Feb. 2 – We’ve gone out several times into the city. As we drive throughout the city it isn’t a city compared to most American cities. It’s more like a ‘congested suburbs’ type of area. I met with my Iraqi counterpart and we spoke of course through an interpreter. We both welcomed each other. I could tell that he was impressed that I spoke a few words of Arabic. Today was payday for his troops so our conversation was brief but to the point. We had made plans to talk next week. So I made my way back to our vehicles outside. As we were waiting for the rest of our team members I so many Iraqi children playing outside and around our vehicles. Of course, by now, they have become accustomed to US soldiers giving them candy. There was one interesting moment. A merchant came up and handed one of our soldiers a bag of bread. I was watching this from my truck. The soldier caught my eye and came over to us and offered some of his bread. My guys in my truck turned down the offer. They were afraid that they were going to get sick. Well, yours truly accepted the offer. I took a piece of bread from the soldier and went back to my truck. Let me tell you!!! That was the most delicious piece of homemade bread that I have ever had!!!! Subway needs a lesson on how to make it! Another image caught my eye. There were so many boys playing and running up and down the street. Except there was a little Iraqi girl, about 7 or 8 years old trying to keep up with them. I didn’t know if they were all her brothers but she wanted desperately to keep up with them. She reminded me of my own daughter. She had the same coloring and hair that my daughter had. Watching her brought back memories of when my daughter and I would dance in the kitchen. I would hum a made-up swing jazz tune and she and I would swing dance in the kitchen. You know to this day if I grab her and hum that tune she will still dance with me!

Feb. 4 – We went back out into the city to meet our Iraqi counterparts today. I am working with a young lieutenant. The interpreter tells me that he is a good man. In this culture, there is a high level of distrust here. To be trusted by another person is almost like a place of high honor. We sat in his office which was nothing more than a sectioned-off space that you would use as a storage space. He had wood walls all around it but inside he had a desk, and filing cabinet and to my surprise, he had two twin beds against the wall to the right. It was obvious to me that this place was also his home. In our training, they told us that many of these men live in towns that are far off from where they work. That explains why every month a large group of soldiers go home on a one-week leave. He did have a chair to offer me as he took his place behind his desk. I felt sorry for him in a way. Do you know that fancy pen and pencil set that most managers have in their office that sits in a fancy holder? Well, he had just some plain Bic pens in place of those. His assistant came into the room and offered us some ‘chia’. Which is basically Iraqi tea. Well you know me, I couldn’t hold back my smile at the thought of trying something authentic to the culture. “You like?” he asked me in the best English that he knew. “Yes, it’s my first time!” I told him as he smiled at my excitement about the experience. We talked about our families and other confidential matters and soon it was time for me to go. As I stood up to shake his hand I experienced the ‘man kiss’. In Arabic culture, men greet each other with a kiss on the cheek. Well of course my teammates heard about it and without a doubt gave me flack about it. Of course, I just told them that if ever we are captured, they will let me go because I made the effort to become true to their culture!

Feb. 6 – There is one thing that I’ve noticed since I’ve lived here in this camp. There is no such thing as weekends here. Each day can be initially a mission day. I can see it in our guys. When we need to get the equipment or something we can get it at any time. The crazy thing about this is that when I go into the city of Baghdad it is a hard life for the people that live there. When we roll back into our camp the dynamics change. I can’t believe just how many soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen that we have here but the huge numbers of civilians that we have living are working on this camp. It just dawned on me that the United States pays a lot of money to run this huge machine called the military. I can’t just imagine that there are at least (I’m guessing) about 100 people who care about the needs and concerns of each military member! Civilians are living here like they are going to work 9 to 5 back home. I know that many have made the choice to be here because of the non-tax benefits on their income. I don’t if I would live and work in a combat zone. They eat in the same chow hall as we do and everything. Some of them carry a weapon on them too. All this money! Wow. I am still saddened by it all. When I think just over the fence line there are people who are struggling with just trying to survive the violence.

Feb. 9 – I live in a trailer that has a room on each side of me. The way I can tell is that there is a soldier who slams the door every morning! It sounds like a huge thunder when he does it. The walls are so thin I can hear his conversations with his friends in his room. My room is made for two people but being I am a high-ranking sergeant I get to have a room by myself. I have two twin beds in my room, with two wall lockers. The walls in here are covered with that cheap beige wall paneling that you would get from Lowes. On my nightstand set my computer all the time, where I romance my wife through ‘instant messaging’ every night. I sometimes talk to a few friends as well. I purchased a coffee pot and microwave to help with making it a little comfortable. In one of the wall lockers, I have all of the goodies that you guys sent me. Trust me I won’t go hungry. On my wall, I’m trying to put together a collage of photos of all my friends, so if you could send me some pictures of yourself with your family or pets or anything, it will help the time go by fast. Not being able to teach every day is taking its toll on me too. My knees have become achy lately. I have taken back up running again and of course weight training. The heat for this place is coming in May. So I hope to at least lose that belly fat of mine. The food in the mess hall is unreal! Imagine you eating dinner every night in the food court at Carolina Place mall!! There is every thing tthat you want to drink, even ‘non-alcoholic beer’. Some of you would love this. They even have two dessert bars. One of them has nothing but cakes and pies and the other serves Baskin Robbins ice cream. So for me, with so many choices I have to really fight to stay on my diet. What works for me is that the Iraqis do all of the cooking but sometimes certain dishes don’t taste as it does back home. The soup is sometimes too thick. Either way, I am not coming home overweight!!! Don’t worry about me, I walk to and from the mess hall (it’s about a quarter-mile walk) every day. I limit myself to desserts and fried foods. When the heat gets here who will have time to eat all of that food?

Feb. 10 – For the sake of security and confidentiality I can not reveal the details of what happened to me today. My team and I were hit with an attack today! No one was hurt and we made it back to our camp. We assessed the damage and checked everyone out. Thank God no one was hurt. We all agreed that this is a wake-up call for us that we are really in a war zone and that we must pay attention as best as we can. For me, I pray before we go out and I pray before we come back in. I know God has my life in his hands. We have sophisticated weapons, equipment, and trained staff but my peace relies upon knowing God is in control. I am not saying I am not afraid. I’m just saying that I have to rest in the knowledge of that to have peace so that I can do my job.

Feb. 11 – Dust, dust, dust. If you don’t like dust you won’t live in Iraq. I have an office (which I have the biggest desk of anyone on the team!) where I work. It is a beautiful walnut-grain-looking desk. I pridefully spray lemon scent Pledge on it and buff it to a magnificent shine. I can go to lunch that afternoon and come back and there is a light film of dust! There is dust everywhere. They say that if you keep the doors and windows close you can control it but my daily chore each day as I sit at my desk is to pull out a cloth and wipe away that light layer of dust. Dust gets on my laptop, clothes, hair, and yes even up my nose! The weather is becoming warmer each week and I just know it’s going to get worse. In Baghdad, there are some sidewalks but for the most part, some of the side streets and roads are all dirt roads. On dry days here I have experienced everything from a military vehicle to a donkey cart whizzing past me in a cloud of dust! My skin feels like I need to exfoliate.

Feb. 12 – Today is my mom’s birthday. My mother is a very strong influence in my life. She for the most part is the only person outside of my wife that understands me. As a boy, I was picked on a lot and when I would run to her she would encourage me and push me back out there. My mom is a minister in the Methodist denomination. She made sure all of her children were raised in the church. Trust me, my brothers and sisters and I would try to run one on her. But she wouldn’t budge. I want to say Happy Birthday to my mother who I love and respect.

Feb. 13 – This camp in which I am staying is made up of a series of trailers that are protected by concrete barriers that stand about 12 feet tall. I am traveling around our camp in an SUV (can you believe that!) that we use to run our errands with. As I drive around the camp I come to the main area where Sadaam lived. This is a beautiful palace that borders a lake-like body of water that comes in from the Tigris River. There are about 6 other buildings that are located around the edges of the lake. This place is beautiful! As I come around a turn I am much closer to one of the buildings. I don’t read Arabic so above the door is something written in Arabic with a figure of a man’s head on the body of a winged creature. They told us that this place was used by Sadaam to entertain guests when they came to Baghdad. It’s about 6:45 p.m. here and the sun is about to go down. As I continue my drive through the compound it paints a romantic moment for any couple. The palace looks awesome with the orange sun as its backdrop. How can a guy live this life of luxury while his people are starving outside the gates of this place?

Feb. 16 – Today is my youngest daughter’s birthday. She is eighteen years old today! As a soldier, there will always be a time when you will miss a birthday or anniversary. She is so grown up and it’s hard to let her go. Today we were asked to stay and have lunch with our Iraqi counterparts. Some of the guys definitely did not want to have lunch with them for fear of getting sick. Well yours truly, I wanted to partake of all the Iraqi experience that I can. Our commander told us that it would be considered disrespectful if we didn’t. I offer to bring the Pepto (pink stuff) should anyone get sick. We arrived to have lunch with our counterparts and they quickly shuffled all of us into a room where a table was prepared with food. Here we are, Americans on one side of the table, and across from me were Iraqi officers. We had our interpreters sit in between us to help with communication. As we took our places I looked up at one of my buddies and he had this funny smile on his face. He was one of the ones who did want to eat. The meal consisted of that bread that I like, I had these strips of beef that I thought tasted like lamb, a salad, broiled tomatoes, and two creamy things that tasted okay to me but I didn’t want to change it either. I was fortunate enough to eat with a Kurdish army lieutenant. He was 24 years old, handsome, single, and spoke pretty good English. Our conversation consisted of my family, his family, and his culture. He was excited when I told him that the American girls would love him back home. Not understanding my humor, he asked with a serious look on his face ‘Why girls would love me?’ I had no choice but to tell him that he was a ‘pretty boy’. He laughed when he got my joke. I told my team that we had just 30 minutes after eating this meal to get back to camp because that would be how long our digestive system would begin to fail! We finished our meal and shook hands and it was time for my team to make it back to camp. I enjoyed it. As we all left I took another piece of bread.

Feb. 19 – Dust, dust, dust is everywhere!!!!! If you don’t like dust don’t come to Iraq. It’s everywhere! I can wipe the dust off of my desk in my office and just in a few hours, you will see a light film of dust on my beautiful walnut desk! By the way, I have the biggest desk in the team office! I come in after a mission and start my second job. When we come back from our mission we unload and secure our equipment. About half of the team doesn’t have the same responsibilities as me and few of the other guys have. I handle logistics, for non-army people which means I have the responsibility to handle the team’s needs for supply of equipment, ammo, food, medical supplies, vehicles, uniforms, and the list goes on! The other sergeant is responsible for administrative needs and there is one other who is our medic. So what do the rest of the guys do? I won’t bad mouth anyone but let’s just leave it to your imagination. Oh yeah, our chief stays late every night getting his reports together. It may sound like I am complaining but I’m not. I rather have it that way but it will make my year go fast. Already some of our guys are getting quite irritable. The truth is that they are bored. I understand that you can’t write a year’s curriculum on shooting guns! I like my job. Some of the other sergeants were giving me a hard time in the beginning because they thought I should be doing more operation functions. That means planning battle strategies and combat stuff. Boring!! Before I became a drill sergeant I worked in a supply company. When I came here one of the officers is a supply guy too. We both hit it off. He is very good at what he does. God works things out because his personality fits mine perfectly. He makes me laugh and he mentors me daily about the supply world. The funny thing about him is whenever I’m eating some candy at my desk and I get up to run some errands and come back, I find that my candy is has been eaten! This would irritate me long ago but now what I do is buy enough for two!

Feb. 20 – We had one of our sergeants request to be moved to another team. He feels that he isn’t being recognized and respected for his part in our day-to-day planning and operations. To be fair to him it is partially true. We have several young officers that are arrogant when you try to work with them. The average years of experience amongst the sergeants is about 15 years. These young officers average about 7 years of experience. One thing that I have noticed that hasn’t changed since I’ve been out is that individuals still think their rank means that gives them the privilege to not listen to the people that are around them! The Bible says ‘that there is a multiple of consolers in a group of people. These guys are young and you would think that they would listen to the years of experience that surround them. At the same time, this sergeant’s ‘people skills are not the greatest. So he tends to fold his arms and go sit in the corner and pouts. I really hope that we don’t lose him. It would my life a little easier not to watch him be so unhappy.

Feb. 22 – We patrolled a neighborhood today with the Iraqis today. We went through a neighborhood that was in my estimation lower than a slum. The people were very poor living in houses that were made of plywood, mud, and pieces of cheap mortar. The streets that we drove down were all dirt roads. As we stopped from time to time the children would approach our vehicles and speak to us in Arabic asking us to throw candy. This house had no indoor plumbing or electricity. I found it silly that we were driving through their neighborhood looking for bad guys with weapons that could take out a city block! These people had nothing! Personally, I think it was just protocol. As we passed by the adults would stand outside their doors and look at us as we passed. If they liked us you would get the usual thumbs-up sign. While driving at about 5 miles an hour we turned a corner and came to a complete stop. We saw a little boy run past our truck carrying two big plates of food. We all got nervous because in Arabic culture when it’s time to eat they stop whatever they are doing and have lunch. I don’t think that was the problem. In their culture, they share their food as part of their hospitality. I heard the guys in our truck say ‘Oh no!’ I started laughing because I knew that they were worried about their digestive system!

Feb. 24 – We are traveling back out to meet with our Iraqi counterparts. As we are driving I can hear the radio calls that are coming in from other units that are moving throughout the city. I am shocked about what I am hearing. Sorry for the details but there is one call that comes in and tells of a person that was found shot in the head and then burned! In our training, they tell us that we have to be careful because when going near a dead corpse that too can be an IED (improvised explosive device) attached to it. Another call comes in reporting of a car bomb that just exploded in a marketplace! What I am hearing is unbelievable. This doesn’t compare to the action that I can find on my weekly TV cop program! I have to stay focused because as we travel through the city we have to watch out for IEDs planted in the road or some crazy sniper taking potshots at us. Through all of this, I still can see the beauty in Baghdad. Today is a comfortable 68 degrees. The sun is shining and as we turn one corner and head down this street that goes into this Shia neighborhood, there is a row of palm trees located in the medium of the road. Yet I still can take a second and enjoy this scene knowing that somewhere else there is chaos.