Kyle decided before he left for Iraq in December of 2006, that he would keep a journal of everything that was going on. That didn't happen, as he was OBA (Overcome By Activity). However, he did manage to keep it up all throughout, here and there, whether he wrote something every other day or once a month. His journal was for his time there, events, work, emotions, everything; in order to share it for future generations to come, and now for you, our loyal listeners:

Entry #2 of 17

13 Dec 06
8:00PM

We left Rammstein at about 10:00PM yesterday and flew straight into Balad, Iraq. The flight was about 5 hours and very cold, and my dumb self sent my cold weather gear ahead of time, so I had to improvise. I heard the first of probably many explosions today just as I was going into the BX. A mortar had hit about 600 yards away or so. That was when I started to snap into it, things were getting less and less surreal to me. I just got out of the shower and heard rapid gunfire in the distance... this will be interesting to say the least.

 

Kyle Mills In Iraq
Kyle Mills In Iraq
loading...

From Kyle, today:

It's difficult to remember this day exactly, because this is around the time that much of the trip started to run together. I do remember one of the more frightening things though was the C-17 combat landing in to Balad, Iraq. If you're not familiar, they basically fly just above the flightline, and drop into an all-out dive, while corkscrewing. Then, at the last second, they fire the reverse thrusters balls to the wall, and touch down very rapidly. I don't know which would have been worse, not having windows to see what was going on, or if there were windows... and I could see what was going on. "

This is the second of a 17-part series, that will cover my entire journal, from my deployment to Iraq from December 2006 - July 2007. Check in next week for the next installment - things will escalate quickly!

CLICK HERE to see last week's installment of this 17-part series.

More From 99.1 The Whale