First meeting was at the US Embassy, which is in the old Republican Palace, quite nice... but this is temporary location - building a new Embassy from scratch.

Some sort of triumphal arch

The mosque I had seen earlier, with another Black Hawk behind us

The ancient Tigris River, which flows through downtown

Gun up as we head out over the rest of the city

Gun down as we move out over the base

Shepherd & Pflueger... Mark Greer emailed back, this photo should have two thought balloons: Pflueger saying "They don't pay me enough for this sh*t" -- and Shepherd saying "Can you believe they pay me for this sh*t!"

Dennis Blake, just before we lifted

Jason Stahl, Gary Thomas - liftoff right at 0800

We travel by helicopter whenever we have to leave the base - one of the privileges of rank, as everyone else has to travel by convoy. Inside the International Zone (previously called the Green Zone), convoys are fairly safe - but to get to the IZ, you have to chance the Red Zone (the regular old city, where normal people live their lives and where bombings regularly take place). We flew above most of the trouble, only using convoy when our bodyguards felt it relatively safe in the IZ. Even the bodyguards admitted they'd much rather be up on a helo than down on the ground...

Ready for the first helo ride - passing out the earplugs

Breakfast at Camp Victory, looking out at the lake... guns encouraged (I felt naked)

Yours truly

Pflueger ready for our first required wearing of the individual body armor (IBA), because we were heading off Camp Victory later

Day Two - Sunrise in the morning over Camp Victory... smells like ... napalm (thank you Francis Coppola)

Saddam had a thing about sinks... There must be ten on or around the deck & roof... maybe he liked to wash his hands of blood ?

Nice setup

Our little island

Up on the roof...

On the deck at Bldg 55, back home for the evening

Army guys playing football back on base

Leaving Al Faw after a full day of meetings

Buzzin' like flies

Back to Al Faw

Different palace - the "Perfume Palace" at Camp Slayer.

Al Faw

Inside Al Faw Palace

Al Faw, out on the balcony

Some new pals at Al Faw Palace, Camp Victory. On right is Matt Kunard, the Army bodyguard for Pflueger during the visit

View from Al Faw Palace, of our villa, "Building 55" (the building on an "island" to the right - artificial lake, with a nice bridge - Mike Pflueger, Jason Stahl and I staying there.

Inside Al Faw

The life of Saddam

Al Faw Palace

Al Faw Palace, upgraded

First meeting - Al Faw Palace, home of the C2 Maj Gen Rick Zahner

Mike Pflueger ready for action

Gym equipment at the VIP hotel at Camp Victory

First morning in Iraq - soldiers feeding Saddam's carp

More carp - some were three feet long or more

Before I left, Kathryn read about Camp Victory and Camp Slayer, and told me to look for the carp in the lake. Voila!

On the deck at Saddam's old shack... Black Hawks and barbecue

Watching Black Hawks land - Camp Victory

Coffee at Camp Victory, on the deck of Building 55

Arrived in Baghdad at 0330... First thing I did in Iraq after the sun rose was walk out on the deck with a cup of coffee, and there before me was this Mosque, seen from Camp Victory. Symbolic, eh?

zzz

Able to stretch out on the plane - First Class at last!

C-130, 1:00 AM - Jason Stahl (black t-shirt) and some of my CENTCOM pals

With my boss Mike Pflueger, in the "Taj Mahal" way station on the USAF base outside Doha, Qatar... portraits of the Emir and his son, whose portrait was labeled, "The Heir Apparent" :-)

Flying over Iraq... on the way to Qatar, just to fly back to Iraq??! Oh well, wouldn't want to miss that C-130 flight. Night fell quickly as we flew on towards the Gulf....

Had a wonderful view of Manama (capital of Bahrain) as we glided in under a cloudless sky, the half-moon glinting off the water of the Gulf. Came in low over the coast to the runway, which is adjacent to an enormous oil refinery and tanker pier.

Picked up at the airport by two tall US ex-soldiers (currently contractors), who drove us in SUVs about ten miles to the US airbase in Qatar - where we met a couple of guys we knew from CENTCOM who are accompanying us on the trip.

Flying over the Turkey/Northern Iraq border...funny thing how these bad guys are able to hide so easily