Saturday, March 19, 2011

Don't Drink The Water!


Drinking the water in Iraq is a bad idea, so bottled water is the order of the day. Here, acres of pallets containing bottled water waits for use by U.S. forces serving in Iraq.

Life In Iraq


Life in Iraq for me and the professional boxers who visited Iraq last week was quite different from life for U.S. troops serving there for a year at a time. As I stand outside my quarters surrounded by concrete t-walls and 12-foot walls of sandbags, it's a sober reminder that regardless of how much defense officials and news media say it's that things have quieted down in Iraq, it's still a very dangerous place for U.S. troops who spend seven days a week confined to a small piece of real estate waiting to return home.

Back From Iraq


I returned Tuesday evening from another terrific tour to Iraq for the USO with 10-time world champion and Olympic gold-medalist Oscar De La Hoya. De La Hoya was joined by up-and-coming boxers Seth Mitchell, Danny Jacobs, and Adrien Broner. An HBO camera crew accompanied us to document the trip for air on June 4. The three boxers will be fighting that night, and HBO will air a special on the trip to Iraq. I will be putting some photos from the trip over the next few days. The boxers put on clinics, posed for photographs with the troops, and signed autographs over the week-long visit to Kuwait and Iraq. In this photo an Army Blackhawk helicopter, one of two we were aboard, releases flares shortly after takeoff to steer any possible heat-seeking weapons that might be fired from the ground.