Dear Friends and Family
Baghdad, Iraq the 27th of July, 2004

Once again I write to you from my room at the Hotel Sadeer in down town Baghdad. I have been back a week and well….it seems longer. The down side to going to Germany for three wonderful and happy weeks is that after coming back here, it is almost physically painful how much I miss being there. I only spend 24 hours with my son Tyler, who joined me on Thursday before I left on Friday. Not long enough.

The trip out of Iraq was with little stress. Probable the joy of anticipation made it easy. My wonderful friend Oliver negated my wanting to take the train from Frankfurt to Landau, the beautiful city in Germany, near the French boarder where he and his wife Chantal live. I was glad to see him at the gate, I was bushed. A delicious lunch with his parents started the vacation out in the best way. Other than a 4 day side trip to visit my friends in Nuremberg, where I was wined, dined and my money was no good, I stayed in and around Landau area. If God had a sample room of his finest work, surly it would be the part of our world that the Germans call “the Pfalz” or the English version, the Palatinate. Small red roofed villages and wine fields as far as the eye can see. The sunny mild warm days start at just after 04:00 and the sun still gives plenty of light to drive by at 22:15 this time of year. Still the days only seemed to be one and one half hour long. Time flies when you are happy, that is for sure. Well, time no longer is flying by now. :-(

There were a few high lights on the way back though. After having a nice breakfast with my friends in the village of Moerzheim, Tyler took me to the train station where I caught a train to Frankfurt. A big airport, long lines at the KLM counter made for a stressful transfer. A short flight to Amsterdam in a plane that must have doubled as a sardine can. How small do they make these things these days? I could not begin to feel claustrophobic…..no room. Amsterdam airport is more of a shopping mall that anything else.

I guess it would take a whole day to see all the shops they have. Easy transfer and of to Jordan we went. Five hours later I landed in Amman. With an 8 hour lay over, DynCorp had made arrangements to have me picked up at the airport and take me to the Sheraton-Amman. Who was there to get me? No one! They were there the day before, thinking I was coming in on the 16th. Well, I took off on the 16th but I landed on the 17th. Communications between the Jordanian airport personnel and the DynCorp staff is at least good, so word reached the driver that a lost looking American was walking the empty halls of the airport and he picked me up by 03:00 in the morning.

Mustafa felt real bad and offered to let me hang out with him till 05:30 when he had to pick up someone else at the airport, rather than having to sit there by myself or pay $100 for a hotel room for less then 6 hours. No way would I pay that to take a shower. Amman must be a busy town during the day, but at 04:00 in the morning it is quite empty. Only the police, street sweepers, my driver and I were driving all over town.

I had just enough Jordanian Dinar’s for a couple of beers and the local version of a hot dog with fries. One day I would like to see it all again during day light hours. By the time the sun came up, I was at the Sheraton sleeping in the lobby. Not as comfortable but a lot cheaper. I had to be back at the airport by 09:30 for my flight to Baghdad. Along with about 80 other, equally enthused travelers, we finally got airborne by 13:30. How did Jacky Gleason say it: “and away we go”.

The 1 hour and fifteen minute flight back to the Iraq capital was without event. As to the landing, now that is another story. The South-African pilot told us that the landing would be unconventional and for us not to worry about the steep dissenting angle of the plane. Now imagine the Texas Screamer Roller Coaster on the down hill slide…..for about 10 000 feet, throttle wide open. I had physical sensations that I had not felt since I was nine years old. I thought this was what it must feel like on the space shuttle during landing. Looking down the isle in the plane was like looking down an elevator shaft. Huaaa ! After a spine stretching five or so minutes we gently touched the run way, glad that we did not meet up with the possible slow bird or fast S.A.M. that may have been in our way.

My friend and assistant Muhamed was there to pick me up. No chance of getting the wrong gate, there are only two flights coming in at Baghdad International Airport, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Back home in paradise

Never again will I take for granted the safety of driving down a freeway without worrying about someone stepping out from behind an overpass with a weapon of sorts. The freedom of leaving my home and just walking down the street, going from store to store shopping is something we give little appreciation to. Being subject to being killed on sight by someone totally unknown to me, just because I am a member of a different race or national origin, is now a realistic concept. No matter of how long or short my stay in Iraq will be, I always have the option of leaving. Most of the Iraqis never had such a choice. They have lived with the threats and oppressions one way or another for more than 30 years. An entire generation has never known what real freedom is.

No matter what else history will say about this war in the future, the release for these people is worth the sacrifice our nation has made. Let us hope and pray that it is a lasting freedom. It seems that the security is getting better, a little each day. There are now a lot of Iraqi Police roadblocks all over town. Their military is working in close concert with US military as back-up. All are taking a heavy handed approach. The difference is that now the heavy hand is an Iraqi hand. The people are far more excepting to this approach. The roles are slowly changing to where they should have been all along. It is their country, they should be running it. The steadfast goal of turning the country over by June 30 was the right decision.

While in Landau, Germany I was not without a task to accomplish. Evan before my journey to Iraq began, it was agreed that my second oldest son Tyler, graduate of CHS 2004, would come to live in Landau for at least six month, like his older brother Derrek did in 2002. I had offered to get him an apartment so he would have a place to come to. With the great help and knowledge of our family friends Oliver and his wife Chantal, we found a very nice one room studio on the outskirts, within easy walking distance of down town.

A lot of friends and relatives of Oliver help get the place set up furnished and I made sure there was food and drink in the fridge. A nice ten speed bicycle and the wonderful public transportation system that Germany has will provide him with the means to get around. A few days before Tyler arrived I meet a nice young lady that lived downstairs in the same building and ask here to make contact with my son as soon as he got moved in, for I knew he would be lonely during the early days there by himself. The first communications from him sound as if all is going well and he is having a good time enjoying the old world as well as learning the language. Guess what, he is going out on a date with the girl that I set him up with. What do you think of a father that does all of that…..an apartment..…nice food…..a bottle of wine…..a girl…..and then gets him…

Ma Al Salama
Rod