Baath Party!!

Part of the tour I took one week ago led us through the Baath Party house. The Baath Party being the controlling party of Iraq prior to the invasion in 2003. The luxury that these people lived in, while the average person less than a mile away was living in poverty is sickening. That being said, the use of marble and the extreme lavishness that these buildings held was overwhelming. I really would have enjoyed seeing what the buildings looked like before they were destroyed by JDAMS and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

The above picture is of the lobby, just as you enter the party headquarters.

The swimming pool, supposedly it was never filled with water, and was instead used for the elemination of opponents. The wall not shown has a large "stain"

Looking out from inside the lobby . . . you can almost imagine how beautiful this would have looked in its prime.

I don't have very many pictures of me on here, so I figured I would load a couple up. These were taken at the Baath Party House and the Victory Over America Palace respectively.

Trailer living

Life at Camp Stryker (my new home) is quite different than my previous six months at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. Nearly every aspect of life is different, from my daily tasks to my living arrangements. I never thought I'd find myself living in a mobile home, but here I am living in a room in a trailer. Part of me feels like I should put a chair out front and start drinking beer with my shirt off. Thankfully, this urge is impossible to fulfull here since I can't drink here (not that I drink anyway).


The picture above is looking down the row of trailers just outside of my door. The concrete T-Barriers are for our protection, and are all around our CHU (Container(ized) Housing Unit). Well, that's the grand tour of my new trailer life. In the next installment, we'll talk about mobile home entertainment.

Forty Hours

Forty hours ago, in the middle of a heavy rain storm, my ride north pulled in to the Victory Base Complex staging yard, signaling that I was finally at the end of my journey. The ride north was nothing, if uneventful.

After arriving in the staging lanes, I inspected all of my baggage, which rode outside of the vehicles throughout the rainstorm. Luckily for me, most of my electronics remained dry. Some of my clothes were a little damp, but nothing that a little airing out wouldn't fix. After unpacking and cleaning, I was given the day off to rest and prepare for the long day ahead. My shift was to begin at 6:30 AM and run until 6:30 PM. This means that I will be working 12 hours per day at least six days per week. Many weeks, It is quite likely that I will be working seven days per week. For those of you who are not math geniuses, that means I will be working anywhere from 72-84 hours per week. That is twice most American's normal work week.

Despite the long days, I think I will enjoy this position significantly more than my last job. Posted here are a few pictures of my new home and job.

So long

It's been nearly a month since my last post. I can't believe time has been flying by this quickly. I've been out on three missions since my last post, so I'm sure you can imagine I've been very busy. Luckily for me, I'm done with missions until 2009! That's right, in 16 days I'll be leaving on a big bird out of this place for my 15 days of leave in the states! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am. I've been waiting for this moment for quite some time.

Anyway, I figured I ought to post a few new pictures.



Comfy living conditions out on the road . . .very uhmm. . ."cozy"



It rains here!



Me cheesing it up for the camera



Here's my lead truck. . .it rocks out at a whopping 45 MPH



Ducks in a row. This is our CLP, Knight 2-2

Pictures from BIAP

Well, I promised pictures, and here they are! These pictures were taken at Baghdad International Airport (BIAP) the day after a thunderstorm passed through.


Below: A picture of the palace at BIAP


Below: Another view showing all of the palace


Below: Whoopsie, I think we blew up that bridge


Below: It kind of rained just a little bit


Below: All the "comfort foods" of home


Below: Mmmm


Below: Vegetation! In Iraq!

Mud Pit

Last night, I saw my first true rain storm in almost four months. I swore to myself after Camp Atterbury, I didn't want to see another drop of rain, and for awhile, I had my wish. Back to last night . . . Driving North to Baghdad, it was quite a sight to see! Lightning lit up the northern sky, and it had already rained a few inches farther south. Anywhere there was but a speck of mud turned into a mud pit. It's definitely going to take at least an hour to wash all of it off of my truck! (Pictures to follow!)

The rain marks a changing of the seasons. Fall, and to a greater extent, Winter has arrived. Winter is the real rainy season here in Iraq, and for the next few months, this country will be a giant mud pit. By the end of March, I'm sure everything I own will be, to some extent, covered in mud. Well, that's all I really have for now. I'll definitely update more when I get back to Kuwait!

By the way, for those who are interested, only 45 more days until leave! That means I only have a few more missions before I get to go home! :-)

Familiar . . . Different

As I type this, I find myself in a location all too familiar to me. The base we traveled to last night, and where I'm currently located, is one of the bases I frequented on my last deployment, nearly 4 years ago. There have been a lot of changes in my life, changes to this post, and changes around this country. Despite all of these changes, everything about my being here has a very familiar feel to it.

I found it to be quite eerie that I could remember where the dining facility and PX were on a post that I hadn't visited in 4 years, and even then, only a handful of times. I knew right where to drive my truck to get fuel, to stage and go to sleep. . .yet, everything about this post has changed. No longer do we sleep on cots in a tent without air conditioning. Gone is the old dining facility which was essentially a large air conditioned tent. It seems as if everything has been replaced by something newer . . . something better. I suppose that's just one of those facts of life, but it shows progress all around.

This time around, I'm a Non-Commissioned Officer, violence in this country has diminished to where people are nearly able to lead a normal lifestyle, and all of the improvements on post . . .this all leads me to believe that progress, however insignificant, is still occurring here, which gives me a reason to be believe that things really can get better over here. At least I've been able to see progress in the four years I've been gone.

Anyway, that's enough reminiscing and wandering thoughts for one post. I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather that fall brings, I know I am! Until next time. . .

Live From Kuwait

Well, as this year goes on, and I count down the days, weeks, and months until I step on that big bird home, I can't help but wonder what I should do when I get home. To be more specific, I definitely think a vacation or a road trip is in order. That being said, I think I'm going to post some sort of an informal poll on the page to see what everyone else thinks about where I should go to relax. I have a few ideas in mind, but maybe I'll get a more creative suggestion about where to go.

For my two weeks leave, I'm going to be spending a week of it in Disney World, so . . .that one will be off limits. I'll brainstorm a little, and put up the poll :-) Happy voting.

Staying Busy

It's been awhile since my last post, but very little has changed. Things are starting to pick up for us, and in my mind, that's a good thing. Life here can be quite miserable when we're not on the road. You would be surprised with how many small tasks pop up for us to do around this place. From guard duty, to cleaning up our motor pool, to just basic maintenance on our trucks. Yes, life on the road is more preferable.

This last mission saw a few changes in the role I play on our convoys. Before, I was responsible for overseeing and supervising the TCN's (Third Country Nationals) that we escort to the bases in Iraq. Now, I am the LVC (Lead Vehicle Commander), responsible for leading the entire convoy to the different bases we go to. It's quite a different job, but one that I thoroughly enjoy. Well, that's all I have for now. I wish everyone the best, and I hope you're enjoying the cooler weather that fall brings. It's barely started to cool off here in Kuwait, we're finally starting to see low 100's as highs, so that's a positive.

~Wildcat~ <----- New job, new callsign

Pictures as Promised

Here are a few pictures from the mission that was just completed. I hope you enjoy!



This is the view from my truck. A good view of all the trucks we just picked up to escort north.



This is what it looks like at the front of the convoy.



Our GPS was definitely having a few problems. It says we're going 418mph. We are not an F16.



Looking out over the desert at sunset, it can actually be quite gorgeous.



Someone's trailer broke down so we attempted to load it onto our trailer. It . . .well. . .lets just say an hour and a half later, our trailer was still empty.



This is my workstation. Complete with personal computer, machine gun, and a hat rack :-)



Unpaved roads can be fun! It would really stink if the wind were blowing straight down the road.

The last leg

I can't believe I've been out on the road this long. . .and I still have one more day of the trip left, the longest day of the trip so far. Not only do we drive farther than on any other day, when we get to our destination, we still have to drop our loads that we're carrying, and empty out our trucks. I have NO idea when I'm actually going to get some rest. Anyway, once I get back to Arifjan, I hope to put some pictures up from the mission.