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.

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

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

Iraqi Police having their vehicles checked prior to entry to the base. We trusted the Iraqi Army in our area better than the police.

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.

In this photo, I'm in the lower right pulling perimeter security during a short halt in training.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

I took this photo while flying over Baghdad. It is the Grand Mosque which Saddam was building when the invasion occurred. When finished, it was supposed to be the largest mosque in the world. I doubt it will ever be completed.

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.

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

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.