The Army University Press Presents: O.I.F. Baghdad

By 2008-2009, during my year on the ground in Baghdad, nearly every window and building in my AO had bullet holes in it. There were multiple rocket and mortar marks in every other building. Thousands of professional Soldiers, Paratroopers, Marines, Airmen, Sailors, and Guardsmen were maimed and murdered by Iraqis, Iranians, and many other foreign soldiers and mercenaries.

Let that sink in… Learn to fight now… Or die trying later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_city_of_Baghdad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad

Give the names of these brave men and women a read.

OIF U.S. Military Casualty List: Names of the Fallen

R.I.P. Brothers and Sisters

Mandatory Map. Videos Linked Below. I operated in the Northeast: Sectors 21, 9, and 24.

“OIF: The Drive for Baghdad”

“OIF: The Fight for Baghdad”

Thanks for watching.

God Bless the U.S.A.

By Johnny ParatrooperPublished On: February 25, 2021Categories: History6 Comments

About the Author: Johnny Paratrooper

Born and Raised in Baltimore City, Maryland. History Degree. 8 Years Airborne Infantry and Scouts Platoon. Iraq Veteran. 4-5 Years as a doorman, bar back, and bouncer in Baltimore. Worked in Construction, Heavy Equipment Demolition, Corporate Security, Sales, Forest Service contractor, and the Hospitality Industry. Raised Catholic. Hobbies are race cars and sport bikes. Side projects are HAM radio credentials and long range shooting. MY EMAIL IS [email protected]. Founder of Green Dragon Academy https://www.patreon.com/GreenDragonAcademy

6 Comments

Anonymous February 25, 2021 at 06:44

5
hitman February 25, 2021 at 10:32

Drove through that mess more times than I can count. Had some really fun nights. Thought I was toast a few times. Especially this night. My Room mate was killed real close to where we stopped on that interchange by an IED blast. https://youtu.be/5L1sD404qyk
- Johnny Paratrooper February 25, 2021 at 10:50
  
  I’m sorry to hear about your room mate. The wild, wild Middle East isn’t just a meme. It’s a real place. Glad to have you on the team. You guys sound well trained and rock steady on the radio.
  - hitman February 25, 2021 at 13:33
    
    The guys that ambushed us that night were some of the best I saw over there. Not your run of the mill bullet hosing Iraqis, I think these guys were Checnyans or other pros. They had two machine guns baggged in, one shooting at tire and gas tank height and one at cab and tanker height. We were on our way to TQ that night to load and bring Fuel back to BIAP. Otherwise, we’d have had a big mess with fuel all over the road. My friend Smitty that took the Video turned his camera on after on of the tankers blew a cover off after getting hit and lighting the fumes still in the tank. Sent a plume a couple of hundred feet in the air but the driver was able to keep rolling. After I got the wounded driver in my truck and took off with out lights, they opened up on me with the guns and RPGs. Thought I was toast with a stream of tracer going across the road in front of me. But I guess they ran dry just before I got to it. We had Rookie Escorts that night, scared by the ROE and shit I guess. When I stopped to get that driver, the Rear Gun Truck (HUMVEE) pulled in behind me beside the tanker with their lights off where the bad guys couldn’t see them instead of getting out front and lighting them up. The route clearance guys you see in the video lit them up right after I went by. The Rear Truck did have a Medic, and once I pulled up to the rest of the Convoy, I got them out to help the driver. They put him in another Gun Truck and Medevaced him out ff Abu Gharib Prison, which is right beside the convoy when they pull off that ramp and interchange on the right. He did make it and ended up coming back about a year later.
    - Johnny Paratrooper February 25, 2021 at 14:01
      
      Awesome. Story dude. My First Sargent and LT. had an EFP rip through their RG33 100 meters after leaving the wire. It popped right as I walked through the door to a huge building. Immediately after the EFP popped, I turned around and an RPG smacked into the building about 10 feet from me about 4 foot high. Another went right over QRF who was staged in case anything happened. Obviously, we were all caught off guard because we had only been there like 12 hours. My first 12 hours in Baghdad saw a couple rockets, an EFP or two, and some bursts of Machine-gun fire.
      The first time I got into a Blackhawk for a mission, The Iraqis lit up the sky with tracers like it was the opening day of Shock and Awe(Not quite as bad, but you get the idea) it was more than I was comfortable with. Luckily those Blackhawks are actually pretty quiet so they were shooting blind. I was sitting in the open door with a SAW and the Crewman on the bird had an M-240. We both just gave each other thumbs up, smiled, and pointed our weapons at that damn city.
hitman February 25, 2021 at 16:16

Roger that. Never knew when or where you might see it or get hit. I spent a lot of time outside the wire, and sometimes I think it was safer out there. Had a mortar hit in Scania one evening as we were coming out of the DFAC about 50 feet away that killed one and injured some more. A friend got a great video of an EFP going off on our lead Gun Truck one night on ASR Vernon. Thank God it missed high, but I don’t think the Gunner will ever be the same. I was able to pull the image out of the video. Pretty amazing. A lot of other people got hit doing stupid shit too. I know what you mean by the shock and awe too. The first time I got ambushed out there was like that too. They didn’t hit shit, but the amount of tracer was unreal. A lot of luck involved too. I was one of the lucky ones for sure.