Nice visit to Baghdad

I just got back from a nice overnight trip to visit a friend and spend some time with some other Artillerymen up in Baghdad. He is on staff at the HQ that runs our area of Iraq, and works with the senior Artillery COLONEL for the 10th MTN Division at Ft. Drum. Since Robyn and I have been thinking about going there after the career course, I went and talked with him and his boss about the possibility of me going there. The COL was very nice and said he would talk to the personnel folks about me possibly going there, so that's cool. I also got to have a nice dinner and chat with another good dude about life and the Army and what we're doing in it. It was good to be able to talk with someone I can relate to about the direction things are going with our careers and families. They were throwing a celebration for the Artillery called, "St. Barbara's Day celebration". It's a tradition in the Artillery to honor the patron saint of the Artillery branch and to keep alive the traditions and brotherhood of the Artillery. It was held at a really nice hotel accross from one of Saddam's palaces there. I got a couple good pictures of Jim and I outside the hotel overlooking the small man-made lake that is between the hotel and the palace with the palace in the background. I will try to download them soon and post them on here for you to see. I'm wicked tired now though, because I worked until after midnight the night before I flew up there, and didn't get to sleep until around 0300 from packing and then had to get up at 0530 to get ready to catch my Blackhawk ride. Then, I stayed up until around 0300 after watching Army get destroyed by Navy and chatting with Jim. After getting a few hours of sleep, Jim took me back to the airport around 1115 so I could catch my flight back. So...early to bed tonight to get ready to come on my 12 hour shift tomorrow! Not too much longer left though, and I'm just thankful that this is a shortened deployment. I miss my wife and little boy very much.