A Soldier's Journey: Michael Mundell

The worst was Thursday. The bad guys set off an IED next to a crowded soccer field. Eight dead, five wounded, including several children. It was awful in the worst possible way awful can be.

We are running cordon and searches every other day, in between the big operations. We are all getting very tired. We have a patrol this afternoon and a search tomorrow morning.

Film from the aftermath of the soccer IED was on Al-Jazeera (Arab CNN) the very next day. We raided a house that was a possible filming site. Of course, no one knew anything, saw anything, heard anything.

I am well, just mortally tired. And my armor stinks of sweat to high heaven, but there is no time to take it apart and wash it, so I just smell.
Mike

Ramadan Starts With a Bang
9/26/06  9:17 AM

Dear Everyone,
Ramadan has started and started with a bang. We lost an IA the other morning when his truck hit an IED right outside the gate. He lost both hands and a leg. Later, we took some random sniper fire, which wasnt close.

Yesterday was apparently the big day for all the Muj[ahadeen]. We went out early in the morning, then right after we got back, three mortar rounds into the compound, followed by an RPG that missed everything (including, I presume, the earth) and some machine gun fire. This is curious, as we noticed that we have been attacked twice at the end of every month. We were missing our last end of month of attack and were worried that someone didn't love us any more. Todd and I were going to call 1-800-Terrorist and DEMAND our attack. After all, they did OWE us one.