Twenty years ago, in 2005, I served a tour of duty in Iraq. It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years. But I still remember it vividly.
I was there as part of the Texas Army National Guard. I was residing in Mexico, but I would go monthly to Texas for Guard drill.
In the summer of 2004 we were called up. We did our training mostly at Ft. Hood, Texas, with some in Ft. Polk, Louisiana.
In January of 2005 we flew over to Kuwait, and after a few weeks there we flew into Iraq, on a South Korean Air Force transport.
We were stationed at Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq. It was a former Iraqi base which had been taken over by the Americans in both the 1991 Gulf War and in the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
We were attacked a couple of times, but one time I slept through it.
I carried out a variety of duties while in Iraq.
One was guard duty on the watch towers of nearby Camp Cedar II.
Here is some typical southern Iraqi scenery as viewed from a guard tower.
I also spent some time on a fence building project. There were three of us guardsmen working with local Iraqis. It was a great experience and we constructed a good fence. That was 20 years ago, I wonder what the fence looks like now. Here is the fence still under construction:
Here are some local sheep traversing through our fence when it was still incomplete:
I spent a couple of months as a liaison with the U.S. Air Force in this Iraqi-built building:
I was able to meet many soldiers from the following allied armies: the United Kingdom, Australia, El Salvador, Poland, the Netherlands, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Romania and Bosnia. I once saw a Mongolian unit marching by.
I met a Ukrainian soldier. Neither of us could speak the other’s language but he pulled a bottle of vodka out of his vehicle and was showing it to me. I wonder what happened to that Ukrainian soldier.
For four months I served as a liaison with the Italian Army (Esercito). It was a great experience. The Italian soldiers were very professional but they also knew how to have a good time. They would cook their own pizza, for example. There were also Romanian soldiers at Camp Mittica.
Here is the entrance to Camp Mittica, the Italian base:
I went on some humvee patrols, and here I am at the River Euphrates:
Here’s another view of the Euphrates taken from a bridge in the city of Nasiriyah:
The ruins of the ancient city of Ur, hometown of Abraham, were located within our security perimeter and I was able to visit it a number of times:
The photo above was taken from atop the ziggurat of Ur:
In 2005 the U.S. Military had 100 bases in Iraq. These bases had to be supplied, which explains the importance of the convoys, consisting of supply trucks (driven by Indian and Pakistani civilians) and escorted by U.S. military humvees.
Most of the American soldiers killed in Iraq in 2005 were killed by insurgent bombs on the roads.
I traveled by convoy to a Marine base at Taqaddum in central Iraq, passing through a much more arid region. Here is our convoy:
I missed my wife Lilia and the boys, who were in Mexico. We were able to keep in touch very well by phone and mail. Here I am at the Tallil base post office sending gifts in a box:
I flew out of Iraq the day after Thanksgiving, 2025. I am thankful to have returned safely and appreciate the support I received when I was there.
-Allan Wall, November 15th, 2025. All photos taken by Allan Wall with the exception of the two in which I appear.
Tags: Euphrates River, Ft. Hood, Ft. Polk, Iraq, Italian Army (Esercito), Kuwait, Louisiana, Tallil, Taqaddum, Texas, The Bible, U.S. Army