Be Kind, Rewind

I'm in Kuwait now, deployment winding down, and I've finally got some free time to write again. I'll post my going-home thoughts at some time in the future, but for now let's suspend disbelief and pretend I haven't been sitting on about two months' worth of material and completely failing to update. SO - let's break out the flux capacitor, kick it up to 88 mph, and pretend it's... like, August again.

And since it's now August, let's talk about my recent trip to Baghdad, which was my 5th since April. My life has a whole lot of downsides here, but gathering moss is not one of them - this stone has kept rolling pretty well. I rode down with the Division SJA, who was traveling to the IZ for a conference, and the pilots were gracious enough to drop me off at VBC after taking them all to the IZ. Three Blackhawks for 5 people. That's how we roll. Daytime flights are hard to come by, so that was very cool. Got some really sweet pictures that would be awesome if the 150mph wind hitting the camera hadn't blurred most of them out.

This particular trip was for a command-wide "where are we/where should we be/how do we get there"-type meeting at our HQ in the Hussein sons' pool house. Very enlightening. I spent the majority of my weekend on back Camp Liberty, right down the street from the area I first started this deployment in. Most of my friends from TF 134 were around and it was great to get to see almost everybody again, although the occasion wasn't exactly cause for celebration and the trip was extremely brief for most. Spent a little time on FOB Cropper getting humiliated by a buddy of mine who has obviously been honing his Call of Duty skills, perhaps while the rest of us are working.

I left freshly talked at, motivated to head home and finish out my remaining 3 months far, far away from Baghdad..

This guy.

We picked up Little Country in the IZ on our way in. I tried to convince him everything was going to be OK, but we were SO high up and it was so loud and windy, poor little guy was scared!

Saddam's Waterpark-O'-Death. Word on the street is the cadaver dogs that we use to search for bodies in rubble go crazy around these lakes.

OCI HQ. I watched a supply convoy take small arms fire from the roof on my first night in Iraq. Fun place.

CHU life in the Stryker Stables, with my entire existence in a backpack. Living so large.

I see you're admiring my hat.

Please also take some time to admire the pain that Little Country and I bring.

THIS. IS. SPEICHER.
!