Vacation: Iraq: January 2006

Back at home...

I arrived back at Gabe two days ago... Friday? It feels good to be back (as compared to travelling and livin out of a duffel). Got stuck at Anaconda for about 3 days waiting on a flight. Weather was killing any rotary wing so HQ had to send up a convoy. It was good to spend the day with the HQ geeks, got some pizza and burgers and had a thrilling ride home (rides with HQ are always pretty fun).
Went on my first mission back today, a little post raid rolling dismount medcap attitudes and opinions intelligence assessment op. Twas' a good time.
I moved into our new place and I approve of the new living arrangements. I still have my own room, which isn't something you could say for 90% of the soldiers over here. Just working on decorations and furniture.

I miss home.

Ryan

It's funny that 'wait' is in 'Kuwait'

So i'm sittin' here in the local cyberzone waiting to go line up so I can go wait somewhere else, surely to wait some more, and then possibly fly, followed by more waiting. But that couldn't possibly be as bad as the waiting I did in Dallas. Atlanta as well. Much waiting aboard planes. Shannon Ireland, yup I did some waiting there, though that wasn't as bad.

The travel back to Iraq, which just seems counterintuitive in the first place, has been surprisingly smooth. I got laid over in Dallas, spent the night at a Clarion Hotel, met some nice people and had some drinks. That will be the last of my drinking charades for some time I'm sure. I slept most of every single flight I've been on. Relatively painless I say.

And I say again, it just seems odd going back to Iraq. An intelligent person would go and come back... Not go again. But alas, I signed a contract and I'm on my merry way. Besides I'm sure my team misses me like crazy... OK, maybe not the whole team.

I met a PAO (Public Affairs Office) guy while sitting in my tent waiting. We shared some secrets about photography... Well, he did most of the sharing. I think I finally have this aperature thing down. For those of you who don't know, photography is my new found love, and I experimented with it a little bit while on leave. I'm far from good, but I seem to be improving.

K, gotta go sweep out the dust/dirt filled tent before I leave. For those of you I saw on leave, I had a great freakin time and you all contributed to make it what it was. For those who I didn't get a chance to see, I'll be back in a few months and we can make up for lost time... we'll share some coffee or tea or peanuts.

Love you all...

Ryan