Chris' Deployment Journal

At last, after working so many nights, we got assigned to another day patrol. It's finally cooling off here ('only' hitting the high-nineties for daily highs now) and we can even turn off the Humvee's AC - at night at least.

More importantly though, this meant I could distribute more candy and toys to the local kids. I have to apologize but I no longer know who gave me what stuffed animals ('lahaba' in the local parlance) as I now have SEVEN large boxes of them and a drawer full of candy. I can say though for certainty that many of the following images were brought to you by my dad and The Goddard House (as always), Jonathan Smith, the Stowell family, Lyn Burton, Zach Klotovich, and the continued support of viewers like you. Seriously though, I'm sure I'm forgetting a number of folks who sent some of the following toys and I sincerely apologize for that!

As my pile of lahaba grew and as my time here is getting short (very short - thank god), we had to initiate Operation Toy Dump. Whereas normally we spread the wealth through a variety of neighborhoods that we pass through, today we saturated one 'target rich environment.'