THE EVER-CHANGING CREW PHOTOS

One thing I learned early in Iraq is that you can be moved in an instant to anywhere in the country. I have been fortunate enough to have been on Victory for seven months so far and I hope to be here throughout the rest of my first contract. People are moved, "for the good of the mission". So here is a little tribute to people that I started out with here at SVFD and the new people with us now.

TOTO.....WE'RE NOT IN BAGHDAD ANYMORE!

Well, seems overnight we transitioned to the Red Planet.....Mars! We have been in a bad dust storm for over a week that gives a cool orange hue to everything outside. Of course everything inside is covered with a film of dirt and you actually know what an asthmatic feels like, it is difficult to breath by the end of the day. And with the dust comes the rockets and mortars, the dickheads launching them know it is harder to detect. Here are some cool pics, normal to Red Planet.

A normal day out the back of the Firehouse

Getting worse!

The Freaky Orange Glow!

INTERNATIONAL LAMPOONS: CAMP SLAYER VACATION!

The past few weeks my buddy Mikey and I have been trying to plan a day to head over to Camp Slayer and check out the sights. Like Victory, there are Palaces and "Touristy" things to see and do......well, about as "Touristy" as you're gonna get here on the VBC. One thing is for sure, this place must have been quite a spectacle in its prime. So Camp Slayer here we come....also with a new addition to our Fire Crew, Josh. With my 41st birthday just around the corner I felt like a chaperone for these two at 21 and 23 years old. I felt like Chevy Chase in the "European Vacation" Movie......."Look kids Big Ben...Parliment!".

Through some pre-jaunt investigating, Mikey found out there is an organized tour of the "Victory Over America" Palace every Sunday that meets at the Slayer PX at 12:30 hrs.

We headed out to the bus-stop at 11:00 hrs and found out the next bus over to Slayer was at 12:34 hrs and we wouldn't make it for the tour. We decided to head on over anyway, there would still be a lot to see.

A couple of Pre-Trip pictures

Finally we were on a bus and headed over to the camp, it was a 20 min ride, nothing really seems very far away around here it just takes a long time because the roads are so bad you can't go very fast. We got off at the Slayer PX and started walking around the lake tword Flintstone Village. This was a very elaborate little playground Saddam had built for his grandkids, it was a series of apartments, tunnels, waterfalls and patios built to look prehistoric and very "Flintstone-like". I can't imagine what this place looked like before the war, it must have been amazing. Then we got to it and it is now a bombed out, delapitated, graffitti-ridden pile of crap. I will never understand why some things happen, eventually we will be gone and this place could have been for local kids to use but it has been neglected and destroyed. It is a total shame.

Very cool stuff, unfortunatly very run down as well. So we headed across the street to a little bombed out area to a popular photo op backdrop of the man Saddam himself. There was another building that could have beena school or daycare judging by the paintings we found on the walls, besides it was across fromm Flintstone Village.

Here we have a picture of the notorious "Perfume Palace" where Saddam kept his scores of beautiful virgins for his.........pleasure? Maybe even a few dudes too, who knows? The man was a bonifide freak so why not get a little freaky in the bedroom too?

So from there we continued around the lake, although you can't help but see it from everywhere i'll post a few pics of the "Victory over America" Palace. After the Gulf War, Saddam began construction on it to celebrate his.....victory....over....America?? Makes perfect sense. This puppy is HUGE and unfortunatly we didn't make the tour, but next time. As with many things here it is pretty F-ed up. There are still construction cranes up but I don't think there is anymore building going on.

Next we continued around the lake...and I don't care what Mikey says, its a big fuckin lake and we should have gone back the way we came, my thighs were all chaffed!! We came upon a small Mosque, great design, just a lot of really beautiful buildings here.

Here are a few pictures of a couple of bunkers on the shore of the lake, a houseboat that had seen better days and a draw-bridge.

Then we headed down home stretch back to where we started, found a few BBQ patios along the water that had big meat hooks on them. We figured they were for cleaning fish or hanging Saddams enemies from so we tried to see if we could get a pic of one of us hanging from them. Yeah, it's kinda morbid, but we are in Iraq!

I had to get this picture of Mikey for Lori (Surrogate Mom) back at the station. She always says he is her "special" boy!

Well, a good time was had by all. We ended our trip with a stop at the Slayer PX, I bought a Spider-man 3 game for my Wii so I can suck at that game too. Then we headed over to Slayers Greenbeans International Cafe and enjoyed some frozen coffee drinks while we waited for the bus home. I still need to get some pictures from Mikey and Josh, possibly some video footage too so there could be a sequal to this adventure coming soon!