Breakin' the law! Breakin' the law!

The picture is one of the “mini mosques” that are around here. They are all strictly off limits—I guess to avoid offending the locals. To me it seems disrespectful to board up a house of worship, regardless of the faith—but what do I know?

OK, this one fits under the heading of “I can’t make this up”. Several weeks ago, I gave a ride to one of our new guys back to hit tent. I went inside for a few minutes and when I came out, an MP was writing me a parking ticket.
Tried as I might, my best efforts to weasel out the ticket failed and this young man kept filling out the ticket form, when suddenly “Boom!” something exploded nearby. Seeing an opportunity to get away, I asked him if he better go find out what blew up.
Nope, enemy action wasn’t his department, enforcing the parking regulations around tent city—now that was his bag.
Then “Boom!” another explosion. Now, at this point I’m impressed with his tenacity; so, resigned to my fate, I asked him: “Can you at least turn off the flashing lights on top of your truck? So we're not marking our position.”
“No sir, I can’t, safety regulations”

Strange but true

One of the features that this blog is that I can assign labels to various posts. So far I have:

I never thought I would see that in Iraq—strange sights I’ve come across

Not the place to be in ’03—vary unhealthy places to be at during the invasion

No way am I making this up—Things that are so ridiculous, they have to be real.

Today’s post falls into the “No way I am making this up” category. In a war zone, there is a need for sandbags. Nobody likes to fill sandbags however. Troops like to eat, however. Therefore, the “powers that be’ said: “hey we need sandbags and the troops need food—they go together like peanut butter and jelly” So, there is new rule: in order to enter the Dining Facility, you must fill one sand bad. True, one bag isn’t that big of a job, but eating is one of the few self indulgent pleasures around here. Soldiers are like dogs, they are generally happy, mild mannered and loyal, but don’t get in between them and their food bowl.