Then We Got to Ride in a C-130

Not as cool as a helicopter.  A cramped C-130 that was hot and smelled of fuel.  It did get us to Kuwait, one step closer to home!

Helicopter Ride

One of the coolest things that I have gotten to do is ride in a Black Hawk helicopter to get to Baghdad on the first leg of my trip home.

LEAVE!

I am finally home sitting in the chair that I built, eating food that I made and sleeping in my own bed!  It was quite an adventure just getting here, but I made it and now I am enjoying the time off.  We bought a new computer yesterday for Julie's birthday (I know it is about a month late) and spent the day together.  I ate some really good pizza that made me depressed that I have to go back and eat army food again.  I am also being spoiled by an internet connection that instantly displays webpages and actually lets me stream videos!  I don't know what I am going to do when I go back and have to deal with the slower than dial-up speeds there.  I am going to try to take advantage of this though and add some pictures and videos to my blog that I haven't been able to do before.  

It is nice being home and seeing my family again.  Boys grow fast and they changed a lot in the 5 months since I saw them last.  It hasn't been too hard to get used to being here though.  My only previous experience in this regard was my mission and two years away is a lot longer than 5 months.  There are changes, but not as many.  It hasn't been quite the shock that I was anticipating.  The shock will come when I get home in the fall and have to go back to work!  

It hasn't been all good though.  I blew the engine in my mustang as I was driving down the freeway last night.  I think the head gasket blew.  I am not too worried because the is plenty of time to get it fixed before I come home for good, but I had decided that I wasn't going to be able to get a new engine when I got home and now I am going to have to reconsider that.  It might be a good thing in the long run.  

Well, I have another day full of fun things planned today so I better get going.  I might not say much the rest of the time I am home, so don't be disappointed if I don't post anything else for a couple of weeks.  I think you can understand!

Done with Another Long Mission

I am done with the downtown Baghdad mission, but it was a long one.  On our second trip down there they closed down the return route and redirected us to the base at Baghdad International Airport.  We were a little upset, but really didn't have a choice.  Most of us were not prepared to stay the night because we were driving borrowed trucks and hadn't taken the time to load them with all our extra gear.  We got stuck there for three days because the weather went bad on us!  I had to buy shaving gear, a blanket and some extra socks!  I also forgot to bring my phone card so I had to buy one of those so I could call Julie and let here know why I wasn't getting a hold of her.  We got to sleep on nice comfy cots (I'm being sarcastic if you couldn't tell) and wait in our trucks all night waiting to see if the weather would clear enough to roll.  We finally had to get special permission to come home.  We missed a trip back to downtown and I think they didn't want to delay the mission any more.  We were all happy to get back home to sleep in our beds with sheets and pillows.  Well, they extended the mission to make up for the lost trip so we didn't finish until just a couple of days ago.  We were supposed to go out again last night, but they canceled the final trip.  We just had to clean our trucks out and get them and our weapons ready to turn in.  Now we are just sitting here waiting to go on leave.  It's nice to have a few extra days off.  It doesn't help my anxiety at going home though because all I have to do is sit around thinking about it... nothing to keep me busy or distracted.  I can't wait to go home!

Some More Pictures

Me killing time while our cargo flips.  Thanks for the magazine subscriptions for Christmas!!

This is the view of the other side of the truck and my Truck Commander.  

Me, Little Watkins our driver, and CPL Martin our TC in front of the famous "Crossed Swords" and military parade ground in Downtown Baghdad.

Downtown Baghdad

After a really long day I was finally able to get some sleep and feel rested enough to do some catch up on my online chores.  I am really excited though because yesterday I got to go to the International Zone, formerly the Green Zone, in downtown Baghdad.  It was a cool trip for us first timers and we felt more like tourists than soldiers on a combat patrol.  We got to see all the buildings and monuments that everyone sees on the news when they talk about Iraq.  I recognized a few buildings from when they showed live on cable news the aerial bombardment that started this war.  And for my Julie and the boys, who will know what I am talking about, I got to drive on what used to be called the most dangerous road in the world: the freeway between the Baghdad International Airport and downtown. It isn't dangerous like it used to be and is actually one of the nicest roads we have driven on.  It even has lanes painted on it!  I wish I could have gotten some better pictures but it was dark after all.  That is one of the drawbacks of working at night.  After getting back really late from our mission, we had to stay awake until about the equivalent of 4 am to go to some briefings that we have to hear before coming home on leave.  A long mission and then no sleep!  I should get to catch up tonight though!

Back to Baghdad

I just got back from another trip to Baghdad.  I hadn't been down there in a long time, more than a month, and I was surprised at how much had changed.  I think I mentioned before about some road construction on the route down there.  Well, now there are stripes painted on the road and reflectors and everything.  Those are the first strips I have seen on any road in Iraq!  There is construction everywhere and new lights and buildings.  It looks like the pace of reconstruction is really picking up.  I will go home on leave at the end of the month and be gone for three weeks.  I'm sure a lot more will change by the time I get back from that.  I think that I will only have to go out a couple more times before I get my break.  I will have a lot of time to kill if that is the case because it is still three weeks away.  

Facebook

As some of you probably already know, I finally opened up a Facebook account.  I did it mainly so that I could send text messages to Julie's phone for free and to direct people to come to this blog to find out what is going on with me.  I am not very social and not that interested in "social networking" so don't be too offended if I don't return all of your messages to me.  

For pictures and descriptions of what I am doing come here!