Irene

That’s what we yell out when we’re called to start a mission after waiting around for a while. Where did we get the name Irene? Well, if you’ve seen Blackhawk Down then you’d understand. In the movie the codeword to begin the mission was Irene. So when we’re sitting, waiting to begin a mission, we listen for someone to start yelling Irene.

It’s pretty hard for me to post pictures online. It takes forever for some reason. Maybe it’s because I have a 5 mega-pixel camera now. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to add photos to this post tonight. I don’t have a lot of time since tomorrow is going to be another long day. Today was a long day and it looks like things are starting to look the way they were before I left.

The weather is starting to warm up over here. Now it’s as hot as Phoenix when I left. I’m pretty sure it was in the 80s today. It was warm but not hot. Actually, today the weather was perfect, although it did get a little warm in the afternoon. It’s definitely a change from when I left. It has been raining very lightly from time to time but only at night. It adds a nice refreshing sprinkle to end the warm days.

I finally finished the book Rainbow Six. Actually I finished it on the plane flight to the states before my leave. It was really good. I really enjoyed it with the exception of having to go through 900 pages of text. That’s why it took me so long to finish it. It seemed to never end but I didn’t seem to mind. I was totally getting into the story. It’s a good read for whoever is a fan of Tom Clancy, counter-terrorism, and the action. I thought the characters were pretty cool and that John Clark was a real big bad ass.

I started reading the book my Mom had sent me for Christmas, Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda. It’s been sitting around, waiting for me to read once I finished Rainbow Six. Tom Clancy also created it although not written by him. I finished that book in about four days. It didn’t take me that long. I guess it’s a brand new book because I’ve seen it in the book section of the PX. It was pretty good too. I enjoyed it but I don’t think it was as good as Rainbow Six was. I’ve since donated the book to the little library that we have here.

I’m not really a novel reader. I never have been but my attitude towards books has been changed, especially novels. I’m starting to grow a love for them. I’m starting to wonder how many books I’ll end up reading by the end of my tour. It helps to kill time and it keeps me entertained when we’re just sitting around in the Humvee at times. I think my next book is going to be Red Wind by R. Karl Largent. We’ll see. I might just grab another Clancy book.