It’s time to saddle up and head home. Having been to Iraq and Afghanistan before I’m prepared for something I had been warned about after my first trip, separation anxiety. Even though it has only been a relatively short period of time that we’ve spent with the soldiers, leaving them is difficult. It’s hard to explain, but trust me when I say the shared moments, particularly in this case because of the rocket attack and loss of life, the stories shared, laughter, watching our brightest and bravest go out on patrol wondering if all of them would come back, and witnessing first hand a commitment to their jobs that makes you proud, makes it hard to say goodbye and head home. As Randy said after his trip with me to Afghanistan to meet the troops, “It was a life changing experience.” And, a special moment for me came when we were touring Saddam Hussein’s Victory Over America palace. Spencer Tillman put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I’ll never forget it.” Neither will I. Continue Story...

Talking sports is a wonderful communications vehicle. As I’ve found from the nearly 20 years of hosting Sports Byline USA, you can talk, debate, analyze and argue sports in a passionate way that reflects the joy, frustration and excitement of sports and the athletes who play them. It’s the one thing most of us enjoy and aren’t afraid to voice our opinion about. As I mentioned earlier, the young soldier in Mosul said, our broadcasting and talking sports made him feel like he was back home. That’s the whole purpose of bringing Sports Byline to the troops. Continue Story...

The Al Faw Palace, another of Hussein’s palaces, is now a U.S. Command headquarters. Like his other palaces, it’s opulent on the surface, but that covers shoddy construction under the surface. Like Hussein, that opulence was mostly for show. One of the highest-ranking commanding officers in Iraq is Lt. General Austin. An African American and a West Pointer, his imposing stature grabs your attention immediately. As a courtesy, he granted us a scheduled 10-minute meeting. Gracious, in that he turned down two other requests for meetings and we were the only ones to see him. I'm sure it had something to do with his being a sports fan and the stature of Brian, Randy and Spencer. Our 10-minute meeting turned into a 30-minute meeting. Brian Billick, who stands 6-4, got the General’s attention immediately when we entered his office, and he told Brian what he had heard many times since arriving in Iraq, “You’re bigger in person then you are on television.” Brian’s response was, “You’re big enough that I would have recruited you to play tight end for us." However, the General played real man’s football at West Point, rugby. Continue Story...

We spent a half a day touring some of Saddam Hussein’s palaces. I saw several of them from the cockpit of the C-130 as we were approaching Baghdad. The ones I saw from the air were huge and were surrounded by water. As I mentioned earlier, water in the Iraqi culture represents power. Baghdad is dead flat, except for two hills. And, those hills were created from the dirt dug out in order to make the bodies of water around Hussein’s palaces. Aside from the Al Faw Palace where we stayed and broadcast from, and now is the U.S. Command Headquarters, we saw three other palaces. Continue Story...

Jarred into reality by the previous day’s rocket attack, casualties and injuries, we continue our Iraq visit with a better understanding of what life here is like, and the real life daily dangers the soldiers and Iraqi citizens face.

I was touched by a conversation I had with a company of combat patrol soldiers. On this trip these guys were the only connection I had to the combat side of Iraq. Baghdad and Camp Victory is more the command and logistical side of the Iraq war. It’s the heart and brains of this military theater, compared to other places like Mosul, Tikrit, Balad and elsewhere. Continue Story...