So it's been a year already huh?

Well, I have been here a year now.  Not exactly HERE as in Iraq, but I have been deployed into theater for exactly a year today, 6 September 2007.  

As many of you know we started our deployment by first deploying to Kuwait.  While there we were supposed to do three weeks of training before moving on to Balad, Iraq a place I am already intimately familiar with since I already spent 12 months there in 2004-2005.  As it turned out we didn't do that.  Another unit was selected for that mission due to their organizational similarities to the outgoing unit.  That all made sense but what didn't make sense was that my brigade, which had deployed sooner, was staying while another brigade was already moving into Iraq.  

To see why this is a problem you have to know a bit about Camp Buehring, Kuwait.  Let me sum it up with this simple phrase:  We would rather be in combat in Iraq than in Camp Buehring, Kuwait.  Yea, its that bad.

We finally got orders to replace the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division and I arrived in Iraq on or about 1 November.  So, no, I haven't been in Iraq for a year yet and in fact once I do leave I will have only been in Iraq for a few weeks over the 52 that encompass a year, but still, I have been deployed now for a year.

On another note, I left work a little early last night with the intention of going out and getting in a quick bike ride.  Gale force winds put an end to that idea.  Always nice to see armored vehicles getting blown off of roads by the wind.  I don't think that riding is such a good idea when that happens.  I only survived the walk to my room because I put sand in my pockets after dinner.  Oh, yea, and I had a piece of cake.  I am sure that helped too.