You good back there?

I really liked the framing on this one.

Big n little

Bonecrusher meet little Bonecrusher.

Patriot

A true American Hero.

Iraqi Checkpoint Guard

I don't know why this happened, but I'm sure he wanted something to drink. They'd often do things, or give you a reason to give them free stuff,. like water, or food, or candy. Pens, gloves and Eye protection were big items too.

That shit eating grin.

This dude is just crazy photogenic imo.

Kieep it Country.

Had to represent the 808.

Rhan

This little girl was my lil buddy. We operated near home a few times a week and she'd go from truck to truck looking for me. If I saw her before she'd find me I'd crack the door open so she knew she could come hang out and talk. She spoke a little bit of English.

She was always really respectful which was strange amongst Iraqi kids where most of em are kinda wild and mean. Because she was so cool I'd give her chem-lights and candy on the sly. If she were to get caught getting candy or something her compatriots would beat her up and take it from her. Stealth was key!

She wrote her name in english on a piece of paper next to my name. It was so sweet. I still have it in a box somewhere.

Rhan's brother.

He wasn't as friendly. He didn't like that I gave stuff to his sister and not him, so he always yelled at me and pushed her around.

Mock up base.

We found this in a field. A mock up of an Iraqi base. The terrorists use this to plan attacks and stuff. I don't know what came of it.

Found it!

Miles and miles of road.

My buddy.

My buddy on the left there died a couple years ago in Afghanistan. His 3rd deployment.

I saw him in Afghanistan a month or so before his death. Last words to him were, "You take care of yourself buddy, ok?" Guess it didn't help.

Saddam's Palace on the Tigris River.

I actually got to chill in there one day. Fucking huge. Cool swooping marble-ish stair case. There were some cool as hell Irish Mercenaries that lived in there. They gave me a bottle of Romanian wine that tasted like poison but did the job well enough.

Roadside Gas Station.

The locals sell fuel on the side of the road. You'd know if something was going down because the vendors would all be inside for the day.

A cool family.

These people were actually pretty friendly. Usually the general population tried to ignore us. People like this made us feel like we were doing the right thing. I knew at least I was fighting for them. So they could be happy. I don't know if it made a difference or not.

Welcome to Tikrit!

A university

Loooooooots of beautiful women in that place. It's almost like it's not even Iraq. Our interpreter took us into a kitchen to get us some food they "graciously" gave us. I don't know what the deal entailed, I only know our Terp yelled a lot, and my buddy and I carrying the food said thank you an awful lot.

Oil Fire

This fire raged for months. Months. There was an oil pipeline some terrorists blew up. Leaked oil all over this field for a few weeks, then some patrol got hit by an IED right next to the oil field and ignited the blaze. Kinda cool if you think about it.

I can't wait for the cancer to set in.

Same thing different angle.

Some engineers eventually smothered the fire by using bulldozers to smush dirt all over it.

Kiowa

These dudes were so cool. One of the lieutenants was an unbelievably hot woman. Like, holy shit. She sat in the back of a truck with me and my buddy while he showed off some of our equipment. I was too star struck to say much of anything.

She smelled so clean.

Tanker Truck

This dude got hit by an IED I think. Burned it out. The black on the ground is the fuel he leaked. You'd see husks of vehicles all over the place.

My Australian Buddy

Met this dude in Baghdad. He was so freaking cool. We traded patches and played with each other's rifles. He hated his. Said it was good for storing "Mars Bars" but not much else.

:(

Some graffiti I found in Mosul. Lots of dudes lost their wives. Either just straight up divorce, or by cleaning out their houses and taking everything. Leaving an empty shell to come home to.

He had never seen snow before.

Would you believe it if I told you that was December 25th?

We didn't find that IED

It found us.

Merry Christmas!

Our sad little tree. It was actually kind of awesome.

It was growing in this dudes yard way out somewhere. So when my Lieutenant saw he immediately pulled us over and asked the guy if we could have to celebrate our holiday. He acquiesced and we brought it home. It was so bright you could see it off post. After a while they said we couldn't leave it on all night, cuz it might be a good target. It certainly attracted attention because people form all over the base would come just to see our tree. It was nice.