Second Cooliest Picture of Me Ever

Now, if that ain't a recruiting poster, I don't know what is!

Christmas Gift

Got to work today and decided to unwrap a single gift from beneath the Christmas Tree that my kids made for me. In my case, since the tree was hanging over my computer monitor, I unwrapped a virtual gift: an Excel spreadsheet showing how much time I have left in my deployment. Lo and behold, as of today I have only 99 days left! I'm into the double digits! Now that is a gift worthy of the Magi!

Once again, may I wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


"You there! Go buy me the biggest goose in all of London!"

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...in Iraq!

Well the season is upon us over here but it hard to believe that Christmas is only a few short days away. Many people have taken it upon themselves to make our little slice of the IZ look like home. I have decorated my desk with the Christmas cards that I have recieved; most notably with the hand made cards that my children have sent me. You can see the Sax playing Santa from the dinning hall here and the tree all lit up in the Palace. I think my favorite tree is the small one in the bottom picture. Unlike the others, this is an actually tree. Someone in the states cut it down, wrapped it up and then sent it over via UPS! They have it sitting in a bucket of water to keep the needles going. It's nice to walk by it and actually smell a Christmas Tree.

All is well here. They will have another special meal for us on Christmas day and a group of us plan to get together to go to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

I hope everyone back home is safe and sound.

God Bless and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The O'Reilly Factor is On....

Factor this...Bill O'Reilly travels to Baghdad.

That's the subject of tonight's Talking Points Memo.

Now everyone knows that Traditionalists are under attack by Secular Progressives all over the country. Don't believe me? Just take a moment to listen to the Kool Aid Drinkers like Stuart Smalley. But one Culture Warrior traveled into the IZ today in order to attack the SP's by saying "MERRY CHRISTMAS" just as loud as he could.

Talking Points Memo believes that seeing O'Reilly was a big boost to the morale of many of our soldiers serving overseas. The line to meet him was so long, your humble correspondent (that would be me) couldn't take the time to wait.

So I decided to keep it pithy by just taking a few photographs. Even Fox News military Analyst COL David Hunt got into the act by taking a photo with any willing Traditionalist.

But will you hear about this in the Mainstream Media? Not a chance.

Talking Points Memo predicts that the New York Times and the LA Times, both far left propaganda machines, will totally ignore Mr. O's visit to Iraq.

So how's looking out for you?

Well Talking Points Memo declares that this blog is firmly on the side of the Traditionalists.

And that's the memo.....

Now for the most ridiculous items of the night.....

Coolest Picture Ever!

Just a quick blog entry to show off the coolest picture of me ever! Here I am skimming over the streets of Baghdad with a British door gunner by my side. Bask in the glory of my coolness!

Saddam's Fishing Hole

These pictures are a bit old but I've been meaning to post them for a while. The lake you see is a man made lake that sits next to another of Saddam's old palaces. Actually, this was a recreational area for Saddam and his gang. All along the lake are different villas that he and his cronies would chill out in. The lake is feed by the Eupharetes River and is filled with fish. Where I'm standing is on the porch of what is now being used as a vistor's center at one of our camps. They keep fishing poles out for anyone to use. Now, it is well known that I have not caught a fish since I was a teenager so I'll I did with the pole was strike a pose. The fish that you see filling up an entire cooler were caught by far more patient people than I.

Oil's Well that Ends Well

Took a trip to the southern oil fields where one of our contractors are working on a number of oil wells to allow them to produce the maximum amount of oil. These wells had been dug back in teh 80's and then just left in place. The more oil wells that we refurbish the more oil Iraq can produce. You can see the effort that is being put into each well. I've also included a cool picture of excess gas being burned off.

This trip was a bit nostalgic for me. These oil fields are in the general vicinity of where I ended up at the end of Desert Storm. As we were driving out to the fields we passed many destroyed Iraqi tanks. I don't know if they were destroyed when I came through here with the 24th Infantry Division or during the 2003 operation.

But it all turned out well.

Being a Tourist in the IZ

Took some time out to visit two of the bigger "tourist attractions" in the IZ: The Crossed Swords and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The Crossed Swords stand at the both ends of Saddam's old parade route in Baghdad. Military parades used to roll under them while Saddam and his crew watched on. They are huge! I think the swords themselves probably go 100 feet in the air. At the base of the "arm" are piles of helmets that apparently were taken from dead soldiers of the Iraq-Iran War.

The neat thing is that you can actually go inside of one of the "arms" and climb to the top of the "hand". In order to do this you have to first crawl down into the base of the arm (you can see me re-emerging) and then climb a series of very old wobbly ladders. Once you get to the top you need to manuever yourself on to a old chair and then you can stick your head out and look at the parade field below. You can barely make out my face and hand in the photo.

After that we walked over to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Its an easier climb to the top of this monument and it gives a good view of the city. I wanted a picture of me next to this big anchor. It seemed out of place but maybe its from one of Saddam's yachts.