exactly what I meant.

 

There are an awful lot of people these days with no vision or morality. Most people think it is sufficient to feel and not think, as if it was noble merely to feel bad about certain things. Emotion is important to some people because it is easy. Emotion, and emoting, requires no thought or personal sacrifice. All you have to do in polite society is to feel bad and give lip service to social and economic problems, then continue with your shallow life. Some people are very "concerned", while others solve problems. The USA military is all-volunteer. American soldiers today are doers and solvers, not apathetic "concerned" citizens.

Many people are comfortable and simply don't want anything, especially reality and inconvenience, to get in the way of the routine of their lives. A friend of mine, 82nd Airborne veteran, would always say that these people simply have not suffered enough. I think that is probably the root of it, at least here in America. Life is too easy and shallow. I guess they have not met enough Kurdish children.

 

Please pass on my thanks and admiration to your granddaughter

 

I hope I don't get labelled a male chauvinist pig, but this is an example of why women should not be in the military. Face it, men are on average stronger than women, ie better able to absorb wounds, battle fatigue, shock at seeing other soldiers get killed. Also, their constitutions are usually stronger. Another reason is this: say some soldiers get captured. It's been proven that women prisoners are much more likely to be abused than men. Take a look at the Israeli military, they don't allow women on the front lines for this very reason. Your granddaughter sounds like an extrordinary young women, but I doubt all or even most women soldiers could act the way she did. Wars should be fought by men, not women.

 

Pardon me, but I've known women that were better prepared to serve in the military than a lot of men. When it comes to someone watching your back, you want some one who is dependable and not someone who may be thinking "what am I doing here?". Women are all right in the positions they are in right now, no need to change what isn't broken. :thumb: That is all I have to say on this subject.

 

Oh, and I forgot to add that women are supposed to stay at home and take care of their kids, not go off and fight wars. The reason the family as a unit has deteriorated in America is because the wife is usually never around.

 

Craig go back to the Nursery :headbang: How dare you come on to this thread and question this young Ladies fitness to serve her Country, how dare you tell her that her place is in the home looking after the kids :headbang:
Just what have you done to give you the right to critizise her in this way.

De Orc :headbang:

 

I am not criticising her in any way. I'm saying that women should not be in the military. I think all that head-banging your doing has brought on a major headache that is affecting your thought-processes.

 

By saying what you did you implied she was less capable than a man, that is critizism of the vilest sort why not try supporting your militery personel Male or Female instread of doing that to them. It is such a left wing attitude to denigrate service personel like that, you should be utterly ashamed of yourself and you should apologise QD for daring to insinuate such things :headbang: And you call yourself a Patriotic American :headbang:

De Orc :headbang:

 

Obviously, Craig knows NOTHING about about thre real military, only the drama that is televised in 1 hour segments. Her actions go far above and beyond what is expected from ANY service member and should be commended.

Remember, the female of the species is more deadly than the male...

B

 

Another Craig-ism! You must be a mutant. It's the only possible explanation for having all three of your feet in your mouth at the same time. Craig: How to win friends and influence people-NOT!