To all:

I apologize for the size of this message. Some day I will figure out how to shrink it all before I send it. The pictures are a series of photos taken while I was in Northern Iraq (Kurdistan) last week. Had a great time amongst the kurds--great people who are truly thankful for the coalition--they have been largely "liberated" since 1991. No need to wear body armor, etc. Desriptions of the photos follow.

[Webmasters note:  click on the thumbnails to get the full-size photo]

1. The first two photos were actually taken in the town of Balad-ruz, near out m,ain training camp. The occasion was that our training team did a charity footmarch to raise a little money (from ourselves) to buy soccer balls for the kids in the town. These shots (including one of our Marine SGTs) were of the day we passed out the soccer balls.

2. The third photo is a picture of me with the acting president of Iraq, Mr. Talabani. He hosted a portion of our visit to the North. Great guy.

3. The fourth photo is a shot of our Sergeant Major (a Marine) near our vehicles while en route. It was nice to see mountains again. Kurdistan is very mountainous.

4. The fifth photo is one of me and MAJ Nick Foster, a Royal Marine (UK) on the steps of the citadel in Erbil.

5. The sixth is a photo of me and GEN Baboukha, the commander of the peshmerga (kurdish guerillas who fought against Saddam's regime for years). We are standing by an ancient border marker between the Assyrian and Armenian empires in the town of Erbil. Erbil is the oldest continuously occupied city in the world...it has been inhabited since 7000 BC.

6. The seventh photo is my favorite...a shot of some Iraqi kids on a statue of some sort of scholar (AD 750 or so) in the town of Erbil.

7. The last is a shot of me and MAJ Joel Tanaka, a doctor from the 4th Infantry Division. Joel used to be one of my cadets when I was a tactical officer at West Point--kinda makes you feel old.