Is anyone here an Iraq Veteran? I'm trying to capture a realistic feel of the atmosphere in Iraq, so that I can write this in such a way that the reader really feels like they are there. It's not necessarily an anti-war book. It's not even necessarily about the Iraq War primarily. This is just the backdrop, the setting, if you will.
In what aspect? It all depends on where you are. You have different units/ branches/ countries all over the place. Some units operate out of a FOB (Forward Operating Base), while others are in the "green zone". Some small teams, like a SPiT team, operate usually out of a residence. It depends on what MOS you're following as well. My unit is 3/103 AR BN and I'm part of the S2 (Intelligence section). Sometimes they did convoys, other times they were at computers analyzing information. With more information I might be able to help you. A friend of mine is also a Combat Medic with 2/104 Stryker Brigade, saw combat, and was stationed out of Camp Taji.
just google for 'ex-iraq vets websites' and you'll get all you need from their forums/chats/whatevers...
Not to be a jerk, but you've asked a very vague question perhaps without knowingly doing so. If you read David Bellavia's House to House versus Generation Kill versus One Bullet Away you'll come up with 3 varying viewpoints that change within the books. Bellavia's story before the hand to hand combat changes drastically afterwards. His return, still during the war per se but after Fallujah, gives two viewpoints of the same person of the same war after his catharsis. Nathaniel Fick's autobiographical account of the run up to the initial invasion of Afghanistan and then into Iraq where he was, at some points, the third most lead vehicle in all of Iraq changes in how he perceives the war. Now take a look at Gen Kill and you have Evan Wright's book on Nate Fick's recon platoon from the view of the fire team leaders and the men. What you've asked, in essence I feel, is what was the atmosphere like in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, or any other armed conflict? You need to be more specific. As Capt. Fick mentions in his book, on an after-action debrief among his men, they all had widely varying accounts of what they had just gone through minutes ago. One of the 5 drivers mentioned that the incoming started to change in some fashion as they approached and crossed the bridge. Of the entire platoon, 22 men in total plus the embedded journalist, not a single other person remembered a bridge crossing but their satellite map clearly showed they had gone over one. Mood in a foreign land is determined by who's shoes your looking from. I've been doing research pretty hot and heavy for a novel that starts off in Afghanistan. From the people I've interviewed from Iraq and Afghanistan, they've all had widely varying views on their experiences. One Staff Sergeant in Austin gets online with a half dozen of his buddies and they play Modern Warfare 2 almost every single weekend for hours on end. Another from here in San Antonio gave up hunting altogether on his return home to the chagrin of his father and grandfather. Their view of the time they spent in action in Iraq looks like they were in completely different conflicts even though they were only separated by a few months deployment time.
