Things that go "THUMP" in the night....

Published on February 17, 2006 By Sturgee In Current Events

Well, things have been pretty quiet here in Baghdad. I had been here almost a full week, and while I've heard folks talk about "hearing gunfire", I hadn't heard a damn thing. This place was seeming less and less like a "war zone" by the day. Then, around 9-10pm two nights ago, I'm out chatting with a couple of guys here, and I hear the following:

pop

pop

bang

pop pop

bang
pop
bang bang

pop pop pop

DUDUDUDUDUDU (heavy machine gun fire....somebody brought out the big dog)...

pop

then silence

Can't be sure how far out it was, but it was definitely outside our perimeter. Not sure if it was people shooting at our perimeter, or a firefight out in town somewhere.... But, a nice reminder that Iraq is still the hell hole we all think of it as....

Cheers!

Comments

singrdave

on Feb 17, 2006

Holy crap, dude. Be very very safe.

Sturgee

on Feb 17, 2006

I'm good... Didn't see any tracers or anything. Talking to some of the folks that were here back in the fall of '05, it is MUCH quieter now than it was then. One of the training trailers I'm working in does have some nice bullet holes from incoming fire last year though!!

The dang thing went clean through two trailers (mobile home size trailers by the way). Crazy stuff...

Sturgee

on Feb 18, 2006

UPDATE: We had an incoming mortar round hit to the southeast of our perimeter yesterday. It wasn't close enough to be really scary, just near enough to shake the building a little with a big (WHUMP). "Welcome to Iraq. NOW GO HOME!!"

Sturgee

on Feb 28, 2006

UPDATE 2: With the increased sectarian violence following the mosque bombings, things have been up and down. The first day or so it was very quiet (since the locals were trying to kill each other instead of us for a change). However, a few nights ago, it started getting exciting again, and we had 2 or 3 explosions per night for a couple of nights in a row. Not sure what they were, but I suspect mortar rounds. We've also had a lot more gunfire recently....so much for my sunny vacation....

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