A Marine Intel Officer in Al Anbar Shares Some Thoughts (Courtesy of former Cpl Denny Argall, USMC)
Via e-mail from a retired Army Colonel friend of mine. I LOVED "The Best Chuck Norris Moment" but all of it is interesting.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
All: I havenÂ’t written very much from Iraq. ThereÂ’s really not much to write about. More exactly, thereÂ’s not much I can write about because practically everything I do, read or hear is classified military information or is depressing to the point that IÂ’d rather just forget about it, never mind write about it. The gaps in between all of that are filled with the pure tedium of daily life in an armed camp. So itÂ’s a bit of a struggle to think of anything to put into a letter thatÂ’s worth reading. Worse, this place just consumes you. I work 18-20-hour days, every day. The quest to draw a clear picture of what the insurgents are up to never ends. Problems and frictions crop up faster than solutions. Every challenge demands a response. ItÂ’s like this every day. Before I know it, I canÂ’t see straight, because itÂ’s 0400 and IÂ’ve been at work for twenty hours straight, somehow missing dinner again in the process. And once again I havenÂ’t written to anyone. It starts all over again four hours later. ItÂ’s not really like Ground Hog Day, itÂ’s more like a level from DanteÂ’s Inferno.
Rather than attempting to sum up the last seven months, I figured IÂ’d just hit the record setting highlights of 2006 in Iraq. These are among the events and experiences IÂ’ll remember best.