Yesterday, at noon, I stepped off on a patrol with 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines.  Twelve Marines, four Iraqi Police officers and myself patrolled the village of Husabayh Jawal.

But I cannot eat in the chow hall at TQ.

The patrol base in Husabayh Jawal is so small it does not have a name, just a number---548.

After reading Michael Yon's RUBS about various locations, I thought I would offer my version of the Iraq travel guide for people who are not network TV celebrities.

This is why I went to Iraq the first time and why I came back again.

JD Johannes spent a month in Karmah, Iraq in 2005.  On the last day of last mission, the unit he was embedded with was hit with an IED.  He returned to Karmah on March 25th, 2007, embedding with Blackfoot 1-501.

Specialist Jason Stegall knew something was wrong.  The white tanker truck stopped on the dusty ribbon of asphalt south of OP Omar, then crept forward past the warning signs and into the serpentine twists of concrete barriers.

A second later Stegall fired a sustained burst from the 7.62mm machine gun mounted in OP Omar's tower number 2.

The next thing he knew he was laying on his back staring at the ceiling.

2300 Saturday March 24th, Arrive Camp Fallujah, Iraq
2230 Sunday March 25th, Arrive OP Omar, Karmah, Iraq to embed with Blackfoot 1-501 Airborne
1405 Monday March 26th, AQI attacks OP Omar

The last time I was in Karmah, the convoy I was riding in was hit with a 155mm IED.

This time AQI pulled out all the stops--a complex attack featuring heavy machine guns, RPGs, mortar fire and two suicide truck bombers.

One of my fellow embeds is of a dying breed--the Combat Artist.

Where digital video and cameras are the mode of the day, he works with ink and water colors on paper.

In Iraq, working my way through the machine.

As Yon, Ardolino, Roggio, Malkin et.al. will tell you, getting to embed can be a part of the adventure.  All you can do is embrace it.  To pass the various hours(days) of down time, I have been reading Julius Ceasar's commentaries on the Roman Civil War.

I was looking at one of Bill Ardolino's old posts and suddenly became jealous.  Straight bloggers with slick digi cams get off easy.

I on the other hand am lugging all of this to Iraq next week.