Closing my eyes, I could still see the screen in front of me. No matter what, there was always more to read. Every day from noon until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning I was there, reading, asking questions, reporting what I found and making recommendations. That didn't leave much time for anything else, including sleep, and my few diversions consisted of shift c...
I was finally going home. After a year in Iraq, I was going home to my beautiful wife. Little did I know that not only had the war changed me, but my home life would change too. Genneveve, or Gennie as everyone called her is 11 years younger than me. At 38, I marveled at the fact that she still didn't look a day over 25. Standing 5-7 with coal black hair c...
Being deployed to Iraq was a scary thing for Cindy. She was whisked away from the comforts and luxuries of home and placed in a blazing hot war zone. Although she and her husband were deployed together, things were not good with their marriage. The strict "NO PDA" (public display of affection) had her husband virtually ignoring her. As she pondered why the...
My boyfriend Dan just got back from a 6-month deployment in Iraq and to say the least I was happy. I was so excited that I planned the perfect night. I know that he hadn't been laid in that long so I wanted to make it a night to remember. Now before I go into the story let me describe him to you so you can get a picture of him in your head and then I'll des...
Alright, I can finally admit it to myself. I am a Muslim. I used to be one of those people who felt a strong dislike of Muslims, until I fell in love with one. It's funny how these things happen, huh? My name is Solomon Kingsley Henderson, although many of my friends have taken to calling me "King Suleiman" in recent times. It's my Muslim name, though it's n...
Well, recently the entire world started accepting the new law that changed the world completely. They call it the Forced Nudity/Free Use Act which was passed in 2050 by the US Government. The law promised a decline in the rate of daily sexual assault reported in the country, and to be honest the gamble paid well there was a dip of 70% in sexual assault cases...
I had been home from Iraq about a week. When you first get back to the states everything seems new, and somehow fresh. Food taste better and colors are vibrant. Aside from relief from the heat, and the alternating of excitement and boredom, what Iraq needs most is color. It's a place made up of various shades of tan and brown. My wife, Donna, and I had, of...
Chapter 12: A Welcome Home I got a pleasant surprise this morning. My friend, Cammy, sent me a text saying that he was home from Iraq on leave and asked me if we fancied meeting up for "coffee or something". Cammy is a little older than me, 19, and is one of my oldest friends. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for him and I know he has pretty much the s...
LXXI Ivory Towers Mark & Molly 2075 There was much that was making Mark feel guilty. Here he was—a married man with a devoted wife with whom he'd lived for fourteen years and a delightful nine-year old daughter—now living every day of the week in Oxford: a two hour train journey from Islington. And this was all because his employer, Sig Mu Inc., Korea, need...
I'll never forget what it was like living in Baghdad. Back in the early days of the U.S. invasion, the whole country was in chaos. For those of us living in the shantytowns and slums, it was a time of great danger... and great opportunity. Sure, we had to worry about mobs, looting and stray artillery, but with so many citizens fleeing the city, even fleeing...