I have some really great pictures.  You can check them out at Friendster.com.   Its getting cold here.  I am ready to come home.  I should be home by Feb. 8 or 9.  I am def. excited.  They say that we will get 30 days of Combat Leave.   Hope everyone had A Happy New Year.   I missed out on all the holidays this year!!

 I just want to come home to Lakeland! 

I’ll try to write some more.  Hope everyone is doing good. Thanks for the prayers.

I am very thankfull for many things this year.   First and foremost I am thankfull for My Beautifull wife. I am glad I met her :) and I miss her very much…   I am also thankfull for being here in Iraq.  It is  A learning experience for me.  It has showed me that life is short and being here brings you closer to reality and the ones you love. Everyone time A person dies in this camp , it is A reality check for me.  That could have been me.    I have definitely realized we take things for granted.   It has also brought me closer to my family.  I am also  thankfull for all new friends I have made and the lifetime of memories that I will take from this experience.      I could go on and on but these are just some of the important things in my life. 

I hope everyone enjoys the Thanksgiving holidays.   I am doing fine here.  It is getting colder.  I only have A few more months to  go. 

 Stay safe and  Happy Thanksgiving!!

 Well, everything is good.  Rain season has started.  It has been raining all day. 

They are really coming down on what we post on the internet.   So, I cant give much detail about whats going on here or post any more pics.             Everything is fine.   I just can’t wait to get home.  I am already getting sick of this place.  I had the day off yesterday after A long time.  There is not much to do here.  The Internet cafe is where everyone goes.  I spent the whole day, sleeping and on the internet and calling people.   I think I would rather be at work. 

I might be going to India in early Dec.  So, I am excited about that.  I get to see my wife!!   Time has been going  by so fast though.   I only have about three more months left.    Marriage life is good…Wifey is good.  I talk to her every day, sometimes two and three times, when I get the chance.   On the occasion, we get into an argument, and even though I know I am right, I’ll say Im sorry…then she says okay.. (haha) I am getting the hang of this..   

Hope everyones doing good.  Love to hear from everyone. Email me when you guys get A chance.

There are some people who say that the Garden of Eden is not located in Iraq.  But according to the military guidebook on Iraq, and our Chaplins   The Garden Of Eden is located in A city South of Baghdad called Al Basrah! That is amazing! This is where it all began…

About 180 kilometers west of Baghadad in the city of Al Asad on the military base, there is another important location.   It is an oasis.  Surrounded by very tall palmtrees, there is A body of water that runs in the middle.  In this body of water is where it is reported that  Abraham washed his feet.  It is A historical sight.  Some of the Navy personnal I work with got A chance to visit this place.  They said it was breathtaking to be in the same place where Abraham walked.

Located ten miles southwest of Nasiriyah is A very famous city in the  Bible.  Ur.  The hometown of Abraham.

25 miles south of Baghdad, in HIlah is where the ruins of Babylon are located. One of the most famous cities in the Bible. 

The more I read, the more I am learning.  Sometimes I think and I can’t believe that I am actully here.   I would never have thought  I would have  ever  ended  up in Iraq.

I hope someday I can come back here and be able to visit some of these places in A more peaceful setting. 

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Iraqi security forces have found 110 bodies dumped across the capital in the past two days, all killed in a manner authorities attribute to Sunni-Shiite sectarian strife.

Baghdad police said 60 bullet-riddled bodies were found around Baghdad between Monday morning and Tuesday morning, and another 50 were found later in the day Tuesday.

Some of the bodies showed signs of torture and had their hands and feet bound. The bodies could not be immediately identified.

 Everything is good out here.  We have not had any incidents in the past week or so. 

I am doing fine.  I just can’t wait to get home.  I have been working out and dieting.  I am using Hydroxycut.  Its working.    I have lost Alot of weight.  I am also at the gym everyday.  Its the only thing you can do here to keep your sanity.  I have not had A day off yet.  Working 7 days A week. 8 hours A day. 

My towers pretty quite. The village has not been giving me any trouble.  They are just everyday people. 

I will write more when I get some time.  Just been busy with classes and training. 

Being here for A month, I have started to miss Lakeland.  No, Im not going crazy.  For all of you, who are dying to get out of Lakeland, you dont know what your missing!!  I would rather be in Lakeland, then be here.  I cant wait to get back.!! I feel like im counting down the days.!!   I am always reading Lakelandledger.com for all the news from Lakeland.  Hope everyone is doing good out there. 

Things have been okay here.  Only exciting thing was having A mortor hit 20 yards away from my  tower.  The mortor did not go off.  Just made A small crater outside and scared the crap out of everyone.  Close call…

Thanks for everyone who has been sending me care packages! 

It is starting to get alot cooler here.  Rain reason is suppose be coming up soon.   I heard we might be leaving as early as Jan 15, but not sure if its true.  I hope so, I would like to get home soon.  I am craving Subway!! Can anyone mail me A sandwhich??

My wife sent me A little plaque, which I got the other day.  It says  “To my husband, I love you.  I know you are there to Love me, Care for me and Buy me gifts”  Whoa, Rewind !! Wait, did that plaque just say “buy me gifts”?? Uhh….

   I thought it was pretty funny…  Yes, guys, thats what happens when you get married.  You have to keep the love of your life happy…for A stress free marraige.. buy her lots of gifts …. (sigh)

They had raided  A small village somewhere in the outskirts of the city.  The iraqi’s they captured gave up some good information.  They said that there was A small band of insurgents, heavily armed vehicles,and suicide bombers  coming toward our towers.   They also said, they had mercedes benzes with anti aircraft rockets mounted on the benzes. The news was then relayed to our higher uppers at about 11pm.  They told us at about 11:20pm.   At about  4am this morning, they had Bradley Tanks set up near our front gate.  They also had humvees full of Army soldiers waiting by the front gate for an attack. 

My shift was suppose to end at 3am.  As I was leaving A 50 truck TCN (Third Country Nationals) arrived.  These are truck drivers from third world countries.  They drive trucks from Kuwait and other places on to the base to bring supplies.  But before they can come on base, they must be searched, the trucks must be searched and go through A screening process.  Well, we are short on personnal so, I ended up going to the front gate to provide security.  Turns out, one of the truck drivers is A malayalee.  They are everywhere!!  I ended up chit chatting with him for A few minutes. 

Back to the attack.  The informants said, they wanted to take our pumphouses out.  They have been doing or trying to take out our pumphouses for months now.  We have two major pumphouses.  These pumphouses provide water for the whole camp.  Without these pumphouses, we wont have water on base.  They have been sending mortors and placeing IED’s at these pumphouses to take out our water system.  Those pumphouses are an essential part of this camp.  

The last few days have been pretty busy.  We had mortor rounds hit inside the wire everyday for the past three days.   I finally heard an impact.  Usually, the loud speaker comes on and says “INCOMING, INCOMING, INCOMING” and you would hear nothing else.   Two days ago, I stood outside my room and we heard the same sound we always hear, “Incoming, Incoming, Incoming”. So, we were like okay, whatever.  Then suddenly, after the word of incoming came off the speaker, we heard “BOOM”. or what sounded like A big Thud.  Turns out, the rocket had landed very close to us.   First time I heard the impact. 

Some of you asked, how do they know when there is incoming?  Well, its called advanced technolgy.   As soon as A rocket takes off the ground from the enemy, they have Satellites that dectect the exact location from where those mortors took off  from. We get A signal on base letting us know there are mortors coming in and  In return, all the speakers on base, repeat the same recording, “INCOMING,INCOMING, INCOMING”. Everyone runs inside for saftey.  Then you hear lots of booms . Those booms are us, sending out mortor rounds to the location where it came from. 

 The south gate is outside the wire.  When I say outside the wire, it means they are outside the base. Inside the wire means iniside the base.   If anything happens to them, (the Marines standing Guard at the gate) they are basically on their own.  All we can do is provide firepower from the towers.   I was at  the tower (I cant say the number for security reasons) and was observing any suspicious cars coming off the highway.  We had reports that in front of another tower, Iraqis were digging holes..for unknown reasons.  

They caught An Iraqi not too long ago inside our base, pacing his steps from the Chowhall (cafeteria) to the local PX(store).  The reason they do that is beacause, they can relay that information to terrorist outside and thats how they know where to send the morters. Degrees, distances etc.   Spies on the inside relay this info. and in return terrorist position their morter rounds to hit particular parts of the base.  They are very smart and are only getting smarter.  Yes we do have spies so, thats why we are carefull what we say and how we say it.  How else do you think we get hit with mortors and how they know the exact locations to specific targets inside the wire. 

Nothing happed though.  Yesterday was very quite.  They have A huge sign near where I stay. 

It reads “Complacency Kills” 

We tend to get complacent when nothing happens for A while. When you least expect it ,thats when they strike.

Thats why they tell us Always stay vigilant………