Report from Mosul

The troops just sent to Mosul for the elections had a briefing that included this:

The brigade commander, Colonel Kurt Fuller spoke to us about the operations they were conducting in Mosul. According to Colonel Fuller, the city is not the same place since they arrived. Here are a few examples of what your soldier has been doing

Since 7 Jan. 05, they have been on over 600 patrols to improve security and facilitate elections in Mosul with Iraqi forces.
20 raids
10 cordon and Search operations (which is about an entire neighborhood)
They have detained 30 individuals connected to terrorist cells, IEDs, small arms fire and RPG attacks
Located and destroyed 7 IEDs
Confiscated or captured large number of weapons (AK 47s, sniper rifles, machine guns etc.)

He has also said that LTC Gibson (2-325 Battalion Commander) has had a call in radio show to answer questions for the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people have been thanking the soldiers, giving them high fives and letting them know that they are grateful for ridding them of insurgents. The people are responding and saying they are going out and voting.

[el - So the (English speaking?) Iraqis who call into American military radio shows they let on the air are supportive. There was a BBC survey that the Sunnis in Mosul are mostly planning not to vote.]

As to the question most on our minds, the return date, there still is no official return date. With that said, they are looking into redeploying mid-February to mid-March contingent on a few factors. Those factors being

The elections going smoothly. The period of time after the elections going smoothly. Nothing happening to the elected officials or their families
[el - I could say too late, elected officials are being killed left and right the last two months.}

There was scheduled to be Marines arriving in February, but they have been sent to deal with the tsunami victims. [el - Oops, looks like mid-Feb might be out.]

Since we are all part of the Army family, I am sure you know that anything can happen. As of right now, this is the time frame that is being considered but can change at any moment. Colonel Fuller does not want to get anyone's hopes up, but neither does he want us to be discouraged that this deployment will drag on indefinitely. He did point out that recently, the 505 Panthers deployed to Afghanistan in support of the elections and did redeploy after the elections. So historically, it has happened.

Another important topic; mail. One of the family members was nice enough to bring up that her son told her not to send any more mail. As we were not officially told to cease sending mail, I asked Colonel Fuller what he thought about this. Officially, they have not told us to stop sending mail, but if the elections run smoothly and they do redeploy in the time frame that they are looking at, mail would most likely not get to the soldiers.

Colonel Fuller said you should probably not continue to send mail. [el - a mixed message, no mail but perhaps you might be home soon. It also shows how long it takes for them to receive mail.]

As there is no set return date, nor any official redeployment orders, the choice on whether or not to send mail is a judgment call. If they do end up staying longer than we anticipated, then the mail we send now would reach them. If the elections go smoothly, they may be sent to another city to redeploy and the mail would follow them around and probably not reach them until they were back in the states. So the decision is up to you on whether or not you want to send mail. As I said earlier,there is no official message to cease sending mail.

So the troops on their second deployment are actively engaged in anti-insurgent military sweeps and I would expect them to be in Iraq, if not in Mosul, until at least mid-March.