First Post

Being a little older member of this community, the Bloging concept is intriguing. Imagine posting your thoughts as a kind of therapy for the days toil.

I read many of the Blogs from soldiers going through the experience in Iraq and I'm reminded of the year I spent there. Days with a mixture of boredom, heat, terror, and occasionally pain. I can honestly say that there were few good days except those when we would get out and see lots of kids managing to do OK in that environment.

While I was there I had the opportunity to see much of the country in my position. I realized there was a basic beauty in the country, its people and land that the war was destroying. The Concrete walls, garbage and debris was covering what once must have been lovely. Against this backdrop we would drive to sites which often were shells of the former granduer where families had taken up refuge...former palaces, country homes, government facilities which now had cows, kids, goats, trash in residence. When we would arrive - we usually were greeted with suspicion by the older residence, but the kids would swarm out within minutes to see if we had any treats for them. They were always the highlight of the trip, reminding us of our own left at home. We couldn't imagine the similar circumstance in our own country....

I made a windows slide show set to music which represented that year in Iraq... I hope to link it here shortly...