Last week, I rolled on seven patrols with the cavalry troopers and infantrymen of Task Force 1-14 Cav. I rode in their Strykers, standing in the rear hatch hooked up to the vehicle comms. I trudged up and down Haifa Street with them, did overwatch from the roof of a high rise, helped the snipers search cars, listened to them bitch endlessly about their duties, and spent the night with them in their combat outpost. I clambered into and rushed out of their Strykers so many times that rolling down the streets standing in the hatch behind the machine gun, running foot patrols in the squalid back alleys, and being on the receiving end of the deadly glares of Mahdi Army loyalists all began to seem completely natural. On Friday, one unit, short on dismounts, rigged me up as their radioman, making me an honorary cav trooper for the day.
Last week, I rolled on seven patrols with the cavalry troopers and infantrymen of Task Force 1-14 Cav. I rode in their Strykers, standing in the rear hatch hooked up to the vehicle comms. I trudged up and down Haifa Street with them, did overwatch from the roof of a high rise, helped the snipers search cars, listened to them bitch endlessly about their duties, and spent the night with them in their combat outpost. I clambered into and rushed out of their Strykers so many times that rolling down the streets standing in the hatch behind the machine gun, running foot patrols in the squalid back alleys, and being on the receiving end of the deadly glares of Mahdi Army loyalists all began to seem completely natural. On Friday, one unit, short on dismounts, rigged me up as their radioman, making me an honorary cav trooper for the day.
