Just thought I would give everyone an update on whats going on in Iraq from this combat engineers point of view. We have been in country for about 5 months now. Things seem to be setting into a pattern at this point. I am in the city of Mosul, the third largest in Iraq. We have not done a lot of traditional engineer tasks so to speak. About the limits of doing our normal job include; demolitions, wire and other obstacles. We have been used primarly in an infantry role. Our missions include; escorts, security, patrols (mounted and dismounted), ied sweeps, ied clearance, cache missions (find and destroy), raids, coridon and searches and so on. One bit of excitment for me is that i was just added to Task Force Hawk, which is an air assault mission. We will be inserted by helicopters(blackhawks) to islands and remote spots to look for weapons caches. Some back ground on me. I am a staff sergeant. I am approaching 14 years in the army. I am a squad leader with 8 men under me. One has been sent home because he was shot on one of our missions, but he is recovering fine. Things here go in streaks, a few days and it is quiet and then it gets rough, lots of fighting with the AIF, VBIED's, and IED's. I would like to thank everyone who has sent letters or email and for the prayers for myself, my family and the rest of the troops.
SSG Benjamin Joy
B Co. 113th Eng. Bn.
FOB Merez, Iraq
"SAPPERS LEAD THE WAY"