To Taji...

Quick update before we depart for Taji in an hour or so. All still OK; have hit the exchange twice (it carries freakin' EARLY PREGNANCY TESTS, if that tells you anything), made a few phone calls. Got a $3.00 haircut worth at least $3.50. Watched C-130s land at BIAP, dropping in like it was Khe Sanh (pull the nose up hard and DIVE in like they were going for the #3 cable on an aircraft carrier). We should be co-located with our sister team for about another 3-4 days until we finally "report" to our respective battalions. They are still going to Mosul, we to Habbiniyah (sp?). We will try to pry a mailing address out of the folks at Taji, and I will post again when I can and when I have something interesting to say.

Oddity of the day: Met a national guardsman or army reservist at dinner who was a former Marine and Beruit veteran (1981-1983?). The guy was still a sergeant, so must have been out for a while. Guess I'm not as old as I thought.

P.S. Master Guns Traylor pointed out a few errors on my first post. We also have some Marines from Philadelphia, and Reading isn't spelled with two "d"s. Also, Camp Striker isn't Stryker like I thought (as in the Army Stryker vehicle). I stand corrected. I tried to blame the crappy keyboards they have here, but forgetting Phiadelphia isn't a typo, but operator headspace and timing.