*Lakewood native Eric Smith has been serving in Iraq since May. Major Smith is stationed at Forward Operating Base McHenry, near Kirkuk.*

“Pass me up a bottle of water.” The gunner reached down from his perch halfway out of the top of the MRAP while keeping one hand on the machine gun he was using to provide cover for our vehicle. Matt, our interpreter, who was sitting closest to the cooler in the back of the vehicle, handed him a bottle...

Lakewood native Eric Smith has been serving in Iraq since May. Major Smith is stationed at Forward Operating Base McHenry, near Kirkuk.

A’salaam aleukum.” Hello.“A’salaam aleukum,” the portly sheikh replied. “Issa ra’id Smith, bejeishi Amerikani.” I’m Major Smith from the American Army. The sheikh burst loose with a three minute welcome speech, unaware that I had just exhausted my Arabic vocabulary. I waved my hand, smiled, and fired off my last word, “mudjerd.” Interpreter. He laughed when he realized that his welcome had been received in spirit, but not understood. He reached out, grabbed my hand, and walked me to the city council room, still speaking a mile a minute, while I nodded politely...

Last week we were reminded that Iraq remains a very dangerous place when one of our vehicles was hit by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). An unknown insurgent buried some type of explosive along the side of a road and when one of our vehicles drove by, he detonated it. Fortunately, the vehicle was an MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, pronounced em-rap). The MRAP is extremely popular with the Soldiers and we have had numerous cases of Soldiers choosing MRAPs over other vehicles when they are assigned missions outside the wire. It’s fully armored and designed to withstand blasts from mines and IEDs.In this instance, the Soldiers inside bailed out of the truck. No one was hurt. Chips and divots in the MRAP’s steel armor on the side of the blast attested to the lethality of the IED, and had it been another type of vehicle, we would have suffered casualties...

After 49 days of deployment and a month with the Division Headquarters, I find myself in a new job; perhaps the most challenging one I have held to date...