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.

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 It seems as if everything has been replaced by something newer .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. . .

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