On Mission: Through The Motions

People, times, routes and station locations change everyday. Other details have been left out as well, but the below describes an average work day for our MP company. And what I do most days of the week when not working in the Troop Medical Clinic.

0700 Hrs: All meet at the trucks to run through vehicle and equipment checks.

0730 Hrs: Mission Brief, Camp Echo: Go and make contact with the same people at the same stations and get the same info. We wonder as much as the Iraqis do, what the reason is at this point. But nobody is in a position to question.0800 Hrs: We drive out past the same battle field setting outside Echo to and from our destination with the blasted rubble of buildings and twisted metal of bombed vehicles. We change up routes and times from there but that's all that ever changes.0900 Hrs: We get the back story on detainees, their offense(s), and how well they're being treated and processed. In the south, nearly pure Shi'a, the courts and government get things done quicker than in say, Baghdad, where the tribal friction is worse.
With all the crap we wear, in "full battle rattle," your weight increases 33% and one feels like a baseball in a pinball machine trying to get around in the narrow hallways of often crowded IP stations. Yes that's me, looking like Louie Anderson in the belly.


1030 Hrs: Afterward we make reports to the division we fall under and wait in a safe location where this is done, within Diwaniya, before heading back to Camp Echo.