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You know, you say that, but I did route recon's over there with nothing but two HMMWV's and 5 M-16's. No machine guns or grenade launchers. The civilians are told what they are walking into, and their company has agreed to the security arrangements. The addition of a shooter in the cab of every third truck is about the 10th alteration to the security of these convoys. I do know that shortly after I left, they were using the Stryker Brigade to secure convoys because the MP's did not have enough firepower. People need to quit complaining and understand that as the situations change, we will alter our posture to meet the threat. That means that soldiers are going to be in harms way!! Wait, isn't that part of the job?????

The military is supposed to provide Force Protection. Those civilians are delivering goods to the military so it only makes sense to protect them and the convoys.

IMO, the military ain't holding up their end of the deal. They can't/won't supply convoy support even when it is in their own best interest.

And at least you had a side arm. We've had convoys split up and left without protection. Yep, the military high tailed it out and left the civilians behind. Right now it is more deadly to be a contractor than a military member

Welcome home!

The guy I was talking to who worked for Halliburton had been over for about 6 months before returning home. Said for the first 5 months (driving in a convoy everyday) there were hardly any problems at all, then all of a sudden in April things escalated dramatically. The only thing besides rock throwers (in front of a Mosque along the way) early on was a 155mm IDE which went off while they had been stopped on the road for about 30 min. Seriously injured the driver in the truck that was two vehicles behind my friend's truck (said it moved his truck forward about a foot even with air brakes on). Said there is trash and debris all over the country which makes it fairly easy to conceal the IDE's along the highways.

He told me it was al-Sadr's militi (all dressed in black) which hit them on Good Friday along with 2 other convoys). He was in the third truck and said a kid who looked about the size to be in Little League tossed a hand grenade under the lead truck while someone else hit it with an RPG. It took out the lead truck and he stopped to pick up the lead driver. He was loaded with 6,000 gal of fuel and just couldn't accelerate. Al-Sadr's boys were coming at them from both sides with some throwing rocks and others with AK's. He made it up to Ananconda but said it was pretty squirrelly until they got out of the ambush zone.

He may be heading back shortly as a member of the Guard. He's not excited about that but feels a little better as at least he'll be armed and not driving in such long convoys.