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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.

Thanks, it is good to be back, believe me!!!

I rode in a convoy that stopped just after the Mosque of which you are speaking. I just about went nuts, and the drivers were all laughing at me. You have just proven the point that I tried to make to them...!DON'T STOP! anywhere alog the rout unless absolutely necessary! Did they listen? Absolutely not, and they have paid for it. Routines are a very bad thing over there. The enemy is smart enough to see that and take advantage of it. Unfortunately, the drivers for KBR are now seeing the logic behind what we tried to tell them. The convoy commanders are learning what not to do I hope. Glad your friend made it out ok, and hope he doesn't have to go back!