Our Man In Fallujah

INDCent Bill sends in his latest report from the front:

Laugh at the skittish blogger #1: Mortars make a loud noise but are typically inaccurate, indirect threats. Insurgents rarely stay in a stationary position to fire more than one or two of them, lest American, IP or IA forces nail down their location and rain the wrath of God (or Boeing) upon their heads. That said, 120 mm mortars have a 70 meter "kill zone," and a close or direct hit from 60 - 120mm pieces can be pretty bad news for a given target.

Insurgents fired five mortars at the police station on Wednesday in an attempt to "dial in" the location. Though I've learned to ignore them when they land at a distance, a sufficiently large and close one authored a ringing crack and boom, and I instinctively skipped to put both the fellow with whom I was conversing and a sturdy pillar between the direction of the explosion and my precious behind. I didn't move fast enough, as he smiled kindly and said:

"You haven't been here too long, have you? I'm used to them. Maybe that's bad, but if they're gonna get you, they're gonna get you."

I don't know what that guy was talking about: I was just stretching my legs, man.

Go read the rest, including pics. And while you're there, consider giving up a little coin. We have a long tradition of giving Bill a hard time here, buy dayum this is good.