A Pass In Time: The Bitch Is Back

Balad Air Base
Originally uploaded by currtdawg.

A desert full of religious extremists who talk funny and have weird liquor laws? No, not Utah. It's Iraq! As everyone reading this probably knows, I just spent 131 days at Balad Air Base, which is officially known as LSA Anaconda. And you know it's gonna be a fun four months when the base shares a name with a Jennifer Lopez movie.
I'm not really sure where to begin. Over the next few days, the wax will feature a series called "A Pass In Time," chronicling my time in Iraq. There's so much to talk about, and I'll do my best to cover everything. Some parts may seem dull, but every time I come back from a deployment, everyone always seems to ask about such random details, so I'm including as many as I can. I kept a pretty good journal over there, so most of my posts over the next few days will be cut-and-paste. What's going to take some time is uploading all the pictures (and there are a LOT).
Furthermore, as a warning to those of you I see in person on a regular basis, you're going to get tired of me using the phrase, "When I was in the desert..." It will most likely be followed by some story that seemed applicable or funny at the time, but will just invoke a feeling of awkwardness or cluelessness to you, the listener. It's going to happen a lot over the next couple months, so just get used to it. A lot of things are hard to explain unless you've been there, but I'll do my best. I'll be spending the rest of the afternoon uploading pictures, so you'll have to tune in tomorrow for some actual narration of events over the past four months.
By the way, I just want to say "Thanks!" to Katie, Jessica, Ryan, Ryan, John, Kyle, Doug, and Drew for meeting me at the airport last night. You guys made me feel so special, and I was definitely the envy of everyone else in my squadron. You guys are the best!