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Operation Iraqi Freedom

My Time

Friday, August 06, 2004

Hello everybody. Things here are good. No new attacks. I went swimming today for the second time since I've been here. It's fun but they put A LOT of chlorine in there now because apparently they found E-coli in the pool a couple weeks ago...I know I know, how do you get E-coli in a pool? I don't know. It's one of those things I guess. Anyway, things seem to be going pretty steady. We're in our 6th month now and as of the 25th of August we'll be half way done. Now only being half way done is kind of depressing when you think about how long I've been here, but the second half will be much easier for two reasons. Number 1, we're already in a routine...A comfortable one. So no more tent living, long convoys, workless long days etc. And number 2, one of those months I'll be gone so that's awesome. We're only home for 2 weeks, but we're away from here for a total of 3 weeks, so that's almost an entire month that I won't be here. And two weeks of that will be having the best time of my life with my friends and family at home. So we all know those weeks are going to fly. Well, that's as optimistic I can get about being over here, it's starting to become a way of life now. So, I guess that's it. Thank you all for your support. God bless you and stay safe. Peace.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Hey everyone. So we've had an interesting couple of days since I've written you. First of all two days ago we got attacked. I think it was 5 different attacks but I'm not sure if they were mortars or rockets or what. We've had about 10 accountability checks in the last two days. No one was killed in the attacks that I know of, but a really sad thing did happen. A soldier was killed here a couple days ago because he was hit with another vehicle that was backing up without a ground guide. Because of constant noise and armored vehicles that make it impossible to see behind you, the Army has a regulation that all soldiers must have a person standing behind them guiding them while they back up so not to cause injury and damage. This particular soldier thought he was above the law and backed into another person penning him against a tank. The soldier penned was killed. It's a horrible horrible thing, but it happened. Now this soldier's family has to suffer because of someone's stupid mistake. It's a tragedy. So please keep that soldier's family in your prayers. I hope that the attacks are a one time deal and that they do not start back up, but it seems that they are still random and unorganized. Other than that, things are normal. I'm still working at the motorpool. We got word today that, in the system, they have us leaving on the 21st of February. That's a little bit longer than I had expected, but that is in no way shape or form a hard reliable date. So don't go planning coming home parties...Yet :) But that is the tentative date. I received a box from Mary, my boss from the financial aid office at App so I wanted to thank her for sending me those great cookies. :) Well, I guess that's it. I love you all and I appreciate your support. God bless.

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Hey everyone. So as Amy let you all know in one of the comments, I made it back from my convoy just fine. We went to Baghdad and let me tell you what. The place I went was so beautiful. They had a huge lake with a palace on it. And this thing was gorgeous. I have to hand it to Saddam, he at least had great taste in architecture. They had lake side housing...Probably for the high ranking officers. But the convoy was 99% uneventful. Before we left, reports came in that three IED's had gone off in the last hour and a large barrel of oil had been spilled on the highway coming back home on purpose and caused a tanker to flip over. So right away I was psyched...Not! We got there just fine but right before we left again we heard report that the highway was finally all cleaned up from the spill. Well when we got there, there was an iraqi police car making us go another route. This was a little spooky. Then when we got on the road that we had turned on, two transfer trucks were stopped in the middle of the road. Now this freaked me out because the first thing I thought was ambush. They were going to get us stopped then attack. But our lead vehicle jumped the median, so I followed of course, and when we got to the other side of the trucks, we saw that there was a military escort. So it was nothing. But it still scared me a little. But we got back with no attacks, and that made for a very happy night. Other than that, not much new. We had to say goodbye to some good guys that had to move down to Baghdad, but we'll see them again when we all leave. That's it, thanks so much for your support and God bless. Later

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