Oh man

I didn't bring nearly enough Carmex to Baghdad. This is a problem of epic proportions for an admitted junkie. My lips may fall off.

The main reason for this sentiment at this particular moment in time is that today I had my first helicopter ride. When it is hot outside, troops leave the sliding doors on both sides of the helicopter open. For the person in the front row of back seats, this causes a constant blast of hot air directly in your face.

I had been warned about this before leaving on my trip to Baquba (zoom out for some context) and advised not to sit in the two seats by the doors. On the way in I successfully avoided it, landing in a (closed) window seat in the back row. On the way back to Baghdad, I got unlucky -- last person to the chopper gets the tornado seat! I think the dust is permanently embedded in my face (this is after a shower and a copious amount of moisturizer), and my lips... oh man.

On a related note, wearing 30 pounds of body armor and a five-pound helmet when it's 130 degrees outside is not so pleasant. I felt like I was about to fall over all day long.

All that being said, though, the helicopter ride was pretty cool. Maybe when I'm less tired I will post photos taken from the sky. They mostly show desert, which is kind of a boring thing to photograph, but I had fun doing it. There's a whole lot of open desert here.

What do we think are the chances of Baghdad-produced lip balm satisfying a Carmex addict?

Heat stroke

Strasburg, Va. gets fairly hot in late June. This can have negative effects on one's body. Today, I learned this the hard way.

We were in the early stages of an obstacle course when I first developed a headache. After a few more times diving to the ground because of incoming rifle shots or grenades, I was feeling completely dizzy. The course leader radioed for one of the other teachers to come pick me up in the SUV, which he did within a few minutes. I don't like giving up, and I was not pleased to come off the course, especially before the mortar bombs went off, but I went.

For the next couple of hours, I was feeling dizzy and nauseous, but after half a dozen bottles of water and some Advil, I seem to have recovered nicely. Several of the course leaders asked me if I had been drinking heavily last night (um, no.), but they eventually concluded that sometimes these things just happen. If it happens in Baghdad I'm not going to be happy.

On deck tomorrow: handling mass casualties, dealing with checkpoints and dressing chest wounds. My goal is to stay in the shade.