Living the dream - in the Air Force
For all my fellow service members, who decided to wear Air Force blue rather than Army green, this one’s for you.

For all my fellow service members, who decided to wear Air Force blue rather than Army green, this one’s for you.

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.
During training, we fired our weapons many times. Here I am getting in some practice firing three-round bursts for accuracy.
This graffiti showed up on some walls in a local national parking lot not long before I left. I was told it is a memorial to locals who had worked for the USA and been killed.
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 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.
Here's a Styker from the FOB I was on. The 'bird cage' of slats around the vehicle help stop RPG rounds.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here's one of my soldiers manning the gunner's post. This was during one of our trips into Qayyarah.
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.
I would love to tell you what this mural says, but I never got it translated. I'm pretty sure it dates back to when the Iraqi Army and Air Force were still under Saddam. It was located in a building on our FOB.
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Whoa! Pot shot at the fly boys! HAHA!
This makes me laugh everytime I see it!!
I would guess since most services use contractors to do most of the mundane and messy jobs, seeing a recruit doing kp and cleaning the grease traps is not going to happen.
But I remember…that and pulling fire guard and policing up what seemed to be the whole of Ft. Polk.
The life of a recruit now I am told is more manly (or womanly) and there is more bookwork and lecture.
But I remember when I came off of a week of kp feeling like a man released from a dungeon of horrors…
Boy, it sure felt good.
But it didn’t do much to prepare me for the hell I was to wind up in.
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA