Halfway There

Today is the halfway point for my deployment to Iraq. It's been six months since I initially set foot in Kuwait, and that moment counted as the first day of 365, the maximum allowed over here (for the Navy). That policy that has been pretty flexible on more than one occasion, but it is a policy. Technically they can extend you two weeks, but that's all. Even more techically my original orders have me here for 410 days so they can probably manage to use that against me, despite what everyone has told me. Either way, I'm going to go with wishful thinking and say that today I am halfway finished my time here.

I also found out today that I can access the site to update this blog from my work computer, not just the very slow internet café downstairs. So I should post more. There's not much going on to write about, but here are some pictures of what's going on in Baghdad from the MNF-I website (http://www.mnf-iraq.com/) because I really haven't taken many pictures recently.

First some way cooler pictures of V-22's than the one I took:

The other night I flew over Baghdad on an UH-60 helicopter, the same kind in the picture here. I didn't have any night vision, but even without it the lights are almost this bright and I was surprised to see how bright the city is at night. I don't know why I was so surprised, as I hadn't really though about it before. Maybe because I had just been to some more remote (though large) cities where they still have not rebuilt their infrastructure to the point that allows 24/7 electricity, and are limited to only an hour or two of electricity all day. Apparently not a problem in Baghdad.

This picture shows two tigers that were brought to Baghdad from a North Carolina animal sanctuary this month. One of the two previous tigers at the zoo was shot by an American soldier when it grabbed his buddy's arm. The news report that came out said the soldier who was mauled was inside the outer cage where he shouldn't be, had been drinking, and the weapon the tiger was shot with had been confiscated from an Iraqi (something else you're not allowed to do, you have to use your officially issued weapons, this is a big deal in the US Military). Prior to that the zoo has undergone even worse times. When Iraq was originally invaded the animals there at the time were either stolen for profit, stolen and eaten, or left to starve in their cages. I still haven't been to the zoo but hopefully I can get out there before I leave. I almost got to go a little while ago, but them it ended up not happening. Aside from seeing the tigers I will also plan to not get wasted and shoot them.

This is a picture of Sadr City, which you may have heard of on the news. This is the worst and most dangerous section remaining in Baghdad.

Here is a digital retina scanner being used in Sadr City as part of the effort to catch the bad guys, as well as make it impossible for them to remain here undetected. The use of biometrics devices is among many high tech projects that are extremely valuable tools in the Iraq reconstruction.

Oh yeah, a C-130 (big cargo plan, aka "Hercules") crashed in the "red zone" just after takeoff last month, though no one was hurt in or after the crash. Once they had stripped it down the parts that were left over and had to be scrapped were destroyed by an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team.