The Combat Dickie

The Army has regulations and manuals for just about every aspect of a soldier's life. Especially uniforms and appearance.

Your hair can't fall over your ears, your mustache must be trimmed to the edges of your lips, no rolling up your sleeves, your trousers must be bloused no further than three eyelets below the top edge of your boots, etc., etc.

It's all rather inflexible and ruthlessly enforced.

Which brings me to the weather.

Do you know what the standard Army uniform is for cold weather?


Camouflage tops and bottoms, heavy boots.

Moderate weather?

Camouflage tops and bottoms, heavy boots.

Screamingly hot, 140F-in-the-shade Iraqi weather?

Camouflage tops and bottoms, heavy boots.

You get the picture. As I write this in early-May, the temperature outside is steadily climbing. These warm, spring-like days will soon turn into lethally-hot pizza ovens that strangle the life out of anything not cowering in front of an air conditioner.

The innovative soldier, however, can find relief from the Army's oppressive regulations.



Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you now, for the first time ever, Layer-1 of the Crandall Mark 69 Thermal Management System (no catchy acronym - take THAT, Big Brother!):

The Combat Dickie!

The Combat Dickie offers enhanced airflow and cooling underneath the standard ACU blouse, while still presenting an appearance in line with the regulations laid out in AR670-1.

Best of all, ANY soldier can turn a standard-issue desert-tan T-shirt into a Combat Dickie with a pair of scissors.

Roger that, Sergeant Major!

Fun With AK-47's

"Dig up the sand in Iraq, and you will find weapons or hit oil" a crusty Arab villager confided to me once.

This is certainly true for the "weapons" part. You are not considered a man in these parts unless you have artillery rounds buried in your backyard and a couple AK-47's hidden in your living room.

The Americans confiscate a lot of these weapons, and not all of them end up in the armory, if you know what I'm saying.

So what, exactly, are some fun things you can do with your extra AK-47's?

AK-47 Back-scratcher!




AK-47 Fencing! (en garde)




AK-47 Toothbrush!


Jihad!!!

The Hesco Garden

Modern war, like ancient war, requires cover and concealment. The Romans used elaborate earthen-works around their camps to help keep the enemy out. World War I saw a proliferation of trenches and bunkers. Even today, there is no quicker way to gain a measure of safety than to use a bulldozer to push a big pile of dirt up around your position.

A clever British company called "Hesco" designed a simple product that makes it even easier to throw up huge, thick walls of earth wherever you can find dirt and a bulldozer. Take a frame work of mesh wire walls open at the top and bottom, line it with a durable cloth, and voila, you have the "Hesco Barrier" (or "Hesco Bastion"). The Hesco Barrier is ubiquitous in Iraq, and along with the cement T-wall, provides all the blast protection that the military relies upon for its safety.

Rows of Hesco barriers surround the tents, headquarter buildings, and porta-johns that comprise the Army bases dotting Iraq. Using a Hesco bastion is 10 times faster than filling sandbags.

Several rings of Hesco barriers surround the old Iraqi-army barracks where I live in Kirkuk Air Base.

Now for some backstory:

- It gets really hot during the Iraqi summer, like 120F-for-60-days-straight hot
- I like tomatoes.

One day I thought to myself, "What better way to take a positive attitude towards the lethal heat than to plant some tomatoes? Tomatoes love heat. I love tomatoes. My loathing of the summer weather will be tempered by the joy of watching my seedlings flourish."

Thus was born the Hesco garden.

Tomatoes like full sun, good drainage, and a raised bed. The Hesco barriers around our barracks provide all that in spades!

So I had Joan mail me some seeds (corn, peppers, & tomatoes). I created some starter-pots out of used water bottles and found some good soil down by the drainage ditch that runs behind the airstrip.

Today marks the 13th day since I put the seeds in the ground, and the first day I saw two little sprouts come up from one of my starter pots. Yay!

Viva La Hesco Garden!

I Like the Kurds

When the US & Britain carved up the Middle East after World War I, every ethnic group got their own country, except for two peoples: the Jews and the Kurds.

We all know what happened to the Jews.

The Kurds, on the other hand, have since patiently consolidated their own cultural and linguistic boundaries across 3 different countries: Turkey, Iran, and northern Iraq.

If you look closely, you will notice: Kurds look different. They don't dress like Arabs. They are more likely to have blue and green eyes. And big heads. They smile a lot and like to dance. They drink beer once in a while. They sympathize with the state of Israel, instead of demonizing it.

And most importantly, they LOVE the United States (unlike the Arabs, who secretly hate us).

The Kurds are of an Indo- European ethnic group, distinct from Arabs. American planes enforced a no-fly zone over Northern Iraq since 1991, allowing the Kurds to form their own de-facto government, centered in Irbil.

This government, the "Kurdish Regional Government" or KRG, has turned northern Iraq into one of the most peaceful, prosperous places in the Middle East.

The Kurds have their own Army, the "Peshmerga", who keep the peace. And I mean *really* keep the peace. You can count the successful terrorist attacks in Kurdistan on one hand.

I don't even wear my body armor when I visit Kurdish villages. The worst thing that could happen? Someone might throw flowers at me. The worst argument I've been in with a Kurd is over why the Americans can't stay longer.















So let's summarize...

Arabs: always fighting, secretly hate us, innate corruption, support Jihad

Kurds: fierce but keep the peace, love the US, embrace democracy, support Israel

Now here's the part I don't understand: the US is about to throw the Kurds under the bus.

The Shi'a government in Baghdad will soon be sending the Iraqi Army into Kurdish Kirkuk to wrest control from the KRG.

Why? Because of the oil refineries here.

Is there plenty of oil in the rest of Iraq? You bet!

In fact, there is a sea of oil under virtually every province.

Each ethnic group and sub-group could have their own oil refinery and live fat off petro-dollars for the next 100 years.

But people here aren't so big on the whole "looking ahead" thing.

They prefer to marinate in the perceived injustices of the past.

And a scared and skittish American administration wants to turn the page on this particular chapter of Mesopotamian adventurism.

So the Kurds will get screwed out of their territory once again, and our tax dollars will go to "rebuilding" the infrastructure of those who would chop off our heads just as soon as shake our hands.

Can I come home yet?

(Shown above: a poster, published by a Kurdish political party, commemorating the anniversary of "Anfal", Saddam's campaign to relocate the Kurds away from oil-rich areas in northern Iraq. This happened from 1979-2002. Saddam would then move his Sunni Arab tribesmen in. The bulldozer is a symbol of the destruction of dozens of villages and towns by Saddam's army. None of the houses in the Kurdish villages in my sector are over 7 years old - they were all rebuilt when Kurds started moving back in after 2003.)

My First Name Means "Ass" In Kurdish

I was both chagrined and honored to learn of this.

Chaplains

The US Army is a Southern, Christian organization. The South's real revenge after the Civil War was the infiltration and conquest of America's armed forces. Food, jargon, and training sites in the Army are overwhelmingly southern in nature, and the Chaplain corps displays an evangelical zeal straight out of an old-time revival tent.

Chaplains play an odd role in the US Army. I'm ignorant of the history of Army chaplains, but I do know this: they don't carry weapons. Every Battalion has one, who is an officer, along with an enlisted "chaplain's assistant". In fact, "Chaplain's Assistant" is one of those great jobs in the Army that gives on-the-job pastoral training, followed by a free seminary education thanks to the G.I. Bill.

I would call a chaplain a "morale officer" first and foremost. Problems at home? Talk to the chaplain. He can recommend reduced duty, offer counseling, even act on a soldier's behalf for transfer to another unit. Spiritual crisis? Motivational crisis? Talk to the chaplain. Suicide awareness training? Chaplain takes the lead. Sunday services, Friday Bible Study? The chaplain runs those, too.

In a theater of war (or sort-of-but-not-really-war-anymore, like we have in Iraq), the Chaplain might get tasked with putting on a movie night, or organizing a horseshoe contest (that Southern thing again). The chaplain of my current Battalion was assigned the delicate task of reaching out to the Chaldean Christian community in Kirkuk, to try and facilitate the filling of two vacant seats on the City Council - seats that are reserved for Chaldean Christians. (The Kirkuk City Council has a quota system: x number of seats for Kurds, y number of seats for Arabs, z number of seats for Turkomen, and 4 seats for Christians. Can you imagine a system like that in the US?)

Every once in a while, I read an article in Stars and Stripes about a Muslim chaplain (scary!) or a Jewish one (in New York or Florida, maybe?) but in my 6 1/2 years in the Army, I have never come across either. I've mostly met Baptists, to be honest. The Air Force has a Catholic chaplain who does mass over on the other size of Camp Warrior, and I met a Lutheran one during my time at Ft. Bragg.

Where was I going with this all this? Oh yes! My mom's bible-study pals read my blog, and this is a tip-of-the-patrol-cap to them.

Maybe it's the "service" mindset, or some innate openness to the Lord that resonates with these people, but I often find myself hanging out with the chaplains. 1) They are easy to talk to - their job is to build rapport with the soldiers and be sensitive to their mindsets. And hey - that's my job too, except with the Iraqis! 2) They have a BBQ budget, and hanging with them is the only way to score a steak or burger that hasn't been overcooked into A1-covered shoe leather 3) They run the church services on Sundays.

I am guilty of planning missions so that I won't miss Sunday service. Although the Army teaches that the "Mission Comes First", it comes in second on Sunday morning.

Mindset of the Mission

The US Army has a couple of special training centers (one in Ft. Polk, Louisiana, and one in Ft. Irwin, California) that specialize in big, life-like wargames. Whole army battalions get sent to these places to live out 4-week training scenarios, where every piece of the military puzzle gets put in place and exercised: units invade imaginary towns, set up ersatz command posts, and conduct patrols while civilian role-players act the part of villagers and enemy insurgents. The point of the exercise is to let soldiers learn their job a little better without the dangers of actually getting shot at (blank ammunition is used).

The war-game at Ft. Polk is called "JRTC" (for Joint Readiness Training Center), and the one at Ft. Irwin is called "NTC" (for National Training Center).

6 months in country, I realize that the Iraq occupation is now nothing more than JRTC Part II.

Where once upon a time, the Army planners designed JRTC to mimic actual conditions in Iraq, now, the American units strive to make their real-life war experience as close to JRTC as possible.

In Iraq, following the doctrine of the training manual has become more important than keeping pace with the rapidly changing socio-political scene on the ground.

For example: the recently-passed Status of Forces Agreement (SoFA) between the US & Iraq imposes restrictions on the US military. Mainly, all patrols are now required to be "joint" patrols, meaning the US cannot send platoons driving around the cities unless there is a specific operation in conjunction with the Iraqis, and the Iraqis are on board and involved in every way.

This rule is being brazenly ignored by the Americans, everywhere I have been. In Sadr City, a "joint patrol" meant stopping by the local Iraq Army post, rousting the first soldier one could find, throwing him into the back of an MRAP, and continuing on with the pre-planned mission, without coordination or oversight from the Iraqis. In Kirkuk my current battalion, to its credit, has a whole company dedicated to joint operations with the local police. Two other companies, however, conduct a full schedule of patrols, three to four a day, completely on their own. Some of these patrols are security related, but many others amount to little more than an excuse for a platoon to say they "did something" that day, cruising about town, stopping and talking to people as the mood strikes them.

Normally I would say fine, there is nothing wrong with that. But what happened to the SoFA? At what point are we going to release our grip on the security of the cities, and let the Iraqis sink or swim?

(ANALOGY ALERT!)

I liken the Iraq situation to this: Imagine you are pushing a guy up a hill in a wheel chair. While you are pushing, you are yelling at the guy, "Get up! Get up and walk to the top of the hill! Will you freakin' get up and walk, already?" BUT, you never slow down enough to let the dude actually get out of the wheelchair and stand up. Nor do you stop and tip the wheelchair over so he is forced to climb the hill on his own two feet. Instead, you just keep pushing, and keep yelling, while the guy in the wheelchair slowly forgets what it is like to walk on his own, his muscles atrophying away.

See what I'm saying?

We have GOT to stop pushing the wheelchair. And we're not, because the buzz-cut Colonels demand a WAR experience - they want the action and adventure they saw at JRTC, they want the History Channel rush of adrenaline. All the soldiers do, on some level.

But Iraq doesn't need an army to occupy it right now. It needs Waste Management. It needs Bechtel Construction, Fluor Daniel infrastructure, GE Power Plants.

The US Army has become a hindrance.

Our fixation on catching bad guys polarizes our perspective so that the real reconstruction effort (which will bring security more surely than all our humvees and MRAPs) is an afterthought: a neglected, half-assed, dog-and-pony show for the press.

Obama, Obama, tsk tsk...you listened to the Generals, didn't you? 16 more months of combat operations? Wrong answer, in my opinion.

Babagurgur and the Turkomen

Welcome to Kirkuk, Iraq's melting pot! Several ethnic varieties call Kirkuk home, including Arabs, Kurds, Assyrian Christians, and Turkomen (remnants of the Turkish Empire).

And I do mean *melting* - The crude petroleum bubbling up in the tribal areas is of such a high grade that the villagers refine it into diesel with the help of home-made stills. Standing vents of natural gas shoot 20-ft flames into the sky around our Army base. The most famous of these is called "Babagurgur", aka the Eternal Flame. Written about in ancient Egyptian carvings, these ground-flames probably pre-date human civilization.

These spouts of natural gas are not unlike the Earth farting. And those farts have been lit for 5000+ years! Magnificent!

I've been on a couple missions, standard PSYOP stuff, even sat in on the Kirkuk Provincial Council meeting. My favorite character so far has to be our new interpreter, Lahib. (God's Poetry aside: "Lahib" means "Flame" in Arabic.)

Lahib (aka "Larry") is one of the Chaldean Christians, remnants of the earliest Mesopotamian tribes who converted to Christianity in the Common Era. The Chaldeans speak a modern version of Aramaic, Jesus' native tongue. Larry claims he could understand Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" without subtitles!

At 6'0" and a jovial 260 lbs, Lahib left Iraq in the early 90's to settle in Dearborn, Michigan, where he has a wife and daughter today. Lahib also holds an engineering degree (Civil), so we discuss the finer points of soil drainage and cement composition while waiting for patrols.

Lahib is new to the interpreter racket but eager to please - his first real mission came when I took him out for man-on-the-street interviews in western Kirkuk. He performed admirably, helping me to build rapport with the Kurds, Turkomen, and Arabs who crossed our path. He also managed to score us some rather sophisticated lamb-kebabs.

The unit I'm supporting is called the 3-82 Field Artillery "Red Dragons", a battalion of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, out of Ft. Hood, Texas. "Mortarmen" they like to be called, but the Iraqi conflict has little need for traditional artillery (cannons and such), so the mortarmen were given rifles and humvees and sent out on patrols just like regular infantry.

The Red Dragons are new to Kirkuk just as I am, and we're all trying to get our footing and figure out our mission. With the SOFA deadline looming overhead we all have an eye to the future - will we be confined to the bases soon? Will the interminable patrols finally come to an end?

(The Status of Forces Agreement calls for American troops to be pulled out of Iraqi cities and towns by June 2009)

Stay tuned!

(Wanna trip out? Open the photo below to its full size and peruse all the US military bases currently operating in Iraq.)

The Debt Disease

We collectively, as Americans, have the Debt Disease. From the government on down to the individual - the willingness to spend what we don't have is a cancer that has infected every cell of the American body. The body is still breathing, but it's already a corpse. Recently we have seen the disease shutting down major organs - massive layoffs, neighborhoods ruined, corporations toppled. The debt disease just kept on marching, all the way to Washington, D.C., where it finally metastisized into the 787 billion dollar deficit spending "Stimulus" bill, recently signed by the President.

This bill tries to fix the problem of our nation's Visa being overdrawn, by opening another Visa card, and maxing it out. It wouldn't make sense for an individual, and it doesn't make sense for a government.

The Debt Disease has turned what should have been a normal, periodic retraction of the economy, into a death blow to our institutions.

But 'death blow' how? People don't drop dead from debt!

Allow me to illustrate...

When an individual goes broke, what can they do? File for bankruptcy! They get to keep their assets, but they lose all credit.

When a corporation goes broke, what does it do? It borrows money until the banks won't lend it anymore. Then, the stock drops to zero (shafting the investors), the executives get golden parachutes, and the assets go to auction.

When the US government goes broke, what does it do? It borrows money until no one will lend to it anymore.

At that point, our government has an Ace-in-the-hole. They're just dollars, after all - a currency floated on the world market, with no hard commodity to back it up. Who owns the printing presses for the US dollar? The government!

When the government needs more money, they can just print it.

(It's more complicated than that, involving the Federal Reserve and bonds and interest rates, but at the end of the day, they essentially just print it.)

Flood the market with dollars, and their value becomes diluted. This causes inflation, wiping out the value of savings accounts and screwing pensioners and retirees. HOWEVER, it also makes it really easy to pay off debt! $53 trillion suddenly isn't such a big number. ($53 trillion = the current US government deficit according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).

Our government's only way out of debt is to keep printing money until the debt is paid off.

When will this happen? Hard to say. As of this writing, the "Stimulus Package" hasn't come out yet.

To summarize, holding on to dollars seems to be a sucker's bet, to me. I'm opening bank accounts overseas.

A Day in the Life at JSS Sadr City

(Glossary of acronyms located at the bottom of this post)

0430H A runner from the TOC knocks on the door of the PSYOP billets. The Iraqi Army 44th Brigade is mounting an enormous, unannounced cordon/search in nearby Tharwa neighborhood in 2 hours. The S3 wants PSYOP loudspeaker support with counter-EFP messages.

0450H Hastily dressed in flame-retardant ACU's, I don my pistol and run to the TOC to confirm with the Battle Captain that PSYOP will support this mission. I provide the S3 with the wording of our loudspeaker broadcast and find out which line Company will be escorting us. It's Renegade Company, 3rd Platoon, 1/6th Infantry - the guys who live just down the hall.

0510H I hunt down the PL of Renegade 3rd Platoon to determine the SP time for the patrol. SP time is 0630H at the main ECP.

0520H I notify my two teammates and interpreter of the mission: the start time, task, and purpose. My guys get dressed and head to the MRAP to prep for the mission. They will make sure everything runs smoothly on the truck - machine gun is mounted and armed, secure radios are up and functional, loudspeaker system is working, cooler is stocked with water and snacks.

0545H Grab cereal and milk from the always-open dining tent for a hasty breakfast.

0600H Patrol-briefing at the motor pool, given by the 3rd Platoon PL. The PL outlines such details as the "order of march" - which vehicles will sit where in the patrol, "actions on contact" - how we will respond to varying levels of enemy fire, and other items such as medic location, current threat-level in the OE, and call-signs & radio frequencies in use.

0630H After completing radio checks with 3rd Platoon and test-firing the loudspeaker, we don our body armor, load weapons, and head out the gate to link up with the Iraqi Army, already in place for the cordon/search in Thawra neighborhood.

0645-0845H Nothing too exciting happening on the ground. Competent Iraqi Army platoons, dressed in the mish-mash of different camouflage colors and patterns that characterizes their uniforms, go house-to-house in this Sadr City suburb, searching for wanted fugitives and unauthorized weapons. PSYOP team makes several counter-EFP broadcasts and stays with 3rd Platoon in an "overwatch" position, providing a security perimeter for the Iraqi troops on the ground.

0900H The Iraqis finish their search early, allowing 3rd Platoon to return to base.

0930-1030H While the rest of PSYOP team showers and grabs hot food from the dining tent, I head to the S3/Plans office for the weekly 9:30am planning meeting. Several staff officers are present to discuss missions coming up in the next few days, track progress on reconstruction projects, and work out logistical details of supply and maintenance for our little JSS. I give an update on new PSYOP handbills and posters being created for the OE, and the S3 provides me with an updated tracking spreadsheet for the dozens of PSYOP billboards in Sadr City.

1045H An explosion is heard nearby. Not one of ours.

1100H A patrol of MRAPs belonging to a nearby MP unit pulls into the JSS. The lead vehicle got hit by an EFP - an Iranian-manufactured, shaped-charge explosive deployed by local Sadrist cells against the Americans. This particular EFP was aimed up at the turret-gunner, where the armor is thinnest. Copper spalling accelerated to 8000 feet per second effectively cut the gunner in half. I run outside to help with the stretcher detail that is rushing the wounded to our aid station. One soldier is DOA on the stretcher, blood everywhere. I can't tell which end is his head and which is his feet. Two more soldiers on stretchers follow. They are torn up pretty badly, but still breathing and conscious. Our medics will prep them for a life-flight helicopter to the military hospital at nearby Camp Liberty. The one soldier's death will be counted among 6 others for this month, the lowest military death rate in Iraq since the invasion in 2003.

1200H Lunch! The cooks at the field kitchen put out a meal of chicken tenders, ravioli, onion rings, hamburgers, and mixed vegetables. SPC Ward, the head cook, blasts rap music while he works. The dining hall features fresh fruit, a variety of dessert cakes, and soda & juice. US soldiers, interpreters, Iraqi soldiers, sanitation workers, and contractors all share the small dining room. A flat-screen TV on the wall plays the AFN station, an Air Force-sponsored amalgam of US news, movies, and sitcoms.

1300H PSYOP smoke break!

1330H Wander over to the local Haji-Mart (small concessionary run by a local Iraqi), purchase some Toblerone, check out the selection of pirated DVD's.

1400H PSYOP team loads up the product box with comic books, flags, PSYOP hats, handbills, school supplies, tip cards, and hard candies. We have a 1430H mission with Warlord company, another cordon/seach in Tharwa II.

1430-1830H PSYOP team is on the ground with 2nd Platoon, Warlord company, along with two squads of Iraqi Stryker Platoon soldiers. We make sure the Iraqi soldiers have plenty of tip-cards to pass out (with the hotline phone number to report bad guys). As the families invite us in to talk, we distribute other PSYOP promotional items, mostly to children: "I love Iraq" hats, flags, school supplies, comic books, and handbills. Using our interpreter we hold several discussions with the adults. Today's talking points include: attitudes regarding the Status of Forces agreement, visibility of local reconstruction projects, levels of trust in the provincial government, and awareness concerning upcoming elections. All the info we gather will be condensed into a report sent up our chain of command via secure internet later this evening.

1900H Driving back to the JSS, an Iraqi boy urgently flags down the lead MRAP and points hysterically to a pile of rubble at the foot of an upcoming concrete barrier, making explosive gestures with his hands. The PL halts the patrol and dismounts with an interpreter to speak to the boy. Turns out the boy saw two men hiding an EFP there earlier that day. The PL calls up to headquarters for an EOD team.

1920H The EOD team arrives on site in a batch of custom MRAPs. They deploy a remote-controlled robot to roll up and investigate the EFP from a close distance. This particular EFP had been encased in foam and painted light-blue to match the color of the concrete walls in front of which it was placed. The aim-point of the EFP was upward, at such an angle so as to hit the turret gunner of an MRAP.

1945H The EOD robot handily deposits a charge of C-4 explosive adjacent to the EFP, then backs up to the trucks. PSYOP team makes a loudspeaker broadcast to the neighboring houses, telling them that foreign-backed criminals were at it again, trying to disrupt progress in their neighborhood with their EFPs, and that we would be blowing it up soon, so please don't be alarmed.

2000H -BOOM-

2030H Back on the JSS, we refuel the MRAP, shed our protective gear, and head to dinner. Since it is Friday night, steaks (thin, gristly, & overcooked, but who's complaining?) and breaded shrimp are on the menu.

2100H I head up to the S3 office, where our Panasonic Toughbook laptop is plugged into the Army's secure internet, and start composing today's SITREP. While we were away, PSYOP headquarters sent us a new RFI survey along with a broadcast message for the small radio station we run out of our room. The RFI is a Request For Information, with questions regarding new PSYOP product ideas, that local Iraqis are supposed to answer. The radio station is a limited-range (1-2km) "Radio-in-a-Box" setup provided by the American embassy. A mast antenna on the roof of our barracks broadcasts a steady program of Arabic pop music mixed with PSYOP messages and Public Safety Announcements into Sadr City.

2200H The SITREP has been sent to my boss at nearby FOB War Eagle. Free at last, I run by the satellite phone bank, eager to call my wife (11 hour time difference) and ask her how her morning is going. Afterwards I retire to my bunk where I watch "Family Guy" reruns with the rest of the team, then drift off to sleep.

0300H Ali & Muhammad are wiring up their EFP's. See you tomorrow, Ali & Muhammad!
Glossary

TOC = Tactical Operations Center, i.e. the Battalion's command center on the JSS. Picture lots of video feeds, radio chatter, and clocks on the wall.

S3 = The Operations Officer on a Battalion Staff. S1 = Human resources, S2 = Intel, S3 = Operations, S4 = Supply & Logistics, S5 = Public Affairs, S6 = Communications

EFP = Explosively Formed Projectile, a coffee can-sized bomb with precisely formed copper plate topping it. Upon detonation, the copper plate forms into a high-speed slug capable of penetrating most armored vehicles in the US arsenal.

ACU = Advanced Combat Uniform, the new digital-pattern blue/green camouflage worn by the American Army.

PL = Platoon Leader, the officer in charge of an infantry platoon. Usually a young first- or second-lieutenant.

SP time = Starting Point, departure time of a patrol

ECP = Entry Control Point: a manned, defended gate restricting entry into an Army Base. ECP's may have an interpreter, explosives-sniffing dog, metal detector, and special search area as well as armed fortifications.

MRAP = Mine-Resistant Armored Personnel vehicle: one of the new generation of heavily-armored trucks used to protect soldiers from roadside bombs. Characterized by a V-shaped hull and extra reactive armor, these trucks are 2-3 times bigger, heavier, and more expensive than humvees.

OE = Operational Environment, i.e. the area in which an army element operates, such as a certain neighborhood, village, or building, depending on the operation.

MP = Military Police

JSS = Joint Security Station: a small-ish army base, usually located in an urban neighborhood, where both American and Iraqi forces reside

EOD = Explosive Ordnance Disposal, aka the Bomb Squad. A specilized unit of soldiers with robots and bomb suits who disarm and detonate bombs.

SITREP = Situation Report. For a PSYOP team, a formalized report format that must be submitted every night, detailing the day's missions, PSYOP product dissemination, and passive intelligence gathered.