How did I get to Iraq?

When I left Greece in September 2003, I told myself that I would not be going back overseas; at least not for a while. A long while. I had spent nearly 1 1/2 years on the island of Crete working for Lockheed Martin. Living on Crete was nice and the work and pay was not bad. I just got a little home sick for the good ole USA. So I came back to the States. My daughter, Natalie, just bought a house at Panama City Florida. As you all know, she is in the Air Force. She is doing very well. Natalie has reached the rank of Staff sergeant and has more then 7 years of service. I'm very proud of her. My intent was to live in the Panama City area to be close to Natalie. It was something we were really looking forward to..... spend sometime together.

From September 2003 to July 2004 I stayed with Natalie and tried to stay busy. I own a house in Jacksonville Florida that I have been renting out for the past 4 plus years. The renters left in October so with an empty house I decided it was a good time to do some remodeling /repairs. That took some time and money to complete. The house looks great now and has a family living in it .

Something else that I was able to assist in was moving my father, Jimmy and his wife, Fay from Jones Creek Texas to England Arkansas. It took the combined effort of all of the siblings and spouses on Jimmy and Fay's families to pull off. That's a story of it's own that I may post at a later date.

I tested and was accepted for employment with TSA as an airport screener. TSA put me in a pool. They had not called me before I came here. Now that I am here in Iraq, I've been contacted twice for a position with them. Guess I should have waited longer. Oh well. I did have a job working at Trane (air conditioner) factory on the production line. That lasted 2 months. I left for physical reasons; constant pain in my hands due to wearing tight rubberized gloves. Weird but true. It's been 2 1/2 months since I left Trane and I'm still having some finger joint pain. It's getting better though.

So, I'm sitting around Natalie's nice new home thinking, "What to do about a job?". I pull out two employment ads that I have been holding on to for over a year. One job with Dyn Marine working on ships in their radio room; much like I did for Military Sealift Command. And the other, working for ITT Industries in the Middle East working in communications. I had worked for ITT before; 3 years in Germany and England. I email my resume to both companies and wouldn't you know.... I get accepted by both. And, I accepted both. I signed Dyn Marine's offer letter asking them to wait a year for me until I get back from Iraq. They said Ok. It's going to take them at least 6 months to completed my Top Secret clearance. I signed the ITT offer letter and left Florida for El Paso Texas one week later.

Read my next Post. The adventure to Iraq begins.