I’ve given myself what I believe is an appropriate amount of time to settle into my new environment and feel up to sharing about some of my experiences being in theater. There are many changes you have to go through moving out of civilian life in the United States and moving to a combat zone in Iraq. In my case, even more changes than just working abroad as my new home is on a military base and I’m surrounded by and work with Soldiers, Airmen, green Navy, and Marines every day in a war-time operating environment. There is no doubt there is additional stress in a military life. I wouldn’t dare say I experience the same amount of stress as those professionals in uniform; I don’t get up at 04:30 and PT each day for example. But even with my relatively lax civilian lifestyle I can’t help but be affected by and indeed restricted and constrained by the military way of life living on a base in the AOR.

I have to admit, my personality and interests allow me to enjoy this experience very much. The troops I speak with every day are much like people I’ve met in other walks of life. Their days are made up of many of the same stresses of other jobs. Things break, get delayed, specifications change and sometimes things just get busy. The significant differences being where we are in the world; the ultimate mission of supporting the war fighter; and the risks we are under. I’m behind the wire, which means I never leave the base. My risks are much more limited. Many people I work with leave the base, sometimes on a bird and sometimes on a convoy. The risks are different depending on what you do.

All of the troops I have talked to are universally willing to except the risks with their jobs and do it to the best of their abilities. There are many successes day to day that happen with a deployment this large, that never make news, but I’m always impressed when I see what people are willing to help one another and get the mission accomplished.