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Last Name: BAKER	First Name Middle Initial: DANIEL		Nick Name:
Street:	City & State: Macapá, Amapá, Brazil		E-Mail: dbghost.2005@yahoo.com
Zip: 68900-000	Phone:		Spouse: Arineide Costa Baker
Conflict: Iraqi Freedom Desert Storm 2	Service Branch: ARMY		Unit: E CO. 1/162 Inf. 41st BGD.
Theater:	Basic Training:		Date Entered Service: February 2003
Bases Stationed: Ft. Carson, CO.			Length Of Service: 1185 days
Discharged / Retired: Honorable	Date Left Service: May 2006		Age When Enlisted: 18
Medals Received: Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievment Medal, Army National Guard Achievment Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Armed Forces National Guard Medal, Army NCO Professional Development Medal, Army Service Medal, Overseas Service Medal, Army Overseas Training Medal, Multinational Forces Medal (MFO)
Military Job: 11B Infantry		Occupation After War: Securitas Security Service
Primary Civilian Employer: Security
Date This Site First Published: 10/8/2007		Date Last Edited: 10/20/2007

Military Bio:

10 February 2003 OIF
We spent the first three months in country at KNB. It was, for all
intents and purposes, boring! We conducted base security sometimes working
close with the Kuwaiti Navy. This base was a major hup point for the
Navy and Marines to ship their equipment and personnel to Iraq, to the
fighting. We watched a lot of equipment, tanks; armored personnel
carriers; boats; troop carriers; even combat motorcycles, move in and out of
this base. A lot of Marines and Sailors. We talked with Marines who
experienced the action in the front, in Iraq during the ground assault
phase of OIF and they told us some stories. I have to admit as a soldier
who spent a majority of his 20 year military career training for a war
that at the time did not seem like any reality that I would know, I was a
little envious of the Marines. I had heard stories from war vets and
read numerous books and articles, plus what I saw from TV, but never in
my life would I have thought for a second that I would face war as a
reality. I had always thought that this would be a good experience for
me, for any man. The lessons that could be learned from the experience of
such an event, and the stories that could be passed down to the next
generation, but as I, as any other soldier might have learned, there is
no glamour in war, and the only thing we have to learn about this war
is that too many people suffered for no reason.

There were rumors going around that the MP unit that we were attached
to that was in Iraq had been receiving a lot of casualties due to
insurgent attacks, and that they had lost several people. They were operating
in an area about 20 miles South of Baghdad (inside the Sunni
Triangle). This area was a major supply route of Coalition Forces going North,
South, East, and West, (MSR). This was an area of frequent attacks by
the insurgents. Our mission was to put a put an end to these attacks. In
July 2003 we convoyed North, North to Iraq, to our new home. On our
first mission, I remember seeing a lot of uncertainty in soldier's eyes.
They were scared like me; I believe that all of us had a case of the
jitters. I remember the first time we received indirect fire from the
insurgents. I was lying there in our hootch resting up for my midnight hour
guard watch when all the sudden the ground around us shook with a loud
bang. Someone yelled out, "Incoming," after that the mortar attacks
were pretty much a normal occurrence.

The MP unit we worked with at Camp Kalsu suffered numerous casualties,
mostly FROM IED'S. I remember this was always fresh on my mind during
missions because we always patrolled the same routes. I remember very
vividly the day after we experienced our first mortar attack having a
dream in my sleep that we were patrolling UXO alley and all of a sudden
the ground just swallowed us (explosion). I awoke very rapidly. Later
that day it had become knowledge to me that one of the MP's had been
killed in an IED attack at the very moment I had this dream.
This was very hostile country indeed; it reminded me of the wild,
Wild West. I remember sitting there after our missions listening and
watching the flicker of tracers out on the horizon from our little FOB and
sometimes hearing the cracking of gun fire or an explosion. These were
common sights and sounds in Iraq. Then there are the people. They can
be cruel and heartless to their own. One day on a mission we found an
Iraqi who had just been executed. He had one bullet in the head and one
in the chest. He had been blind folded and his hands and feet were tied
together. We predicted that he was shot during our change of the guard
and thrown into an area in which we always patrolled (the insurgents
were always aware of our ao's and routes since they blended in so well
you could never tell who was friend or foe). We always used to visit an
Iraqi boy and his family who lived in our ao, but after time we could
not be seen at his house because of fear of insurgent reprisal attacks
on his family.
Iraq was like I said the Wild West. My senses were always on high
alert, and the pucker factor was always extreme. At one point in time the
insurgents were offering to pay the locals to frag us if they had the
chance. It is a shame that there are cultures with this mind set, that
they would be willing to sacrifice their own family for a cause. I spent a
total time during OIF in theater of 1 year in country. It is an
experience which is forever engrained into my memories and which I will never
forget! especially the soldiers who did not return.