New fangled contraption

Hey, I just ordered a digital camera off of amazon.com so this super blog will be 'EVEN BETTER'. Instead of just being able to read about what I do and think you will be able to 'SEE' it. Pretty wild huh? I am looking forward to being able to post lots of pics of me and my friends, the Iraqis I hang out with, and the place I live. I miss my friends and family back home but I really can't complain about much here... Oh, just the other day we had a mortar attack here at our base Fob Liberty (Fob= forward operations base). The attack fell on our compound but nobody was hurt. I slept through it (guess I am just used to the sound of stuff like that) I hope that all goes well with those I love and miss, and I can't wait to hear from anybody who reads my blog. Feel free to post any comments you want. I must get back to work (it is 2 am here and I am just working on translating some Arabic) I took a break to post this but my workstation calls to me to catch some more terrorists. Take care and live well

Zach Attack

Bombs over Baghdad, er... Tikrit

This morning (I am on night shift so I sleep during the day) when I was trying to get to sleep I was serenaded by the sound of controlled military detonating of IEDs. It kind of reminded me of my last time here when we would go to sleep at night to the sound of our outgoing artillery fire (kind of comforting if you think about it, bombs going out not coming in). It sickens me how much anger and death exist over here but what can we do? I still remember last time when we had fought our way up to the Euphrates river (my first time here was when we invaded and fought up to Baghdad) and there were hundreds of bodies lined up along the road where they had been killed (not executed but shot during combat). Some however were in various states of undress, because many of the Iraqi army soldiers had brought civilian cloths so they could run away instead of facing us. But hey good times in Iraq right? Just ask the people killed by the vehicle born ied at the hospital today.... Hopefully things improve for their country soon.

A little about me

Like I said my name is Zach, but what you don't know is that I have 2 wonderful children Jake (he is 7) and Linnea (she is 3), of course there is also my lovley wife Tara who is beautiful. Lastly, I have my dog Benny (he is a springer).

My first Post

hello, My name is Zach and this is my 2nd time in Iraq. I am with the 3rd Infantry division and my first time in Iraq was durring the Operation Iraqi Freedom invasion where we fought from kuwait up to baghdad and then I lived in falloujah for about 3 months. This time I am living in Tikrit and the living conditions are much better but I am stop lossed (where my time to get out comes but the army keeps me in) so I am not so happy.