‘A Messy Situation’

I've got 5 min. so here goes it a quick update. I spent new years eve in a mortar bunker in Bagdad. They put a show on for us. Not really a few mortar rounds landed in the area. I then took a Chinook under the cover of darkness. Harder to see, harder to shoot down the low flying, slow Helo. A flight ahead of ours got shot at by and RPG. This made our flight a little more intense. We made it here to camp Taji with no problems though. The mailing address I sent out will work just fine they have us camped out near our old company so I can run over and get mail from them. … Things here are really bad. The area is very hostile. It is very very hard to find the bad guys. Everyone has AK's and pistols. They are aloud to carry. We cannot fire until fired at pretty much. So a few rounds will fly over your head and before you can ID who shot at you they are gone. The small arms fire is no big deal. It's the road side bombs that will get you.

Everyone who hasn't been out side of the wire yet are dying to get out there. I think they have lost there minds. Too young to really understand. That is until they see someone one get really hurt or killed. Well I'll get into details more when I have more time I've got to run now.

Aug. 17, 2006

Well I think someone is really out to get me know. I got blown up in another humvee again tonight. That makes 2 humvees and a bradley since I've been here. We were headed back in from patrol. I saw the bag on the side of the road just in time. I was up on the gun and ducked down as the driver turned away from the blast. No one got hurt. Our Platoon leader who was riding shot gun got a good scare though. A big piece of shrapnel almost went through the windshield right in front of him.Thank you all for your prayers. THEY ARE WORKING!
Your Brother, Tristan

Smith, 23, of Bryn Athyn, Pa., died Aug. 27, 2006, in Taji.

Army Spc. Jacob T. Vanderbosch
(letter to brother and sister, sometime between Sept. 15-25, 2005)