|
|
|
|
PART II: "The Arrival" Driving through the town outside Camp Bondsteel was like something out of a movie. There were a bunch of local children gathered in the street and they were throwing flowers at us as we rumbled through, all the while yelling "NAH-TO! NAH-TO!". We felt like royalty. It was a nice scene, and it was a good way to start the deployment.
Arriving at Camp Bondsteel was pretty anticlimactic. At the time, Bondsteel was nothing but a big mud pit with a cluster of tents and makeshift motorpools. It resembled nothing like the small metropolis it is today, with a huge PX, nice dining hall, fast food facilities, movie theater, hot showers, and a nice gym/recreation center.Here's the view of Bondsteel that greeted us...
After a couple tedious, frustrating days at Bondsteel, my Retrans team got assigned a hot mission to jump into a firefight a few kilometers away and setup FM support for the infantry guys. We quickly got our situation brief, said our goodbyes, and nervously headed out into the darkness, into who-knows-what. Whatever was happening had already ended, but we were left out on a hilltop between Camp Bondsteel and Camp Monteith to maintain a tactical retrans site between the two camps. We ended up staying about 2 weeks until it got too dangerous and we were pulled back onto Camp Monteith with the rest of our company. The time spent on the hill made the whole deployment worthwhile for me however. It was a chance to operate in a real world environment, with little supervision, and we came through with flying colors. It was also an opportunity to experience the local culture and meet some of the local villagers. But more about that later. At first, we had a squad from the 1-26th Infantry providing security for us. After a few days, they were replaced by a squad of 82nd guys. I enjoyed them immensely - they were crazy, but they were good company. Here's a few pictures from the top of the hill, which I affectionately named "Hill 364"...
The 82nd guys also allowed me to accompany them when they went out on patrol in the local area, which enabled me to see a much larger picture of how the military operates in its various functions...
|
