Originally wrote the day I left

2009 July 12
On the way to Iraq today.

We start the day early, 0500 wake up. The last day in my “house”. So long Germany for the next year. I got up early just to finish off the packing of last minute items and to put items into my storage box. My buddy SSG Johnson has said that I may store a few items in his storage room in the basement of his housing. Being as this is my third time into Iraq this deployment doesn’t have the feel of the others. I am not concerned about the idea of IED’s and stray bullets this time. This deployment feels more like a field exercise then a war.
So we get uploaded onto the busses with no problems and are on our way to a holding area prior to going to Rammstein Airbase for the flight to Kuwait. At the holding area we are manifested into the system showing that we are going where we are supposed to be. I silently prayed my manifest was going to say The Bahamas. But it didn’t. Well 4 and a half hours at the “Purple Ramp”, 1 box lunch of chicken pasta, and a good long discussion with my Commander about the beautiful city of Fallujah and the start of PTSD later, we depart for Rammstein. At Rammstein, we wait on the hot humid bus for about 30 min while they rouse the Air Force out of bed and fuel our aircraft. Then off into the wild blue yonder to Kuwait City.
Kuwait is not as hot this time as I remember it being. I guess 110 at 2 AM grows on you with time. However I find that you never get used to having sand blown into your face like I was in a sandblasting spa from hell. I console myself with the thought that people (rich people with no sense) pay very good money to have this done to them. They call it exfoliating, I call it stupid. Well Camp Buehring has certainly grown into a small city over the past 6 years. My first time through here was an experience that the Nazi’s would have been proud of. No amenities to speak of. No cold water, no cold air, no warm food. Now with the passage of time we have a 24 KFC, Green bean coffee house, Movie Theater a PX with more to choose from than the one in Mannheim. We have classes coming up on Escalation of Force, Rollover training (How to egress a rolled over vehicle. I am sure you can guess why we need to know this), Close Quarter training (How to clear a building of bad guys), ROE (Rules of Engagement). All of this and more over the course of the next few weeks.

I am looking forward to getting into Iraq. I know it sounds strange but its true. The first time I was called up to deploy I broke the news to my parents. My mom couldn’t understand why I would want to go off to fight a war. I told her that to me it was like suiting up on a football team just to sit on the bench for the last 15 years. Well now I get to play in the big game and that is something that I have always wanted to do. Well it still feels that way to me. Anyway, I am looking forward to getting this mission going. Sitting around in Kuwait really bites. Time to go play Army.
Ok I am going to add what I am calling “Army Quote Of The Day”. I will add quotes that I pick up throughout the days here. I am trying to make this a funny quote to kind of lighten up the day. Todays quote is…
“That runway looks a bit… Lumpy”
SPC Kidd on seeing the Rammstein runway for the first time.

Batt out.