January 1, 2005

Hi everyone, it's new years here so the artillery battery shot off a round at midnight. We've been taking classes on how things work here at the base, we go on base defense duty for a week starting Monday so we'll be manning the towers and gates 24/7. After that we'll start going on missions "out there". My tent still doesn't have heat or power but that should be fixed tomorrow. It gets COLD here at night but the days are pleasent.

The little Iraqi shop here on post has Cuban cigars at good prices. I got an online phone card so I'll be calling people as I can, the lines are long. We are putting in for our leave next summer but I think I'll go to London instead of coming home, I won't get a chance to travel like that again so I may as well take it. That's about it for now.
Take care-Duncan

January 7, 2005

Hi everyone, here are my latest ramblings: I've taken 2 trips into local villages over the last few days. Multaka and Kawas Kurd. They are small, maybe 800 people each. Both are friendly to us. The houses are all mud-brick construction, single-floor, flat roof and a walled courtyard.

When we roll in, we get mobbed by kids, we hear a lot of "hey Mista gimme...". Mostly they want school supplies, pens, pencils, crayons, notebooks etc. We give them what we can and hand out candy.

Any one who wants to aid world peace, send me those items, and a soccerball or two. Many of them are learning English in school and I had a cool conversation with a little girl who showed be her english book and used it to ask me questions.

The older kids and adults are a bit stand-offish at first but warm up if approached in a friendly way. The kids are wonderful, they steal your heart and then try to make off with your watch. The littlest girls wear adorable embroidered red dresses, I'm going to try to buy some to send home to friends with little girls.

These people are dirt poor but use this amazing fabric to make traditional clothes. Might be a market back home for this stuff. Many wear western style clothes. Generally most of the people don't seem hostile to us but some clearly are. If we make an effort to converse they seem genuinely interested in learning about us and try to teach us Iraqi words. The people seem like decent, hardworking farmers and I genuinely like them.

The opposition mostly hits us with roadside bombs rather than direct attacks, no injuries so far. I was on a mission a few days ago where we found one, 2 artillery shells buried in the road. The bomb squad blew it up and it left a knee-deep crater.

Later-Duncan

February 28, 2005

As some of you may have heard, I stress fractured my foot falling off a wall while doing an urban search. I got a week of "light duty", meaning I pulled a 12 hour shift on the radio in the command center for a week.

I'm back on the road and we've been fairly busy, we seem to get called out on a 4 hour wild goose chase every time some kid shoots off a bottle rocket. We did find a roadside bomb (2 artillery shells in a box), and after a 3 hour wait, the bomb squad showed up and blew it (see pics). Not much other excitement to report. I'll keep you posted. Be back for 2 weeks in May. -Duncan