Houston

Well, today was travel day and it was really tough--Yesterday (sunday) my parents had an "early thanksgiving" for me and I ate way too much--My wife and I spent the rest of the evening doing what most happily married couples do in this circumstance--

After an early wakeup call we strolled on over to pick up my parents and head on over to the airport-After a long wait and some very painful and tearful goodbyes, I loaded up on the plane and flew into Charlotte. After a very short layover in Charlotte, I was aboard a CRJ to Houston.

While on the plane, I met 4 other guys who were also in my "class" heading to Iraq. We met and chatted about the upcoming mission. I have decided that I like these guys. 1 was from near my home town, one was from Charlotte, one was from Ohio (where he informs me it is really bad economic wise).

When we landed in Houston we found another guy in the back of the plane with us. We picked up 2 more while looking for transport to our hotel. 1 guy came from antartica and another was just out of the army.

All and all an eclectic group--

**The Company** has quite a huge operation here. The people are really nice and the group I'm going over with are a great bunch of people!

Kris from **The Company** assures us that we are in safe zones over there and after looking at the 'classified pictures' of the bases, they look to be fairly comfortable.

We have classes all week and **The Company** takes us out to dinner on Thursday evening. We are expecting to leave Friday but that could be Saturday or Sunday night depending on **The Company** and the combat operations (As of this writing, BIAP is closed and everyone is held up). Hotel room is really nice and things look to be on track--Easiest way to describe things is that it is just like being in the Marines again--

First a phone call home and then I am going to go to bed right now because I am tired==up at 5 am everyday for classes--so I wanted to get caught up on sleep.