New Photos from Iraq

Hi guys,
Just posted to Yahoo some new photos from here.

http://photos.yahoo.com/ka2zev

Look for the "June 04" collection.

Since my prior camera went poof in the Army mail system when I sent it in for repair. I spent some money and picked up something else.

So these are experiments, but they look good.

668 and 665
Mr Fingers Osgood one of my co workers 'tees off' at the Scania driving range. This base is not so much a sand trap, but a 'stone trap'. Either way interesting photos. BTW since this was done at sunset, he had the crap bit out of him from the local bugs that 'go active' then.

47, 45, 44
You have heard of 'built like a brick outhouse'.
How about an Armor Plate BBQ?

This sucker must weigh over 500 lbs. It took a huge amount of effort to lift the cover.

Can your Webber or Charmglow turn a 7.62 round? The mechanics unit built this monster when their first one was 'stolen'. You need a tank recovery vehicle to pick up this bad boy.

41
Be nice to your local KBR. I found out they work 12 hour days, 7 days a week. Every four months or so, they get a free ride home for 15 days. I normally woulden't take a photo of a guy catching a nap, but another KBR worker put me up to it. BTW he was only pretending to be asleep.

36
This was simply funney. Some of the troopers have taken to writing things on their trucks. This is one of the better ones. More when I see them.

01
Another bit of field work. An armored door for a truck. Made in Iraq.

Hope you like the experiments.

Keep it sane
Jack Crow
counting down the days until I see the wife in Europe!

Jack Crow, it is good to see you get through to CPF again!

Great pitures!

All I can see are the March pics?

Bill

Me too!

ALWAYS great! to hear from you Jack Crow!!!

Watch that six!!!

jack is a coolguy

Guys,
I will look into the 'march pix issue'. I don't know why this stuff is going out of it's way to fail.

Later dudes and thanks for the kind words

Jack Crow.
counting down the micro seconds until I get to see the wife in London.

Jack,
Glad to hear from you again. Be sure to let your buddies know that we support all of you. My 6 year old saw your name one day on the forum and asked me if you were some sort of birdman /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif. It told him no that you were a hero and now he includes you in his prayers every night.

Life,
Press the pause button please!

Im nobodys hero. Just a fat butt contractor. Save that for the guys in brown and tan. They pay me to take the risk. It has it's moments.

Here is a clip from my last letter home.......
-------------------------------------------------

Hi all,
Every once in a while I write something worth reading. In this case it's adapted from a post on a gun rights board I'm fond of.
Ready?
………………………………………………………

If I wanted safe, I would have stayed in bed.
There is a Frank Zappa line that went something like this
"I was born to have adventure..."

Iraq is an adventure. Not everybody can be an Indiana Jones (G Lucas), Mayor Alamfi (James Blish), or Jack Crow (John Stakley). Fiction has to be over the top, larger than life. So I take what I can get. Snivel and ***** with the best. As I tell the troopers, "I'm nobody's SIR", just a "fat assed civilian". They like it when people tell them the truth. They like it better when you don't abuse your 'status'. Any small sign of humanity is always welcome to a guy who sees little of it for his year here.

In a world with so many in it, small personal honors are about all we can hope for.

Look up an old David Drake book called "Hammer's Slammers".

In there is a story of a new guy joining Hammers Regiment.

In there is a speech by a "Priest".

The Priest is informing the recruit about the facts of life when you sign up to be a Merc. Perhaps I should go get my copy back and post it here. It's one of the most accurate things I have ever been privileged to read.

The speech by former Sergeant Major Worzer (retired) now Priest of "The Way" to a new Recruit named Rob Jenne.

Good advice for those headed into a situation like mine.

"Sure you've been ridden by everybody you know…now that you're alone, here's a stranger riding you too. I don't mean it like I sound…wasn't born to the work, I guess. There's priests-and maybe the better ones-who'd say that signing on with mercenaries means so long a spiral down that maybe your soul won't come out of it in another life or another hundred. But I don't see it like that."

"Life's a forge, boy and the purest metal comes from the hottest fire. When you've been under the hammer a few times, you'll find you've been beaten down to the real, no lies, no excuses. There'll be a time, then when you got to look over the product…and if you don't like what you see, well, maybe there's time for a change too."

"Nobody knows how little his life's worth until he's put it on the line a couple of times"

Later people
Mike

PS Make no doubt about it, what I do is a form of Merc, instead of guns I use electronics. Yes I cash my checks and don't worry about national policy.

The OpFor (bad guys) shows no regard for 'the rules of war'. I don't feel too bad about the prisoners abused here either. Our local MP's treat them well when caught. Hoods and tie wrap cuffs. You can't have local nationals pace off the distance between buildings, take pictures, or make maps. They get grabbed and 'taken away'. The rest is not my problem.




Hope all is well.
Jack Crow

ps it's a name I took from a John Stakley novel called Armor. Not sutable at all for kids.

Jack,
Sorry for the confusion. Heck I thought you were in the military. See I told my wife I didnt spend all my time on CPF /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif. But no matter what your job is you are on my little boys prayer list. You still need to be careful and watch your back. Take care and be sure to take some pictures of London when you get there.

Jack!

Close enough dude!

You are doing something I know I don't have the balz for!

And you certainly are helping the Armed Forces to do their jobs!

Keep the good stories (heck even the bad ones) coming, and STAY AS SAFE AS POSSIBLE!

What PlayboyJoeShmoe said!!!!!
Be Careful.

Hey Jack, glad to see you're still doing everything you can to have fun in the sand pit. I still don't know how you guys handle that heat... gesh!

--Bob
Retired Navy "mustang"

Bald,
We sweat a lot. Shower once a day, and keep up on our laundry.

The Army buys us a lot of fairly good bottled water in this case stuff from Saudi. We have had water from Kuwait, and the UAE.

Food is better, KBR got a new vendor.

Soon I get to go on vacation in Europe.

Let's see what the bad guys do.

Later dude.
Mike

Jack_Crow

seems we share some of the same tastes in reading. Have you read The Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook. I think you might be interested in that series, a new one came out recently.

Take care Jack. People over there don't seem to draw any distinction between contractor or military, and mortars care even less.

At least for now, the bad guys are gonna be fuming about 6 women and 22 PHD ministers in the new Soverogn (how in heck is that spelled?) Government.

Jack Crow,
I read and enjoyed the Steakley novel. (Better to be Jack than The Masao ... )
Ditto the Hammer's Slammers stories.
Read anything by John Ringo? Particularly March Upcountry, March to the Sea, and March to the Stars ... as well as the "Posleen" series (starts w/ A Hymn Before Battle) ... Pretty good stuff.
Check six.

Russ

rdf

Those are some of my favorite books. You can download some of them from the Baen web site and read on the computer or PDA. Shame Mr Ringo has decided to not write any more "Posleen" stories for a while.

Guys,
With all these book things im going to be busy for a while.

I get R&R soon in London and will be in and out of a few book shops. If that isen't going to work, then there is Amazon.

I think I fixed the photo issue. In Yahoo there is a 'button' to press that will select which photo set is shared. I have pressed the button for the current series.

later dudes
Jack Crow in Iraq

PS if I drop off line in the next few weeks, assume the best.

If Im KIA or the head goes home in a hat box, it will be in the news.

We don't talk about movement orders in this business until well afterwords. Hopefully i will be able to use an Internet Cafe in Europe.

Later Jack Crow

take care jack and be safe freind