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