Peace and War Times

The Victor Named His Territory

June 24, 2009 Labels: Bloggering, My Opinion 1 comments

While looking to a map of Iraq, I found curious and funny how our soldiers named the streets of their occupied territory. What got my attention is that it shows that the names of these streets were obviously made by men. Here are some examples:

Using beverage names: Colt, Budweiser, Red Bull, Corona, Guinness, Becks, Labatts, Schlitz, Miller, Heineken, Sharps, J. Daniels, Tecate, Wild Turkey, etc.

Using Metals names: Cooper, Silver and Gold

Using Animals names: Goat, Cow, Predator

Using Sports Teams names: Cubs, Rangers, Marlins, Senators, Dodgers, Grizzlies.

Using USA Locations names: Texas, Dakota and Tampa

Using Space names: Venus, Pluto and Apollo

Now imagine, if instead of these names created by men, the names were created by females instead. I am very sure there will be names like:

Stilettos, G-string, Bra, Rollers, Hot Iron, Curls, Flat hair, Crying Baby, Bitch Alley, PMS, Maybelline, Clairol, Menopause Avenue, Stress Out, Lipstick street and such.

There is no telling what a woman come out with, when it comes with names. Never less, what names the guys in Afghanistan use to name their streets. Bottom line, the victor always name its prize and in the process, it change history as well.

Read full post >>

The Raiders are here! Not! ...The Raiderettes!

June 3, 2009 Labels: Blog W/Photos 0 comments

June 3rd, 2009. The day before I left JSS Sadr City for good, the Raiders’s cheerleaders came over to visit our base.

One of the soldiers of 2-5 CAV unit, got reenlist through this event, and while these cheerleaders were holding the USA flag this young soldier raised his right hand and swear to defense the nation for another term.

It’s very obvious that in bases where the main number of occupants are males, more likely it will be entertainment for only men, but for the girls of JSS Sadr City we really have a ball out of this event.

Yes, it was quite amusing to see how these men acted in front of these beautiful girls. The experience was priceless, LOL!

Type the rest of your post here Some were very well behave, others were like children in a candy store, almost drooling and going gaga over the candies in the jars, lol. It’s was very obvious that they have being here and away from home for quite a while for sure. I went through the line of girls, asking for their autographed photos for my husband. They were very warm and with pleasant personalities. One of them thank me for my service, which it was real nice of her.

Another one asked me, if my husband was a fan of the Raiders, I didn’t recall if he did since he always told me that his favorite team was from Florida. My response to the girl was, “No, he is not a fan, but is he knows that I am here with you girls and he is not, I am very sure is enough for him to kick his own butt for not being a fan of your team, LOL”.

After the all the soldiers lined up to get the autographed photo and talk to these girls, it was the turn of the local linguist we have on base to have the thrill to have a photo as well. Yes, they went through the same effect of the candy store, LOL

The girls, stayed with us for quite a while in our base, they ate dinner with the soldiers and also play pin pong for a while. It was very pleasant to have the Raiders’s Cheerleaders on our base, it did good to our soldiers for sure.

To read more about the Raiderettes visit to service member, click here

Read full post >>

My Visit to Downtown Baghdad

April 17, 2009 Labels: Bloggering, My Travels 2 comments

I really can't complaint of my time in Iraq, now I can say that I have being in places despite that I barely get out of the wire. After traveling back from the states back to Iraq, I have the opportunity to stop by the green zone in Baghdad. Among visiting the embassy, we visited the most famous point of Baghdad--the famous parade road of Sadaam Hussein. I know there is several soldiers at there that have similar photos from back in the days of Desert Storm, but today I finally have mine.

These famous swords have steps that you can escalate for a better view of downtown, I was no so adventurous to dare to go up for fear of having an accident. There is no telling what's the condition of such steps. I took several photos of the guys that took me there and in return they took some photos of me at this famous point. In Baghdad, Sadaam's legacy have been destroy but not so with this particular place. Although the hands on the swords are either in bad shape or in decadency, the place still remain as the only memory of Sadaam's passage in Baghdad's history.

Sadaam’s Parade Road, Baghdad Iraq

Helmets of falling soldiers at the base of swords

Read full post >>

She Called Me "Grandma"!

March 29, 2009 Labels: Blog W/Photos, Bloggering, My Travels 0 comments

        Did you remember the first time you were call grandma? How did you felt or what passed through your mind? Most certainly, you felt older for sure! or perhaps going down hill kind of feeling. Honestly, nothing can prepare you for such moment, if you have kids of your own, it will come whether you like it or not. In my case...

       ... I haven't met my first and only granddaughter in her first two years of life. To NOT witness her birth was painful enough alone with the distances, job and the military. However, going on R&R leave to my homeland Puerto Rico to meet my granddaughter, it really gave me a mixture of joy and sadness feelings when hearing her voice and receiving a sweet hug and kiss from this tiny girl. However, the most melting moment was when I heard her calling me "Abuela" which is grandma in English. To me was like the war I left behind to meet her, it never existed. I felt like this moment was totally priceless.

       Out from my 14 days of R&R leave, I only expend 7 days in Puerto Rico, I flew right after to Mississippi to meet my husband whom I haven't see since August 12th 2008. These days of vacation were really refreshing and enlighten with joy and great memories. I only hope, it doesn't take more than a year to see my granddaughter again.