11 NOV:
Wow! Another big comic! I continue to mark the anniversary, Veteran’s Day, and 10-year observance of Fallujah.

So– the main thrust into Fallujah was by the US Marines and the Iraqi National Guard. Still, the US Army 1st Cavalry Division caught a lot of action on the perimeter, keeping insurgents boxed in. Now in the real world, I don’t recall if there was a major firefight at the cemetery of Fallujah (there might have been, but if so I don’t remember). But there had been a huge firefight at the Najaf cemetery a month or so earlier. One of the original cartoons I did in Iraq used the “Grave Undertaking” line and I wanted to work it in here, so again I mixed-and-matched actual historical events to produce the desired setting.

Don’t be too hard on Joe– that awful pun allowed them to avoid getting shot at for an extra 30 seconds or so while they glared at him.

Anyhow, as the chain of command wanted to make us feel more and more “at home” with the “garrison environment”, combat started to pick up. So ironically we had anything but a “garrison” mentality. To me, the attempts by command to make things more “home like” back at Camp Victory took on an air of parody. The last thing you want in a combat zone is for people to start feeling too “at home” and relaxing, or feeling like it was just another post.

More to come. Enjoy the day and keep veterans in your thoughts.