Hello from Iraq

I just arrived at the outpost where I will hopefully be staying throughout my deployment. They have free internet and I had some free time so I figured I would give everyone a little update and share some pictures. I only have 30 minutes so I will make it short. Over all, things have been going pretty well. We have been moving from base to base ever since we made it to Kuwait. I have been gone about 24 days now and I still haven't stayed in one place long enough to unpack. The outpost that we are at now is very crowded with people because the unit we are replacing is still here. The living conditions are not great but they could be way worse. I share a room with 5 other LTs right now but as soon as the other unit leaves it should get better. There is no water here besides bottled water so you have to use that to shave and "shower." I recently went "out of the wire" as they call it on my first mission with the unit we are replacing just to help me learn our area of operations. It was a little nerve racking at first but very exciting. I've been going to a lot of last minute classes but usually we have not been busy at all. I get to talk to Rebecca a lot and I am so thankful for that. Here on our outpost they have Spawar phones that are run by the navy. You can get about 10 hours of talk time for only 25 dollars, which is a lot cheaper than the ATT phones I had been using. We are also supposed to get internet in our rooms soon so then we will be able to talk using Skype. I hope that works out. Talking to Rebecca helps so much. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't talk to her. Everything is going great so far and I am so proud of her for being so strong and taking care of everything back in the states. I cannot wait to come home!