March 11, 2006 - 10:30pm

Pack tonight to sleep in till 4:45am. Breakfast at 5:00am- ham, eggs, biscuits and gravy. Flight is delayed from 8-10:00am. I grab more sleep. More needed sleep. Get up at 8:30am and get my gear to meet up with everyone. Head to C-130 plane and hang our taking pictures and signing autographs until we board the plane. Today we are headed to Kirkuk, Iraq to FOB Warrior. We are in northern Iraq. The main base doesn't see much action here but the small FOB, McHenry, where we are doing our first acoustic show, sees a lot of action. It is beautiful here today, for me anyway. It is sunny and in the low 70's, but they say in 6-8 weeks it can get as hot as 130-140 degrees. The hospitality is great here as it has been everywhere. We come in to meet all the heads here and have lunch while waiting on the Blackhawks to arrive to take us to McHenry for acoustic show.

We will travel to McHenry in 2 Blackhawks- one to carry gear and the other for passengers. The small, small base looks like the set of M.A.S.H. with a lot of sand bags. The guys here are cool and excited to see us. We are in a pretty hot zone outside their parameters. As we visit, a lot of guys come out to meet us. I don't think anyone has been here to entertain yet. If so, not more than a couple. They have their own mechanic building. They work on all of their own vehicles- a small chow hall of which they are adding on to. The medical building looks like M.A.S.H. They only have 2 gurneys and 2 doctors, but they are adding on too. We only walked for about 30-40 minutes and saw all of it. The turn out was great for the acoustic show. Eddie, Jimma, Bo, Eddie K, and Robin are also with us. We play about an hour cutting up with the guys. One gets up to help sing on Hell Yeah. Everybody hoops and hollers for him. After the show- the usual- meet and greet and take pix. I actually meet two guys who know Jerry Mathews, a friend of mine from Nashville. We swap numbers. We load up and head back to base camp of Kirkurk- FOB Warrior for a big out door show with full band. We were told on the way back that an I.E.D. (improvised explosive device) went off during our show about one mile away. And about 2-3 hours after we depart, they are taking hits right outside their parameters. Iraqi's must not like country music!!!! We think they only had one minor injury. The show was good, meet and greet with some important officers. A couple of choppers were deployed to check out a couple of I.E.D.'s that went off, but nothing close.

Meet my first Iraqi soldier. Loves country music and had a great time at the show. They aren't all as-----. Which reminds me, as we fly over these small farms going from place to place, the Iraqis wave to us as we go over. It is the end of night- wrap up and head to barracks. Do some light packing and call my girls. Can hardly look at the pictures from home- I miss them so much. I know we are touching people here, but I am ready to be touching my girls and family.

I grab a bite of pizza and a NA beer and head to a campfire behind one of the quarters where everyone is meeting. Most of that time, talking guns and hunting. I am tired. Call Angie again- we talk briefly and I hit the sack. We have to be up and packed by 6:00am. Flying again tomorrow- Camp Anaconda.