I was told today that myself, SGT Knox and the LT are going to be driving out to a site a little south of Fallujah to help get their radios working. Evidently there's some civilian contractors out there as well, so it's a good opportunity to pick their brains and learn a little bit for when we're off on our own at Numaniyah (or wherever I end up going).

We did a little convoy training this evening in anticipation of the drive out there. What a blast! We drove over to Saddam's old parade grounds in a Nissan 4x4 SUV and took turns driving around the place at about 50 MPH trying to simulate driving out in the population. The truck in front of us would stop suddenly and point out the window to simulate incoming fire (from the right or the left) and we would then have to exit the vehicle from the opposite side, since you obviously wouldn't want to be climbing out of the car on the side they're shooting at you from. Let me tell you, getting out of those SUV's is a lot harder than it sounds! You try climbing through one of these Japanese trucks with all your gear on and an M16. It's like asking a turtle to climb through a matchbox car.

At one point I was driving and the instructor called incoming fire from the left side, meaning I had to get out of the passenger side door. I stopped, put on the parking brake, and shot for the passenger side door. I got hung up on the shift lever on the way out, and you should have heard that poor transmission grind as I tried to exit the vehicle! Another time I tripped on the way out and my rifle went flying out the door without me, and I followed shortly thereafter.

Oooh, a couple three mortars just went off. Those were kind of close. I could actually hear the snap of the explosion instead of the dull thud of a far off mortar.

At any rate, the best training run came when one of the Air Force guys was driving. Before he got in the car, he says "I just want to let you guys know I've never driven over 55 MPH in the States, so this might be an adventure." We all kind of looked at each other and climbed in the truck. We went on through the run and he did just fine. After his turn was finished we got out and talked about how it went, when all of a sudden we smelled something burning. We turned around and smoke was billowing out from under the hood. "What in the world is going on?" we were all thinking. Suddenly, the Air Force guy speaks up and says "I know what it was. I left the parking break on the whole time I was driving." He had been tearing around the parade grounds for about five minutes with the parking break on!! Needless to say, on the way back to Camp Phoenix we all agreed he would not be driving during the convoy tomorrow.