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My most recent updates have not centered at all on actual combat operations, so I will give you all a quick rundown of our combat operations over the last 2 weeks.
Last week, a platoon from the CAV uncovered the largest single munitions cache ever found in our AO. The cache was discovered in a field along the highway leading to Yusifiyah, and contained more than 500 mortar rounds, and 1,129 81mm high explosive artillery shells; this cache was essentially an entire field filled with bombs. I was able to watch as they disposed of half of the munitions, and the explosion caused from nearly 500 artillery shells is quite a sight (I took some video footage so when I return I will share it with whoever is interested). Many of these rounds were already set up to be placed as IEDs, and interestingly enough we have not seen a road side bomb in that area since discovering the cache.
Also last week, intelligence sources pin pointed a large meeting of HVTs in a large warehouse south of our AO. A massive task force was organized and sent down to detain the targets, but they showed no signs of going quietly. After surrounding the warehouse, and giving the insurgents ample opportunity to surrender, we called in attack aviation, Specter gun ships, and fired about 25 hell fire missiles and nearly 10,000 rounds of chain gun ammunition into the warehouse. This display of firepower was still not enough to convince the more than 175 terrorists (far less than that after the hell fires Ibm sure) to surrender, so we called in the Air Force, and dropped a 1,000 pound bomb and completely leveled the entire complex. I was not there personally, but to quote a friend of mine bThat bomb was so big, we were not looking for survivors, we were looking for signs of lifeb Thiis single offensive maneuver nearly eradicated an entire insurgent cell from one of the southern districts.
There was your quick lethal operations update, and I will send out a non-lethal update (i.e. infrastructure, health care and economy) in the next few days.

1LT Matthew P. Edwards
Civil Medical Operations Officer
2BCT, 10th MTN DIV (LI)

Dave Bisbee dbisbee@mcraebisbee.com

Jim and Lula Swan jlswan@coffey.com

MIKE PURATY...Chief_mpura@msn.com

Eric S Traub

Forty-two years ago in Vietnam, I commanded the 1st platoon of "A" Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Division. This year, as an embedded reporter for the Vietnam Veterans of America, I went back to join my old unit– in Baghdad.

We were never in base camp long enough to do anything but decide whether to take a few hours’ nap, shower and change clothes, eat, or try to email or call home. During one 24-hour period, we went on 3 separate patrols, sometimes involving multiple missions.

We didn’t stop for potty breaks, not even during our nine hour patrols. Socializing meant hanging around the Humvees during two hours of prep time before rolling out again. That’s when I got the majority of my pictures of the guys.

We never relaxed, we never got out of combat mode, we did bond. But not as friends.

Friendship doesn’t convey the privilege of riding with them in combat, or their sacrifices in protecting me while I took pictures, or their frankness in our few conversations.

I didn’t just become just a friend. I became family.

On May 27, I did an interview with National Public Radio. During the call-in, they set me up with Baghdad, and Lt Hickey.

"Just after you left," Tom said, "the platoon was assisting the Iraqis during an insurgent fire fight when a father, arms covered in blood, carrying a three-year-old girl, came running to one of our Bradleys. A bullet had hit the top of her head, went through her check, and lodged in her throat."

PFC Varela, PFC Haslip, SPC Behrle, Sgt Moore, and Sgt Medlin got out, grabbed the father and little girl, got the mother, and drove through Baghdad’s concrete jungle to the base camp hospital in less than 6 minutes. The little girl lived and was home in three days with no permanent physical damage. The platoon was stopping by several times a week since that nearly fatal bullet.

"Then, on May 19," Tom told me, "one of the Bradleys was hit by an IED. Over the radio I heard the most hated word in the Cavalry’s vocabulary - "MAXCAS," meaning maximum causalities - everyone in the vehicle a fatality."

PFC Travis Haslip, PFC Alex Varela, SPC David Behrle, SSG Christopher Moore, and SGT Jean Paul Medlin were killed, along with SPC Joseph Gillmore, but not before they had risked their own lives on the battlefield a few weeks earlier and saved a life - not the life of a brother, but the life of an Iraqi child. This one little girl will now immortalize these five heroes.

I’ve experienced two wars, up close and personal. I’m proud to report that the men and women serving our country in Iraq are as professional and heroic as any soldiers who have ever represented this country. I salute them, thank them, and pray for their safe return. I’ll also see them at Fort Hood in January.