B36 News - 04 October 2006

It's a 1230 as I write this and so far I'm not feeling too hungry. I've gone 24 hrs without food before and I've been working myself up for this so I'm confident that I'll be able to make it. So far I've had one cup of coffee and half a red gatorade.

If you haven't signed up for a day to fast in support of victory (and in opposition of the nutcase surrender mom), then I'd highly advise you do! Go see the Tanker Brothers for more information!

Iraqi Air Assault
In a recent raid near Taji, north of Baghdad, Iraqi Special Ops Forces (ISOF) conducted an air assault operation to snatch a terrorist with sparkling results. Air assault is a tactic that relies on helicopter insertion much like what was seen in the popular movie Black Hawk Down. It's a technique used with a lot of success by our military and now by the Iraqi military.

The video below is an example of what an Iraqi air assault looks like. This is not footage from the actual operation.


School Opens in Babil
A small example that despite what you may be hearing in the news, good things continue to happen in Iraq. Under the storm of bad news, troops are driving on and making it happen, though not without a large helping hand from Iraqis.

The construction of this particular school was done by an Iraqi contractor who employed Iraqis and used Iraqi materials. The building of the school cost about $128,ooo and all that money went directly into the local economy through the workers and the suppliers, not to mention the benefit that the school will provide to the children of the community who had previously had to walk 10 miles to the nearest school ... uphill ... both ways.

Support for PM Maliki
Despite the recent rumors of a coup and the car bombing threat in the IZ, PM Maliki continues to unite Iraq and help make life better for his people. To help combat the sectarian division in th government, PM Maliki announced a four point plan that called for the creation of local committees whose members hail from each sect, ethnicity, political party and tribe in the district they represent. This way if one group feels like they are being ignored or abused their representative can raise the issue in the committee.

Lawmakers from each stripe agreed to support this plan - Sunni, Shia, Kurd, they all agreed that this was a good idea. Now it's just a matter of making it happen.

UPDATE!!!
Remember the Doc?
Last Friday I posted a story about Navy Seaman Samuel L. Blanco, a corpsman attached to RCT 5 west of Fallujah in Anbar province. Today I came across this picture of the Doc and couldn't help but post it here.