Olmes Diaz was send to Fort Gordon to complete his basic training. Fort Gordon is located in the state of Georgia. It is a United States Army Installation, The main componment of the post is the Advanced Individual Training for Signal Corps military occupational specialites.

Marine Carlos Texeira

..:: Canon Crew Men ::..

"I was an artillery man. They would put us behind some canons, shoot basically. Load them up with bombs. It was a huge canon, had a huge tube and we would just take bombs and load it up in there and shoot.”Cannon Crew men we were called."

Marine Carlos Texeira

-->First Impression<--

First impression of Iraq “It was kind of crazy, it seemed like a waste land…..Abandoned. It looked like a land of nothing. Everything was destroyed and you see sand everywhere, like dust.”-Texeira

Marine Carlos Texeira

{[Some free time]}




They entertained themselves by “Playing playstation, watch TV, they also had special things for us. Dave Letterman came over to Iraq. People also went to the gym.”-Texeira

Marine Carlos Texeira

..::Al Fallujah::..

Served “In Al Anbar Province, Sunni Triangle like 20 miles northwest of Baghdad in Fallujah....We served seven months over there. From 2004 till like March 2005.”-Texeira

"We were over there basically to do convoy operations, transporting supplies, we had to run the gate (main entry points) and basically we had to protect the base. We were like guards."-Texeira

-->Saddam Hussein $5 dinars<--

Marine Carlos Texeira

“Every marine is a riffle man”. -Texeira






"Everybody had to learn basic infantry techniques. After boot camp, you had to go to a school where you learn basic infantry skills. Then after that you go learn whatever your occupation is. So after we did that for like two months, I went to Oklahoma. It was an army base, that where we went for our military occupation. It was all about the canons over there. We was over there for like three months. "-Texeira

Marine Carlos Texeira

..::Rules of Engagement::..

"The rules of engagement, you cant fire until they shoot first. I hated it. They had a big problem with the IEDs, they make bombs out of cars. They used to come to the base all the time. How were we going to search that? Fuck, i had to be the one who had to search them, the lower ranking people. Troops were the low ranking people. I used to be searching hoping the car doesn’t blow up. But you just had to do it. "-Carlos Texeira