Archive for Iraq War Diary
Random Iraq War Diary entry: 011505
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Today: While searching for another document, I came across this entry from my Iraq War Diary, written seven years ago yesterday when I was embedded in Mosul for the AP. I kept it on a private listserv at the time but published many entries on the fifth anniversary. Reading it again just now, I thought this was an unusually interesting day as I returned from a holiday break in the States. I attached one of my photos from that day above.
Posted by jim on January 15, 2005 at 23:06:03:
I could write a book about the fiasco that was my trip to Mosul, but that would sound angry and maybe boring, and I could write a lot about the security it takes to move around Baghdad now, but that’s a secret, but my first day back in Mosul was nuts; so, I’ll write about that instead.
Ok first, the one thing worth mentioning about the trip is that I flew up here in on a C-130, a cargo plane set up with long canvas benches for passengers, and no windows, exaggerating the effect of the combat spiral landing feeling a lot like you’re in the middle of a plane crash, right up to the thump and grind of the landing which arrive without warning. Also, it’s not pressurized, so you have to keep pinching your nose and blowing to manage the sinus and eardrum pain, and it’s extra funny to watch everybody else doing the same.
I got in at night and got a lot of bad news, that the 1-24 Infantry Battalion lost seven guys since I was here last, including four in the chow hall attack. Next, a young soldier tells me the Lt. Col. I’ll be riding with gets hit like every day now. Read More→
Iraq War Diary: The Battle of Two Mosques, Mosul, 02.12.05
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Mosul: five years ago today.
“The Battle of Two Mosques” – This entry in my Iraq War Diary recalls a battle between American troops and insurgent fighters in Mosul, Iraq, on February 12, 2005; five years ago today. I have made just a few, minor grammatical corrections to the original post, which was then password-protected and available only to friends and family. I was working as an embedded photojournalist at the time.
Posted by jim on February 17, 2005 at 12:27:37:
A lot of people have been asking me about the other day, when my captions said I was in a four-hour running gun battle, but I was too tired to write, and it takes a few days to catch up on my rest before I find spare time again. (Today, as it turns out, I have a lot of time because I skipped my mission while recovering from a little knee strain, but it’s no big problem.)
I was sleeping-in because I had a late mission, planning to go out at 11a.m. with the battalion commander on his daily “battlefield circulation,” but at about 0930, he sent a runner to grab me in the hooch. He said they were rolling out in five minutes because another convoy was having “contact,” which means fighting.
Iraq War Diary – January 30, 2005: Election Day; Birthday in Mosul
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01.30.05 - U.S. troops take cover from sniper fire near a polling station in Mosul.
Happy Birthday to me! I survived the first Iraqi elections.
I’ve been up for 18 hours and I’m too jittery to sleep. Plus, I am still waiting for my roommate, a photographer from another wire service, to return. I’ve been using his power supply for my satellite modem for several days now – since mine was destroyed by a power surge, the second time that happened this year – and now I think he might need to use some of my gear.
When I saw him last, at one of the polling stations today, I learned that he and another colleague had survived, unharmed, after a roadside bomb struck their Stryker. Yet, when bailing out under the threat of a coordinated ambush, there just isn’t time to grab your gear. Read More→
2004: Iraqi Cigarette Man
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An Iraqi national soldier smokes at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Mosul,Iraq Thursday, Nov. 9, 2004. Iraqi commandos backed by U.S. forces raided a hospital in northern Mosul allegedly used by insurgents, detaining three people overnight, as Iraqi forces elsewhere in the city fought off militants, killing 15 and capturing 10 others.
