First Week

Well the deployment has gone from being months away to me heading through my first week. The flight over was great. We flew on contracted air from Ryan International. They kept us well fed and watched action movies all the way over. We had two stops the first in Rockford, IL and the second in Lipzeig, Germany. The stop in Germany was great, the little area set aside for us has a small store with hot food. I look forward to another assignment in Germany when I get out of Iraq. Once I landed in Iraq I was on the ground for almost two hours before hopping on a blackhawk and flying down to Baghdad. We quickly unloaded our stuff received room assignments and got settled in. I have know the guy I am replacing for almost ten years so we have an easy transition.

Jessica and the kids are doing fine but the true thought of me being gone for a year hit them yesterday as they settle into a routine. She and the kids will be flying to Texas to spent Christmas with her family.

I have included a few pics of the ride down and the Iraq country side. The area near water is green farm land and the rest is dry and dusty. In my next post I will show my living area and the lake across the street which makes for great sunsets.