Via e-mail - 2HBCT, 1ID of Fort Riley returned from the National Training Center a month ago and the local news anchor from KTKA-49 Topeka was embedded with 1-18 Infantry Battalion and other brigade units... KTKA anchor Ben Bauman has been doing segments each night this week which have been really interesting.Training Day 1 - Training Day 2 - Training Day 3 Training Day 4 - Training Day 5 - Training Day 6
Breakfast has not yet arrived by the time we roll out on our first mission of the day. Another foot patrol into the village Abar Layla. This time we are to provide security and muscle power for a civic project, building a barricade around the town's soccer field. A mounted (motorized) convoy provides security for the truck hauling plywood and steel posts, while we, the dismounted patrol, provide security for the captain to walk over to the site. He greets the mayor and soldiers start unloading and putting up the fence. While this goes on, it's the responsibility of our platoon to keep an eye on things in the village and surrounding area. We are also accompanied today by members of the Iraqi Army, who help secure the perimeter.
Things go fine until the mid-morning call to prayer, which is interrupted by someone taking over the PA system and inciting some members of the village to demonstrate. The interpreter with our group is the first to know something is wrong. He simply says to the platoon leader, "We should go." And so we do. The guys nearest the center of the village fall back to near the truck, which is quickly loaded up and moved out. Meanwhile, villagers march and chant. There is no violence, and we don't stick around to further provoke any. The fence around the soccer field will have to wait.