Nightfighter Family,

I hope this note finds everyone doing well back home. It is Saturday night here which is very similar to Sunday, Monday, Tuesday…..night. While many of the days seem the same the companies are doing a good job of keeping things from getting too mundane for the soldiers. We continue to go out on missions every night, we get out to firing ranges as often as possible, we conduct safety stand down days and morale support days which helps to mix the days up a little bit. Many of the soldiers are doing a great job of getting themselves in shape. I go to the gym almost every night between midnight and two in the morning and we pretty much own the gym at that time. At any given time we will have up to 100 soldiers in there working out; many of you will get back a much different looking soldier in either weight or muscle mass. Many units here sponsor runs on Sunday morning, which we can rarely attend due to our schedule. We have decided to sponsor a “Nightfighter” Run which will take place at midnight; the date is still being set. The installation is going to pay for 800 shirts for the event, I am curious to see if we can get that many people outside our battalion up at the time of the night. The normal Sunday runners are usually sound asleep by midnight, which is really just the middle of our work day. I will keep you posted on the event as it gets closer. Speaking of shirts our unit PT shirts are in production now and hopefully will be ready to be shipped over here within the next three weeks. I believe we are having over 2,500 shirts printed for our unit.
Well I will write more in a few days, rest easy knowing we are all fine here.

Follow Us

LTC Jerry Hadley
Nightfighter 6

Here you go Hank..... =)

Nightfighter Family,

Greetings from Iraq, I wanted to take a few minutes and give you an update on the happenings here. First an update on the access to the website from over here…it appears we are going to lose the battle to have it unblocked on our DOD computers. I will continue to send reports back through CPT Breitenbucher until I get another method over here, I will probably use a computer from one of the staff officer’s rooms to get on the website, I do not have internet in my room. I still want to hear from you if you have concerns or issues, just send them directly to my email at: gerald.hadley@us.arm­y.mil , I check this email several times a day and will get back to you very quickly.

Things are going very well here, we continue to have our share of excitement on the road and have been performing very well especially in terms of locating explosive devices before they locate us. The Task Force is getting quite a good reputation as a disciplined, professional organization that knows what it is doing on the road. I have heard from numerous outside leaders that have went on one of our convoys, they always come back impressed and said they feel very secure travelling with our soldiers. I know the favorite part of my week is the 2 or 3 times I go out on the road with our soldiers, they never cease to impress me with their attitudes and attention to detail. We continue to present combat infantry badges and combat action badges to numerous soldiers that have been involved in enemy engagements on the road. At the rate we are going I would predict that over 50% of soldiers will earn these badges while they are here, that number would be a lot higher except many already have them from earlier deployments. This past week the new Commanding General for the logistical mission over here came and spent two days with us. His name is BG Lally he commands the 3rd Expeditionary Support Command, I think he was extremely impressed with what he saw. He received our command brief, attended one of our Battle Update Briefs and then went to Team D where SSG Thoman conducted a mission brief. I think the time he spent at battalion was good for an overview and to give him confidence that we were tracking on our mission, but the icing on the cake was the outstanding brief conducted by SSG Thoman and the participation by the Team Delta soldiers. I know that this mission is only successful because of the soldiers that strap on their equipment every night and go outside the wire. BG Lally saw the quality of soldiers that this task force is blessed with and I think he left feeling confident in our ability to conduct whatever mission he tasks us with.
I have given up on getting this website back on my computer in my office, but I am committed to sending you updates. I will make every effort to update you at least twice a week, I am going to aim for Mondays and Fridays. As I said feel free to email me with questions or concerns.

Proud to Serve

LTC Jerry Hadley
Nightfighter 6
“Follow Us"


Zac is doing great, (as good as expected) He is very tired, but still manages to make me laugh, and visa versa! =)

Trip for Daniels.

As a lot of you may know, Gov. Daniels went to Iraq. Here is a link to some pictures from him visit. I recognized a lot of the guys, but Zac wasnt in any of the pics =(

http://www.in.gov/gov/3522.htm


Just to clarify, SPC Ford that passed away, was not with Zac. He was part of the 76th Brigade from Indiana, but out of Evansville.

Please say a prayer for the Ford family

Nightfighter Family,

I hope this update finds everyone well, we are all in good shape and good spirits over here. I say that with a note of sadness due to the loss of a fellow 76th Infantry Brigade soldier from 1-152. I am sure most of you have already heard the news about SPC Ford from C Troop 1-152 who was killed last Saturday in an accident while conducting a mission. It brings back into perspective the dangerous environment we operate in... not that we allow any of our guys to forget that anyway. Keep SPC Ford's wife and parents in your thoughts and prayers while they grieve the loss of their loved one. We will continue to be vigilant with our preparation and execution of our missions, that is all we can do. I can tell you I have not seen one bit of complacency set in, which is good. The weather here continues to be crazy with quite a few of our missions getting delayed or some of our convoys getting stranded at other locations. If you go a few days without hearing from your soldier on what has become a normal time, it might be because they are at a different base waiting out the sand storms. I hope everyone has fun plans for the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend, maybe spend some time with family and friends. We will celebrate it over here to the best of our ability even if it is only to have a moment or two of silence in honor of our fallen comrades from past conflicts.

Proud to Serve with YOUR Soldiers

LTC Jerry Hadley
Nightfighter 6

M.I.A.

My computer got a virus and I havent taken the time yet to reformat it yet....I am going to work on it this weekend.

I always ask Zac is anything exciting happened on his missions.....his last answer, one of their trucks broke down and a wrecker had to tow it. And on the way back from their mission, it caught on fire!!

I sent him a video camera.....he is going to take videos and email them to me. I will post them here as soon as I get some. =)

Nightfighter Family,

I hope everyone is hanging in there and getting along well. We continue to plug away every day, getting a little bit better at what we do and a little smarter about time management. We continue to try to work a patrol cycle that allows at least a day between missions for the soldiers... we are getting better but we are not there yet. I have now been able to go out a least once with every company except Golf, they start missions here very shortly. I can tell you we have very well trained, disciplined soldiers in every formation. While each company does things a little different, which is good, there is one trait obvious in every patrol and that is professionalism. Our soldiers are showing respect on the road for the local Iraqis that are just trying to make a living. While at the same time staying vigilant to stop the small percentage of insurgents that are trying to disrupt that. We are asking young soldiers to make a lot of split second judgement calls and they are responding and doing a great job. I have total confidence in every patrol going out, that they are going to be respectful, ethical and vigilant to sort out the good from the bad. That is all I can ask for as commander.

LTC Hadley

I am still here.....

Just nothing new to report.

Zac's last mission went well....except for the fact that some Iraqi kids threw rocks at the convoy and cracked some windows in the civilian vehicles.

They lost power and had no AC for two days.....ugh!