Letters from Baghdad

[yesman065]

date Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 1:27 PM
subject Another day in Baghdad
mailed-by iraq.centcom.mil


Well we had a couple of days of sandstorms here in Baghdad and they have finally lifted today. You would go outside in the middle of the day and it was nothing but a brown haze, you though it was around 10 pm. You could spot the sun as a brighter brown spot in the sky. The dust was a very fine brown chalk and it ended up getting everywhere. We had to suspend air operation, (Helo), and air surveillance. It was prime time for the insurgents and Al-Queda to move around in Sadr City and resupply and rearm. On Sunday afternoon we got a bit of a temporary break in the sandstorm and we got a little clear break in the weather.

On Sunday Secretary to State Condoleeza Rice was in Baghdad and stopped off at the Embassy here in Baghdad. She was talking to all and trying to help motivate the state department people to keep going on and deal with the "hard and dangerous" assignment they have in Baghdad. Well we had to shut down part of Baghdad so she could move around. Well it did not take much time for the insurgents and Al-Queda to figure out what was going on. They also watch TV and knew she was in the middle east so they put it together and they went out of their way to welcome her to Baghdad We had 4 separate rocket attacks here in the compound. One of the attacks got in really close. It seemed 3 people were out side the embassy building and a 107 mm rocket came in and air burst right on top of them. No one was killed but they all were wounded pretty bad. I spent a good amount of time in my bunker due to the timing of the rockets coming in. I hope you were able to enjoy Sunday and watch the Pope on TV.


CDR "No cable in my bunker" USN