Ok, we finally made it to Kuwait, Camp Ali Al Saleem. Rows and rows of tents, even air conditioned. That totally amazed me. I remember being stuck in the Saudi Desert for Desert Storm and the only vehicle with air conditioning was the Tacfire Shelter (which barely squeezed 3 people in it).

Ali Al Saleem is amazing. It even has a MacDonald's, two MWR tents, Gym, USO tent, basketball court and soccer field. Of course, you must play at night, because it's too fricken hot to play during the day. I got to spend 2 nights and 3 days in this wonderful place reporting every 4 hours for a flight that was either too full or cancelled; before we took an embassy flight to Baghdad with follow on service to Mosul.

Biggest lesson learned: The heat will kill you faster than anything else out here. One must get in the best physical condition they can before their deployment. I'm going to make PT mandatory for my MiTT members. They have to get used to wearing the heavy IBE with full armor plates inside. It's heavy, it's hot, but it's something we will all have to get used to.