On a recent visit to the Internet bunker I got a little suprise. I had just arrived to the bunker and had not been inside for more than five seconds when we heard a lound and sharp BOOM!, quickly followed by a second. The Seargent in charge and myself quickly put on our combat gear and ventured oustside. We didn't see any smoke or flames but did see several other people from nearby bunkers doing exactly what we did. We went back inside then heard five or six Booms in succesion, out-going counter battery fire. Not more than five minutes passed when an Officer stuck his face in the bunker and yelled out, "Hey you guys gets your gear on and report back to your units, we're under attack that was INCOMING". "Incoming" is the term used by soldiers to indicate that explosives are being fired or dropped inside your posistion and one had better get under cover quickly.

Later we were told some Anti-coaltion elements had fired a few rockets inside our posistion and we quickly identified the source and sent back our regards "Outgoing". We didn't hit them either, they were seen in the act but quickly ran. The rockets had landed a few hundred meters from my posistion and there it is, luck and timing, when your numbers up, your numbers up and there's no point worrying about it.

A few more odds and ends worth mentioning. We have been told that if any one of us accidently shoots another soldier that we will be prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter, that could mean ten or fifteen years in military prison. Everyone here carries weapons and bullets and those of us that leave the wire have bullets chambered and ready to fire, this is on order. It is by nature very dangerous and every precaution should be taken to avoid accidents. However I find it disturbing that this warning is coming from people that allowed my former commander, a Colonel, attack and choke another Officer and yet only got transferred to Bagdad. Had I or any other low level person done the same thing we would've gotten at least ten years in prison. As a matter of fact I recently read in the "Stars and Stripes" where an Officer fired his weapon by accident, wounded another Officer and only recieved a warning. Some people call this Hypocracy I call it the National Guard.

It recently got up to one hundred and twenty dgrees and will get hotter, most of us on O'Ryan try to stay inside as much as possible but this is an operational FOB and the work must get done. One nice thing about the FOB life is that we get DVDs for about $2.50 each. I just watched "Million dollar baby" and only paid three bucks.

We get plenty of fluids here and ice, it's justthat the fluids are so high in sugar.
And the breakfast is always the same scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage,potatoes (fried) and waffles. Cereals are available and juice there just in little boxes. Dinners getting pretty boring now it seems we are on a four days rotation of entrees. The days of Lobster and Sundaes at Anaconda are long gone.

Here at O'Ryan there's basically three types of soldiers. "Corn fed" from Wisconsin, "Good ol boys" from Tennesse and the "Hula boys" from Hawaii. And I must mention the mongrels like myself that were thrown in to fill manpower shortages, we come from everywhere else. It is very easy to indentify who is from where, one could cheat and just look at the shoulder patch but it's easier to just look at the person. As I said the Midwest boys are beefy and getting beefier everyday, I mean that in the healthy way, alot of gym time. The "Good ol Boys" from Tennesse have a very sharp sense of humor and laid back Countryfied way of getting things done. The Hula boys from Hawaii seem to be a long way from the surf of Hawaii but in a moments notice are ready for the next set. Me? I'm just along for the ride.