Combat Tour...ism

This weekend I played host to a number of fellow LTs from around the BN, the other two from my company and another who just happened to arrive at the same time. It made for a great weekend as I got to play tour guide while in the IZ and we got to go to all the cool places and take cool pictures, what I like to call combat tourism.

I managed to convince an Iraqi Army Soldier to let me pose with his AK-47. One of the unique aspects of the IZ is the presence of Iraqi Army and Police. These are the guys who are the ones to be admired. They're the ones that are going to be here after we leave and they've made their decision to support the democratic effort. The Iraqi Soldier who let me pose with his weapon and those like him who wear the Iraqi uniform deserve as much support as you can give them.

This is my buddy and the author of "The Peace of War" blog. He was in town for a couple days and while we were doing the combat tour we came across some Australian troops doing the same thing. We stopped and offered to take pictures of them on their trucks if we could too. I don't know the capabilities of the vehicle, but it seemed very similar to our Bradley.

Say 'cheese!' Here I'm holding a can of Cougar Cheese that my father-in-law sent me from Wazzu. Cougar Cheese is made at WSU and is the Ag Department's pride and joy. It tastes a bit like parmesean, but still has a very unique taste to it. It's funny how much I promote Wazzu now that I'm no longer a student there. When I was jumping through the requisit hoops to graduate, I stopped at the Alumni booth and when the guy asked if I wanted to sign up for the yearly membership or the 10-year membership I said, "How about no membership?". I was never really a "Coug". Occasionally when someone who knew about WSU would find out that I was a student there they would say, "Oh, so you're a Coug huh?" I'd always give a sideways grin and say, "No, I just go to WSU." I don't really feel a sense of loyalty to the school, but I do towards the people who I interacted with and the ROTC program.

In other news, my sweetie sent me a picture of myself about a week ago that I like because 1) I'm in civilian clothes, 2) It's in Germany, and 3) It reminds me of that I was spending a nice day with the lady I love.

See, I'm a regular person too. When I can, I wear flip-flops and jeans and make funny faces when doorways are too small for me. I'm saying this mostly to remind myself, I haven't worn anything besides PTs and ACUs for nearly the last 5 months.