Christmas in Iraq

 
I arrived in Iraq two days before Thanksgiving.  Yesterday was
Christmas.  It was actually a pretty fun day, all things considered. 
The day started with a 5k run.  Thousands of people were greeted at
6:30Am with a short speech by a couple of generals, and then we ran 5K
through Joint Base Balad.  There were thousands of people running, [...]

My Office in Balad, Iraq

This is the building where I work.  It’s painted to look like a castle,
with a blue sky above.  I don’t know who thought of the idea to make the
JBB Consolidated Legal Center look like a castle, but it was an
absolutely brilliant idea!  Our building is right on Pennsylvania
Avenue, which is the main drag for Balad, [...]

No, I did Not see President Bush Yesterday

He was in Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday.  He flew in, had his meeting and press conference, and then flew out.  He did not come to Balad Air Base, to the best of my knowledge.
But on Saturday, we had other visitors.  General Odierno, the overall commander of Iraq, had lunch with Secretary of Defense Gates at the [...]

Home Sweet Home

Here is the place where I live. 

 
Note the 12-foot high concrete barriers.  These barriers surround pretty
much every building on post where people spend any amount of time.  And
as shown in my last post, they have mortar shields built over the top of
any structure where crowds of people might gather, such as the theater,
the chapel, the [...]

First Impressions

I’ve been here at Balad, Iraq for over a week now.  It is hard to get access to a computer that allows me to use the internet, write in my blog, or upload photos.  So anyway, here is a little bit of information about my first week.
In Kuwait, we took a bus from Buehring to [...]