These last couple of weeks have been insane.  I’ve not had too much time to post; when I finally do get home, the internet doesn’t work in my mansion.

So as a bit of a catch up…with a few pictures thrown in.  I had my first convoy about 2 weeks ago. We had some convoy training in Fort Jackson and then again in Kuwait but I don’t think anything can really prepare you for a real convoy, at least not for the first time.  I started getting really anxious when it was time to leave, and when we got to the entry control point and had to lock and load, my already brittle exterior started cracking hopelessly.  Fortunately, I was with some really great people who still remembered their first convoy and assured me that things were going to be fine, and off we went. 

The scariest part of it was constant: garbage and other vehicles.  IEDs (Improvised explosive devices), VBIEDs, or Vehicle Borne IEDs (in dead/abanoned cars on the side of the road) and SVBIEDs (Suicide VBIEDs where someone is actually driving the car).  There is litter everywhere along the road and everything can be or can be concealing an IED.  Every bag of trash, every pile of litter, every cardboard box, you wonder if something is in it.  Every car without a driver, ever car with a driver, you wonder.  Every overpass could be concealing a sniper, as could the buildings along the road. 

Fortunately, the convoy only lasted 13 minutes and 32 seconds from the time we left one control point until we arrived on the other side.  But that was a very, very long 13 minutes and 32 seconds.

Once we got to the IZ - the international zone, which is also known as the green zone - we had some time to unwind before starting back again.  We went right around the time there had been numerous rocket and mortar attacks, but fortunately it was all quiet when we were there.  We get hit by mortars here all the time - three just today, in fact - but our base is about the size of Rhode Island versus the IZ which is about the size of a Six Flags park, just with mortars instead of rollercoasters, and duck and cover bunkers instead of park benches.