So how are things different..

So today I was thinking at how different we operate here in Iraq than at home. I will give you some examples. The biggest and most apparent one to me is how we handle weapons and ammunition. At home an individaul is never allowed to keep ammo on his person and is issued in a very controlled manner. Here I have over 1000 rounds of 5.56 (rifle ammo) and about 80 rounds of 9mm (pistol Ammo). Weapons control is way different too. For one we are always taught to never point a weapon at a person, well back home people tend not to pay attention and sometimes when you are unslinging or turning you sometimes inadvertenly point it at them. We call this flagging someone. Imagine that there is a laser coming out of your barrel all of the time and try not to ever make it hit someone. Because are weapons are loaded a lot of the time we have to be much more careful.

Another thing about weapons at home is that if we arent using them they are locked in big elaborate vaults... no vaults here lol.

Bottom line is if Hagi ever makes it inside the wall and starts something I don't think it will last very long. My pistol is on my nightstand and my rifle and ammo are in my locker about 3 feet away. Some may say we are paranoid I just call it being prepared. This is pretty standard so thats why they stand off 15 miles and launch rockets and mortars at us.

Speaking of rockets and mortars. I had to laugh at myself tonight. I had just finished locking a door to our little playroom, I will post pictures of it in a couple of days. Well I heard this whistle I paused and listened some more.... now you have to understand the FOB (forward operating base) has lots of continuous backround noise. Well the whistle go louder.. I started to run for the bunker and quickly relaized it was a atv of sorts that must have had a turbo that was whistling and the motor was masked by the generators until it go closer. I had to look around to make sure no one saw me. LOL. We are all very vigilant knowing its only a matter of time before things start to heat up again here.

Someone posted and asked who our littel friends are. If you look at the closeup of the christmas tree light you can see him hiding behind it. We have a gecko infestation lol. There are 3 or 4 in our little bunker.

If you have any more questions let em fly it makes writing about stuff that much easier.

If for some reason I don't post the next couple of days I have to take a little helicopter ride for some training. The flights here are even less reliable than those in the states. Believe it or not we fly standby too lol. We have been having issues with the weather specifically the dust makes it so we cant fly.

Anyways what is suppose to be a 1 day trip might turn into 3 or more.