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.

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

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.

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

Me with one of the local kids in a nearby village.

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

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?).

Here's what it looked like as we boarded the plane to fly to Iraq. I remember being both excited and nervous at the same time.

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.

This mosque, I was told, was Saddam's personal mosque near the Al Faw palace. Now, it's located on Victory Base Complex.

This is a mosque located on our FOB. No American was alloowed inside - even if you were security (like me) or an American Muslim.

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.

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.

That's me flying in a UH60 between bases.