Hillah, Iraq. I actually woke up early, and figured I would see if the Staff Sergeant was interested in a run. I was getting dressed when he knocked on my door to see if I wanted to go to breakfast. I agreed, and then asked why his index finger was bandaged. “We got attacked by […]

Hillah, Iraq. Following the success of Operation Lightning, in which Baghdad was searched for bad guys, the Poles were inspired to launch a similar campaign. Only they picked a remote part of the desert three hours away. With no real population density, only collections of mud huts. And no real targets, just the objective of […]

Hillah, Iraq. Things are quiet with half the Marines gone. With no rock fights or X Box competitions to distract me, I opted to finish my CAS training presentation. The internet predictably went down, ensuring that I would have no recourse but to work. Sometimes God works in ways that are not even remotely mysterious.I […]

Since we got back so late, I slept until noon, and really only got up because I would have regretted missing lunch. I have lost a bit of weight since I have been here, and not just because I carry around 50 or so pounds of gear plus weapons as part of the job. Yesterday […]

Late mission means late rising, and lunch was the first big event of the day. Following lunch, we had a power outage. Really, this didn’t impact our operational tempo as we didn’t have anything scheduled for the day. The weekend and early next week is looking quite full, so we are resting while we can. […]

Hillah, Iraq. The weekend is here, so we were off on a roadtrip. Actually, it is the Warrant Officer’s 18th year in the Marine Corps this weekend, and there was a bit of paperwork to submit for that, as well as the Purple Heart paperwork. Honestly, we were just looking for a reason to get […]

Hillah, Iraq. Preparing for missions is a matter of time: you either have too much or not enough. Team meeting in the afternoon, and then mission briefing at 1930. Eat chow. Wait. Look at clock. Wait. There is nothing much to do as all my gear is in the C-Hut. Finally, mission briefing time, and […]

Hillah, Iraq. We had a very late night mission planned, so I had scheduled my day accordingly. A thorough cleaning of my hooch, with reorganization of stuff to follow. Probably work on Levi’s Six Step Buff and Tan plan, then a nap because we are going to be up late again. Laundry, PX, chow, go fight war. […]

Hillah, Iraq. If you sleep twelve hours a day, a six month deployment to Iraq only lasts three months. I only slept three hours before it was time to help Levi with work on the pool. We got the Hesco containers that make up two sides of the pool filled with dirt. While we were […]

Hillah, Iraq. A full night’s proper sleep, and we are ready for serious progress on Levi’s Buff and Tan Plan Step 6a: Build a pool.Today we got a bunch of sand and gravel delivered, so we set up all the empty Hesco containers to form the sides of the pool. Tomorrow a guy is coming […]