The Midnight Hour

The movie Jarhead, an adaptation of a book written by former Marine Anthony Swofford, created much controversy in the military community when it was released. Reactions ran the gamut of apathy, excitement, and disgust. I have since watched the film more than once, and discussed it with many Marines. The following is […]

The twelve best and worst signs I’ve seen on bases in Iraq. All misspellings and grammar errors are reproduced exactly as seen.
12. “Do not place your weapon on the deck in this facility. Sling that weapon and keep it on your person at all times.”
Posted on the entrance to the “Little Vegas Café” […]

Baghdad is quite an interesting place. The base is actually comprised of several sub-camps named Slayer, Victory, Liberty, etc. I never thought living conditions in Iraq could get much better than Camp Fallujah, but Baghdad has us beat hands down. All you haters can direct your aggression at them, because they are […]

It’s not often one would complain about being promoted to a higher-level position. However, in the military it’s the lower-level units (platoons, teams, etc) that actually conduct operations and most directly impact the war. Higher level commanders, while having much more responsibility, just don’t get outside the wire as often. They direct […]

(Originally published in the New York Times select on March 26, 2006 - link)
Last week I discovered the Camp Falluja junkyard. It was glorious.

SSgt Williamson finds a kevlar. Gunny Johns and
Cpl Morris continue digging for treasure.
As our HMMWV turned the corner and I caught my first glimpse of this vast expanse I heard […]

(Originally published in the New York Time Select on March 22, 2006 - link)
It wasn’t long ago that hand-written letters from deployed service members were like gold to their families at home, and vice-versa. News traveled at a snail’s pace, and the information a service member read in correspondence with his loved ones was sure […]

[This is transcribed from notes I jotted down on my recent trip to Baghdad. The verb tense makes sense when read in that context]

The Perfume Palace was a brothel for Uday and Husay Hussein, causing it to always smell of the perfume of their concubines.

I just arrived in Baghdad for a conference and I […]

Every time Marines go to the field a train of port-a-johns follows in trace. It has been determined that port-a-johns are both more sanitary and more convenient than digging a cat-hole with one’s entrenching-tool. I’ll definitely agree with the “more convenient” part. The sanitation issue is another matter. Regardless, it appears […]

Corporal Church and I riding in a 7-ton.
We loitered at the south end of Camp Fallujah waiting to start our convoy brief, which would cover our route of travel, contingency plans, and a plethora of other information essential to the conduct of a convoy. However, on this particular day we would begin to face […]

-Flightsuits are great! They were issued to us a few weeks ago for missions. They are flame-retardant, comfy, and much more ventilated than our standard uniform.
-There is no requirement to spell-check signs that will be posted on Camp Fallujah for all of its 8,000 inhabitants to see.
-We just got some new M16/M4 magazines […]