Soldiers talk of close calls outside wire

[unhappycamper]

Soldiers talk of close calls outside wire
By Vince Little, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, February 24, 2008

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — Most soldiers with the 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion can trouble-shoot communications snags from inside base gates. But some teams travel the country’s dangerous roads to visit remote sites and install satellite and radio equipment.

Convoy personnel have enjoyed relatively safe passage so far, but all the unit’s troops are vulnerable to indirect fire on U.S. installations.

“The first time we got hit, it shook me up a little,” said Spc. Brian Picerno, 21, of Newburgh, N.Y., an information systems specialist with the battalion’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company at Camp Victory.

“The second time, I actually fell off my bed. It rocked us pretty good.”

At Camp Echo in southern Iraq, Staff Sgt. Michael McDonald, 31, of Runge, Texas, is Company C’s force protection noncommissioned officer and senior mechanic.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52766



uhc comment: I remember the first time I got hit - January 31, 1968. I was in Chu Lai at the time.