Hi From Iraq - another note from Punky's Dad

well hello again from the front lines. things have been so busy here
the last week; patrols have been doubled in preparation for the
elections and activity has been picking up. Last night was pretty
interesting as well. we went out about 11 pm to do a knock and search
in a small neighborhood in the bad side of town. our squad had the
"honor" of bocking off the neighborhood and preventing people and cars
from entering and leaving. we then saw a big flash and a loud boom and
heard over the radio that one of our other platoon's patrols about a
1/2mileaway was hit with a roadside bomb. when they stopped to access
the damage(one of the gunners was peppered with debris and banged up his
arm alittle), two cars tried to speed past they roadblock and they had
to shoot them. after that event, our vehicle crew was standing outside
our humvee watching the other squads searching the houses across the
street when we heard a whoosh and another really load explosion followed
the sound
of bullets zinging past our vehicle. my friend and myself turned
around to the outside of the perimeter and saw muzzle flashes and began
shooting back. after about 1minute people were yelling cease fire and
we stopped shooting. then some really scared iraqi army soldiers that
were outside the perimeter called out not to shoot so they could come in
aqnd get inside the perimeter. the squad that was searching homes ran
over and went to the house we were shooting at, broke in and took three
guys that had shot the rocket propelled grenade(RPG)at us and the
machine guns. He also had alot of bomb making materials inside. then
we told tem there was another guy at the next house as well and they
went over and got him. one of the rpgs did not explode so we had to
have the explosive ordinance unit from the airbase come out and they
exploded it where it lay. it was about 2am before we got back and went
to bed.

i think most of us are looking forward to 3 days of guard duty so we can
get rested up for next week. i guess our last few weeks is not going to
be very quiet or uneventful. it is all we can do to keep our minds on
the job with the end so close.

DS