MajorDad reporting live from Iraq

[MajorDad]

Ooh Rah Bulldogs.

I haven't been on the board in a couple of months. I got orders to leave Systems Command in Quantico to a wonderful place near Syria. You may have heard of it on tv. Yes, Iraq!

All is well. I'm leading a bunch of hard-chargers at a forward operating base in northern Iraq. We take care of all the helicopters, cargo, passengers, and detainees that come and go through our area.

Big news...The first two V-22 Osprey's landed here! This is a huge milestone for the Marine Corps. It's the first operational tour for the new aircraft that will replace our Vietnam-era CH-46s. The thing that is the most interesting to me is that I remember when I was a young enlisted Marine back in the late 80's and there was this mural on the wall that depicted the Marine Corps in 2020. It showed tanks speeding across water like jet ski's and some weird looking prop plane that landed like a helicopter. I was like, "Yeah, like that'll ever happen." Well, the EFV (formerly known as the AAAV or Triple A. V.) is getting close to production, and the tilt rotar V-22 has just landed in my front yard. Nice!

One bit of bad news...Two of my Marines were coming back from a remote helicopter landing zone in a convoy and hit an IED. Fortunately, the Marines were unhurt, other than mild concussions, but the axles on the 7-ton truck were blown completely off! Amazing how strong those trucks are. But that isn't the bad news...Two days later, the same convoy, minus my Marines, went out on another patrol and hit another IED. This time, tragically, the first Marine to come to my Marine's aid in the first attack was killed. His remains were taken away in a solemn ceremony at our camp in a CH-53.

God bless him, his family, the Marine Corps, and the United States of America!

MajorDad, Out....

[JAY]

Thanks for your service, our prayers are with you.



Be safe and thanks for the update,

Jay

[JuBru]

Thank You.
Semper Fi.

[StrayDawg]

Take care of yourself over there.

[champion110]

We support you Major! God bless you and thank you! A good friend of mine got back a few months ago after 2 tours as a 55 year old reserve. He is glad to be back and I am proud of everything he did.

[Brian96]

Just curious, but after that report do you have to kill us?

[Soonerdawg]

Thanks for the update little brother. Mom was supposed to give me your e-mail address, but she has yet to come through.

Keep the updates coming here. The news media does not cover the things you are talking about.

We are praying for you and your fellow Marines.

Doc asks about you every day.

James

P.S. When I get your e-mail address, I need some tutoring with Quickbooks. I'm having trouble downloading the information on my checking account to Quickbooks. It keeps asking me to change my PIN, and for the life of me, I can't get past that window. You are the man when it comes to Quickbooks.

JMW

[Brian96]

Thanks for the update little brother. Mom was supposed to give me your e-mail address, but she has yet to come through.

Keep the updates coming here. The news media does not cover the things you are talking about.

We are praying for you and your fellow Marines.

Doc asks about you every day.

James

P.S. When I get your e-mail address, I need some tutoring with Quickbooks. I'm having trouble downloading the information on my checking account to Quickbooks. It keeps asking me to change my PIN, and for the life of me, I can't get past that window. You are the man when it comes to Quickbooks.

JMW

Quickbooks can be a real pain. And if you ever change your mind about it, you'll NEVER get your data exported to a format you can use elsewhere.

Have you downloaded your checking account stuff before? If so, it could be a website thing. I don't really use that feature, though.

[Soonerdawg]

Quickbooks can be a real pain. And if you ever change your mind about it, you'll NEVER get your data exported to a format you can use elsewhere.

Have you downloaded your checking account stuff before? If so, it could be a website thing. I don't really use that feature, though.

Is there a better program to use than Quickbooks? I'm early enough in the setup to change.

[markay714]

Thank you and be careful. We so appreciate your service .

[TYLERTECHSAS]

We will all be praying for you! If you get the chance, please inform us of some of the good things going on in Iraq that the media refuses to report.

[Bigdog13]

Ooh Rah Bulldogs.

I haven't been on the board in a couple of months. I got orders to leave Systems Command in Quantico to a wonderful place near Syria. You may have heard of it on tv. Yes, Iraq!

All is well. I'm leading a bunch of hard-chargers at a forward operating base in northern Iraq. We take care of all the helicopters, cargo, passengers, and detainees that come and go through our area.

Big news...The first two V-22 Osprey's landed here! This is a huge milestone for the Marine Corps. It's the first operational tour for the new aircraft that will replace our Vietnam-era CH-46s. The thing that is the most interesting to me is that I remember when I was a young enlisted Marine back in the late 80's and there was this mural on the wall that depicted the Marine Corps in 2020. It showed tanks speeding across water like jet ski's and some weird looking prop plane that landed like a helicopter. I was like, "Yeah, like that'll ever happen." Well, the EFV (formerly known as the AAAV or Triple A. V.) is getting close to production, and the tilt rotar V-22 has just landed in my front yard. Nice!

One bit of bad news...Two of my Marines were coming back from a remote helicopter landing zone in a convoy and hit an IED. Fortunately, the Marines were unhurt, other than mild concussions, but the axles on the 7-ton truck were blown completely off! Amazing how strong those trucks are. But that isn't the bad news...Two days later, the same convoy, minus my Marines, went out on another patrol and hit another IED. This time, tragically, the first Marine to come to my Marine's aid in the first attack was killed. His remains were taken away in a solemn ceremony at our camp in a CH-53.

God bless him, his family, the Marine Corps, and the United States of America!

MajorDad, Out....

God Bless you MD. We are praying for you. Keep up the good work and Thank-You!!

[MajorDad]

It keeps asking me to change my PIN, and for the life of me, I can't get past that window. You are the man when it comes to Quickbooks.

JMW

If you changed your pin using your online banking service with your regular bank, you'll have to change it in Quickbooks too. It remembers what you entered when you set it up, so if you changed your password in your banking profile it won't match.

I've had really good luck using Quicken. I haven't used Quickbooks much. The main thing I like about it is that I can quickly balance my checkbook. Especially now that we use debit cards as credit cards.

[MajorDad]

I went down to the motor pool today and saw the vehicle that the Marine mentioned above was driving. The axle was blown completely off, but the cab remained intact. Here's the rest of the story...and it is more tragic than I thought.

After the blast, he was stunned, but happy to be alive. The standard operating procedure is to do 5 meter and 25 meter checks of the area. He got out of his vehicle to do those checks and he stepped on a secondary mine and that's what killed him. The enemy keeps adapting to what we are doing. They watch how we react to the IEDs, so they have caught on to the fact that we do these checks after each attack.

I suspect that we will adapt by issuing mine detectors to everyone that goes outside the wire from now on. And I suspect that they will start realizing that the amount of explosives they are using aren't doing enough damage to the trucks. But then again, are they trying to destroy the truck or damage it? By damaging it, we had to send out another convoy to tow it back to camp. Then we had to send another convoy up here to get it and then convoy it all the way back to the rear. So by damaging the vehicles, they get more vehicles out on the road, which gives them more of a chance of damaging another one, which.....

Our damaged truck is already being evacuated to the rear for repairs. Marine Corps Systems Command (that's the place that develops, tests, fields, and manages all the equipment we own) did a really great job with this vehicle. The frame isn't even bent! Neither was the other one. Amazing!

Our Marines are doing a wonderful job and are very motivated out here. Thanks for all the prayers and support.

[MajorDad]

Just curious, but after that report do you have to kill us?

Hopefully, this isn't the first you've heard of the V-22 being deployed over here, is it? This is like the biggest thing to happen in the Marine Corps in I don't know how long. We are all so...so...I don't know what you call it. We are curious, amazed, happy, and even frightened of such a strange looking bird. I spoke with some Marines today that got off of it and they loved it. It cuts the amount of time it takes to fly from our air base in the rear to our forward operating base in half! You can't even hear it until it is almost on top of you.

After only a few days of seeing it, it doesn't look as unstable as it once did. Well, as long as you don't focus on the fact that there are these huge airplane-like propellers that rotate upward when it is landing. It looks like the Dumbo of the airplane world:-)