Iraq Travel Blogs

Yes all, it is my last week in Iraq. So excited, to get outta here, see family and start back to the REAL World. It has been an amazing changing time of my life and I can't wait til we fly out the end of the week and say bye-bye to sand and dust!!

Well today was the 4th of July, and like most holidays in Iraq came and went without a single mention of what we were missing back home.  I was able to take 14 of my guys to the pool on our FOB, and for 4 hours that day we forgot that we were even in Iraq.  Took our uniforms off, stripped…

            On a clear chilly day in the desert, an idea was crafted to build a weather rock observing device. The device simple in nature has a challenge attached to it. Then send the rock sailing down a predetermined clearing, one problem fin…

The small city of Duhuk ultimately proved to be my main base during the time I stayed in Kurdistan Iraq.  As soon as I arrived, I found a travel agent to see about possible dates for flying from Arbil to Amman, Jordan.  Fortunately, there was a flight but it was for the day after my …

Well,  leaving my ship April 2006 was rather easy for me.  I was tired of going out to sea and getting sea sick.  The hours were long,  the job was monotonous and the people were starting to annoy me.  My Command Master Chief came up to me one morning while I was making bre…

Many people ask me about what I want to do in my life.  As I am sure many of you are also asked.  About a month ago I watched a movie called The Bucket List, which most have probably seen.  It was definitly a "B" movie, but it got my friend Preston (PostCard on TB) and me thinking as…

I got to see many different places and cultures while I was in the military.   I lived in South Korea for a year and a half, spent eight months in Afghanistan, and the better part of a year in Iraq.  During these deployments I had the opportunity to see many different cultures and ex…

While i am working 6 days a week in what is now the rainy season in Northern Iraq. My thoughts are filled with excitement of leaving this place! I get to go back home for good before the start of Summer, but my thoughts are mainly on this western europe trip next month. How exciting for anyone plan…

When a soldier comes home, he finds it hard....

I have been here for 3 months already and time seems to be going by rather quickly. I arrived in November and it was still warm and sunny. Then winter came around and it cooled off a little, 30s-40s at night. I am in the western desert region and there is sand for miles. I haven't seen much of the …

As I rise to my feet I grab my mat and roll it up. I walk into the next room where my son is sound asleep and lay it in the bed next to his head. Trying not to wake him I lean over to kiss him on his cheek but he opens his eyes. I tell him that I love him and to be a good young man and go back to s…

I am a planner.  I love to read travel books and figure out ahead of time all the places I want to go...usually more places than I have time to see.  So I generally have a good I idea of what I am most looking forward too.  Before I ever get to a place I sort of have favorites pre-se…

I look on the clock, six pm already. The low sun burns the left side of my face, we are driving north. I stared out of my window, looking at a landscape I had been looking at for the past week. Dry, sandy hills lying under a blue sky which seems to be always cloudless. Suddenly, I was focussed on t…

It's almost 4 years since I went on my first and only 4 month deployment to southern Iraq. I've never really thought about writing about it until now for various reasons but here goes.I was originally going to do my 4 months in the Falkland Islands but things started happening over in the Middle Ea…

I have been able to see more of Iraq than I would have actually liked to have seen.  I first came over to sunny Iraq in 2003 with the US Army and got to visit all sorts of exciting places and to "meet" tons of new and interesting people.  I came back over to Iraq again in 2006 to work in …