Thanks!

I need to take a moment to say thank you to a bunch of folks.

Thanks to Laura, an awesome friend, for keeping tabs on me. I had broken my consistent trail of entries and she made sure I was doing alright and still able to blog. I promise a short note for future blogs if the my workload becomes too great and I can't update the blog for a reasonable amount of time. :)

Thanks to my folks for spending 3 weeks at my home to help with the kids and make it possible for Andra to travel and see her family in Florida. Your help, love, and advice is always appreciated!

Thanks to our church for making special efforts to help my family as we prepare to move. I appreciate your love and support.

Thanks to Suz's 8th grade class for your comments and being entertained by my blog. Suz is a great teacher - you just need to come to school ready to learn and she'll take care of the rest!


Had a troubling night last night as 3 sets of convoys returned to base with sirens blaring. This is indicative of the rush to get injured soldiers to the medical facility. It's unusual to hear three sets of sirens in one night. Around 1am we had a huge blast in our vicinity that shook my trailer and then again around 8:30 this morning a couple of mortars dropped in for a real attention grabber.

This picture is from last night. We were picking up pizzas for pizza/movie night when this truck rolled over to the food court area with a jazz band on the back. The morale folks are really great about using soldiers with music talent to form bands and have them go from dining facilties to open public areas to perform. These folks started off with some Latin jazz heavy on the trumpet and it was awesome!


We drove by this one the other day and had to get a picture. The majority of our living and working areas are protected from mortar and rocket blasts with 8-10ft T walls of concrete. They either keep the shrapnel out or contain the blast within the walled areas. Anyway, one of the acronyms we use to describe car bombs is VBIED - vehicle borne improvised explosive device. Someone had this no parking sign made up and posted it on the T wall outside their place. Situational humor!!

This afternoon we went driving around a little and meandered over to Camp Slayer to check out their market. If you have seen one market, then you've seen them all. Rumor has it - the view from on top of Signal Hill at Camp Slayer is exceptional. We figured since we were there, we should check it out. We weren't disappointed in the least. We could see all of Camp Slayer, Camp Victory, Baghdad International Airport, and the surrounding Mansour District of Baghdad OUTSIDE our perimeter walls. Of course, timing is everything. Ian made the observation, "They can see us as well as we can see them. We probably shouldn't be here much longer." Snipers are a problem throughout all of Iraq. Captured by Daves running video camera, not more than 2 minutes after Ian's statement, a rifle shot rings out from the neighborhood below us. The last part of that sequence of tape is dave saying,"Yeah. It's time for us to leave." I can't say they were shooting at us since we didn't hear a hiss or doppler shift...but the timing was priceless!

1. Mansour District

2. Perfume Palace

3. Camp scenery

A-ILUH&S!!