Well, our hat is on the front line, that is.

Greetings from Iraq and long-time SA lurker and T-boat sailor Jay Price, who is embedded with the 82nd Airborne Division. Here's what the well-dressed sailor wears in heavily-contested South Central Iraq. The camo chem/nuclear/bio protective suit doubles nicely as foul weather gear, though it's not available in a breathable material for obvious reasons. As you can tell from the mask, we are more keenly interested in what's going on upwind than Brad Butterworth ever was. The ceramic plates in the body armor are a huge advantage for hiking a dinghy flat, but something of a problem in a man overboard situation. The headgear is of course the most stylish available in all the Middle East. This shot was taken at a captured Iraqi air base a couple of miles from the Euphrates. Had hoped to bop over there, check the depth around the Saddam YC to see if it would handle the Thompson 750's draft, but there were some bad guys on the highway that day...plus I'm told Hussein controls the rating committee and he'd probably screw me.

You can read all of Jay's Iraq reports here.

04/03/2003