School Mission #3- September, 2005 Tikrit, Iraq

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October 15, 2014 by JImbo

I was looking through all my Iraq pics. I ran across these videos. Figured I might as well share them in case anyone’s interested.

This footage was shot by a back home media team that came to highlight what our co-hosted unit the 36th Infantry Division (Texas Army National Guard) was doing. We tagged along on the missions and helped raise a ton of money and donations of toys, school supplies, sports, equipment, etc.

It was really their show though. I gotta give credit to those guys. They really spearheaded the security of our FOB (Forward Operating Base) and did an outstanding job. It was due in great part to their missions day in and out that things ended up as well as they did there.

We had a remarkably low casualty rate compared to the units before and after us. The locals reported a lot of suspicious activity to us… mortar rounds and explosives in schools, where the bad guys were launching rockets from, etc. We helped them rebuild the electrical grid, run clinics, get schools up and running, etc.

“We”… I should say the guys who went out every day did. I rode shotgun on the .50 cal and did some local missions. None of the all nighters or the long distance runs down south.

Lots of guard duty. (Tower 3 for the win! Whoever said Muslims don’t drink and have sex with prostitutes never saw what happened on the roof of the brothel next door!… or the roof of our DMAIN according to what the Apache pilots told us… night vision goggles are a fun tool)

Anyway, kudos to you guys out there. Lt Murray, Lt. Serrano, Sergeant Lauer… all the rest of ya out there. Saved our bacon a few times. Things were still… interesting. (Like this mortar round that didn’t go off after imbedding in the floor where I was standing an hour before)

But, you guys deserve the credit. Mission well done. If I ever run into ya next time I’m in Texas, I owe ya a round of beers.

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