Iraq [woooooo!!]

As you all can probably tell from my 5-star accomodations shown above that I have finally made it to Iraq!

Life isn't so bad here, other than being so far away from my wife and family.

On this FOB we have all of the ammenities that you could ever want including an out-door pool and movie theater. Not to mention a fairly large PX and all the fast food joints (though I'm trying to stay away from those!)

I've been here almost two weeks, so thats a total of three weeks down on this deployment. Time isn't flyng by as fast as I would have hoped at this point, but I think as I settle into my routine it will start moving along (hopefully).

My room has internet connection, which is really nice when it works- but thats only about half of the time. When you get all the people in their rooms logged on at the same time it tends to run REALLY slow. But I guess I can't really complain considering when this all started they didn't have any of these luxuries. I also have an industrial a/c unit to keep me cool!!

My days are fairly standard and really similar to how they would be if I was back in the states, except that I carry my rifle where ever I go. I rotate between my room, work, the chow hall, and the gym everyday. Pretty simplistic lifestyle right now, but it gives me some sense of security knowing what I'll be doing every day. Everyone in the unit has been really receptive and willing to help me out since I got here later than the rest of them. The integration has gone smoothly though and I think everyone is starting to get used to the new LT being around, so that is good.

It looks like I'll be coming home on R&R sometime around January. I have already started a countdown! Even though I haven' been here that long I am really looking forward to taking a break and coming home for a while.

I am trying to figure this thing out so I can upload more than one picture at a time so my posts will be a little more interesting the next time around. For now, though, I'll continue to publish some web albums as I accumulate the pics.

Thanks to everyone for keeping in touch and sending packages! It is all much appreciated.

-- Don