Here's one of my soldiers manning the gunner's post. This was during one of our trips into Qayyarah.

We went through training on how to search a suspect and I got to play "suspect".

This gentleman was herding sheep around our FOB. The area we were in was predominantly farm and sheep-herding country.

Believe it or not, it does rain in Iraq, as these poor soldiers found out when they tried to move this large forklift over some muddy ground.

I took this photo while flying over Baghdad. It is the Grand Mosque which Saddam was building when the invasion occurred. When finished, it was supposed to be the largest mosque in the world. I doubt it will ever be completed.

Everyone going overseas, no matter your job, has to learn how to do room clearing. Here we are training a "four-man stack". The squad leader is taking up the rear.

Believe it or not, this is what they served for dinner one night. I think it was a case of a Turk not translating to English correctly.

A McDonald's sign I saw at Ali Al Salim base in Kuwait.

This is a mural I saw on Victory Base Complex in Baghdad. Obviously, it's supposed to show the heroic former Iraqi army. There's a painted-over figure on the left. I'm guessing that was Saddam.

This photo was making the email rounds while I was in Iraq. Reportedly, it was a wolf captured in or around Baghdad. I don't know that wolves are indigenous to Iraq, so it could have come from the zoo.

This chair, located in the Al Faw palace was once owned by Saddam. It's a favorite spot for soldiers to get their pictures taken (can you tell?).

This a friend of mine, working for EODT security. He was actually deployed with me, but retired as a Sergeant Major after coming back and starting working for EODT back in Iraq. He's striking a tough-guy pose, but he's really the nicest guy you could meet

QWBC, the FOB I was on, was an old Iraqi air force base and there were some of these old, beat fighters still lying around.

While in Iraq, you get a one-week MWR trip to Qatar. On one of the trips we were allowed to take, this Qatari was selling camel rides. I didn't bother with it.

Iraqi Police having their vehicles checked prior to entry to the base. We trusted the Iraqi Army in our area better than the police.

During training, we fired our weapons many times. Here I am getting in some practice firing three-round bursts for accuracy.

Here's a Styker from the FOB I was on. The 'bird cage' of slats around the vehicle help stop RPG rounds.

In this photo, I'm in the lower right pulling perimeter security during a short halt in training.