Task Force XII Soldiers Stand Ready

[unhappycamper]

Task Force XII Soldiers Stand Ready
Army News Service | SFC Chris Seaton | January 07, 2008

CAMP TAJI, Iraq - Spc. David Leopold sat in the break room of the brigade air defense operations center. A fuel handler for Company E, 3rd Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, Leopold is used to working hard. For the past few days, he'd been doing just that while manning a guard tower on his forward operating base just outside Baghdad.

It's part of the job for Soldiers of all military occupational specialties while stationed in Iraq. For days at a time, they leave their flight lines, motor pools and offices to gear up and watch a fence line.

On the inside of the fence is the Iraq they know; sand bag covered container housing units, dining facilities, rocks and mud. On the other side, an Iraqi city bustles with street vendors, children playing soccer and an ever-increasing flurry of activity signaling new life in a war-torn country.

For many, like Leopold, watching the city from a tower is as close as they'll get to life outside the FOB. For now, sitting in the break room, he and others were watching a movie between shifts.

A voice broke over the radio with a single code word that instantly told the Soldiers, "We are under attack!"


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,159531,00.html