Hello everyone,

Here’s a quick introduction of myself since this will be my first post, and since there may be many controversial posts of anti-war comments to follow. I’m a Specialist in the Army NationalGuard and my unit was activated and mobilized last winter. We’re currently deployed and living in Baghdad, our term here is 12months. During the past 6months we’ve been in ambushes, firefights, hit by IED’s/RPGs and endured 140+ degreeweather in our full battle dress, the list goes on. Regardless of your political standpoint of the war, keep in mind that we’re soldiers who are doing our duty as ordered by our superiors.

Two soldiers in my platoon, along with myself and my old college roommate are headed to Europe this September for 15 days of R&R as they call it. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time while here in Iraq to visit a consolate and fill out the paperwork to get our passports. So, we’ll be travelling throughout Europe with our leave statements and our military ID cards. Initially, our plan was to leave from Frankfurt Germany and visit Prague, and then head SW to Budapest. But, getting through custsoms could be a problem, we’re pretty sure that any western European country is easily accessed with our leave statements/id cards.

Here’s our plan: try and enter Czech with our idcard/leave statements and if it’s a no go then we’ll go with plan B: visit france/amsterdam/sweden/and Germany. Anyone who has been through the borders of germany/czech by train and has some knowledge on the subject i’d appreciate it if you could give us some input.

Either way i’m sure it will be a very enjoyable trip, my former roommate spent 3 months touring Europe so he’s sort of our acting guide. Basically, while we’re on leave, we’re 4 college students from Washington who are American tourists, we’re all college students in the civilian world, and hopefully it will save us from negative and even hostile/violent acts while we visit.

Each time I read positive comments about European trips on this forum I get this rush of excitement that’s almost uncontrollable. I am so sick and tired of living in this dirty dusty and dangerous environment that this leave should be a fresh breath of air for all of us.

Well, here’s to a safe and fun trip in Europe! Thanks for supporting the troops.

SPC DaVault