The last Saturday off... ahhhhhh...

Ohhhhhh what a fantastic feeling to know it's just around the corner... that time... the time to head back home.  It's probably one of the most relaxing feelings you can possibly know!  :)  Soon I will be sitting somewhere... with no responsibilities to worry about... drinking a beer by the pool.  What an awesome thought!  I've been gone 6 months and a week now, and yet it still feels like yesterday (to some degree at least).  It certainly hasn't felt like 6 months.  It may have felt longer to those at home who have been waiting for all of us for all this time, though. 

So... as I have been planning to do... the following is going to be a "somewhat" chronological depiction of the time here in pictures.  Some of these pics I'm sure you've seen before, but many you haven't.  So do enjoy my final blog post from the desert land of Iraq. :)

There I was... the first couple days in the desert... and what did I discover???  SKYPE!  What an awesome communication tool!  It truly keeps you as close as humanly possible across the thousands of miles between one another.

These are just a couple pictures from our times on Skype over the past 6 months.  There were some fun times here with those at work as well... A1C Phillips and SrA Kyles... just a couple of our fine young Airmen here. :) 

There was of course the living space here... mine as I call it... a POD.  The official acronym for the living areas are CHUs.  Believe it or not... I don't even know what the C in CHU means.  Combined or Collective... Housing Units.  Or... PODs. :)

Early on in the deployment Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, and Jim Lovell came to pay us a visit and speak for us here at Joint Base Balad.  It was definitely a monumental event for all in attendance!  We were certainly a captive audience to say the least.  What do you say Billy Marshall?  "Why I say... That was a fun time Sgt. Latshaw... yes... yes it was."  And it certainly was just that... an AWESOME time!!!! :)  Meeting the first Americans in space and to walk on the moon doesn't happen every day you know!

Then there was the Trace Adkins concert on November 2nd.  A grand time was had by all.  He put on a fabulous show for us, and as you can see from the picture he was quite personable... and TALL! LOL  He stands about 6' 6" or so.  Thanks again Trace!

Then there came the holidays... I don't have any pictures from Turkey Day, so I will move into the Christmas pics momentarily.  I'm having an issue getting my Charlie Brown Christmas tree to upload... but I'm not giving up yet!  LOL  I have a few other pictures to throw in here in the meantime. :)

Smile, laugh, kill... I wanted my picture with these 3 rocks for the longest time... then finally I got someone to take it one day when I had my camera at work with me. 

That was a fun one... there are a couple others later on that I thought were pretty fun to be a part of as well.  Fun is never really a bad thing to have you know, and this is one place it's really important to include it in your daily routine.  Otherwise, you're liable to just go crazy! Arrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!! Ha ha hee hee hoo hoo!!!!

Then what do you end up doing?  You take your picture with a Christmas tree that has a RADAR on top in place of an angel!!!! YIKES!!!  Now who wouldn't laugh about THAT? :) 

They did a good job with this poor old tree... which was real by the way.  The needles all over the command post would definitely make one agree. LOL  At first it looked more like a sad old evergreen bush that was already half in the grave, but our hard-

working Airmen made it come together as best as they could. Not bad I must say! Christmas morning was very nice... I held onto my Christmas gifts until then, too!  It wasn't an easy thing to do, either!  I had lots of them!  It was so worth waiting for, though.  It also just so happened to be on my day off, which made it that much more enjoyable!  The gifts were plentiful!  The blanket came well before Christmas, and it was just in time, too!  I was soooooo cold before it arrived.  I even got to try on a couple "non-military" clothing items that were sent to me as well!!!!  Now THAT felt GREAT!!!!  Good times indeed!!!  It was really nice to have a little bit of home in my pod for Christmas.  I am very thankful for all the wonderful gifts and treats I received from everyone. Thank you so much! :)

The holidays came and went as quickly as all the other days here, though, and soon it was January already!  January meant the NFL playoffs, and the Steelers were rollin' in them!!!  As you all know it didn't end well for my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, as they were defeated in the Super Bowl by 6 points by the Green Bay Packers, but it was one hell of a ride they gave us once again!  As quickly as January came it was gone as well... it was a fairly cool month... but nothing compared to an Idaho winter!  February felt even colder to me honestly... at least the first part of it.   There was even a day I saw a few snowflakes or sleet mixed in with the rain.  This was the damage 4 straight days of rain caused here.  It was like this EVERYWHERE, too!!!  As you can see Mike was sizing up whether or not he would be able to make it across the "river". :)

Also in February there was a very special event that I was able to attend.  We had a guest speaker who is not only an accomplished author and a religious man... but he is a Vietnam veteran and a hero by just about any standard.  His name is Mr. Dave Roever, and he certainly did not disappoint!  :)

February was a month of knowing the time here was getting close to the end.  And as Februrary came to a close... there were things that had to happen.  Well... for me it was getting those all important pictures to remember the time by before it was too late.  Rolling into March the thoughts were really homeward bound!  Once you get into those last couple weeks it really starts to sink in.  It's almost over... and soon we will all be seeing our loved ones and enjoying the luxuries that being in the great U.S. of A.  has to offer!  I give a special thanks to my dear wife for being more supportive during the past 6 months than anyone could possibly ask for.  I also thank all my readers, followers, friends, family, and anyone else I've failed to mention for all the awesome support you've all provided to me and all of my comrades.

This won't be my final blog by any means.  I will certainly continue to blog in the future as it's not only enjoyable but highly therapeutic. :)  These last 2 pictures are our T-Walls in the Kingpin compound.  Farewell Kingpin!!!  Parting is truly such sweet sorrow, and I can say I've enjoyed my time here.  It's definitely been a learning experience and at times even fun! :)

Peace, Love, and Poker

P.S.... since I started putting this whole thing together... I have left Iraq and am currently in Qatar! :)

Winding down...

It was another nice Tuesday morning for sleeping in.  :)  As my time here in the desert comes to a close I have to think back to all the things I've done in my 6 months (now 6 months plus) over here.  I can remember the day I got off the plane like it was yesterday.  It was the middle of the night, and it was HOT!  That was early September... yet it seems not so long ago. 

Now it's early (almost mid) March, and it's almost time to leave.  It's certainly not going to be hot like it was when I first arrived here.  In fact, according to the weather forecast it's going to be COLD if anything... which I'm quite certain is rather rare for this part of the world by this time of year.  I was anticipating temperatures up into the 80s around now, but it hasn't happened except for maybe a couple days in the past 2 weeks where it got up to around 80ish... which was gorgeous by the way!  It's to be only a high of 64 on Thursday and remain in the 60s through the weekend with lows dipping below 40 even!  Oh... and by the way... I'm so not complaining!  That's my kind of weather for sure! 

As you can see I've not been able to post my blog with my pics yet... but it's coming soon to a post near you!  It's nearly impossible to try and do it on the internet connection I'm currently using.  I'm lucky I can even get PokerStars to work or Skype in here.  Lately, however, it has been much better than in the past.  That's a good thing considering I've paid $59.99 a month for it!!!  It was the one luxury here I decided to give myself (along with several coffees and teas per day) during my time here.  I didn't really spend money on anything else, so to me it was worth the investment for the little conveniences. 

You can tell everyone at work is ready to go.  We're all tired... exhausted even.  It's to be expected.  I have been somewhat refreshed the past couple weeks for whatever reason.  It's not like I've been going to bed any earlier.  On the contrary, I've been hitting the sack after 11 PM just about every night of late.  Last night I was up past midnight even!  Of course, I got to sleep until 9 this morning, which felt FANTASTIC!  :)

I get to see my dear wifey on the 24th for the first time since August 30th.  I can't wait!!!  Then in April I'm traveling out her way, and we're going to visit my family for a week and then spending another week together as well.  That's going to be wonderful!  I'm really looking forward to it.  The break is going to be great... and very refreshing.  I'm going to do my best not to go overboard with living life when I get home.  I plan on continuing my running and working out on a regular basis from the first day back, too.  I don't want to lose what I've gained fitness wise here.  I want to continue to build on it.  :)

And that I will do... the only one who can stop me is me...

Peace, Love, and Poker

The next to last day off has arrived....

Yes... it's true!!!!  The time has almost arrived!!!  It's really gone by so fast... it's quite surreal!  :)  We had a dust storm for the ages this week.  It was insane!  I've never seen so much dust/sand in the air before.  It sure made breathing LOADS of fun!!!  But it passed, and it's been gorgeous outside yesterday and so far this morning.  :) 

This week went by very quickly... as have all the others here.  It's just the nature of it I suppose.  I couldn't see 6 months going by this fast if I even tried to imagine it, but I'm certainly not complaining.  Our replacements got here the beginning of this week, and we've been going full speed ahead to get them trained up to do the mission we've been doing so well since the beginning of September.  They are picking it up fast, and I would have to say they're going to keep it going without a glitch!!!

I have to say this has been a great experience for me... and although I'm VERY glad it's coming to an end I would definitely do it over again.  It's been well worth the time invested.  Of course the savings in my bank account doesn't hurt any, either!  :) 

A little later on today I'll try and post some of my pictures from throughout the deployment.  Some of them may have been on an earlier post, but I wanted to kind of do an online scrapbook of sorts of my time here.  So that's my plan for later on... I may end up with a few more pictures to post before these last days wind down, but the ones I have will give a good depiction of the time spent here.  :)

So... I wish everyone an AWESOME weekend!!!  I don't personally have a "weekend" so to speak, but I'll be back to that very soon.  :)

Peace, Love, and Poker