FINALLY!!!!!!

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while—We have been busy at school and trying to get out of Taji. There are two entries for today, this one and one from some stuff I did on the 15th-- keep on reading after this one to get it all.

After a trip to Iraq in July, three months of training at Fort Riley, twelve days of training in Kuwait, and eight days of training at Taji, plus about a week and a half of in between travel and waiting, we finally made it. We were supposed to fly to Mahmudiya, but our request was unsupported due to the amount of people moving around, and the amount of luggage we had (each guy was toting on average 5 large bags, plus body armor and weapons). So the team we are replacing came and got us this morning, and we did a combat patrol from Taji, though Baghdad, down to our final destination. It was an eventless patrol, and here we are.

We are now living inside an Iraqi Army compound outside of the city of Mahmudiya. The place is a work in progress. It is all built by either soldiers on the fly, or by a TCN Contract team of Indians. Some of the workmanship is interesting to say the least, but hey, we have a house. No power yet, but we have a house. We are hoping for some electricity by tomorrow. We have a team house with four large rooms. There is also another larger team here, and to support us both there is a large homemade plywood building with a gym room and a bunch of weights, an internet cafe with a couple of computers and some Skype-type software (gotta check that out), and some latrine and shower trailers. We get water daily, and there are a couple of soldiers who cook two meals a day out of a tent. (Lunch is an MRE or leftovers.) We had a dining facility, but it burned down a couple of weeks ago. The story even made Stars and Stripes.

The next ten days will be spent getting settled, setting things up, getting to know our area, getting the old team out of here, and building relationships both with the Iraqis and also with the American units around.

There has been a lot of progress in Iraq, even from the small piece I saw when I was here in July. More to follow on this on a later blog entry.

Lots of folks have asked about some suggestions of things to send to me (thank you very much, that is very generous of you), so here’s a list. These are just suggestions-- in reality we will pretty much take anything.

Flyswatter and flypaper
Starkist tuna lunch kits
Nuts (almonds, mixed, kettle cooked)
Wheat thins/Flipz
Hand sanitizer
Canned air
Baby wipes (unscented)
Beef jerkey
Stride gum
Candles (Yankee ones to kill the stench)
Big ziplocks (2.5 gallon and 1- gallon size)
Moisturizer/lotion
Magazines (Newsweek, Money, Maxim, The Economist, sports, anything that connects us to the world)
Your favorite book, particularly ones about leadership, personal development, or business


Thanks to all who offered. Hope this finds you well-- Take care.
Ron