First picture, taken upon arrival at the airfield.

My warrior. We were playing with the NVGs and his IR stuff.

Honeymoon in Baghdad.

Sounds like a movie title. And it doesn’t sound like a half bad movie title, does it?

After my second failed attempt to fly to Ramadi to see Dave, he booked himself on a flight to Baghdad. He was determined to see me, and his commanding officer was determined to improve Dave’s sour mood. It seems everybody would soon benefit from a flight of Marine Corps CH-46’s. Ooh, rah, Marines.

Dave arrived at the Liberty helipad Wednesday evening, and I couldn’t believe it when I saw him walking toward me out of the darkness. He looked like Splinter Cell with all his special tactical gear on. I wanted to run and jump into his arms and squeeze him, but there were a lot of people around, and public displays of affection just are not done here. So we went for pizza. It was good pizza, too, from a place on Liberty I just discovered, Called North End Pizza…Now back to the story…

We had a ton of fun. It was very surreal having my HUSBAND here, touring him around my home away from home. The last time we saw each other was when I told him goodbye in the SEAL Team 7 parking lot in Coronado April 16th!!! I showed him my old stomping grounds, my old trailer, where my tent used to be. I was here for a year, and all Dave got to experience was what I was able to explain to him through conversation, blogs, and photos. Now he was here, experiencing it with me, and it was awesome. We were both quite taken aback by it all.

I loved walking around with him. Everybody was staring at his cool weapon, and his S.E.A.L. pin, and his fancy spec ops gear. He notified me whenever any of the boys were checking me out (it happens when you are one of VERY few civilian chicks around here), but I think he got checked out just as much by the chickies, and his weapon got checked out more than either of us…

I introduced him to my crew, some of whom (Shane and Haidar) he’d been hearing about since last year, and I even got to introduce him to my sweetie from last year, Sabah. It was really cool.

We went to the baby chow hall for yummy sandwiches, and we went to steak and lobster at the big chow hall. He saw my sitting-duck office in mortarville/rocketville. We toured the palace, and we went to the PX, and we drove around Lost Lake (too lazy to actually run). We watched at least four bootleg movies in my trailer, we went to the Green Bean for coffee, and we basically just had fun goofing off for two days.

I told him I thought it was probably more relaxing and fun here than it would have been if I'd visited him in Ramadi, and he said Ramadi would have been better. I didn't believe him. He said, "But everything is right there, and they bring food to us." And I didn't think that sounded too exciting. But then he said, "We're right on the river." That sounded good, but I wasn't really convinced that could make it better than Victory. I mean, we have lakes. Then he said, "The range is right there, and we could fire AK-47's and 50 calibre sniper rifles." He had me at AK, but the sniper rifles are what really float my boat. I am really pissed that I never became a sniper, because I think I'd have been a darn good one...

So, it was a wonderful honeymoon, and we’ll have our second one when I get home in a couple of months. We’re thinking about Hawaii. Dave will be home in a couple of weeks, and he’ll start working on the house while I am still over here. Soon enough, we’ll be back together again in awesome San Diego. Woohoo! I can hardly wait! Thanks to this recent visit, I might actually make it through the next two months without losing my mind.

Oh, and as for PDA when I dropped him off at the airport? Well, I didn't really care who was there to see me give him a quick smooch before watching him walk off into the darkness to board an awaiting Blackhawk. So there!