7 and 10 January 2009

This is a little heater that the Iraqis had in the search tent...which caught some womans abaya (long black dress) on fire...hahah she was ok, we put it out but she ended up with a pretty big hole in her dress...

LCpl Bell and LCpl Ovalle...takin a break from searching

Our terp talkin to some guys...

The Entry Control Point

A group of women we had to search...we usually search over 200 of them in about 3 hours

Kid with a sandwich thing as big as he is...

we go to this lovely place once a week...its where im always writing from that im soo cold...haha

this is the check in/check out board...it says Hotel Burgess...I guess back before we took over everything the building was actually a hotel in Fallujah...now its just an out post

me and the two searchers...they are not sisters of fallujah...they were both from baghdad...people from baghdad generally tend to think less of people from fallujah..who woulda guessed?

Me with a female Iraqi...she was searching females we were there to observe...this was a slow day and she got a phone call...and handed me the phone for some reason...so i was just talkin away to someone who didnt understand me...it was great...can you hear me now? good!

Promotion Day!

I got pinned on the 2nd of January...but I actually was technically promoted on the 1st of Jan..
Lopez, Me, Mr. Armstrong (ret. Marine Lt.Col but now works to help Iraqis with business) Dez., and Willie...after my promotion...this was also the day that these three were leaving so we were sad.

After my promotion ceremony...Dez, Lopez, MSgt, Me, and Willie

Capt Loughry and MSgt Fraser pinning on my Sergeant chevrons

MSgt reading my warrant

my formation...

The last picture of my as Cpl Harris....hooray

New Years Eve 2008

Willie was my guardian angel that day (just a term we use for the one who is looking out while the other one searches females) and behind her is one of the Sisters of Fallujah in our search shack.

Raja and me. I was trying to get her to do the two like me...but she didnt understand...thus...her fingers are together...doh!

cute kid...with his mom

Selewa, Williams, Raja, and Me. They were wearing our sunglasses....tehe

...when we still had our sunglasses...The Sisters of Fallujah are supposed to be taking over the Lioness' job...they search female Itraqis so we dont have to...but its still new and we have to be there to supervise and make sure they do thorough searches...

Dez, Lopez, Willie, and Me at COP Reaper...this was the hooch we stayed in...nice huh? yeah we were actually excited by how nice it was...sad i know.

Taking timed pictures...it's harder than you think...

funny

Part of a truck that was used as a VBIED (Vehicle Borne Imporvised Explosive Device)

we felt and heard the boom from the chow hall...

Christmastime in Iraq

Me, Lopez, Dez and Willie. It was SOOO cold this night and we had already packed up our sleeping bags. We only had one blanket, so all 4 of us smushed onto 2 cots and kept warm under the blanky...we waited like this for about two hours...

Combat Santa. This is our MSgt, he dressed up as Santa and went out to all the posts to visit with the Marines...hilarious

Williams and Dez hung up Icicles and ornaments over everyones racks...but intead of hanging icicles over mine, they hung 5.56 rounds!!!

our setup...and the shelf on the right...well we just found it sitting all by itself in the middle of nowhere...so we took it

The 1/3 and 1/4 Lioness girls...we were missing 6...they were sent to other bases

Kosnac, me and her bear thing she got for christmas...our stockings in the background

The Lioness girls having our Secret santa on christmas day

ornament, lopez, and dez...oh and a little dust! merry christmas!

Christmas Eve - we play volleyball quite a bit and we played on Christmas eve!!!

This was actually 22 Dec. I got to stand out in a sandstorm for hours, searching females...it was cold and dusty...MISERABLE...my face was BROWN after we finished....

Random times in the Mansion

We call our tent that we live in , "The Mansion" just because it's so ginormous...
Lopez, throwing her winnings in the air...

Dez, this is how she "irons" her cammies in Iraq...HAHAHA

this was Dez's idea...So we had a fly infestation in our tent and Dez comes up with the idea to make a fly trap...yeah...thats the fly trap...didnt work. I believe her exact words were "But I saw it at a Taco stand once..."HAHAHA

Me and thats Dez back there. She's doing lunges to the mattress in the back on the right. That was our "kitchen" (where all of our snacky snacks were) and the rule was that if you were gonna snack you had to do lunges down there...

MOVIE TIME! Me, Lopez and Hernandez...Williams was takin the picture

Our little Christmas set up

Me...thumbs up for the decorations

Dez, hanging up our christmas ornanments...me hoping that she doesnt break her neck

we got some funky earrings in the mail...cant really see them though

Me, Millner, Williams, and Dez...during our card game...

Me and Lopez were having camera wars...theres not a whole lot to do here..haha

We have Iraqi DUCKS! We followed these ducks for awhile...again...not much to do

A friendly game of pitty pat in our tent. We play with candy...its hard not to snack on your "money"

Willie and Dez, our lance coconuts (lance corporals) thought it would be funny to hang up mine and Lopez's gear...it was really fun watching them take it down...hahaha

We got a bunch of care packages!!! YAY!

From 12 December

All the food....

Me, Williams, Lopez, and Hernandez...

Me standing guard at the door.

Dez eatin her sub sandwich! Ramadi has a Subway! it was phenomenal!

Me...it was cold

yummy...iraqi food...ehhhh

The Sheikh, me and Lopez..he was showing us how we were supposed to eat the food

I just kept making burritos...i give it a thumbs up dude

us in the Sheikhs house...they made the mistake of offering us food...they didnt know we could eat so much!! mahahah

all of us outside the Sheikhs house

Me and Dez with one of the wives and her kids in the back house...that baby had fat cheeks!

Sheikh's house