I've been through the desert . . .

... on a bus with no name, and I'll tell you, it wasn’t that fun! I'm currently in Kuwait going through some additional training before we head north to Iraq. Yesterday the temp was over 100 degrees and we had a pretty nasty dust storm that lasted all day; on top of that the showers broke so I was pretty filthy until late last night when the power came back on. It was long trip here - 15 hour plane ride that touched into Kuwait at around 12:30am, followed by a 2 and a half hour bus ride through the desert. The bus ride was pretty uncomfortable since we all crammed into every seat with our full body armor and carry on bags, weapons, etc. We finally got to the base that the Army erected in the middle of nowhere; literally, there is nothing but sand as far as the eye can see. It almost makes me long for Kansas! The feeling when I got off the bus was very familiar - the dusty air, sand everywhere, even the smell. It almost made me dizzy, and I instantly thought I'd been here before. I havent, of course; I was in Afghanistan, but the environment seemed very similar. The only difference is that here there are no mountains on the landscape. There are about 50 of us packed into a big tent-like structure, but this is only temporary until we head into Iraq. Everybody is in pretty good spirits though, since we are pretty excited to start our mission. We have some briefs, followed by a day where we re-confirm the sights on our rifles, and then we will be out of here. I will update again once I get to Iraq!