October 10, 2003

Planet Baghdad

I’m back in Berlin. Took three days to get out of Baghdad. There simply wasn’t any room and there were lots of guys who NEEDED to get home.

Me, I was just thankful for the ride. Landed in Ramstein. Didn’t have any warm clothes. I sat with some guys from 2/3 while we waited for a ride to take us up North to Giessen. When the ride came, we hit the autobahn as if we had never left Germany. Stopped at a gas station--the guys piled out of the van in their sun bleached BDUs as the Germans kept their distance. No sense of being home, just being out of place. Took the train from Frankfurt with the Friday night commuters. I stank so bad I was afraid to sit next to anyone--when I did, the first thing someone noticed was the body armor laying on my bag and they asked, “Where do you come from.”

I said "Baghdad" as if it was a planet and not a place.

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