Happy Thanksgiving

The line at the DFAC stretched out the door and into the parking lot of our compound, so I just dropped by a local Iraqi lunch shop for a quick plate of rice, chicken shwerma and eggplant stew. I think they had turkey carving stations set up in the DFAC, and if they stick to tradition, the units' officers should be working at the serving lines as the troops come in to get their Thanksgiving Dinner. As a lieutenant back at Fort Hood, I remember serving my troops at a few Thanksgivings; jokes about sharp cutlery in the hands of junior officers were recycled throughout the day. Coincidentally, I ran into a fellow officer from my time with 1-66th Armor this morning in the Palace. Periodically here in Iraq I have reunited with army comrades from various periods of my service; once I spent the day touring the IZ with a fellow Penn ROTC cadet. We swapped stories of fellow officers and NCO's, noting who stayed in (like him), who got out (like me), and who got called back in (also like me). Almost everybody we knew had done some time here in Iraq, some two and three tours. The Army has changed a lot in the past ten years, we both agreed. John was married, and told me about his house outside of Fort Lewis, WA. I talked about life with the State Department here in Baghdad. He has one of those god-awful staff jobs where your life is consumed with making PowerPoint slides for some colonel. It boggles my mind that we have thousands of people deployed to Baghdad who never get to talk to an Iraqi in the course of their jobs. I truly believe we could outsource most of our military positions in the Palace to a start-up in India. Better customer service. I'm going to hit supper (and hopefully get some leftovers) with a guy who started with me here in 2005, stayed on for a second tour, went home for a few months and is just now back as a civilian contractor. I just got off the phone with a friend who worked here with USAID last year; she's in an airport in DC at 5am waiting for a flight to Cincinnati. The other day I ran into a guy from my original Civil Affairs company; I assumed he was back for a second tour - he told me he's been here continuously since we first arrived in May 2005. In Samarra, no less. I think for the rest of my life, I will have two sets of friends - those who have spent a Thanksgiving in Iraq and those who haven't. To clarify, that doesn't count politicians and country music stars.