Water of Life

While being deployed in Iraq of all the things I miss, my friends and family are what I think about the most. So during this time that I'm stationed here, I wanted to send out a little piece of what my experience has been here that I could share with everyone. The interesting part will be the number of people involved that I don't know who will help my bug on its way. The first place my bug should go is Arnhem, The Netherlands, if it can't make it there then Lincoln, Nebraska is next in line.

I had to think long and hard to decide what kind of companion this travel bug would have. I knew it had to be small since most caches are not that big. I had to pick something that was a major representation of what life has been like here in Iraq. I knew it had to be a piece of something much bigger. Something that could withstand the travels it would endure. I thought of many different things, but none seemed quite epic enough. Finally it came to me: a plastic blue bottle cap. Why a blue plastic bottle cap? I'll explain: Here at Camp Anaconda water is pumped directly out of the Tigris River. The water is then treated, purified, and put into clear plastic one liter bottles with blue plastic bottle caps. These bottles are wraped in packs of twelve and stacked on pallets. The bottles get distributed all over Camp Anaconda and also shipped in convoys to other locations in Iraq. Any given person stationed at Camp Anaconda drinks at least five of these bottles a day if not more. Without this water we would not be able to function in the desert. This is why I chose the plastic blue bottle cap, because it is part of something much much bigger than itself; the lives of all service members in the Middle East.