This is me, your humble author, on the military side of Baghdad

International Airport. I think the purple shirt lends an air of

benevolence. Hell, I look almost as good in purple as I do in Marine

Corps green!


Well, this is just weird. Here I am, in Kevlar and flak jacket.....and a purple shirt. It's funny to be a civilian amongst all these military folks, especially considering this is a war zone and I, Nancy Lynn Olson, Major, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, am unarmed. Bizarre.

Anywho, as I am figuring out exactly what I want to put in this little ol' blog of mine, I will probably skip around a little with the storytelling. I assure you it'll all make sense eventually, but the first couple of weeks of this will likely be a big, fat mess. I have quite a few pics, and I fully intend to take a lot more. The problem is, my note-taking lapsed after the first four or five days, so I'll have to make up a lot of muckity muck to fill in the blanks. I ensure you it will sound quite authentic. Making things up and calling them fact is a long-running tradition in my family, and I am proud to carry the torch for another generation.

I suppose I should briefly explain what I'm doing here.

I just left a six-month tour of active duty at HQMC Public Affairs and was hired by a civilian company to help manage a program that we're running out here with the Multi-National Corps at Camp Victory, Baghdad, Iraq. From here on out, I'll refer to them (the Army and other military bubbas) as "green." Green normally refers to the uniform color, but since uniforms in this terrain are desert camouflage, or khaki, or that cute Easter-egg pastel color of the new Army fatigues, I guess that doesn't make sense. "Green" is just a whole heckofalot easier to say than all that other stuff, though. So green it is. The guys (and gals) in green and my team (most of whom are former military, by the way) are working on some top-secret-squirrel stuff that I'm not at liberty to discuss. I still haven't figured out what to say about that or how to explain what I do each day, so I'll probably steer clear of it altogether. I guess this blog will consist mainly of anecdotes about the life and shinanigans of a gal and her friends and co-workers on one of the largest forward operating bases in the world. Hope I can keep it interesting for ya. I'll introduce new characters later, so that might help.

That's all for now. Take care, and stay tuned for more photos and nonsense.