Cross Sabers!!!

Well, I'm back at Victory for the last half of the weekend, and I go back to the IZ tommorrow for rest of this PDHA mission. I will be gone til the 4th of Mar. and I'll be back for more fun at Victory. I will say that I enjoy staying at the IZ better, as there is not as much rif raf at the Forward Operating Bases(FOB's). By that I mean people like higher ranking officers. There is also more stuff to see in terms of historical landmarks. Last night, we got a last minute flight to BIAP from Cross Sabers LZ, which for those of you that don't know is huge sabers crossed on each end of the marching parade stadium that Saddam used for his military reviews. I am putting a picture up of one end of it, and to add a bit of info, the swords are made up of melted Iranian helmets from the 8 year Iran/Iraq war in the 80's. The helmets are obviously from dead soldiers and it is pretty morbid, but the landmark is well known, and cool to see! Also, we went up into the stadium, and it was a victim of looting and major open fire, and Rod you will be happy to know that I took a picture of me doing the Saddam wave from the spot where he did it! As many of you know from the news it has been a busy week on the Suicide bomber/Vehicle born explosive devises in Baghdad, I will tell you in downtown you can feel almost every one of them. They are much bigger than mortar rounds hitting even close to you! But, they have had a Muslim holiday here so they have been targeting mostly mosques, and holy places! It is weird that you can hear those things, and than when you check online that 50 people were killed, but you don't hear sirens or anything! I guess in the states if something 1/10 of that happened, you would hear about it everywhere! Anyway, it feels more like a war zone down there, and there is much more security. At Victory we are in the country, but 10 minutes from here is the city, and a lot less Iraqi's! Also, the vehicle got a ride in to the LZ, was the SUV that PM Allawi of Iraq tools around in for government business! That was cool to!
At least I got to experience some of the closeup things that go on, even though they are not the most rosey things. The area I'm covering as for PDHA's is the Baghdad area, and the mid Iraq section where my old active duty unit 3rd ID is coming in, and even though it was the 24th ID when I was there at Ft. Stewart, 2/7th Inf. Battalion is in country so maybe I'll even see my old medic track that I used to drive, if I get up there! I spent a lot of time eating, sleeping, fixing, and driving in that baby, so it will be good to see. Mis, remember when we went to Ft. Stewart and I took my picture at the motor pool with it in the background? I might get another reunion this time!
I will write more as I can, but I have no more cash, so I don't know if I can afford the $2/min internet fee at the IZ because I'm cheap, but I'll try!!!!!!!!!!!!
Later,
Erik