The DL

Ok so now that life has slown down relatively speaking, I can give everyone a little insight into the adventure that brought me to the sandy beach (minus the ocean) that is Iraq.

While some of my Marines left a few day prior, it was around 1400 on the 23rd that 123 Marines, Sailors, and myself loaded onto the buses to drive to Cherry Point. The 6 hours prior to that was an exaughstive check and recheck of all of our gear and personnel to make sure everyone was ready, and by the time we loaded up, I already felt like I had been up for over 24 hours. Last year I only had myself and my platoon, but it's a different story when you are overseeing a company.

Ashley and Chestnut came to see me off. Nutty was a little perturbed at the number of people and loud noises, but helped me out by keeping watch underneath my desk out of sight to ensure I didn't drop anything and leave it behind. He was very patriotic in his Star Spangled Bandana. Ashley was my hero, helping me out with my numbers and keeping all smiles the whole time. I'm sure it was because of the dollars signs that floated in the back of her head, knowing she would be raking in the bucks while I'm gone, but she played it off as just being a strong loving wife.

So then we were off. There is something to be said for finally being on the road, no longer stressing about missing something since there is very little you can do about it. We arrived at Cherry Point, loaded up and flew off to Bangor Maine. When we disembarked there for an hour, there was a procession of retired vets and older ladies to greet us and give us food and water, and the opportunity to talk on free cell phones back home if we wanted. I don't know if they have these troop receivers all over the country, but I do have to give Maine props for making us feel very welcome.

From there we headed to Germany, stopped briefly, then flew the rest of the way into Kuwait. We went to a different camp than the one we were in last year, but I swear it was like someone had cut and pasted Camp Beurring (or however you spell it) and placed it on top of Camp Victory. I'm pretty sure the same Indian guy was working at the chow hall too.

I will spare you the details on the incredible pain it was to get from Kuwait to Al Asad, but just know that I will never forgive the Air Force for being so incredibly unflexible. We landed in Al Asad and proceeded to have no idea what was going on for at least the next 48 hours. Now Al Asad is in Iraq, but you couldn't tell by the way it looks. I could have sworn I saw people playing ping-pong as I got off the bird, outside, in pt gear. I think the people affectionately reffer to it as Camp Cupcake. There are buses that drive you around base, and very little in the way of spartan living.

We waited, and we waited, but the Fox Company rain cloud (also the sandstorm cloud) had apparently taken an early flight into Al Asad (I bet he got to ride first class too) and decided he was gonna force all flights to be cancelled. This left us sitting around for a few days. Instead of flying, the first wave of Marines and Sailors headed to our final destination via convoy. It was a little nervous, knowing that we were going to be driving the roads right after a sand storm, but route clearance went out ahead of us.

So my first impressions of Iraq as we drove cross country. First, it's very sandy. Ok yeah duh, but what I mean is that you can take a typical us country side, and just replace all the grass with sand and that is pretty much Iraq terrain. Second, apparently we and the Iraqis disagree as to the best place to put garbage. We believe in putting it in garbage cans and then into city dumps and land fills. Iraqis believe that they should instead drop it everywhere but. Now I know you may think that this is because Iraqis are not caring about the environment, but hang on my friend I have a theory. You see it is BECAUSE Iraqis love the environment that they throw trash everywhere. Without having to expend the extra energy to walk the 2 feet to the trash can, they are not required to consume as much food and water, which in turn leads to smaller farms pushing fewer green house gases (cow farts) into the O-Zone. An added bonus is that the woodland (or sandland) creatures have more diversity for their homes. Would Mr. Scorpion like to live in the abandoned car, or the old cigarette carton? Mrs. venomous snake can spend his days in his worn out boot, but can go partying at night in the babies diaper. The choices are limitless. So next time someone tells you Iraqis aren't caring when it comes to Mother Nature, you tell them that Iraqis are about as green as you can get. (I promise they are laughing with you not at you.)

So moving on we traveled the rest of the way to our AO and here I am. Captain Schwartz had the shortest hair cut I think I've ever seen him in, and he might ACTUALLY be in Marine regulation now.

I think I'll end this post here, as I think many of you are about to fall asleep. I will feed you some more updates as things progress.