Some months I was on that road twice a day. Other times it was bad enough that we flew from the embassy compound out to Camp Victory. There are a lot of familiar sights in this video.
That's a pleasant Sunday drive compared to our time there in 2004-2005. One patrol I remember well was losing a British PMC convoy of up armored Mercedes to a VBIED just in front of us a few hundred meters. Even that far away the blast was enough to knock our gunner back down into the turret of our HMMWV. When we got to the blast site less than a minute after it happened two of the British Mercedes were torn apart and resting in the dirt on the median, and several civilian vehicles were shredded with shrapnel and burning to one degree or another. It was pure chaos. One of the vehicles on fire was a white station wagon, its driver dead and burning behind the steering wheel. A body had managed to crawl out of the rear passenger's seat and was laying down beside the car her body on fire. We got to her in time to hear her say "I'm an American". She was on the first Medevac helo that landed. I remember pulled her up off the pavement, her long blonde hair was actually melted into the asphalt. From what I heard later she died on the flight. Her name was Marla Ruzicka, she was an Activist who was in Iraq trying to help those injured by the war to file claims against the government. From her pictures she was a beautiful young woman, but you couldn't tell it that day. That's one of MY memories of Route Irish, SSG. U.S. Army (Medically Retired) Infantry / Sniper / SOF Intel (SOT-A), multiple tours
Maurice K This is IED avoidance. Makes is harder for bombers to explode an IED next to the vehicle. These vehicles were all B6 armoured, with blast/bullet proof windows....hence the distortion in the video.
