The Price of Freedom

He's at the stage where he starts smiling--and now its hard to put him down.

Beth, David, and I met up with the band at 5:30 for dinner at Stubb's Bar-B-Q in Austin. We hung our for about two hours, and as Beth and David were leaving, they gave David a baby guitar that they all signed which was really cool. They signed two of my OAR cds also. Then we were in the dressing room back stage during State Radio's performance. We watched OAR from the VIP area which was great. They put on a hell of a show and actually introduced me to the crowd as having just got back from Iraq and thanked me, which you can imagine was really neat. Before the show, they asked which songs I wanted to hear and when they would play them, Marc would look over and wave to me. After the show, we took the tour bus over to the hotel and partied until I started feeling sick. Which I did get repeatedly after leaving the hotel.

I know this one didn't come out very well, but from left to right, its: Rich (OAR guitar), Jerry (OAR sax), Chris (OAR drums), Chuck (State Radio bass), Benj (OAR bass), Aaron (my buddy from flight school), Me, and Marc (OAR singer).

In the back of the tour bus with the sax player, Jerry DePizzo.

Me and Marc, the lead singer of OAR, posed for a shot while Benj was warming up back stage. By the way if you have no idea who these guys are, you can go to their website to the left (under My Links). They are my favorite band and you can hear their music on the website, just click on the mini-player. If you don't know what song to listen to, I recommend clicking on the last album (34th and 8th) and listening to "City On Down," "Crazy Game of Poker," or "King Of The Thing."

This is the All Access Pass they let me hold on to. Having the gold pass is just as cool as you can imagine. We got to party in the dressing room behind the stage, in the tour bus, back at the hotel, in the VIP section, etc.

Here's a neat little game for you: FIND THE IED! Yep, somewhere along this stretch of road an IED is emplaced ready for an attack on US patrols. Unfortunately for the AIF, I had a bad habit of finding them before they blew up and reporting them so that people that lived nearby would be tested for vapor trace and possibly arrested.

This is my company patch/crest.

Looks like David has mastered yet another animal impression--I know, he's not even a month old yet!

Yeah, Beth hates this picture of her, but I love it.

This is a picture of me and one of my platoon sergeants a few weeks before we left.

Congratulations again to the new parents of Ava Faith, who was born this morning!!

Just wanted to say good luck to Steve and Stephanie as they get ready at the hospital for their own little bundle of joy. They are going to be great parents and we're pumped that David will have Ava to hang out with as they grow up. Click the link on the left to visit their blog.

David gets to meet his grandparents.

I am the luckiest guy in the world.

Yeah, I wouldn't fight him.

This picture is of downtown Baghdad. To the right of the Tigris is the Green Zone (or International Zone) and to the left is the business district.