In-Country

Now that I've finally entered the CENTCOM AOR (Central Command Area of Responsibility), the unreality of this process comes home to me. Though I'm half a world away from home, I encounter a lot that makes me remember my home town. Desert heat, dust, dry winds--this is my prevailing impression of Kuwait so far. There's not much to see here as the country is much flatter than the Upper Mojave where I grew up. My boots, however, are one salient point of difference. As soon as we all got on the plane, I noticed that we all began to conform to the uniform regulations as regards the placement of dog tags on our person. A dog tag on the boot laces generally means one thing: in-country.