We rolled out of our FOB Friday morning. We stopped to check in on one of the units we are temporarily responsible for while most of the MiTTs are in Baquoba. We didn't stay long, as most of the battalion staff was not around, but we at least learned where their HQ is and got a chance to start building our relationships with the unit.

We stopped again at another FOB to pick up some paperwork, drop off some passengers, and grab some lunch. There are always people trying to get between FOBs for various reasons, and there are no regular flights or convoys in Iraq, so when units are moving around they often take on passengers to help each other out. So we had four personnel who needed a ride, one of whom knew the layout of the FOB we were stopping at, which was a big help, as it was our first visit. We also needed some logistics memos signed by our superiors, so we had emailed the documents ahead so they would be signed and waiting for us when we arrived.

One thing we're learning about Iraq is that it takes a lot longer to get anywhere than you would think looking at the map. When we planned our trip, we guessed it might take us two hours to get to Anaconda. Instead we rolled into the LSA some six hours after leaving our FOB. Even taking out the time we spent with our battalion and at the other FOB, that was a very long trip. Due to the threat of IEDs we travel pretty slowly, because that gives us the best chance of spotting IEDs, wires, or triggermen before they can hit us. It's a good technique, but it does mean that travel outside the wire takes far longer than you would expect, and it gets pretty tiring between the heat and the constant searching for a threat that may never appear.

We're at Anaconda to get all of our gear serviced. Vehicles, weapons, and ancillary gear gets torn up pretty badly between the heat, the dust, and the roads of Iraq. Without regular maintenance, we'd have equipment breaking down on us, and having a vehicle go down while we're outside the wire could be hazardous to our health. So before we start rolling regularly, and that's going to be what we'll have to do, I wanted to make sure everything was in good shape. The down side is that we're just about all stuck out here at Anaconda with very little to do but wait for the maintenance personnel to fix our gear, so we're likely to be here for close to a week before we can get back to work.