June is wrapping up, and boy has it been hot. I don't know what has been worse the heat or the dust. The dust sure made me miss out on a lot of flight time. I probably got eight or nine flights cancelled this month because of the dust. I did manage to get just a little over 20 flight hours this month. I think that I am around 150 or 160 for the enitre deployment. It is pretty much the same stuff all the time, not all that exciting. The picture is of the base that I am at, it is pretty big. Living conditions are actually pretty good. The gym is real nice. Food isn't too bad. So this will give you an idea of where i live.

Internet

So for some reason lately I have been doing all these new things when it comes to internet, and web pages, but I found something really cool. I should say some of my buddies here, have told me about it. First would be a web browser called "Mozilla Firefox". Basically it is the same as Internet Explorer. Slightly different. It allows you to open up multiple pages in one window, you can tab them out at the top of your tool bar. It is pretty cool. So instead of clicking on a link when you are browsing, and a whole new window pops up, you can keep the same window and switch back and forth. I like it. Then the other thing I like even more is a thing called Stumble Upon. This is a really cool addition to the new browser. You tell it the things you like (i.e.; sports, history, investing, etc.) then when you are browsing it gives you random things that are out there on the stuff you are interested in. Some stuff is from obvious webpages, ESPN, others comes from very interesting sources. It is worth trying I really like it, I have found some cool things, especially on the comedy, and satire stuff. I have the links on the right side of the page if you are interested in either one.

Free time

So this is how we spend some of our "free time" if that is what you call off time in a combat zone. These are not optimal Poker playing conditions, but we work with what we have.

If I am posting anything that has to do witht the recent past I guess it would have to be about the Dust Storms we have here. They suck and are terrible. We basically can't fly in them cause visibility is so poor. They are a pain in the butt, cause the dust is bad with out a "Dust Storm". You can see sky above them usually, but not all the time, it tends to settle around the ground. Any way I have accompanied this post with a picture of a dust storm out in Al Asad. It is about 150 miles west of here, but this is what they can look like. This was a pretty major one, it was not this powerful when it hit us, it broke up some. So needless to say I haven't been flying much lately. So therefore, my life is even more boring here. By the way the picture is real

How this Got started

So I probably should have started my postings with this. I am a little surprised I even set this thing up, but I think my friend Chris, is trying to turn me into a computer geek. Anyway I will give it a whirl, and try my best to keep up with it, and post new stuff and pictures. I will try to let you all know what is going on, but not much happens around here. Lots of Dust that is about it. So here you are the beginning of my own special website.

Me with the Iraqi cash

I took this picture months ago, but it is my first post with a picture so here it is. We had two aircraft full of cash in Iraqi Dinar. Millions worth in U.S.