Camp Virginia!

Dear All my Favorite People,

Yahoo...so far. Yes, I'm in Camp Virgina, Kuwait, which is just a 1/2 hour bus ride to the airport. We arrived late Saturday afternoon, unloaded our bags, received a thrilling briefing on military manners, and promptly I went to McDonalds. Though I'm really not that fond of McDonalds, it was a symbolic way to celebrate Americana. The coke was served in miniature cans with Arabic writing, but the food tasted the same. Especially the overly-salted fries. Mmm, mmm, good. Bet my blood pressure went up 20 pts.

And even better, when I logged into this blog, it was in English! So now I can add my thoughts.

We had an Awards Ceremony in the tent last night. Very informal; my company doesn't like to act military and have formations and all. I received a Safety Award for over 3000 flight hours, and 250 hours for Night Vision Goggles (almost at 500; doesn't include Night Vision Devices - Apache stuff, right Pat?), and an Air Medal for not breaking anything or getting shot down flying combat missions. For a while I was feeling disappointed because I thought being grounded would negate the Air Medal, but my favorite Lieutenant took care of me anyway. I'd hate to be left out of all the chest thumping!

One of our "characters," Badroad who looks like a big, chunky Hawaiian (though he's from Hawaii but has Indian and Norwegian blood), had his birthday yesterday. We all sang Happy Birthday like a bunch of boisterous pirates, someone produced a small bottle of milk with a cake (smuggled out of the chow hall), and a special birthday gift - a pineapple! I'm sure one of the food displays at the chow hall is missing its centerpiece!

Pretty funny picture last night, actually. Everyone curled up on cots, eyes glued to laptops with movies and shooting games going on. People didn't wake up until 10:00 am this morning. Today, which, of course, will be like tomorrow, eat, sleep, read, eat, sleep, read, sleep. Oh,yea. Shower. Still the traditional shower trailers. The bathrooms are litle port-a-johns, usually 4 lashed together to prevent them blowing away during dust storms. Very quaint. Smells great, too.

The excitement is building, but the sand and heat sucks it right back out of me. So, I'll reserve real excitement until I'm on an air conditioned airliner flying back to the States. We've been told, we depart late on the 22nd (Wed), through Germany, Newfoundland, then Oklahoma. Get reindoctrinated to how to act politely in civil society for 4-5 days, then maybe, could be, might be, we'll get to Arizona early the next week. Make a chain, Linda. Just be ready to amend as necessary, courtesy of the U.S. Army.

Love you all very much. (I look forward to hot pizza and cold beer).

C-M/P/3
(Christopher-Michael / Poppy / CW3 Pedersen)