Christmas Eve, Fallujah, IZ 2004

From the Soldier side: OK, everyone's been telling me to get to the story end...

Christmas, Fallujah, IZ 04...Part 8:

As we loaded into our M1114 armored Humvee, I heard the 155mm cannons fire 2 rounds. I knew they were not just shooting for fun, so someone downtown was getting a whopping. We rolled out the gate heading towards the city. The Iraqi dude we were looking for could be in any kind of car...he changed often. I was really wondering what he had that the Marines were so interested in...I was thinking of all kinds of things. Maybe WMD, maybe the map to where Sadam was hiding out...ummmm...what could it be?

The further we go from the camp, the more amped up I got. My job was to get my Humvee and crew to provide cover whilst they did the transfer.

My mind started to wonder a little I was the day before Christmas, my second Christmas away from home in 2 years. But I wasn't going to cry about it...we had a job to do. Right now it looked very important.

Gunny called on the radio:"we have a car approaching....can't tell if it's him yet...be ready."
A small beat up car was slowly driving towards us...it was slowing down. As we got closer, Gunny said: "It's him, go around and provide security."

Gunny's humvee stopped and we drove past. I got out with my M16 as well as my driver. We could here rifle fire in the distance, but nothing close. I was really looking hard for anyone approaching. My gunner was in the turret. We had a good talk about not letting cars get close again and now he understood.

A few minutes had passed, when I looked towards the Iraqi car to see how they were doing.

Oh my gosh...we were going to have a good Christmas boys....they were loading cases of beer into the Humvee.

So much for General Order #1. Merry Christmas to all!