Here I am at the infamous Abu Ghraib. While in Baghdad, I ran into a friend of mine and was able to join one of his unit's convoys to this prison. This is, of course, prior to this facility being turned over to the Iraqis.

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.

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

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.

House clearing training.

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

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

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.

This is me getting the upper hand on one of the guys in my unit. We were learning search techniques for a hand-cuffed suspect.

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?).

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.

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

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

This is a UH60 refueling. I don't recall what base this is on. They kick the passengers off while they're doing this, which is when I got this picture.

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

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