I can't sleep...

I can’t sleep, despite the fact that I am very likely to be up for around 36 hours- I can’t take a nap. It is physically impossible- I have lain in my bed for nigh on two hours unable to fall asleep, I am pretty sure that I was close once, but someone came and knocked on my door ruining it. So here I sit thinking that the next day will be overly long given what we are likely to accomplish.

The Roadshow hasn’t had an update in just over a month and I have actually gotten a few emails asking me if I am alive. Yes- I am still alive. Despite the best efforts of my leadership trying to run me into the ground and the local nationals trying to kill me- I live. Our leadership has set a mission schedule that is pushing the limits of even the toughest guys around here. RPGs, gunfire and IEDs are going off in our vicinity at a rate that is disturbingly frequent. Of course as Admiral Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson said before the battle of Trafalgar; “England expects that every man will do his duty” and do our duty we will. Tired (physically and mentally), ears ringing and backs hurting we will do our duty for our Country.

Now we can brush all of the patriotic bullshit aside and be honest…


Not a combat arms soldier in this place minds doing what is asked of him- he has only one demand, that what he is doing is accomplishing something. This place is H-O-P-E-L-E-S-S seriously as soon as we go home all of the little sects and clans and cells that were quiet long enough to get us to leave will overthrow the government that we worked so hard to emplace. If these people were smart they would stop their operations for a little a while so that we would leave and then hell this trash pile is theirs’ to do whatever it is they want to do. In all honesty I don’t care anymore what happens to this place- I just want to get all of my guys home in one piece. A few of them are damaged already because of these butt pirates, however they are all still walking with ten finger and ten toes.

I came here and I wanted to make a difference- I thought that I could leave here still thinking that the average person on the street wasn’t trying to kill, which is true but that average person is too afraid to tell me where the bad guys are and that makes him contrary to me keeping my soldiers’ alive. I hate that I am about to sound all Bush but if you aren’t helping us, you’re against us. Of course I don’t mean that the same as him, but here on the streets if you tell me that you didn’t see or hear that IED blow up by my truck and you were standing on the street- you’re a cocksucker and as guilty as the guy who tried to kill my soldiers. If you tell me that the powder burns on your curtains are from bullets coming into your house and that they aren’t there because someone was shooting out of your house- you’re liar and you may get monkey stopped. If you ask me; “Mister why haven’t you brought back my (mosque) guards, your commander said that he would only detain them for a couple of hours?” Let me tell you why they aren’t back yet; they tried to kill us, they shot at us and in all honesty if your guys hadn’t surrendered- the flyboys would’ve leveled your mosque in about five minutes.

Don’t worry about us though, we are fighting the good fight and we keep getting up after we get hit. If you need a visual- picture this…

IED goes off dust, smoke and debris flying everywhere- three humvees emerge out of the cloud and what do you see but the lead gunner’s right hand up in the air telling the locals just how he feels about them. As you can imagine he thinks that they are number one.


So, I am going to sign off for awhile and get a bite to eat before I head out to do my duty. Hopefully this doesn’t make you think that I am hating life too much, ‘cause I am doing alright- I just can’t wait to get home for a couple of weeks, see my niece and then see my best friend get married.

Until next time…

Peace and Love- Roadshow 6