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

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.

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

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

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.

That's me flying in a UH60 between bases.

Here's my section training in house clearing.

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.

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

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.

Believe it or not, this is what they served for dinner one night. I think it was a case of a Turk not translating to English correctly.

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

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.

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.

House clearing training.

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