I was able to visit the Ah Shaw(sp) palace in Baghdad - one of Saddam's old haunts and now the home of MNC-I. These columns were huge.

This is the Al Faw palace at Camp Victory in Baghdad. Saddam used to occupy it, but it's now home to MNC-I.

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.

That's me flying in a UH60 between bases.

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.

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

The FOB I was on was a former Iraqi Air Force base. As a result, we had a couple of these old Mig-21s laying around. The former commander of the base told me the more modern planes were buried - and then dug up for scrap by the locals.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

This is a rocket that landed on our base, detonated underground, and did no damage. I believe this is actually a rocket designed to be fired from an aircraft, but Hajji will use anything they can get to shoot.

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.