The Journey

A goal is starting to take shape – there is a destination.  I’m that kind of person, I thrive on seizing objectives.  Does that sound a little Army like?  Yeah, I guess that’s what you get when you spend most of your adult life as soldier.  Thus I display snippets of a past life here again today.  But that’s neither here nor there, the point is there is a goal – things are starting to take focus.  And I realize it is a two pronged approach that I’m after.  To begin with, I have to breathe some life back into TEAM TEN Tops & Tees and get that to bring in the initial funding for the photo project.  The project is another iteration of the Objectivity Project and I think it’s going to be a compelling body of work.

Yes, the journey is all too important but I really need to know where I’m going to begin with.  Truth be told, I feel better now – I have target.

8:30am, Breakfast, Jan 23, 2004 in Iraq.  We were at our halfway point where we spent the night.

 9:00am, Preparing before we hit the road.

 3:00pm, Our destination – the team we were changing out at the 3^rd ACR’s forward operating base.

6:00pm, Dinner, before we closed out the day on another journey in Army boots.

A View of Iraq – Inside the gate at Al Asad in January 2004

Ok, I’m not done with showing some photos from Iraq.  Here are just a few shots of us after we got through the gate at Al Asad.  If you go back a couple of entries, you will see that I left off at arriving at the gate.  We were waiting for “rooms”, if you will – what temporary space we would occupy for the night before we were back on the road again heading for Rifle Base.  The theater commander had long since ordered a stop to night convoys ever since the IEDs had started in the latter half of 2003.  Oh, the armored cavalry regiment that was our final destination was the 3^rd ACR – the name Rifle Base should have told me that (nickname “Brave Rifles”) but it’s been a while and I was never a part of that storied unit.  At this time, I was a part of the 11^th Signal Brigade in the 86^th Signal Battalion.  Which I have recently learned are no longer based out of Fort Huachuca, AZ.  They are now located at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss, respectively.  That blew my mind to learn that but that is another story.  Let us get back to Iraq.  My lieutenant (LT) and I were on this mission not only because the team we were recovering was a part of our platoon but because we were very familiar with where the various bases and outpost were in country at the time.  We had escorted quite a few convoys throughout the theater since being there.  Me even more so since I had been in the theater for 11 months by that time.  It had become my secondary mission there.  Rolling out the gate was always a serious matter.  A lot of soldiers and marines were blown up on those Iraqi roads.  So this mission, because it was very close to our last there in Iraq was a bit vexing because crap seems to always catch you just before you get the hell out of Dodge.  But that’s ancient history.  Have a look at the pictures and let me know what you think if you can.  Enjoy.

On our drive through Al Asad base.

 Another gate.

 My LT was walking back to his vehicle.  He was in the lead HMMWV, it is tan and just behind the larger truck with the shelter on it.  There are three green HMMWVs between us – the escorted from the 3^rd Sig Bde.

 PFC Jackson and SPC Hall.

 A box of bottled water – you did not go anywhere without any.

The muzzle of my M16A2.  While we were out of the gate, it stayed resting across my chess with the pistol grip just to the right of my center mass – locked and loaded.  The barrel would be sticking out the window to my immediate left.  That was how I drove.  And I always drove if the mission permitted it.  Good times.

A View of Iraq – On the Road to Al Asad in January 2004

School, as in post-secondary education, is an incredible undertaking.  And it takes a lot of your time.  Especially when you have so many other things to do outside of it.  Well, this is one of the things I really like doing though there is little time to do it: My photography blog.  Another thing I really love doing is making pictures.  Here are a few that I took when I was in the Army in Iraq back in 2004.  This was done while moving, mind you – and before any formal education regarding photography.  The post production I did a week ago though.  But as a side bar, we are having an art and music festival at that very same school this coming Friday and I’ll be showing off prints that you might not otherwise see.  For details, click here.

We were on the road to recover one of my platoon’s teams that was supporting an armored cavalry regiment (I forget which one) at Rifle Base.  We were bringing a relief team from the 3^rd Signal Brigade.  We being the escort we were providing for the 3^rd’s TACSAT team that would relieve our TACSAT team.  This was day one of a five day mission – first stop, Al Asad.  My lieutenant (the platoon leader) and a few other soldiers were in the lead vehicle and we, (me being the platoon sergeant) I with three other soldiers, were in the trail vehicle.  I drove and snapped “no look” pictures (yes, like a no look pass in basketball) as we provided rear security.  If they look like I was composing these shots while looking through the view finder it is only because I had been taking pictures like this for almost a year by this time.  I had gotten pretty good with no look drive by photography.  There are a bunch of other details that I am sure you do not need to know in order to look at the photos so I will spare you.  Otherwise, this is a small piece of what Iraq looked like in January 2004.  Enjoy.