Finally In Iraq

Well, I'm here, finally. I had a great time trying to get into this country, I was thinking that if they didn't want me here, I could have just stayed home. So here's what happened...

We finished our training in Kuwait, which consisted of MRAP egress training and Close Quarters Marksmanship. The egress training was pretty cool. They rolled us over in a mock up vehicle, then we had to unbuckle ourselves while upside-down and exit the vehicle. Same stuff we did in Fort Riley, just a different vehicle. The Close quarters marksmanship training was again a repeat of Fort Riley, but this time they added an assault course where we made our way toward an objective shooting pop up targets along the way. After we had finished our training, we went to the airfield to get a flight to Baghdad International Airport. We took off at 8 am for a "one hour flight," about 50 minutes into the flight the pilot came on the intercom and said that there was a severe sand storm and we couldn't land so we went back to Kuwait. Then we had to wait for another flight to become available, which wouldn't happen till 11 pm. So, while I waited I helped myself to some McDonald's, to include a McFlurry- nothing hits the spot on a 110+ degree day like a McFlurry! This flight was a bit worse than the first. The original flight was in a C-17, a huge military aircraft used for transporting supplies and personnel. The second flight was on a C-130, the airplane that gets used for airborne training. The seats are no more than canvas stretched over some aluminum poles. There are 4 rows of people, two going down the side of the plane and two back to back in the middle. There really isn't a whole lot of room, especially when you have all your combat gear on and you are sitting next to a guy that takes up a seat and a half. So we fly for a while then stop and drop off some Marines at one camp then get set to make our last hop to Baghdad, but now we can't go because the starter went out on one of the engines. So we wait. And wait. And wait some more. All said and done, we waited for six hours before we could get back on the plane. So a "one hour flight" turned into a 24 hour ordeal. The flight from Baghdad to Taji (north of Baghdad) was a first for me as we rode on a Chinook (the helicopter with two rotors). What was especially interesting was the fact that the rear door was down so that the gunner could provide security while in flight. He just sat there behind the weapon and dangled his feet over the edge. Now we are sitting in Taji taking some more classes (most of which we've already done, but I'm sure the repetition will help us retain some of the information) for about another week. I hope everyone is doing well. I will write again soon.