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