Entry 11

2100 hours                May 17th 2007

Today was spent waiting in anticipation of action and attack. I was one of the less cocky soldiers of the battalion, mainly because I believed I wouldn’t live through the next assault. Anybody who survives going over the top twice is living on borrowed time. As of yesterday the war within ended, the last of the cokeliners are dead. My only war now is with the enemy. Our trench was literally hell, we had to rebuild barracks destroyed from the attacks, reposition firing steps, and to add to that our sickbay was overflowing with 158 wounded men. We now only had 145 men operational out of our original 600. Earlier today I looked over the top with a periscope, those Arab trenches were turning out to be nasty. Concrete bunkers were being erected every few meters, barbed wire was being doubled, and already they had eight 75mm cannons in position. The town our trenches were closest to was Fallujah, the largest center of resistance since March 19, 2003. Today at about 1800 hours a squadron of A-10s roared in from the distance, the whole battalion watched in joy as the A-10s dropped thousand pounders hammering Fallujah into a flaming holocaust. When it was over we all cheered. Captain Voght has sent for a U-2 plane to recon the Arab trenches and the damage done to Fallujah. Fallujah was supplying the Arabs with weapons and everyone knew it. Soldiers went into Fallujah and never came out, helicopters went over to Fallujah and were shot down, it was truly death’s door. I tried to keep my squad in top shape for the upcoming assault. I could almost sense the Arabs wriggling about in their trenches. As I watched the jets roar overhead, I thought its amazing the technology around us and yet I hold this artifact in my hand and its my weapon. We all were given the order to fix bayonets and stay sharp. Just 2 hours ago the Arab artillery started and we all know when it stops hell comes with it.