This Qatari was selling opportunities to hold his falcon for $5. I didn't take him up on it.

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?).

Me in the office. 'BDOC' stands for Base Defense Operations Center.

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

This is a typical truck driven by private security. It's armored to some extent, and features a "gun bucket" in the back for a rear gunner's position.

Here I am during a trip to Qayyarah to check on a water-pumping station.

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

The extension on the front of this HMMWV is used to set off IEDs prior to the HMMWV actually passing by. These have been used in Iraq for some time, so I don't think I'm giving away any secrets here.

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.

A collection of rocket launchers. Hajji will often set these up, put a rocket in it, set up some sort of timer device, and then leave the area for the rocket to fire at a later time.

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

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.

Here's a couple of the Iraqi Army soldiers we had living on our base. Not exactly Western standards, but they tried.

If you fly much in Iraq, then you've likely been on one of these - a C-17. They are much better to fly in than C-130s.

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.

House clearing training.

Here's my section training in house clearing.