It never rained in Iraq. Never. It was so dry that summer of 2004 (spent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers south of Baghdad, the part of the earth sardonically referred to as the 'cradle of civilization') that if I were to spit -- out of anger, boredom or merely to expel a speck of sand -- the globule of saliva stood no chance of making it as far as the ground before it simply evaporated. Moisture is as important to soldiers in the Iraqi ...

It's been fascinating to talk with other soldiers and civilians here at CRC (CONUS -- Continental U.S. -- Replacement Center, the system by which new troops are sent off to take the place of soldiers coming home). They are going everywhere in the world. Most are off to hot spots: Afghanistan and Iraq, of course. And some are off ...

I should tell you a little about this place, since I'm forced to stay here for five days awaiting transport to Germany. Oh, sure, the days are filled with the quotidian chores of daily army life: today the Army found out that I have a will and have designated special people to receive the benefits that would come my way if anything ...

LAX to Atlanta to Columbus (Georgia, that is). I arrived on post yesterday and checked into one of the dozens of inexpensive hotels that ring every military base. This morning starts the five-day process again of making the transition from civilian to military life, and it began at 0530. But today is also 9-11. Everybody on post ...

The holidays have come and gone, and with them a host of reunions, and the first budding of the wisteria in Los Angeles heralds the imminent start of spring. The first elements of the 185th Armored Battalion have just arrived back in the United States. The rest of the unit, especially Alpha Company, to which I was attached for the majority of my time in Iraq last summer, will follow in a few weeks. They're all camped out at Camp Roberts, the ...

Hollywood never ceases to amaze me. Five days after the election that re-confirmed George W. as Commander-in-Chief for another four years, and, by extension, vouchsafed his strategy for conducting the war in Iraq, Hollywood hosted a large-ish antiwar rally. And I drove right through the middle of it. I had been down in Orange County for my monthly drill with the California Guard -- just because I just mustered out of the active army doesn't mean I ...

NPR woke me up this morning with the news that six more GIs died during the preceding twenty-fours hours in Iraq. The details seemed very familiar -- but this time it was the place, not the manner, that spoke to memory. Reporters state that insurgents in Baghdad managed to infiltrate the security of the Green Zone, where they detonated explosives in two areas where Americans congregated. They were the same places I visited each time I went up to ...

Last Monday was the funeral for one of the few family members of mine living in Los Angeles. Lauren Hungerford, my mother's cousin, was 84 years old and did not survive a fall that broke his hip. I knew that he was a veteran of WWII, had been at the Battle of the Bulge, and that he had been shot twice. I wanted to know the ...

Election Day brings blessed relief. For the first time in weeks, certainly, if not months, the TV is devoid of political ads and sound bites from the candidates, the Commander-in-Chief, and the man who would take his place. I arrived at my polling place shortly after it opened at 7am, and found myself tenth in line. I vote in a private home above the Chateau Marmont in the part of the Hollywood Hills that lies between the tony neighborhoods of ...

I finally got around to the old Mustang which has been sitting in the garage collecting dust since late May. My friend Chris turned the engine over a couple of times, but it was dead when I tried to start it this afternoon. My street takes a very steep drop as it courses down toward Sunset Boulevard, making it the ideal place to let the car gather speed before popping the clutch. I tried this with the Mustang, but it wouldn't respond to the pull ...