The Eye of the Sandstorm

One of the best sandstorms I have seen in the past 13months here. The sky is actually orange.

Well things are certainly interesting here lately in Iraq, but then again that is par for the course I suppose. I wish that I could talk about what has been happening but I will have to limit my narrative to those things that won't result in my blog being shut down by the "man".

We had a wicked sandstorm here the other day that undoubtedly is the worst I have ever seen. The storm actually left a silty layer of sand and dirt throughout the whole area. Stepping out of my room in the morning it felt as though it had snowed because you could actually see trails through the rocks where people had walked through the sediment that accumulated after the storm. You couldn't go so much as 20 feet without being completely covered head to toe in sand and yet even the shelter of the hospital couldn't provide relief. Our emergency room, halls and ward looked as though an explosion had shook the whole hospital into a cloudy haze.

I noted earlier that I have started boxing in addition to my daily workouts and I have to say that I am really liking it. I sparred for the first time last week and once this week also. I am getting a hang of the concept but it takes a while to really be comfortable out there one on one with somebody punching you. One bloody lip and and a bruised nose later I am ready to go again.

As this deployment winds down we hope that we can prevent as many losses as possible. It would be a shame to come this far to lose somebody now but we came close recently and that is something we would hate to have. It has been almost eerily inevitable, if you believe in superstition, that you will go the whole tour without a death and then just as you are handing off the mission to the next unit it happens. Sure, we have lost soldiers in our brigade within the other battalions but we have yet to lose one in our unit. So goal number one still remains: bring everyone home.

Anxiety is slowly setting in to those who are thinking about home. Next month should be our last, and for most the idea of going home is just an impossible thought. Are they really going to send us home this time? Most of us have held to the theory that we won't believe it until we are on that plane ride home and even then I am not sure I will be able to grasp the reality that I am heading back to the real world. What is that like again?

Pax,

Nick

An Oasis in the Middle East

After another long break from blogging, I come writing again from beautiful Iraq; sunny skies and 115 degrees.

After plugging away through 12 months here and with the extension added we were allowed on pass for four days to Qatar last week. We had a great group of us from our unit going and needless to say we had a spectacular time together enjoying a calmer portion of the Middle East. It was almost surreal to us at first that we could actually go out in public without weapons, body armor, or armored vehicles. People didn't hurl insults at us, they didn't glare, and they weren't trying to kill us. It was an altogether great feeling to be accepted as a human being again without the stigma of soldiers in uniform; we were just there to relax, and the work of the soldier was put aside.

The beautiful country of Qatar that is famously known for it's early pearling endeavours and more recently their oil production is one of the richest countries in the world and quite modern by western standards. We were able to eat some great food, swim, see the Persian Gulf, and enjoy a little bit of the culture. The country is very small but rapidly rising and their racial diversity is near what you would see in urban America, with workers from the East and West migrating there for business prospects. The trip was definitely a highlight of my deployment here so far.

And now we are all back to work, and in our heads we still dream about all the fun we had. Now our focus is on how nice it will be to finally go home and trade our military life for the stark contrast of the civilian world. What a relief that will be and yet nerve racking at the same time. We had our "60 day out" redeployment brief the other day warning us about the things we are to expect upon going home. Some of it was serious, but most was quite comical. ". . .Watch out when operating lawn mowers, you haven't used them in a long time. . .Be careful swimming, you may not be as capable as you used to be. . ." And somehow this is ironic considering we have been carrrying and operating multiple automatic weapons, watching the highways for road-side bombs and hoping that a mortar or rocket doesn't fall on our laps while we sleep. Call me crazy if somehow a weedwacker just doesn't sound too daunting at this point.

Now I am not saying officialy or un-officially when we are coming home because I don't have the right to do that but I can say that we are packing three out of four of our bags in connexes by the end of this month. I will say that I am thinking I will be enjoying August in Minnesota and maybe even a couple weeks of July. Take that for what it is worth, but I can't say.

Enjoying the wonderful Iraq summer,
Nick