Here’s our conversation:
[13:04] rubleytj: Hey Scott, what’s up?
[13:04] bojodaddy: not much
[13:04] bojodaddy: how are you
[13:04] bojodaddy: well i shouldnt say not much
[13:04] bojodaddy: my stryker got blown up by a car bomb today
[13:04] rubleytj: holy shit, how are you?
[13:04] bojodaddy: luckily all my guys are ok
[13:05] bojodaddy: im fine
[13:05] bojodaddy: just a bad headache and earache
[13:05] rubleytj: jesus, do these guys know you only have a few months left or what??
[13:05] bojodaddy: i dont think they care
[13:05] bojodaddy: its was in a residental area too
[13:05] bojodaddy: killed at least 10 kids
[13:06] rubleytj: oh man, that’s terrible. Is the armour on the Stryker not up to snuff, or are the bombs getting bigger and bigger?
[13:06] bojodaddy: the bombs are getting bigger and better
[13:06] bojodaddy: the stryker is ready to roll again
[13:07] bojodaddy: it blew up 5 tires, our drivers thermal camera, a periscope in the drivers hatch and a headlamp
[13:07] rubleytj: the cabin wasn’t ruptured then I take it?
[13:07] bojodaddy: no
[13:07] rubleytj: well that’s good I guess. Probably couldn’t drive though
[13:07] bojodaddy: in the last month our battalion has been hit by about 15 car bombs
[13:08] rubleytj: how many strykers were on with you?
[13:08] bojodaddy: it drove back to our FOB
[13:08] bojodaddy: we roll out with 4
[13:08] bojodaddy: 4 in one platoon
[13:08] rubleytj: sorry, still learning! Are they suicide bombers, or remote detonated bombs that happen to be in cars?
[13:09] bojodaddy: when we first got here, it was just bombs made out of artillery shells, that they layed on the side of the road
[13:09] bojodaddy: those are called IED’s
[13:09] bojodaddy: improvised explosive devices
[13:10] bojodaddy: then they graduated to what we call VBIED’s vehicular born IED;s
[13:10] bojodaddy: where theyed park them on the side of the road and detonate them as we drove by
[13:10] bojodaddy: now its gone to suicide VBIED’s where they drive them into us
[13:11] rubleytj: damn, that is fucked
[13:11] bojodaddy: yeah
[13:11] rubleytj: do you get some downtime now?
[13:11] bojodaddy: umm
[13:11] bojodaddy: no
[13:11] rubleytj: this is just routine now, huh?
[13:11] bojodaddy: that happend at 1145 this morning, we went back out at 7pm tonight
[13:12] bojodaddy: and we go out again tommorrow
[13:12] bojodaddy: luckily, only 2 guys were wounded
[13:12] bojodaddy: one of them, my vehicle commander, or vc for short
[13:12] bojodaddy: was knocked out, got a pretty good concusiojn
[13:12] bojodaddy: the blast hit right below the side of my hatch, it knocked me down into the stryker, and him at the same time
[13:13] bojodaddy: it took me a second to realize i was still alive, then i grabbed my vc, and saw that he was unconcious
[13:13] bojodaddy: luckily my platoon medic was riding on my stryker today
[13:13] bojodaddy: so he started helping him
[13:14] bojodaddy: i thought he was hurt bad at first, but there was no blood, and doc got a pulse right away, so i knew he was just unconcious
[13:14] bojodaddy: the other guy, was in the stryker in front of mine and caught some shrapnel in the back of the neck
[13:15] bojodaddy: we rushed them to the hospital, chris, my vc was back with us about 2 hours later, he had a cat scan
[13:15] bojodaddy: and gabe, had surgery to have the piece of shrapnel removed, missed his spinal cord by an inch
[13:15] rubleytj: thank god
[13:15] bojodaddy: hell be back with us tommorros
[13:15] bojodaddy: tommorrow
[13:16] bojodaddy: this last month has been pretty bad
[13:16] bojodaddy: lots of ieds, and suicide vbieds
[13:16] bojodaddy: yeah
[13:16] bojodaddy: im ready to get the fuck out of here
[13:16] bojodaddy: you can only take so much of getting blown up
Just a few more months buddy, hang tight!
dc