Baghdad Journal

Sorry if this has been posted before, it's a couple months old but I just found it. Interesting glimpses into the life of the soldiers in Iraq.

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Tikrit
Sergeant 1st Class James Allen wasn't going to take no for an answer. Every bit the tough, experienced NCO on the lookout for dangers to his men, that morning Allen had spotted the large cooking-oil tin standing upright on the median strip among all the other trash and debris.
He was certain it was an IED (improvised explosive device, the weapon of choice for those resisting the American occupation) and even though nobody else in the Command Group had seen it, he'd hounded his superior officers until they'd agreed to let him take a patrol back to investigate.

As a result, I'm in a convoy with Sgt. Allen and a squad from 1st Platoon, Charlie Company from the Engineers Battalion, leaving the base to locate the tin. It's night and a sandstorm is coming on, the wind whipping the flour-fine sand into our faces.

As we roar along, everything by the side of the road looks menacing. The men of 4th Infantry Division have been plagued by IEDs, 18 of which have been discovered in the last 10 days. Some are pressure-detonated, most are remotely set off, sometimes in series. They can be disguised in a plastic bag, or set in a chunk of concrete. Hooked up to a car battery with long wires they're sometimes detonated with a hole-punch, the wires welded to the handles.

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