It's hard to believe that I'm almost done with my 12-month tour in Iraq!  I'll begin the trip home in a couple of weeks.  I have to turn in my gear at Fort Benning on the way back and then clear Fort Knox.  My next duty station will be West Point where I'll be the Public Affairs Officer.

I'd like to thank everyone for their support over the past year -- your emails, cards, care packages, and prayers have meant the world to me and helped me stay motivated over a long year.  Thank You!

Since returning from leave on April 12th, I've felt like I stepped on a treadmill at 12mph and haven't gotten off.  The XVIIIth Airborne Corps wrapped up their deployment April 4th and was replaced by the I Corps from Fort Lewis, Washington.  So, I had to meet and get used to working with a whole new crop of generals and supporting staff.

I've been on a few trips since I've been back.  Here's a shot of me on the roof of the al-Rasheed Hotel in downtown Baghdad.

We were there for a Sons of Iraq leaders conference on May 19th.  The Government of Iraq brought in over 400 SOI leaders from across Iraq.  Since I arrived last year, we've been working with the GOI to transfer control of the SOI.  The SOI are Iraqi men, mostly Sunni, who decided to join us in the fight against Al Qaeda and other extremists.  Our leaders credit the SOI with the significant drop in violence in Iraq (along with the US troop surge and the increasingly capable Iraqi Security Forces).  We paid the SOI about $300 a month.  In September 2008, we began transferring control of the SOI to the GOI.  The GOI has since assumed control of all SOI (over 90,000) and is working on finding them jobs in the government ministries.  Not an easy task in a struggling economy.  There have been hiccups along the way - for example, many SOI haven't been paid.  What folks don't understand is that transferring 90K people to a government payroll in country that doesn't have electronic pay systems is tough.  The GOI has worked hard at resolving issues - we expect all SOI to be paid this month (including back pay).  The media portrays every hiccup as a GOI conspiracy against the SOI.  Not what we've seen -- the GOI (largely Shia) is committed to the SOI. This program is critical -- can the Shia government reconcile with former Sunni insurgents?

I also traveled to a border fort along the Iraq-Syria border.

We visited with the Iraqi border patrol.  They've come a long way - but have a ways to go.  The reduced budget (due to low oil prices) has limited money available for necessary equipment purchases (like vehicle x-ray machines) and infrastructure improvement (like paving border roads).  They even are tight on fuel, which reduces their ability to patrol the borders.  The borders play a key role in Iraq's security -- foreign fighters, money for the insurgency, and deadly munitions come into Iraq from Iran and Syria.  There's also the opportunity for Iraq to make significant revenue from trade, perhaps even more than what it makes from oil, if Iraq can gain control of its borders.

This last picture is from a celebration of the 4th anniversary of the formation of the Iraq Ground Forces Command.

The children were enacting a mock wedding between a Shia girl and Sunni boy -- as a symbol of national unity.  There were very cute and made me anxious to get home to my kids.

It will be a very interesting and challenging year ahead in Iraq.  National Elections are scheduled for January 2010.  We're hoping that these elections go as well as their provincial elections which were very peaceful.  After the elections, we'll begin drawing down our forces in Iraq.  We currently have about 130,000 troops here and that number will go down to 35-50,000 by August 2010 when we'll change our mission to a peacekeeping role (as opposed to a combat role).

If you get a chance, check us out on YouTube:  www.youtube.com/user/MNCIraq as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks again for everyone's support!!