Pics from ASO and towers: 1- Old UXO. A mortar fuze and the stray tailfins we marked it with. 2- Old UXO. A mortar shell and how it was marked. 3- Old UXO. Another fuze. 4- Old UXO. There was a pile of HE rounds in one area. F is an odd shell. G is how we marked the area. 5- Old UXO. Another one of those odd shells. 6- Old UXO. A stray shell nearby. Alamo - From OP4. This is fully zoomed. Bravo- Team 1-3-B. SGT McLaughlin, SPC Dovich, PFC Dubia. Camels- a herd crossing the main road and a truck waiting for it to pass. Candle- Sunset over the refinery. Charlie- We got tasked to put some people more or less permanently in the IF. Because Westcott's knee has been going downhill and he can't do many of our missions he got moved there. Charlie welcomes SPC Stansfield. In 5 and 6, we're reminiscing about the good old FA days. Conex- they don't have conex carrying trucks, so they load them on these flatbeds with sides. Or vans without rooves, if you prefer. Crater- Right next to the area full of UXO. Cooling fan - Burma gate is a brutal place, weather wise, and the work keeps us out in the sun. I don't know where we dug up this fan, but if we waited for the 160th to get the air conditioner that they said we'd get for the conex there to cycle guys through, we wouldn't be able to sustain the heat casualties. On a 115 degree day, this fan had the inside of the truck a cool, refreshing 95. It makes radio watch and the breaks between person and vehicle searches survivable. Until it runs out of water. We had a water buffalo parked there, but Camp Bucca's mayor didn't like it. He didn't dislike it enough to get us the air conditioner, but enough to get us to move it and waste time lugging 5 gallon cans. Deuce and a half-wit - Off post travel in Iraq is done with a minimum of 2 vehicles, with a minimum of 2 armed soldiers in each, wearing kevlar and IBA. This Deuce is not only alone, but lost. They were trying to get to the burn pit, which is nowhere near where they are. They broke down. If I hadn't called them in, they would have had a long walk. ASO went and got them. They got started again and came in. Half an hour later they had switched their trash to a dump truck and sent it out. The driver of the dump truck knew how to get to the burn pit, but he didn't know enough to have another vehicle with him, another person with him, or to wear his IBA. ASO got him and escorted him back in. ASO stops a few 160th vehicles every month driving around out there solo. When they try to leave solo through the main gate, we laugh at them and turn them back. The "service entrance" isn't manned, though. Dogs- There's a pack of wild dogs that scavenge through the trash that the locals dump outside of town. It hasn't rained in months, so I have no idea what that puddle is made of. I don't want to know, I'm just not letting any of the dogs too near us. EOD- We're in the British sector, and British EOD comes by when they can to take care of the UXO in the area. There has been a lot of fighting in this part of Iraq and there's a lot of stuff on the ground. They destroyed a bunch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I was at the top of it pulling security to keep civilian traffic from getting close. Almost nobody goes there, but that would be a bad day for people to start. FP - The shots of the Alamo from the last batch of pictures showed what we thought were firing points for little howitzers. Here are some close ups of one of them. Grand Canyon - We use the south end of the Grand Canyon as a firing range. These are from outside the southern edge. The tank is the one we shoot at. The hole behind it is a well, and the other shots look up the canyon. Hazen- In front of the howitzer. Hazen MK-19- Through the PVS-7s. That's the IF to the back left. Howitzer- A battery of D-30 howitzers nearby. 2 was someone else's shot. Hull down- Hazen and Stansfield in an OP. Iraqi Border Patrol- We were just outside of Umm Qasr when we caught up with these guys. We gave them cold waters and chatted for a few minutes. Americans from left to right in 3: Stansfield, McLaughlin, Dovich and Dubia. Lane - The eastern end of our area is called Lovers' Lane. It's a hundred yards or so out of Umm Qasr. These are shots out my window moving up Lovers' Lane. The big, solid looking concrete building is actually bombed out and abandoned. McCarthy - It's me. Night sight- It was starting to get dark so we got ready for it. Dubia and Hazen put the PVS-4 on the SAW. In 3, Stansfield already has the PVS-7 mount on his helmet and Beecher looks on. Oasis - The first guys in the area gave a lot of stupid western names to the places here. They redeemed themselves here. This truck got filled by the port- o-let cleaning truck. Port - See, ships actually do stop in! 4 and 5 are from closer in. Refinery- Patrolling near the refinery. 5 has a great view of an Iraqi barbed wire fence. They use concrete posts. 11-13 are closer shots of the candles. 14 and 15 are up close at night. Sheep herder- This guy lives right by the battery. Stansfield- In front of the howitzer. Taxi- One of the newer ones. Teddy bear- Dovich's girlfriend had sent it for the camel herder's kids. They left the area a few weeks ago. It sacrificed itself during a test firing of the SAW. Posthumously awarded the Order of the Fluffy Heart. Trash - Iraq is a dump. The garbage men usually have a tractor with a cart (see Lane06) and haul trash a few hundred yards out of town, then dump it and either burn it or not, depending on their mood. I hate the smell of trash doused with diesel and lit. Our side of Lovers' lane is a dump, but no used so much because we chase the locals back across the road to their side. This is north east of the camp, heading from Lovers' Lane, across ASR Sioux Falls (the highway that we took over and put Burma and Corona gates on) to ASR Maui, the other road into Umm Qasr, the one that the train station and the big concrete "Welcome to Umm Qasr" sign are on. UXO- We don't yell "UXO" and run 300 meters away then call it in, like we were told to at Dix. We got a grid and told base about it when we got back. 6 is a smaller find in the area. Welcome to - I guess they thought that people who can read English might not know what the big entry gate is all about. The signs in Arabic are universally ignored by the locals (we now have an interperter at the gate to tell them to back up and take a left), but any foreigners coming here usually mean to come here. Well - There are some wells to the west of the camp. The one in the Grand Canyon is deep but really small. This one is the scariest. It's really big and if you don't know it's there, you're dead.