A Soldier's Journal... sent in from Iraq
By: Platoon Sergeant John Flaviano
The continuation of a "Soldier's Journal."
May 2007: This month was a rough one for my unit as a whole. We suffered several casualties ranging
from small arms fire to roadside bombs. Our commander talked to us after one of the incidents and the look
on his face was that of sorrow. Personally, this was my second full month on the job in my new assignment.
Sitting behind a desk is not my definition of work but somebody has to do it and I got the job by default based
on seniority. I am sure this job will help me get promoted to Master Sergeant and eventually First Sergeant. That
is pretty much it for the month of May 2007.
June 2007: This was a very busy month for us. We prepared for movement to another area and boy was
it difficult at times. The most difficult part was that we had to endure 115+ degrees when we were packing up our stuff.
We still got the job done and our move was flawless and safe. We were pretty anxious on moving up to Baqubah from Baghdad
because of the different type of enemy, Al-Qaida. To me, I do not really care about who the enemy is here because I HATE
all Iraqis especially when I was a platoon sergeant and we got blown up and shot at by these people. I am sure there are
good ones but I look at all of them as bad. We started off very successfully and brought the fight to them hard. No escape
for these Al-Qaida dumb dumbs.
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July 2007: The beginning was nothing but bombings and killing of the bad guys. All you could hear
were the explosions and the feeling of the shockwaves. The combat engineers, which is my job, got to
blow up many things from roadside bombs to homes. I was not out there on the streets with my fellow engineers
but we were able to watch everything that they did on video. It was a remarkable sight and brought pride deep into
my heart knowing that my former Soldiers were out there doing their thing.
That is the recap for May-July 2007 and my last update will culminate the remainder of my deployment. Right now we are expected back home in the states mid to late September. I cannot wait to hold my children and my wife. My kids, AJ and Andrew, may be there for my homecoming but I understand that they have school at that time but will see them at my first opportunity. That's it folks.
Till next time this is Arrowhead 81November signing out.
SFC Virgilio Flaviano
HHC, 3-2 SBCT
Maneuver Support Cell, NCOIC
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