Eventually, the seasons changed in Iraq, and when they did, they changed pretty quickly. It would get a little cooler, and a little cooler, for a few days on end… then it would almost be more or less comfortable for a few days… and then it would just start getting dark and rainy and that was that. Winter wasn’t coming, it was there.

After so long in the dry, arid heat of the desert, the sudden appearance of rain and dark clouds really felt like an otherworldy experience. It took awhile for the new normal to sink into our consciousness. Soon, we’d find ourselves actually bundling up in our trailers, sometimes even running heaters for brief periods. Let’s be honest, it was probably 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit at most, but by that time, we were trying to remember how to build a survival snow cave just in case.