rlfj: Blog

I am always learning things in the stories I write. Chapter 36 is full of that type of thing. There really is an Al Faw Palace, and it really was used as a luxury hotel for VIPs, generals, and entertainers. It was often called the ‘Rick’s Café’ of Iraq, and the troops who worked there actually did have to receive special training in running a hotel. God only knows what the place is like since we turned it all back over to the Iraqis, but I suspect they have fucked it up just like they’ve fucked up the rest of the country.

For those who were curious, there is no Tolley Hunter. She is totally fictitious. The USO is quite real, however, and does a great job of getting performers in front of the troops. The USO reports that 28 performers have died during tours. Several other major performers, such as Glenn Miller, have died on tours, but were actually members of the military and not part of the USO. The military tries to take care of their performers, but it is a war zone, after all. This sort of thing could happen, and the aftermath I describe is quite predictable.

This chapter and the next few will deal with the aftermath of the last battle Grim and his minions were involved in. Not a lot to say, but it should be enjoyable.

For those who’ve never heard of the Valorous Unit Award, it is a real award. According to Federal law:

“The VUA requires a lesser degree of gallantry, determination, and esprit de corps than that required for the Presidential Unit Citation. Nevertheless, the unit must have performed with marked distinction under difficult and hazardous conditions in accomplishing its mission so as to set it apart from and above other units participating in the same conflict. The degree of heroism required is the same as that which would warrant award of the Silver Star to an individual. Extended periods of combat duty or participation in a large number of operational missions, either ground or air is not sufficient. This award will normally be earned by units that have participated in single or successive actions covering relatively brief time spans.”

The VUA is normally awarded to company or battalion level units but has been given to smaller units. A fire team would be unusual, but it is considered a specific unit of organization in the official Table of Organization and Equipment. An important item to note is that this award is given for action over a short period of time, a specific battle or element of a campaign.

I learn stuff all the time when I’m writing!

I got several emails about the types of scopes available for Grim to use on his M-14. A number of people wrote that Grim’s scope wouldn’t have been a Leupold scope, but an Unertl. Personally, I don’t know one from another and probably couldn’t find my foot with a scope. I simply took my description from a photo I found on Wikipedia of “an Army marksman in Fallujah, Iraq, using an M14 with a Leupold LR/T 10×40 mm M3 scope”. Now, I know perfectly well that not everything on Wikipedia is accurate, but that’s where I got it.

Iraq is one of the made-up countries created after World War I when the British and French decided to draw straight lines on a map in order to carve up the Ottoman Empire. The locals weren’t consulted. As a result it has a Kurdish north, a Sunni center and west, and a Shiite south and east. Even before we went in and kicked over the marbles the place was none too happy at the best of times.

This is Grim’s second trip to the Sandbox and both tours have been in Anbar Province. Anbar Province is the Sunni heartland of the country, and in the 2003-2007 timeframe of Grim’s service was arguably the most dangerous place on the planet. The 2nd Brigade Combat Team is real, even if the 4th of the 4th isn’t, and did two lengthy tours in Anbar during this period, the first along the edges of the ‘Sunni Triangle’ and the second in the ‘Triangle of Death.’ Many (but not all) of the battles Grim is involved in were real battles or were taken from accounts of soldiers in the 2BCT. This all occurred before the ‘Anbar Awakening’, in which the locals finally got around to kicking the foreign jihadis out and decided enough was enough. (Of course then we gave everything to the new Shiite central government, who totally fucked things up. That’s a whole different book, and somebody else can write that.) In any case, if you think that things couldn’t have been as bad as I am writing, you’re wrong. It was usually much, much worse.

Thank you to everybody who wrote to me on a variety of military issues. Several emails were about preferred weapons. Some preferred the M-14 and some the M-16. I even heard from readers who preferred the M-1 Garand and the M-1903 Springfield! I also received a number of anecdotes about the weapons, both for the good and bad. I even received some emails about the wonders of the M1911A1 Colt.45 vs. the M9 Beretta and vice versa.