Local soldier tells of life in Iraq

ARAB JABOUR, Iraq -- When my Black Hawk helicopter landed at combat outpost Meade, it kicked up dust that engulfed the landing zone and blinded me from seeing my future home.

As the dust settled, I was greeted by Sgt. 1st Class Roger Floyd Mitchell, who was down and covered to protect himself from the helicopter taking off.

More Coverage Links About this series "Welcome to your new home, sir. Hope you are ready to build," he said.This COP (combat outpost) was the newest I had ever lived on. There are a lot of living areas that have been around since the beginning of the war, and we were moving into this newly built COP because it was an area that had seen little attention.The area our COP is in is called Arab Jabour by the locals. It's a southeast "suburb" of Baghdad. It is filled with small rural farms, and the people live in mud houses spread out between fish farms, farmer's fields and canals.I walked into my office and saw that most everyone lives in their offices. That makes working long hours easy but also makes getting away from your work difficult. I don't mind and quickly set up my cot.After setting up, I headed to the chow hall, which everyone raved about. I found this hard to believe because most of their food comes straight from the can.They served hamburgers, fries and baked beans. I am used to this meal because it is a steady one while deployed. But when I tried the baked beans, I was pleasantly surprised to find they were much better than the ones cooked by any of the bigger dining facilities, which are known for good food.The burger was good. When I told one of the cooks the beans were great, he said he planned on attending the same culinary school as (celebrity chef) Emeril Lagasse. I smiled and said, "Good luck, you are headed in the right direction."Everywhere you look, people are building and making their stuff: homes, offices, setting up satellite dishes. I think it is a rare thing to live in something you built. It's very gratifying. A lot of the soldiers held jobs in construction and are used to working until nightfall.The second day began with a local Iraqi man being brought to the gate with deep wounds to his arm, foot and back. I happened to be down at the aid station after the helicopter landed and the battalion called in a medical evacuation for this man to get better, more advanced treatment. As the medical evacuation Black Hawks took off, the medics poured alcohol on the floor to clean the blood and make everything sterile.The doctors say he set off an IED (an improvised explosive device). The docs got him stable so the birds could take him to the 86th Combat Support Hospital to get treated there.One of our goals in setting up these combat outposts is to be close and available to the local nationals. It is one of the ways we build bonds with them so that they trust us. We work with them to make their country better, and that in turn gets us closer to getting us out of their lives.We had a tradition at our last camp. Every Saturday night, a bunch of us would get together and smoke cigars. It gave us something to look forward to because we don't get weekends off.Most of the time we got a bonfire going, but this time we had no place to safely construct one. So we decided that a pit will be constructed before the next Saturday cigar night.We all talked about how great it would be to have just one beer. What I miss most is the pizza. Of course, I am spoiled, being from the Chicago area and having the best pizza in the world. It makes my mouth water.There is nothing I don't miss about home: family, friends, weekends. In the first two days of being here on my new base, everyone was doing their part, finding their groove and mostly pushing each other to get the job done. The team mentality is what makes it possible to be away from your life for 15 months. 340512Tired from a day's work, two members of Nutter's unit wait for helicopters.Courtesy of Capt. Raymond E. Nutter