My week in Iraq....

My platoon and I went into the streets of Baghdad in a convoy situation. Things were quiet at first but after our second checkpoint we encountered some insurgences. We were able to engage and move on. During a later convoy, we were ambushed twice but was able to get out using our navigational skills. During one of our turns, we took casualties from a sniper, luckily we were able to treat them and evacuate them out using a 9-line. (A 9-line is a way to call for help and evacuate your casualties given exact cordinates and a LZ {landing zone} for the helicopter). One day, I pulled guard duty at our front gate and almost was killed by an insurgent during a vehicle search and detainment. I found the explosive quickly but not the clip that set it off. Unfortunately, this is alot like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. We also had some media personnel come into out area and take pictures and ask questions without the authorized military representative with them. They left before we could detain them for unauthorized entry. This incident, we found out later helped them plan an attack on us later in the week. It was a long week as you can see..... but even with everything that happened to us, we were able to get a 'go' on all of our tasks and skills.
If you didn't figure it out, I really wasn't in Iraq, but we were training as if we were there. Testing ourselves on our skills and how we would hve reacted in several situations. No matter what you learn, you are never prepared fully for when things really happen. I am sure that being in Iraq for the real deal will even be harder. I can only hope that I will think quickly, react swiftly and remain calm under such pressure that our soldiers are enduring right now.
I know that I find humor a lot in everything I do, but let me say that during my one task of vehicle search and detainment, when I found the explosive but not the clip first. That makes you think because instead of my blog, you may have been reading about a soldier killed during a search...... that would not have been my best work.