Housing at Camp Victory. All of the trailers are protected by concrete "T-Walls." These are the bathrooms/showers closest to my trailer.

Home sweet home for the next 6 months. The Army has spared no expense. At least we get air conditioning!

My "office" is in the Al-Faw palace, a resort that Sadaam built for himself. It is now crammed with coalition staff workers. Still, it is an impressive building to see.

Al Faw palace again, this time during my first dust storm. This picture was taken about 4:00 in the afternoon, long before sundown. I'm told this storm wasn't even a bad one!

Greetings from Baghdad!!

Hello from Camp Victory! As you can see from the pics I made it safe and sound and have started getting settled in. Life here in the deployed environment is all about establishing a new routine in totally strange environment. I live in a trailer, also called a CHU (pronounced 'choo') with a roommate. Our room is actually jusy one of 3 in the trailer, but it's enough space for the few things I brought along. It's kind of a pain to have to walk to a separate trailer to use the restroom or take a shower, but at least my CHU is really close. Some folks have to walk about 200 yards. It doesn't sound like a long way, except for the fact that everywhere in the housing areas is covered with several inches of loose gravel, which is about as hard to walk in as loose sand! The KBR contractors put down gravel everywhere in an effort to keep the dust down a bit and to keep it from getting too muddy when it rains.

Speaking of the weather, it hasn't been too bad lately. We've had a warm day or two, but for the most part it's in the 70's and 80's during the day. We did have some excitedment this week though, I got to experience my very first dust storm. The dust was finer than talcum powder and just hung in the air, almost like smoke, and got into everything! The hallway where I work (yes, "hallway" not "office") was hazy all evening long.

So yes, hallway where I work. The organization I work for just moved into the Al-Faw palace, which was a retreat that Sadaad built for himself to be able to get away from the pressure of being a tyrannical dictator. So many people to opress and murder and so little time! The place is crammed full of staffs for just about anythign you can imagine, and so space is at a premium. I work in an upstairs hallway that is divided in half by cubicle dividers. I have a "corner office" but I get to share the space with 15 people. Some of the Navy folks I work with have nicknamed the area "the submarine" because it's long, narrow, and so crowded that people can barely get to their desks if someone else is sitting down at their own. The nickname stuck, so now I can say that I deployed with the Air Force, to work with the Army and the Marines in a submarine. It really is a joint fight!

"So what is it you'd say...you do here?" In a nutshell, I create powerpoint presentations and send email, not too different than any other staff job. However, the work that I do is pretty interesting. In case you missed the President's speech a few weeks ago, or if you've been living in Bora Bora with no radio, TV, or internet for the last 6 years (I wish I was in Bora Bora), the Coaliion Forces are trying to turn the country back over to the Iraqi people. Part of that is ensuring the Iraqi government can defend itself, and secure the country, especially its borders. That's where my organization here is important. I work for the Multi National Corps-Iraq, a group that is responsible for training and supporting the Iraqi forces until theycan take over that security mission on their own. Specifically I work with the border enforcement department. I collect periodic reports and assessments from coalition teams on how the Iraqis are doing on securing their borders and running ports of entry. I then take all this information and pass it along to get briefed to General Odierno, the top U.S. Commander in Iraq. I get to see exactly how things are (or aren't) progressing, and I get to see what kinds of challenges the Iraqis are overcoming to get their country back on track after decades of abuse by Sadaam and the Baath party, constant war, crippling poverty for the general population, and countries on all sides that want to increase their influence and control over Iraq.

While I hate being gone from my family, I am excited to be doing the work I am. Although I disagreed with our coming into Iraq in the first place, seeing first-hand some of the impacts that Sadaam had on the country, I'm glad we were able to get rid of him and start the country on the long, tough road to being a true nation again.