B36 News - 1 August 2006

Today's top news: Today marks the anniversary of my platoon leadership. One year ago today I stood in front of my platoon and introduced myself. It was a glorious day as it was the first day that I wasn't working on staff since I entered the active Army. I was actually leading troops. If my luck holds, I'll remain in my leadership position until after a few months back in Germany. It's unusual for lieutenants in the Signal world to stay in platoon leadership for much longer than a year. Unfortunately, it's time for me to start looking at what I'm going to do next, hmmm....

As for the news from Iraq, I'm sorry, I'm pretty burnt out at the moment (in fact, I''m working on a nice facial imprint of the keyboard). Instead of commenting and linking a story, I'll simply link a couple that caught my eye today.

Iraqi Soldier Returns to Secure Iraq

When the opportunity finally presented itself, he returned to Iraq in 2003 to “give Coalition forces a hand.” Ayad said he returned to his birthplace because he’s “here working for freedom.”Ayad is use to fighting for freedom. In the mid-1980s, he fought alongside the current Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, against Saddam’s forces. After receiving an injury on the battlefield that took him out of the fight, he fled to Turkey in 1988 and then later immigrated to England as a political refugee and became a British citizen. While in England, he continued his education and eventually earned a college degree. He supported himself by working odd jobs, but always looked forward to the day when he could return to his birthplace. Today, he leads a military intelligence unit in the northern Salah Ah Din Province of Iraq, but is very flexible about his future plans.

CENTCOM's Good News
This is where I lost my energy and did a face plant on the keyboard. Check out all the good stories just from today!

Still working on getting pictures of me and The Wiz online.