Food Part 1

This is one of the items I carried in the inside pocket of my flak vest in the off chance that a sympathetic Iraqi would want to sell me a chicken.  During the initial weeks of the invasion our infantry units moved so fast that the supply convoys carrying our chow and water were often left behind; unfortunately that meant that we usually ate once a day, and sometimes even had to split MRE's with our fellow Marines.  A combination of desert heat, carrying a full combat load, little sleep, and poor nutrition is one of the best diet weight loss plans I know of!  I remember one day Doc Lowry and I were sitting in out fighting hole and we decided to split one of our precious MRE's.  It was one of the hamburger (and I use that term loosely) ones so along with half a patty and a piece of "Russian bread" (as I always called it) we also got eight combo pretzels each.  I'll never forget that; in fact, at times it got so bad that we even ate the Charms candy that came in the condiment packet- that's when you know you're starving!  Anyway, I drew this diagram on the back of an MRE main meal box, writing right to left, as that is how Arabic is read. 

Red Bull

Sometimes you see things in a combat zone you don't ever see in war movies...

I remember one night in particular.   We were moving up Highway 1 (I think) in our AAV's and I was standing in the open hatch of the rear of the AAV; it afforded the opportunity to stretch my legs and watch all the commotion that ensued as the many different Marine units made their way north towards Baghdad.

As we sped by one of the dozens of settlements that border the main highways I noticed a group of Iraqi civilians gathered near a large blackened cow carcass lying in front of one of their businesses.  What was surreal was that the cow had somehow been partially gutted and flames were licking their way through the empty body cavity of the cow and up between the ribs and pieces of skin, like a macabre paper lantern.  We had seen burnt bodies on the side of the road, burnt vehicles and buildings, but that was the first burnt cow I saw, particularly the first one that looked like it got hit by a TOW missile.  I don't know how the cow died, or how it caught on fire, but briefly witnessing that scene caused me to realize in a powerful way that there was nothing exempt from being destroyed during the invasion campaign.   

Line of Departure

I remember crossing the Kuwait/Iraq border in the middle of the night on March 18th, 2003.  It was dark in the track we were riding in.  I remember looking through my night vision scope and seeing a burned out Iraqi tank on our port side several hundred meters out.  I wondered if it had been there for awhile or if another unit had made contact with it.  I had a full combat load plus my SAW,  and wore a mopp suit, flak, and an LBV with grenades, ammo, night vision goggles, and a buttpack full of gear.  We had a rifle squad plus two assaultmen from weapons platoon all geared up.  Man, it was crowded in that track...