From The Front Lines With Zinno
Hey everyone! Things continue to push along nicely here in Baghdad. Fortunately, the amount of "action" in the Baghdad area has quelled quite a bit. Still getting mortars and rockets fired our way pretty regularly ... but all you have to do for those is DUCK! ;)
There was a "Day of Rage" here on February 25th. The U.S. called it the "Day of Organized Demonstrations" (gotta love the spin) ... the Iraqis planned it to peacefully protest the government corruption. The definition of "peaceful" here is 8 dead and over 200 wounded. Unfortunate ... it seems the whole Middle East is in a state of upheaval. It is a double-edge sword. Places like Libya and Egypt are all in chaos in the name of democracy ... and that is a GREAT thing! Unfortunately, when you are dealing with scarce loyalties and violence speaks louder than anything else, civil unrest is never good.
I am learning a lot about loyalty while I am here. It's only been a month and every fiber of my being wants to be back home already, close to the things that I care about and the people and the comforts I love. But my loyalty to my mission and my men keeps me focused. It is an internal struggle, but one that I am willing to deal with.
Life is pretty good here all things considered. I spend most of my free time in the gym. Shocker there, huh? Believe it or not, I have been to the gym three times in one day ... hey, I got kill all 24 hours in one day! HAHA! I have gotten a chance to finally see some of the city and some of the sites. There are new businesses all over the bases here. A sign that things are good for the economy and a positive step for the future. Some of the shops made me laugh. There was one that actually sold women's lingerie!! Like there is a need for THAT here!!!!!!
Here's a crazy story. During my last deployment I stood up and trained an entire Iraqi army unit. It was one of my greatest achievements in my military career. During the process, I invented the unit patch for that unit. I have carried that patch in my uniform since the day I left Iraq the last time. While I was out looking at some of the stores, they were selling all sorts of patches in the store ... and wouldn't you know it, the patch I invented was for sale!!!! I guess that means my work 5 years later is still going strong! It was weird, I was kinda pissed that they stole my patch, but kinda proud to see that the symbol still was alive. Life is amazing sometimes.
Enjoy the photos folks!
Coming home with a W ...
Zinno
