I want to start off by apologizing for talking so much about political things for the last couple updates. I know I stated in the beginning I wouldn’t do that, but then I felt like getting some things off my chest, so I did. I also want to make it clear that whatever I say is in no way representative of Fugly.com’s opinions or thoughts. Jeff’s a great guy, and he’s letting me use his site to do this and I don’t want to cause people to leave the site if they disagree.

Alright, now onto the rest of the update. It is getting HOT out here. We’ve been hitting the low 100’s pretty consistently, and it’s only going to go higher. The other day two of us were outside working on a generator in the afternoon, we poured some water onto a concrete barrier and it was gone in under a minute. Freakin hot!

I’ve got a lot of questions to answer over the past few weeks, so I’ll answer as many of them as I can.

Q: Can you drink in the USO?
A: Unfortunately, no. We don’t have a USO on this base, but even if we did drinking is illegal in Iraq. They serve “Near-Beers” (non-alcoholic) in the chow hall, but most people don’t even bother. Every 6 months you can get a 4 day pass down to Qatar, where you can have 3 drinks per day (no saving up and drinking them all at the end either). In other words, it’s gonna be a long deployment!

Q: How is the food served?
A: You go through and point, they put it on your plate.

Q: Does it rain?
A: Yes, it definitely does. It’s probably rained 5 or 6 times since we’ve been out here. Two of the times were some real serious downpours, too. Now we’re hitting the dry season, so I guess we won’t have to worry about rain for a while.

Q: Are there flowers?
A: I haven’t seen any real flowers, but some parts of the base have a few palm trees. There’s a few bushes growing in some places too, but it’s still mostly sand.

Q: Have you seen any of the huge desert spiders?
A: No, thank God. I haven’t seen a camel spider yet, and I don’t want to. There are a lot of weird bugs out here though. Not necessarily weird, but bigger than you’ll see in the States. The ants are especially ridiculous. We saw one last night that was probably about an inch long.

Q: Are there any women over there or is it just a bunch of frustrated men in the desert?
A: There are some women, but I bet the ratio is still at least 15 guys for every 1 girl. Most of the women are military, but civilian contractors also have quite a few out here. But even with them it’s still a bunch of frustrated men, because any type of “activity” between the sexes is illegal. You can get demoted, sent home, etc…

Q: What do you think the average age of a typical soldier is?
A: The vast majority of the Marine Corps is Lance Corporals (E-3) and below, so my guess is probably around 19-20 years old.

Q: I heard that there's not enough equipment out in Iraq and sometimes you go without food, I just wondered if that was true?
A: Definitely not! The chow hall always has food. Even if you’re out on a patrol or something the Marine Corps has plenty of MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat). They come in a bag and usually have a main meal, some kind of side, some candy, and a drink mix. They may not always be great, but food is food.

Q: Do you think that the Iraqi's want you out there and do you really care what they think?
A: They don’t all want us here, obviously. But I would say most of them do. I do care what they think. I’d be really pissed off if we were here and nobody wanted us. It would be a waste of time. But just from talking to the ones here on base, it’s obvious that they think they’re much better off without Saddam in power.

Q: I wanna join the Marines after I finish school, have you got any tips for staying out of trouble?
A: Do what you’re told.

That’s it for now. Keep the questions coming, I’ll do my best to answer anything I can.