Camels and camels and camels, oh my!

There weren't actually just camels, there were also mice, beetles, and camel leavings.

We have completed our last training in Kuwait before moving off to Baghdad. We took a bus up and for up a couple nights where we received close quarters marksmanship and convoy training from civilian instructors. These are the ex-military guys you hear about in the news, part of the workforce in iraq that makes up about 50% of the Americans there and are funded by contracts between their companies and the government. They also see no combat and have a paycheck incredibly higher than the average soldier, and just substantially higher than the higher-paid troops.

A chaplain was giving us a little "thanks for coming to Camp Virginia" chaplain talk and he encouraged us by throwing in the joke that it's good going to a combat zone because you no longer have to look for a place to go to the bathroom because it's all around you.