In Country

After the long months of training, we are finally here in Iraq. It took almost 4 days altogether to get to our Firebase, transiting thru Ireland, then Kuwait, and Baghdad. We rested in Baghdad for a little over a day before hopping on Blackhawks for a night time flight. Just as last time, it was the coolest part of the trip, the moon was partially obscured by clouds and was a mean red color. Its reflection kept appearing in the waterways we passed over like some angry sprit. This time we were sitting on the edge of the deck in the door - due to all our gear taking up the rest of the space. My leg eventually fell asleep. Even so it was pretty cool.

While that was the coolest part of the trip, the best part of the trip was in Shannon, Ireland. Of course, every time I am there I am sure to have Guinness. This time I had 3 pints, and it sure pissed of the Marines who were in the terminal too and under orders not to drink. Too bad, I didn't force them to join. My fondest memory of Shannon tough is when I landed there on St. Patrick's Day in 2004 when we were redeploying from Bosnia. That was awesome to have my first (legal) beer in months in Ireland on St. Paddy's Day.

That's all for now - got to go do some work.