Starting in the middle, or somewhere past it.

6/14/09 03:40 local time: I have to start somewhere. Iraq seems like as good a place as any. I'm originally from Florida. Jacksonville to be specific. I've lived there all my life on the gun ridden northside. Around the same time I came to Iraq as a civilian I moved all my stuff to the beach. Well, my girlfriend actaully moved everything since we were living together. My girlfriend who is now my wife part 2. Part 1 was along long time ago. But generated a little me that I miss very much.
My first trip to Iraq began in Jacksonville on a mild December morning in 2003. It began with a phone call. "You got your wish buddy, you're going to Iraq." Wife part 1 had ended less than a month and a half earlier. So I really needed that call. I guess I can't really get the details of this trip going without explaining how I got here as a civilian. My first trip was with an Army Reserve unit out of Rock Hill South Carolina. I spent the better part of a year driving a raggedy old 5 ton truck with a 50 cal mounted in the back, escorting fuel trucks all over southern Iraq. I had never heard of Government Contractors before my deployment. But they were everywhere and seemed like they were having a good time and making an assload of cash at the same time. So a year and half after redeploying back to the states I decided to give it a shot.
So here I am. Over 2 and half years since I made that first trip to Houston to process for this company. Bouncing from Atlanta, to England, Dubai, Paris, Kuwait, Amsterdam, Germany, Chicago, Up and Down, up and down, over and over, in and out of Iraq. But I'm still here and ready to get out. Maybe this will give me a place to rant so I don't take it out on anyone that can or could fire me.
Yesterday was like most of my days. At midnight I was already half way thru my shift from the previous day. Working nights here is so much better than being on the day shift. At 8 in the morning it is already well over 100 degrees and I am curled up under a blanket in my air conditioned room. It's still pretty damn hot at night. But not melt your brain hot like it is during the days. When I go to work at 6 in the evening it is atleast bareable to make the 50 yard hike to the office.
Alot of changes are going on. Many people have just been had their pay cut, or transfered, or both, or worse-fired. I am glad to have gotten word that I am being transfered. I have been on this camp for long enough and need a change of scenery.
I'm currently taking an online course that I hope will make me more marketable to find a real world job back in Jacksonville so I can go back home and stay with my beautiful new bride and my son, the best kid on this planet.
I think that is enough for a first entry. I will get around to posting pictures and writing more later.
From Bucca-
MLB out

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