Iraq Travel Blogs

happy halloween
Nov 1, 2005

Today our patrol was an easy one, we even took a break in the middle to go eat lunch at the best DFAC in baghdad, the place was far better than ours, and it rose our spirits greatly to get some good chow in us. basically we drove around all day with ...

Lots of Ranting today
Dec 18, 2005

... like a cop with a desk job. Let's see, recent activity, well, as I'm sure everyone is aware, on the 15th, Iraq voted on the members of it's first freely elected parliament. All early indications are that turnout was beyond most expectations. The Iraqis ...

Why we are here
Oct 30, 2005

Today, we were out on our normal patrol when an Iraqi man approached us to tell us that he had information about insurgent activity! Obviosly this was a most welcome event for us, as we up until now have made no contacts of our own to help us find the bad ...

The Bunker
Jan 1, 2008 (14 photos)

Baghdad will be my home base for travels for 2008. I live in a little tin box sandwiched between sandbags stacked 10' high. The days are hot and the nights are less hot. The food is all you can eat and I eat a lot. I work most of the day and there really ...

Extreme Home Makeover: Iraq Edition
Oct 16, 2005

Today, was a very busy day, 80 guys that have no idea hat they are doing with power tools and 2 that do trying to take a group of shacks and turn them into an operational headquarters. Quite hillarious. The place was a mess before, trees down in the yard, ...

Happy Thanksgiving and some
Nov 26, 2005 (3 photos)

... touch as much as missions allow. thanks go out to everyone for all of the generous packages I've recieved in the last few days, (6 in the last 3 days!) the children of Iraq (at least those that I see) will be helped greatly by everyone's contributions.

Big Updates!
Apr 16, 2006

Well, I'm back, I've been back for a while, I'm OK, I was just getting used to the rhythm again, getting back into the swing of things. I know I'm a terrible person, that there are people who are solely dependant on this site for information on how I'm ...

Re-Enlistment, at last!
Aug 11, 2006

I appoligise for the incredibly long delay since I've posted last, just nothing big going on (yeah right) anyway, at least this time I have some big news to report. Well, at long last, I have been able to do my reenlistment. I've signed up for another ...

A big night
Feb 11, 2006

last night we noticed a large group of people acting suspiciously along the side of the road about a half a click out, after watching them for a while, we noticed that some of them had weapons. We continued watching their actions, and we realized that ...

Tour of Baghdad
Oct 15, 2007 (23 photos)

... anyone there to stop us. The coolest site in the International Zone (IZ) has to be the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that commemorates the Iran-Iraq war. It really is a piece of art. I don't  want to list all the places we went, but I have to tell you it is ...

The MotherLoad
Nov 12, 2005 (3 photos)

Today, we hit the motherload! 2nd Platoon's informant gave them the location of a huge chache of weapons and explosives, so much that it took us all day to find all of it and dig it up, after 8 hours of sweeping the area, we were still finding stuff when ...

Irbil
Dec 28, 2009 (5 photos)

... shown around the town by a young guide, and noticing the presence of heavy security which was ever present in all places in Iraq. We drank the sacred water and witnessed a pair of local children being blessed in a spiritual ritual. Irbil itself wasn't much ...

Kurdistan for Western Women
Nov 28, 2009

Erbil, Kurdistan has been a very interesting place to work this year. Erbil is changing by the minute.  Everyday there is a new mall or shopping center opening.  Just this week the largest shopping mall in the mid-east is scheduled to open.& ...

Basrah Media Adventure
Dec 16, 2007 (18 photos)

... today. I had the privilege of escorting the LA Times, Times UK, Reuters and Newsweek from Baghdad to the event in Southern Iraq. I haven't been getting out much recently because a lot of Military folk are trying to get home for the holidays and the rest ...

In Iraq...
Nov 18, 2007

... office and asked me what i do and why i am going to iraq, blah blah. This whole process took 2 hours and sucked. Northern Iraq is called Kurdistan and is autonomous of regular Arab Iraq (where bagdad and all the US soldiers are). It is very safe and ...

I'm sorry for the delay.... again
May 10, 2006

Well, here we are again, another long delay between updates. Oh well, let's see here, news... I'm getting integrated pretty well into the Aid Station routine, there's alot of doing nothing. Which means of course that I should have updated this thing ...

In the capital of Kurdistan
Nov 19, 2007 (2 photos)

... were Iraqi christians from Bagdad and they knew english so we had some interesting discussions about the war and the state of Iraq. They said that even though Saddam was not a great guy, someone with his hardline politics is necessary to govern the ...

*Yawn*
Nov 14, 2005 (1 photos)

When we were briefed about the mission today, we were all stoked, we were finally going into the imfamous Zidan Market, an area that hadn't seen a coalition patrol in almost 4 months! then we got more details, and began to realize what exactly what we ...

Mail Call
Oct 22, 2005

Today was the first day that I this deployment that I got to feel the wonderful joy that all soldiers feel when they come back to thier bunk after working all day and seeing mail waiting for them! Yay! It's great to have a hard copy picture to hang on the ...

Finaly on a plane
Mar 11, 2006

Well, after two entire days of waiting for a plane, I finally have a flight out of this hellhole. I was originally scheduled for a flight yesterday morning. and now I'm finally on my way to Kuwait for leave! Expect a big update while I'm home with ...

Medic On A Hot Tin Roof
Oct 19, 2005

... from a cave, on mars, with little oxygen, and less light. That man's delusions continue to amuse me, he still thinks he is the legal president of Iraq. Whatever, I guess some people can't be helped. That's all I've got for now, I'll write again soon.

First large city in Dohuk...
Nov 18, 2007

Decide not to stay in Dhoka and finally figured out a way to get to another city without having to hire a private taxi. Just ask for the local garage! So there they wait till they pile in four of us into a cab and then drive off. The driver was like 80 ...

Thanks to everyone
Nov 28, 2005

today during patrol we came upon a house which made me incredibly thankfull that everyone has been so generous with the medicine and clothes for the children, several children under the age of 2, most of which were in dirty clothes, and one who's crib was ...

I'm Here, Safe and Sound
Oct 14, 2005

well, I'm here! after an extra day in Kuwait due to a canceled flight, I have made it to Camp Stryker, just a stone's throw fro the Airport in Baghdad, we're doing well, and starting to get settled, however, they're telling us that we're moving into ...

another day, another $.50
May 21, 2006

Well, today, I ran a 10k Road race, I did fairly well, finished in 48:53, good enough for a t-shirt. next step is the BolderBolder (sp) Baghdad annex next week, I'm shooting for under 45. so the real question is... who's going to run the one in Boulder? ...

Merry Christmas!
Dec 26, 2005 (2 photos)

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope Santa was good to everyone. My platoon got lucky, and we just happened to be on our maintenance cycle for the last three days, so we got Christmas eve through tomorrow off! All in all, we had an uneventful Christmas, we ...

Food for thought
Nov 9, 2005

... were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq. When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following: a. FDR led us into World War II. ...

A busy day
Feb 7, 2006

I'll start (again) by apologizing on how long it's been since the last time I've posted. Between the gap between sectors, the boring missions where we sat around for 8 hours and came back, before we started our new sector, and the long hours and night ...

I really am alive, I've just been busy
Jan 3, 2006

I'm ok, really, I've just been busy and sick, so when I'm not on mission, I've been sleeping as much as possible. Thankfully, I'm getting over it now, and we came in early tonight. Unfortunatley, I forgot my PSP, so I don't have any pictures to upload, ...

Lalish and Dahuk, Iraq
Sep 25, 2009 (61 photos)

To celebrate the Eid Islamic holiday a group of 5 teachers decided to take a road trip to the north of Iraq.  After much mime at the bus station we decided on a taxi to take us 2 hours North. Michah, an American who knows quite a bit of Arabic got ...