In Taji

I’m now settled into my new home-away-from-home, Taji. It’s another huge American base about 10 miles north of the Green Zone in Baghdad. Getting here on a nighttime helicopter mission was a little nerve racking though. I’m pretty sure that we came under small arms attack. I saw four or five intermittent flashes of light suddenly appear from this city we were flying over. The helicopter crew let out flares and got ready use their weapons but we were soon out of the danger area and really high up before anything could happen. That’s probably the only excitement I’m going to have during the nine or so months I’m here.

I can’t really write about what my unit exactly does here on Taji but I can say that it has to do with defending the base. That’s means as the unit’s logistics officer, I’m most likely never going to leave my Forward Operating Base (FOB). The Army has a term for those soldiers who never leave the FOB: fobbits.

Initially I was disappointed when I learned that I would be a fobbit on Camp Taji for 9 months, but I’d rather just do my time and come home safely. Being an IED magnet doesn’t seem too appealing to me right now, especially for a war started under dubious circumstances. This war is not worth the life or limb of one more American soldier. Anyone who tells you otherwise should be asked to enlist and fight in the war himself.

I’ll just have to stay busy with work and keep my eyes away from the calendar. I don’t expect much to happen while I’m here so I’m not going to update this blog unless something of note occurs. Sorry to let anyone down, but it’ll be tough to keep this interesting if I’m doing the same thing day in and day out, like the movie Groundhog Day.

Thanks for all of your support during my deployment. It means a lot to me. I’ll see you when I get home once and for all!

Here are a few pictures of where I live: