Independence Day: my last federal holiday in Iraq! One of my soldiers was naturalized today at the al Faw palace. John McCain was the guest speaker and it was a mob scene as a consequence. I went, but didn’t stay because I could not see. Here are photos of the palace and the Senator:
They had an MRAP on hand; what for, I don’t know. It has a robotic arm to uncover IEDs, a hot arm to detonate heat activated EFPs, and slat armor to defeat RPGs.

We had a dining-in at the palace on the 2nd. It was a bit of fun and I was in a skit where I played the General. Nothing like lampooning your two-star for career advancement.
We had an attack a few days ago. I was in my room reading A.C. Clark (thanks, Andrew & Lee) when it happened. There were about 15 small arms rounds that came over into Dodge City, one of which went straight through my trailer. It sounded like a firecracker. I won’t be home soon enough!