So cold....and not dry

So...I was in the field on thursday night. We left on wednesday at noon to go on a mission. We were to take down a house...and secure the area. It was awesome!!

As an infantry guy...I LOVE M.O.U.T. (Military operations in urban terrain) And we are in Leschi Town. It is like disney land! It is an urban training town. Yes...town. It is huge. Every kind of building you could think of is there...and there is a video camera in every room! It is really cool. A great place to train.

So..we hit the house. I took my team up stairs to clear it. I got 3 kills. It was REALLY intense. But...so fun!

After we hit the house we moved back into the woods and moved about a mile or so. at this time is was 4 in the afternoon. No rain. Kinda cold...but we were moving..no big deal.

It started raining at 4:30. And we set up our patrol base shortly there after. That is where we get in a circle....guns facing out...not talking...not moving much. You eat in shifts....pull guard in shifts...sleep in shifts. It can be rough. It was rough. I have never been colder. No kidding...it was probable the most miserable I have ever been. So there we are...25 guys...rough tough infantrymen...sucking. We were all shivering...and kinda wet.

I say kinda because we did have our gortex. It is ALOMOST water proof. Some of us were soaked. I was not...but...man...the ground I was laying on was so cold.

We lay there for 5 hours before we got up. We moved to our ambush point. We got intel that a 3 vehicle convoy was going to come our direction...sometime in the night. So we sat there, on the side of the road...hidden, ready to open fire as soon as they got into our "Kill Zone". We were ready for sure. Had our big guns set in...and all my guys were ready to shoot.

The convoy did not show until 3 am!!!! Oh yea...it was still raining and getting colder. We shot up the vehicles (with blanks) and "killed" all of the bad guys in them. Searched the vehicles for intel...weapons...and we were out. From the first shot...to our whole platoon leaving the area......12 minutes. It was very fast. And thats how ambushes should be. Very fast...VERY deadly.

We were then supposed to go back to the town to get on a Warm bus and go to a Warm home. But we took the short but LONG way home. It was the most rough terrain I have been through! A toddler would have had a rough time getting through some of the places we were goiong through....with weapons....packs....in body armor. Ugh...it was terrible!!!!!

But we made back....were wet...cold...but it did not last forever. It never does. And I am better for it. We all had to suck it up...and did. Looking back...i.t was actually kinda cool. Not too many get to do what I do.